Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)

NYC Mayoral Debate

• Hmm, risky but intriguing cold open choice.

• I'm OK with Kenan's meta jokes up top even if they're not quite landing.

• Not crazy about Tellers' Cuomo impression. He's no Pete Davidson. He doesn't quite have the voice down and looks a little too youthful to pull off this role without prosthetics, but I did like the "honk honk, squeeze squeeze" joke.

• Hey, Ramy Youssef as Zohran Mamdani! Good choice. I mean, even if they can't find a real "take" or "hook" for Mamdani that won't get people up in arms, it obviously did matter who they cast in this role and they recognized that.

• Shane Gillis as Curtis Sliwa. Ok, fine. Whatever. I'll take it. Even though i would probably much rather see literally anyone else's take on this role he's actually been given some of the funniest and most deranged lines in this.

• I'm not too crazy about how the show seems to be reverting back to the Baldwin-as-Trump #Resistance era trope of front loading the show with non-current cast member cameos in flash-in-the-pan political roles...but this time strictly applying that approach to local NYC politics.

• Already, the fake sponsor gags strike me as something that should get cut for being too NYC centric "inside baseball" for a wide audience.

• Hey, Kam Patterson as Eric Adams! Glad to see him get his first impression and it...kinda works for him?

• Ok, a JAJ Trump walk on. At this point, it couldn't possibly make this any worse.

• At least the "Phantom" reference is something a bit new and different for a JAJ Trump impression.

• Hoo boy, this one was sadly easy for me to tune out of knowing a lot of it would sail gently over my head as a non-New Yorker. It was performed well upon rewatch and everyone looked like they were having fun, but...something still felt a bit off to me. C-

Monologue 

• I figured we would get a sincere heartfelt SNL fan monologue from Miles tonight. I appreciated his Roxbury Halloween story and his acknowledgment of how off base their costumes looked. Yeah, they never had mustaches.

• Miles ending on his story of he and his wife having survived losing their home in the Pallisades fires was touching. Wow, we really are throwing it back to season 44 with the "heartfelt SNL  connection monologue" with these vibes, huh? B-

What Did I Do Last Night?

• Speaking of throwing it back to seasons 44-47 vibes, it's a post monologue game show sketch...with Kenan as a host named "Gay Fopay". Fantastic.

• I guess setting this during the morning after Halloween night makes this topical enough to feel like it's premise is at least 20-25 years past its "sell by" date.

• Well, at least this isn't solely based around the contestants questionable social media posts.

• I'm actually glad Jane had a walk on mid sketch because I legitimately couldn't tell if she or Veronika were the sole female contestant when this began.

• I gotta say, this is making decent use of Ben, Veronika and the rest of this year's featured players. I especially liked the call back of Bens' security footage showing Veronika biting him as well as Ben being relieved to find that his consolation prize just for watching that footage is just getting to sit in a chair.

• I even got a kick out of Kams' sudden walk on being to just play the trumpet and upset the contestants.

• I gotta say, upon rewatches of the sketch there actually is a writerly, detail oriented nature to this sketch that I enjoyed. I especially liked all the absurd details they applied to Miles' character in the first round and how both his and Veronikas' characters both encountered the same two people and the same stop sign. 

• I had heard in dress rehearsal Miles was dressed as a K-Pop demon hunter but (of course) the detail that he stole his costume from a child stayed the same. I would like to see that as I do genuinely wonder how differently this played at dress with that change being made. B+

Property Brothers

• Wow, they're REALLY committed to a season 44 throwback, huh? Ok, I guess Miles Teller resembles both of these guys enough to make this work.

• Ah, THERE’S the topical twist that makes this unique to season 51. I'm not crazy about this being the second appearance of JAJs' Trump in the first third of the show, but hey...this was probably written days before the cold open was.

• Chloes' Melania isn't really blowing me away or anything (obviously she's no Cecily Strong), but then again none of her impressions have. I did like the Halloween/Christmas joke, though.

• This reminded me a bit of Chloes' much better Jennifer Coolidge. I don't know if it's something about her facial expressions (which she honestly nailer better than the voice) paired with the fact that Coolidge did play a wacky accented lady on Two Broke Girls and Chloes' voice is quite reminiscent of that, but there were very light traces of Coolidge in Chloes' performance.

• The portrait of Trump as Halos' Master Chief almost got me. Also, I did like the Clinton joke. That did give off a vibe of JAJ adding a new dimension to his Trump that Jon Schneider described much better than I could.

• Perhaps my favorite line from JAJ in this was his "send me the white day laborers" joke. The "payment for the renovation" bit at the end felt like the obvious thing this was building up to but the ICE gag was something I genuinely didn't see coming as I had forgotten that the Property Bros were actually Canadian. B-

NHL PSA Shoot

• So, it's an entire sketch based on how wrong it is that in the era of "The Washington Commanders" there is somehow still an actual hockey team named "The Nashville Predators"? Let's just see how far they can stretch this.

• Something about this feels very season 41 but the way they doubled down on it feels more season 45 as this goes along. 

• Upon a second viewing, this reminds me more of Jon Hamms' "Pat Finger" ads more than anything.

• At least Ashley and Andrew are here to save this. I especially liked Dismukes "Asian man plays cello" joke and his reveal that he and Midge are writers.

• Out of all the unfortunate "predator" juxtapositions, I most liked how they got an actual child extra to stand directly in front of Miles and how he revealed his name and position to be "Chase Kidd, Right Wing, Predator".

• Man, this REALLY didn't have an ending, did it? C-

Gone Without A Several Trace(s)

• Ah, it's the classic "men are hopelessly dependent dum-dums who never listen to their wives or pay attention to their kids" trope. Cutting edge comedy right there.

• Still, framing this as a modern Netflix true crime documentary makes this work better. The various bits of hidden camera footage saved this for me.

• Perhaps my biggest laugh in this came from Kenan later guessing that his wife went to "the boob store" and encountering his own children with sheer bewilderment...but that doesn't quite say great things about this episode so far. C+

NewsPoint

• Wow, this is such an old framework for a sketch it would've seemed out of date 40 years ago.

• Seriously, this reminded me more of "The Friday Edition" from Fridays and  and In Living Colors' "Background Guy" sketches so much I'm surprised neither Melanie Chartoff nor Jim Carrey made cameos.

• Still, I'm willing to give it a chance just to see how they modernize it and make it work in 2025.

• Ok, at least there seems to be a little variance to this in execution.

• It's not a terribly great sign for this episode when my biggest laughs here are coming from some very basic physical comedy from Mikey and Bowen (who took a surprisingly long time to start acting unprofessional in this) but at this point I'll take any genuine laughs I could get.

• Speaking of, is anyone else starting to forget that Mikey Day is still in the cast at this point? I'm predicting this is going to be his last season.

• Miles immediately complaining about getting reported to HR and suddenly trying cover up anime boobs on his computer screen. worked for me as did Kam suddenly promoting his OnlyFans.

• Ok, the visual of streams of paper flowing out of a printer that electrocutes Bowen is a surprisingly strong ending to this. B+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che 

• Already we're opening with Jost just lazily riffing on Trump giving out candy to trick or treat footage. Great. Yeah, that "Thriller" joke wasn't telegraphed as hell.

• Ok, well...I did like his "Nut up, kids!" and "circling vultures" jokes. Also, looking back I think I can appreciate that Texas Tylenol joke a bit more for the subtle nod to King Of The Hill.

• I liked Che's "SNAP benefits/2nd amendment" and "Trump bathroom renovation" and "Kid Rock" jokes but the "Nobel peace prize" and "Sliwa/Guilliani" jokes weren't worth the risk.

• Well, I guess with the news of George Santos prison release they had to trot out Bowens' impression one more time.

• Still, I like how Bowen seems like he's less visibly miserable to be playing Santos. I did also like the gags with him stealing Josts' wallet to find it filled with photos of all the female cast members and him answering his "calls" on a two way prison glass phone.

• Dismukes and Padilla as "two people who just hooked up" talking about "the government shutdown". I gotta say, they are exhibiting an unseen chemistry that really started selling this right from "try something smaller".

• Between this and the principals' office sketch from the season premiere...are we sure it was Emil Wakim who Ashley was supposedly dating from the cast? B-

Steak Knife Slasher Gar-girl

• It's nice to finally get a patented strange Andrew Dismukes sketch at this point in season 50.

• The premise of Andrew derailing a police press conference regarding a murder case feels like a vast improvement on whatever they were trying with his "mob boss who wants to try out his stand up material as he is bleeding out from a drive by shooting" sketch from last season.

• I liked how everyone got more and more into his increasingly insane premise as this went on to the point where Ashley just started screeching semi-coherently (shades of Cecily there?) at JAJ and Miles just before Ben Marshall showed up and revealed himself to be the murderer as Dismukes reveals Gar-Girls' incredibly bizarre origin story. 

• Also, it's incredibly nice to see JAJ get to shine in a non-Trump/non-dorky dad straight Chara role again. This is something I'd like to see more of. B+

Italian Restaurant 

• Hmm...shades of Sandler & Carvey in "Fresh Pepper" from season 20. I don't mean that in a derogatory way.

• Interesting roles for Miles & Marcello here. Haven't seen a sketch that literally invokes the portmanteau "pizza-pasta" this hard on the show in recent years.

• As this goes along, it's starting to remind me a bit more of the "bellisima" sketches from the early 90s with Kirstie Alley.

• I gotta say, the things that really perked up my eyes and ears during this were Miles & Marcello literally throwing salad in Mikeys' face, Kenans walk-on as the chef (he zags just when you think he is going to zig) and Mikey winning the waiters over with even dumber puns than "get the foccacia". Glad I didn't "ankle" this episode entirely. (iykyk) B-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
2. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
3. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)
4. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, this was a pretty uneven episode that got off to a slow start but it really delivered as the night went on just as I was hoping it would. Miles Teller is still a very game host and writing-wise, they really cleared the low bar they set with his previous episode a few years ago.

• I'm starting to think I might have the opposite reaction to this episode than I did Miles previous one where I ended up going a lot easier on this and recognized in hindsight that I was a bit too generous. I'm already getting the sense that I might have been a bit harder on this episode than most other fans already.

• Cast usage felt strange tonight, too. Ben, Veronika, Chloe, Ashley and Andrew were used a lot but only the latter two stood out in a way that made people feel they "dominated" the show. Ashley and Andrew were given lead roles that allowed them to showcase their budding natural chemistry, so that helps.

• Bowen and Marcello had surprisingly light nights. Kenan and JAJ were used in the capacity everyone expected them to be used in and everyone else was featured so little you almost forgot they were in the cast.

• Still, considering how the last two episodes went...this somehow feels like SNL...restabilizing itself?

Closing Thoughts 

• Anyway, that ended up being a fine episode that got off to a rocky start.

• Next week, Nikki Glaser makes her hosting debut. This is probably the episode I'm most excited about mostly because I've been a fan of hers for years (hell, I was actually in the audience of her 2022 HBO special "Good Clean Filth"...I'm so far in the back of the theater you can't possibly see me but trust me, I'm there). 

• Plus, she's the only proven comedian host we've had so far this season besides Amy Poehler. In fact, I'm so excited about this episode that I actually asked my current We Heart Hader cohost Deej Barens if I could be a guest on her other podcast Saturday Night Ladies and after having run it by her two other cohosts...they all said yes to my pitch!

• So, tune in to the episode of the Saturday Night Ladies podcast that will be dropping on Tuesday, November 11th (and feel free to check out some of their other episodes too while you're at it) where I will be their first straight, white cisgendered male guest where I plan to talk about Nikki Glasers' cross over appeal to both male and female audiences and what she brings to the show from her own unique place in the current stand up scene.

• In fact, because of this...I may push back my own review of Nikkis' episode on this blog until Tuesday, November 11th rather than Sunday, November 9th. Hope you understand me mot wanting to spoil what I might say om a podcast I am getting to be a guest on. See you then!