Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)

Air Force One Press Briefing

• Yeah,they didn't fool me for a second into thinking this wasn't going to be Trump themed...but it's interesting from a visual/directing standpoint to see them try something different by framing this as a parody of Trumps Air Force One Press Briefings.

• Seeing the show seemingly comment on Trumps' treatment of female reporters seemed like an interesting angle until it was more about Trump "simping" over Karoline Leavitts' mouth (which did lead into a neat segue into "the line" at least) and then they backed away entirely.

• Seriously, this whole cold open just reeked of wasted potential. It seemed like they had plenty of new ideas from what was on the news this week to focus on but just glossed over each of them. Also, they've been making so much progress in changing the format of these and suddenly they throw that away to go back to doing the exact same things they were doing two years ago.

• Other than that, there sadly wasn't too much to differentiate this from any late season 48/season 49 cold opening centered around JAJ as Trump. I thought the "ambien vs adderall race" was OK. The Santa drone strike footage was cheap amd stupid but I liked Jeremy's reaction to it. C+

Monologue 

• O'Connor seems like your typical charming, self-effacing British actor host, but that's not enough to mitigate my own personal disappointment at a "host gets stuck on the idea of him being the lead in a live action Ratatouille remake" monologue that DOESN'T involve a sudden walk-on from Patton Oswalt.

• At least this was a fairly short monologue where O'Connor just got his plugs in and got out. Still, seems like he'll be a good host despite me not being into that monologue. C-

Let's Find Love

• A post monologue game show sketch where Kenan is a host named "Garth Vader". Ugh.

• Is this somehow going to be another play on Joshs' role in "Challengers"?

• Nope. Instead, the premise is the age cap is lifted to "as old as we can find".

• Well, at least Ashley is the obligatory 84 year old rolling in on a scooter.

• My basic take so far is that even if sketch feels too...empty for me to fully get into, it's still fun to watch Ashley make an absolute meal out of her part.

• The only lines from Ashley I really liked were "I've got a joke; my sister's a bitch" and the "Toy Story 5" stuff. C+

Uber Eats Wrapped

• Oof. Yeah, there's no way this didn't hit a little too close too home...conceptually with everyone watching this in one way or another.

• I liked both of Sarah's scenes in this and JAJ and Ashley played great off each other (as did Ben and Kam). Andrew did fine here, too. B-

Teaching Hospital

• Ah, a Bowen character I never got into. That's just great.

• Look, I'm not saying I'm hoping Bowen leaves next week or anything...but I am hoping that IF he is that it's the only reason he bought this character back this week.

• At least Josh and Andrew are doing...decent with the material they were given. Didn't care for the Bowen/Josh "hope" we're not related" stuff.

• I like Joshs' "plain English" line and I'll admit Bowens' "All That AND a bag of chips" line did get me. D+

Bachelorette Party

• Hmm...sensitive male strippers. Ok, at least this has a little bit more of a "concept" to it...and Ben being one of the male leads in this should make it worthwhile.

• This is a play on the type of "softboi" roles Josh mentioned he is known for playing in his monologue, isn't it?

• Ha, I wonder who did that sad, slow Bon Iver sounding cover of Ginuwines' "Pony"?

• I gotta say every line Jane shouted got me and Ashley played into the premise of this pretty well.

• Ben and Josh had great visuals (like them tearing off their sweaters and pants to reveal another sweater and anothe pair of jeans on each of them and them beating the hell out of a dummy of Mikey at the end). 

• I also got a kick out of Josh's line "I think the President should be Cynthia Erivo" but I wasn't crazy about the "Zorhan" tattoo on Bens' abs or the buildup of them kissing though. B-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts' best jokes: "Not My Fault, Sell Your Blood", Noem/Excorcist, "Trumps' days are lettered", Michael Che in "Hold Up, Madea Got A Daughter?", Waffle House Parking Lot

• Che's best jokes: "Fatmentia", Trump/Kennedy Center Events, Skydiving Accident

• Hmm, Marcello as himself? Doing his own standup? What is this, October 2022?

• OK, I liked the "you don't like the food, you just like having sex with my cousin" line.

• Isn't the "unwarranted sexual advice" bit just straight up lifted from that "ChatGPTio" sketch he did with Bad Bunny (which was apparently "lifted" from some random TikToker? Eh, nevermind).

• OK, he kinda lost me somewhere around the "phone calls from Santa/Spiderman/'Lorne'" bit.

• Ooh, another Jane Wickline song about the end of the human race. At this point, why the fuck not?

• Now, she's singing about how we should kill the cast of Stranger Things for absurd reasons. Because again, at this point...why the fuck not?

• What does it say about this episode that...THAT was genuinely the best part of it? C+

Wizard Of Oz: Deleted Footage

• A fake lost scene from "The Wizard Of Oz? Wow, what a truly innovative, original sketch concept that absolutely no sketch show has ever done before. I'm dead serious right now.

• So, we got Squirm as Dorothy...Kenan as the lion...Josh as the Tin Man...and Andrew as the Scarecrow...and Bowen as the "wizard"? Ok.

• The lion wants a "big ol' thang"? He...wants a big...ass or something?

• Oh, he wants a DICK! Like, a big, super long penis. I see.

• Yeah, this was something I was far too mentally checked out of this episode by this point to be able to get into...but I did admire the effort put into this by the performers (especially Kenan who seemed to be the only one trying with his impression...Dismukes came in a distant second...Sarah an even more distant third because I don't know what the hell she was even going for with that voice).

• As much as I disliked this sketch, I did appreciate it ending on a shot of a chroma keyed prostheticized Bowen. D+

Brad And His Dad

• Hey, it's...nice to see a Christmas one of these (even if I wasn't as into this one as I was into the first one from Nikki Glasers' episode from last month).

• Again, maybe I'm just mentally checked out if this episode at this point...but I liked the overall heartwarming nature of this more than anything. B-

College Class

• I have a feeling that pretty soon, the writers of this sketch may have to publicly claim (on the advice of their lawyers) that they've never seen or heard of "Young Sheldon" and that this is all a big coincidence.

• So...this sketch is half Bowen and Ashley screaming at each other and half Ben, Josh, Sarah and Veronika?

• Again, this is another sketch where I respect the performers commitment (Bowen and Ashley) specifically but I'm a bit too mentally checked out if this episode to get into it.

• Also, this feels like it went on way too long and as much as I saw the ending with Chloe and Josh coming a mile away, I just appreciated them ending it there. C-

Varietys' Characters on Characters

• OK, I do appreciate the absurd character nature of this, but maybe I'd appreciate these a bit more if I'd actually watched any of those "Actors on Actors" videos this is parodying...or, again, if I hadn't already burned myself out on this fucking episode about a third of the way into it.

• I did like the Mikey/JAJ and Chloe/Ashley scenes. Wasn't that into the Josh/Bowen and Marcello/Kenan scenes though. I did get a kick out of JAJs very last line as the announcer, though. B-

Lily Allen Brunch

• Wow, a sketch set around a restaraunt table. That's another fresh and innovative concept SNL is bringing to this season.

• So, someone mentioned tonight's musical guest, Lily Allen, and now this sketch turns into everyone going around the table...singing in her accent about however they've just been minorly slighted or inconvenienced?

• ...and presumably this is a musical parody sketch to the tune of one of the songs she sung earlier in the night? 

• Actually, going back and looking at her performances from the episode this doesn't sound like either of those songs, so maybe it's a parody of an album cut she *didn't* perform?

• Come to think of it, the running song in this sketch reminds me the most of Lily Allens' song "The Fear" which came out nearly two decades ago. Huh.

• ...and this ends with the real Lily Allen coming in and bring mistaken for a waiter because she is too polite to raise any objections?

• I didn't dislike this because they pretty much set up the audience for what this was but I feel like this will be lost on people who haven't listened to Lily Allen's new album who watch this on YouTube completely out of context from the rest of the show due to how fractured modern consumption of music is now.

• Still, it grew on me a bit on rewatch. I didn't hate the concept or the framework of this or anything but I did like the individual performances more, so...yeah, it kind of fits the theme of the night.

• I liked Veronikas performance (glad to see she got some standout moment for once) as well as Kenans. I did get a kick out of seeing Chloe just plain get steamrolled by Bowen. 

• Most of all, I liked Jane's performance just for the sheer strangeness of her talking at length about her ferret who mysteriously shows up and singing about her telepathy.

• I guess the thing I liked most about Jane's performance was her choice to not to her part in the hackiest cockney accent she could conjure. 

• I don't have much else to say about this sketch, so I'll just say that it doesn't bode well for the episode that I found the most interesting part of this episode to be the point where i figured out that it was actually Dakota Johnson hidden in the shadows at the end of Lily Allens' second musical performance (and that was at the very end so I figured it out at the same time you guys did. C+

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
4. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
5. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
6. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
7. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
8. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Yeah, if you've read this far, you can probably tell by now that I didn't care all that much for this episode. It wasn't the absolute worst of the season, but it's definitely in my bottom five. Nothing in it was egregiously or aggressively bad, it was more like passively bad. This episode just felt like one big...nothing. Only two sketches felt like they had any thought put into them at all.

• Josh O'Connor wasn't a bad host, not Elordi level bad or anything. He just seemed like a host who gave it his all in spite of the writing staff not really knowing how to use him at all. 

• Considering who next weeks' host is, I got the sense that the show was just on auto pilot and running out the clock this week because they were saving all their energy and ideas (and hopefully not just their list of potential A-list cameos) for the big Christmas blowout they were planning.

• Cast use mostly seemed balanced. If anyone really stood out from the established names, it would probably be Kenan, Bowen, Mikey, Andrew and Ben. JAJ got to do a bit more non-Trump stuff this week. The women as a unit really shined with Ashley standing out as usual. I was really impressed to see the show finally start to figure out how to use Jane and Veronika in a way that makes them shine and plays to their strengths.

Closing Thoughts 

• Next week is this season's big Christmas show as well as the last new SNL of 2025 with Ariana Grande returning to host...surprisingly soon after just hosting in the first half of last season but hey...who else are they gonna be able to get to plug "Wicked For Good"? 

• Also, Cher is the musical guest for some reason...just like Stevie Nicks was the musical guest in Arianas' previous episode for some reason. I don't know how she's able to do it but somehow Ariana Grande is able to pull impossibly big name musical guests when she hosts.

• A lot of people seem to think Bowen Yang may be leaving this season and this may, in fact, be his last show based on...I dunno, the fact that's he's in the same movie that Ariana is plugging and he's got a deal to make another one...and that he's made his mental health struggles with the show quite public and that he posted the shot of the corkboard announcement of this episode to his Instagram story with the simple caption "byeeeeeeeeeeeee"? 

• I mean, we thought the same thing about Colin when his wife hosted last seasons' finale back in May based on similarly specious reasoning...but cast members of Bowens' ilk have left at Christmas time semi-unexpectedly (Maya, Amy, Cecily) so...I'd say it's plausible but I'd believe it when I see it.

• Well, any way you want to look at it, this sounds like it's gonna be a BIG show...but it's pretty obvious they've lost a great deal of the momentum for this season they've built up back in November, so at best...I'm cautiously optimistic.

• I'm not the biggest fan of Arianas in the world and probably not the target audience for this episode but I will admit that aside from maybe one or two specific sketches (you all know which ones, I'm sure) she turned out one of the more solid episodes of season 50 that I did enjoy and she's always performed well in sketches on the show. 

• The Christmas episode of that season however (hosted by Martin Short, another beloved performer who has a strong history with the show) was one I wasn't as big a fan of. I got the sense that it was a big, flashy Christmas blowout but it was one too heavily loaded with big name cameos and retreads of previous sketches that didn't quite work for me.

• This year's Christmas episode has the potential to go either way and I'm hoping it doesn't go the way of big flashy cameos again (which thankfully is something that Ariana relies on in her episodes at all) and gives us something a bit lower key and idea- focused like recent previous Christmas shows hosted by Kristen Wiig, Austin Butler and Kate McKinnon (so yeah, maybe keep the cameos to a minimum of two or three and make sure they're all performers the host has chemistry with).

• Hey...speaking of Christmas episodes, you may have heard me mention on the last episode of We Heart Hader that Deej and I would be doing a review of the SNL season 33 premiere hosted by Lebron James. Well, we had a very sudden changes of plans. We decided to push that episode back to a later date. That episode will now be released on Friday, January 2nd 2026 which is Noth my 35th birthday and the exact one year anniversary of our podcasts debut (thanks to all of our listeners, we couldn't have done it without you).

• As for our next episode coming out on December 19th, well...that will now be OUR Christmas episode. As for what we will be talking about or why and how it's now holiday themed, I will reveal that in due time. Check my socials.

• See you again soon!