Scarlett Johansson/Arcade Fire (05.17.2025)

Trump/MBS Meeting

• Well, one more Trump cold open to end the season.

• Apparently “he found…love” with Mohammad Bin Salman. Not crazy about the “season 42 Beck as Putin sketch” vibes I am getting right out of the gate.

• I do like that JAJ has worked Trumps’ real life jerky back-and-forth power move handshake into his repertoire. It brings back fond memories of seeing Athony Atamanuik do that same thing on Comedy Centrals’ “The President Show” in 2017…oh, wait. Never mind. Forget I brought that up. Parallel thinking, I guess.

• I like that they're finally using Emil after a while…but I'm not crazy about the way they're using Emil in this sketch.

• I mean, I liked “oil/money/end of list”, “the late great Fred Flintstone” and the “they Dubai a lot of weapons” and “Utah” jokes but…the rest of this was just white noise.

• Thankfully, the fourth wall break was interesting. I especially liked the “season 50 Worst one yet” jab. (Hey, at least they're being semi-honest here, amirite?)

• God help me I even got into him ranking the attractiveness of the female audience members sitting around him as they…at least pretended to be? I mean, I appreciated it more on rewatch after learning from Jon Schneider that SNL actually does arrange audience seating by placing all the younger, more “camera friendly” people on the floor and everyone else up in the bleachers.

• Yeah, while I do like JAJ himself as a performer and a comedian…I'm really about as ambivalent about seeing his Trump as I am about seeing the real one l…anywhere, so no big loss there. 

• Also, I'm starting to agree with whoever first put forth the take that Trump doesn't deserve an impression that makes him appear likable or relatable like JAJs. He does actually deserve an impression more like Baldwins’ that makes you as sick of seeing both the impressions as much as you are of the real person. JAJ just does Trumps’ actual voice better and he seems like a nice, friendly family man in real life which he can't help himself from letting through in his impression. Baldwin captures Trumps’ other real life behaviors better and probably got even more sick of doing the impression as we got of seeing him do it. C+

Monologue 

• Hey, a sincere “Piano Man” monologue where the cast gently pokes fun at themselves. This is…pleasant.

• Honestly, this feels like it SHOULD have been the cold open (and probably would've been around this time three seasons ago).

• I…thought we all agreed that Bowen pretty much stopped playing “likable” characters about two seasons before he was given the role of J.D. Vance?

• I did like the jabs at Sarah's pants. She's one of the last people I would expect to be leaving unless she sees herself as, like, the Janeane Garafalo of season 50 or something which part of me suspects may be the case with both her and Bowen (and if she really is I would have some…pretty mixed feelings about that but I would wish her all the best).

• Kenan as an audience member was fun. I also liked Longfellow, Jane, Emil and Ashley poking fun at their own lack of screen time. Heck, I even liked how they worked Devon, JAJ, Andrew, Longfellow and Marcello in here 

• Huh…I'm a bit surprised we didn't see…oh, nevermind. B-

Channel 4 NYC News

• Hey, a wildly off key Pink Pony Club parody from Emil. Now, THIS is how I like seeing them use Emil on the show.

• Hey, Ashley has a big upfront role!

• Ok, so…apparently this is a reworked and slightly inverted version of the coffee shop sketch from Timothee Chalamets’ episode…except Scarlett is taking Ashley's role which is made the main focus along with the dark, upsetting nature of the various puns.

• Well, I have to say that leaning into the darker aspects of this sketch (especially on Scarlett, Devin and Heidi's parts) really elevated this for me. B-

PDD: First Class Flight….to Newark?!?!?

• Hey, these guys are back! I was wondering where they've been.

• So, it's a rap that keeps getting interrupted by ScarJo and the boys’ anxiety over realizing they're flying to Newark? Well, at least this is the rare topical short from Please Don't Destroy.

• Mikey as the pilot was…something that turned into a very Mikey-type role.

• I did also like the “who will make the article?/prayer hands/LOST pilot/Avengers money” jokes.

• I appreciate their slight subversion of the audience's collective expectations of when Bad Bunny was gonna show up in this…and how long it would be taking him to start singing. He does work surprisingly well as a dumbfounded, out of his depth, first day air traffic controller and this had a charming ending with the plane landing semi-safely…as Ben Marshall reveals he has urinated on himself. C+

Couples At The Bar

• Four people fighting over the same specific thing? What is this, a season 28 sketch?

• I guess this was the requisite “hey, Bad Bunnys’ in the building this week so naturally that means we HAVE to do a sketch where he and Marcello talk to each other almost exclusively in Spanish for 99% of the total runtime” sketch?

• Still, I do like how multilayered this sketch was where the men are just as much the butt of the joke for how they view the women in their relationships as the women are for how badly they misunderstand (or how they merely very selectively understand as the case may be) Hispanic language and culture.

• I also liked how JAJ and Dismukes characters accidentally display a better, more educated understanding of Marcello/Ego and Benito/Scarjos’ relationships from a complete outsider's perspective than they do. Even though their parts could've been cut without really affecting the sketch either way, I liked that they were there to add that extra wrinkle to it.

• I especially liked Marcellos’ intense, bug eyed stare down of Bad Bunnys’ character as he tells Scarlett what a great couple he and Ego make. C+

Bowens’ Still Straight

• So, they're just gonna do “Bowens’ Straight” again? Goddammit.

• Yeah, I just wasn't crazy about this the first time he did it with Sydney Sweeney over a year ago (no pun intended) but I guess…some people still liked it and that episode much more than I did?

• I wasn't too crazy about this one either (and that's not coming from a place of sheer jealousy over the mere implication that Bowen got to hook up with both Ego and Heidi in the same sketch) so I'll just stick to mentioning which elements of this I actually DID like.

• I do like how they're establishing some continuity from the last one with Gina Gershon making another cameo and not totally ignoring the elephant in the room anymore at this point in the episode any more re: Colin's relationship status with this week's host.

• I did like Bowens’ lines to Scarlett about how he just found out who she was this morning and “thanks for inventing A.I., by the way”. I don't like how this pretty much had the exact same ending as last time, though. 

• Was it ever established who wrote both of these? I'm guessing Bowen himself may have had a large hand in it but I'm just curious how it was determined which specific women Bowen would be “straight” for. Heidi and Ego must've come from him having bonded with them as a platonic friend and coworker over the years but Sydney and Emily must've just come from a specific preference of his or just him having the basic idea of “lol str8 guys just like big boobs, big lips and blonde hair”. Scarlett must've come from a place of all three of these things together. C-

Elevator

• Hey, Mike Myers is back! He's not playing Elon. He's playing himself…and Scarlett isn't. In fact, she is barely in the scene at all. This should be interesting.

• …and hey, look. Kenan is playing…Ye (neé Kanye West)? Ok, not too crazy about Kenan's impression, but…he can make it work well enough. I have faith in him. Still, I would’ve at least liked to see Devons’ attempt at a Kanye instead of just a walk on between him and Ego where she has lines and he doesn't.

• I genuinely wonder who had the idea of “let's imagine what it would be like if Mike Myers had a chance encounter with the stunningly bigoted and fully broken brained Kanye West of 2025 because there's no way that wouldn't be a million times more awkward and uncomfortable for him, right”?

• I definitely think that news of Kanye having released a new single that could be described as “slightly incestuous” at best would be the only thing to make someone come up with this because I haven't heard of this having been cut from any previous dress rehearsals but if this was ultimately scrapped from the 50th I can see why. I mean, that one aired in primetime on a Sunday night so I would see why they would want lighter fare than this to the point where they would've chosen Debbie Downer and In Memoriam over this.

• I mean, upon rewatch, I can see what Kenan is going for with Yes’ speech patterns but he doesn't quite have that nasal Chicagoan semi-angry whine down they way Pharoah and Redd did so it's coming out more Steve Harvey than Ye.

• I did like Mike's sudden line “my kids are safe” and Kenan's line revealing his next song is called “Squeezin’ On My Grandpas’ Booty” which gave me a legitimate laugh, but what was with that weird voice modulated line of Kenan's at the very end? Were the writers confusing Nitrous Oxide with helium or does Nitrous actually lower your voice?

• Also, why are all his front teeth gone…oooooh riiight, he blamed/tried to sue a dentist for getting him hooked on Nitrous. Was that what that was supposed to be a reference to?

• So, basically this is a slightly inferior remake of a sketch that Mike Myers had previously done with (unfortunately) the real Kanye West almost 20 years on the season 31 premiere? Hey, me and Deej actually covered that previous sketch in the first ever episode of our own podcast which you can listen to here. C+ 

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Out of Colins’ “regular” jokes, I liked “McJournalist”, “Qatar-a-lago”, “favors” and “Dick's/Foot Locker”.

• Out of Michaels’ “regular” jokes his “uphold the constitution” seemed surprisingly out of character but I liked “South Africa/Mandella Effect”

• Boy, that RFK Jr./parasites joke was a real throwback to Seth & Amy's era of Update, huh?

• Hey! Miss Eggys’ back! All right!

• I'd say the highlights from this one were “piss a biscoff”, “compote” “Miss Eggy stay strapped” and “hollandaise/benedict”

• Hey! Another joke swap to close out the season!

• For what Colin was given, I got a bigger kick out of the “Lorne, retire bitch/topping off priests/ bonobos halftime show” stuff than the “black CBS soap opera” and “Nick Kerr lover” jokes.

• Yep, I can definitely tell Che's part of this once Scarlett came out was crafted by her, Colin and her (presumably female) friends to humiliate him. I got a slightly bigger kick out of the “unattended drink”,“farm” “thousands of jokes/dozens of laughs” and “selling crack” stuff though.

• Yeah, this one was just as fun as the Christmas one. I know it might feel like a slight let down, but how else could they have possibly even TRIED to follow that roast beef joke anyway?

• I will say that the joke swaps we got this season were both much better than the ones we got last season but I've noticed both sets of joke swaps have followed the same pattern of “stronger one for the Christmas show, weaker and more uneven one for the season finale.

• I wouldn't say this was the best we could hope for for this season's final Update since, y'know…we were all at least hoping for some solid confirmation of who would be LEAVING the show tonight and the closest thing we even got to that was…Colin begrudgingly smearing on lipstick.

• Ok, I've also heard some people theorize that Colin may stay on to take Lornes’ position rather than leave the show at some point. I highly doubt Lorne is planning on retiring this soon anymore (if at all) but if that truly turns out to be the case with Colin some time down the road, then I have a theory of my own there.

• My theory is that Lorne is going to eventually talk Colin into stepping down from the Update desk if he wants to move into the executive producer position. He'll only do it by telling Colin the story of how he was originally planning to host Update himself in the very early stages of development for “NBCs’ Saturday Night” but decided to give that gig to Chevy because he realized he can't be the person who ultimately decides what sketches get cut and what gets taken from the rest of the casts’ airtime while also having secured his own guaranteed spot for himself on the show that he (for all intents and purposes) created each week.

• Of course, Lorne will put this forth to Colin in such a vague way that it may takes Colin days to figure out what Lorne was trying to tell him, but only time will tell if this truly turns out to be the case. B-

Penelopes’ Secret

• So, Kenan and Scarlett are intimacy coordinators, Mikey is a try hard male feminist type without the predatory vibes, Sarah is the assistant director just there to be the butt of a single “they/them” joke, Ashley and Jane are about to shoot a lesbian love scene and everyone is just trying to gently guide Kenan in the vague direction of “finally figuring out what ‘scissoring’ is for the first time in his life?

• Thank God this ended at the EXACT moment it wore out its welcome and thank God Kenan still has a likable enough personality to put this over.

• I did get a kick out of Kenan sweetly smiling as he tried to picture two women scissoring and then running through the wall (although the timing of Kenan's exit after “what's the wifi?” seemed visually botched a bit). C+

TV Takes

• Ok, so they're literally just doing a slightly more dumbed down version of the same “cast interview” sketch from the season 46 finale except with Marcello in Pete's role, Bowen and Scarlett in Aidy and Anya Taylor-Joy's roles and…Sarah and Jane being placed into Punkie and Bowens’ old roles?

• I did like some of Sarah, Jane, Ego and Heidi's roles in this (although I didn't like the return of the “hey, let's make Sarah the butt of a few ‘lol she's least attractive girl in this sketch’ when in reality nothing could be further from the truth” trope).

• Ok, so maybe this version of this sketch wasn't THAT bad. Upon rewatch the highs may have been a bit higher this time. In fact, it was probably smart of them to borrow a sketch from a much stronger season finale than this one. 

• Hell, it’s not even the fact that they're still so frequently bringing back old sketch premises from several seasons ago that bothers me so much here.

• I guess the fact that they borrowed a sketch from a previous season finale where absolutely none of the cast members people were expecting/secretly hoping would leave…actually left…is perhaps the most troubling thing to me here. C+

Victorian Ladies At Lunch

• A strange Victorian sketch featuring Scarlett Johansson? Could we finally be about to meet the mysterious Mr. Willoughby?

• So, I guess the whole point of this was to try and create a “THIS IS LIVE TELEVISION!!!” forced breaking type moment by making the women of the cast eat real blood pudding, jellied eels, candied clams and pickled cows’ feet on camera? Hey, they could've done worse.

• At first, this felt more like it belonged on Jimmy Fallons’ Tonight Show than SNL but then I noticed how the snappy live pacing of it and the over the top writing and dialogue delivery saved it.

• Kudos to them for executing this as a live sketch rather than a pretape. That was a very unusual and uncharacteristically daring move on the show's part. 

• I liked a lot of Dismukes' dialogue (probably because his was easiest to understand due to his mouth being the least full). It seemed like this sketch was structured dialogue wise to just have the women set him up to describe the ridiculously offensive way these endangered animal dishes were prepared.

• Perhaps the thing I got the biggest kick out of was seeing Chloes’ very real reactions to what she was eating. Yeah, she was clearly struggling the most here. She was even too disgusted to break like a normal person here.

• Meanwhile, the gross out queen herself Sarah Squirm seemed the absolute least phased by this out of anyone. Heidi and Scarjo are tied for a close second here since Heidi's one if the shows’ more fearless performers in the cast right now (which means something different today, I'm sure) and Scarletts’ just a friend of the show who's always willing to support her fellow women and who must've been in a prankish mood this week between this and the joke swap. 

• My guess is that some combination of Sarah, Heidi, Dismukes and possibly Scarlett were involved with the writing on this one and I have another (slightly less educated) theory that this sketch was designed by the other women solely as one big humiliation ritual for Chloe for missing so much airtime for doomed vanity projects lately. I mean, she must've been absent at least on Monday and Tuesday of this week because I believe this and the monologue were the only things she was even in this week.

• Damn, that is the longest title card I have ever seen on this show. They must've taken great care timing-wise not to overload the show because they knew they absolutely HAD to get this in along with the joke swap on Update. There wasn't even a band shot anywhere near this episode.

• Yeah, the Pepto Bismol button at the end was a bit of a bummer and something I too really wish the show would cease doing already but I had enough fun watching the rest of this sketch that I'm honestly not gonna let it bug me that much. B-

Goodnights

• So, we see Scarlett being handed flowers by Colin who kisses her on the mouth so that Emil can react with the most committed disgust out of a small group in the left hand corner of the stage that includes him and everyone else besides Sarah who joined the cast after season 46? I wonder how that was set up? I'm sure they were always planning to have the Victorian lunch sketch at the end of the rundown.

• We do see Sarah over in the opposite corner tightly hugging Bowen (who appears the most emotional out of everyone on stage at this moment) with Ego a distant third behind him and Sarah. Miss Eggy doesn't appear on the verge of tears or anything. She just appears most ready to hug everyone.

• Based on this alone, I'd say the safest bet to make would be the announcement of Bowens’ departure some time by August or September. I'd say Sarah and Ego are the next most likely candidates in that order. I don't base that on what I'm now seeing could be their “meta moments” in the monologue and TV Takes respectively (because reading into that may be a bit much). I just get the sense that Bowen and Sarah may have developed such a strong emotional bond that they may not want to do the show without one another and this may leave together. Plus, Ego getting to reprise Miss Eggy so soon reminds me of when Vanessa Bayer did the same thing with her Dawn Lazarus character back in season 42, so…these might just be gut feelings on my part.

Ranking All Of ScarJos’ Episodes From Best To Worst

1. Scarlett Johansson/Death Cab For Cutie (01.14.2006)
2. Scarlet Johansson/Niall Horan (12.14.2019)
3. Scarlett Johansson/Bjork (04.21.2007)
4. Scarlett Johansson/Lorde (03.11.2017)
5. Scarlett Johansson/Bad Bunny (05.17.2025)
6. Scarlett Johansson/Wiz Khalifa (05.02.2015)
7. Scarlett Johansson/Arcade Fire (11.14.2010)

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Jack Black/Elton John & Brandi Carlile (04.05.2025)
3. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
6. Quinta Brunson/Benson Boone (05.03.2025)
7. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
8. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
9. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
10. Scarlett Johansson/Bad Bunny (05.17.2025)
11. Jon Hamm/Lizzo (04.12.2025)
12. Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire (05.11.2025)
13. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
14. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
15. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
16. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
17. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
18. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
19. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
20. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
21. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts

• Well, that was season 50…and that was another typical “let's run out the clock” finale to end it. 

• Just think, this is the exact same episode that a few years ago some people were led to believe would be the last SNL episode ever. Makes you think, huh?

• Overall, I feel this episode represents this season as a whole (outside of the anniversary special itself) in that we might have proven ourselves to be fools for buying into any amount of hype and expecting anything bigger or better from the show than just…what it actually is now. Oh, well. Just standard operating procedure, I guess.

• At least after last week, it was nice to have another established host who has the proven ability to elevate material and boost morale around the show…even if there was still this gassed out feeling.

• I'm not gonna let myself get bothered by the fact that they're still digging out as many old, reused sketch premises from years ago as they've been these past two weeks. I'm not saying that because there was a fair enough level of buzz and hype surrounding it to distract even me from that but also because a few moments felt original enough to stand out and balance out this episode a bit.

• Still, there was fun to be had if you can see the forest for the trees tonight…and although Mikey seems to have had a light night, it looks like everyone in the cast got some airtime and no one was shut out of the finale (no matter how many times they may tell you it's happened to them previously on the show).

• Honestly, the thing that bums me out the most is that we're finding ourselves back in the same place we were four years earlier when season 46 ended and we were left with no clue as to who (if anyone) would be leaving the show.

• Of course, Covid isn't dictating those decisions as much anymore and back then we did find out that new people would be joining an already overstuffed cast after a couple of people did leave slightly unexpectedly, and the people we were expecting to have left dipped in and out quite a bit and ended up leaving at the end of season 47 instead (and in the middle of season 48 in one person's case who we just saw last week).

• This led to a promising new season that quickly lost steam leading us right back to where we are now and where we have been for the past two damn years at this point and I don't know if I can go through that whole cycle with this show again.

• Still, I guess we have the whole summer ahead of us to wait and speculate until we find out who's definitely leaving and who may be joining the show and if there's hope for things to take off in any more new directions creatively at this point.

• Maybe a complete season 21 style reboot is too much to hope let alone ask for at this point…but I agree with whoever been putting forth the take recently that this would be the biggest thing the show could do to keep them genuinely interested at this point (and you know who you are…even though I kinda doubt you're reading this right now).

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, that sure was season 50, wasn't it?

• Fear not though, because for a change of pace…this blog will actually continue on semi-regularly throughout the summer…by taking things back to season 32…for now.

• I can confirm that the next post on this blog is going to be posted this coming Thursday, May 22nd and it will be another full length SNL retro review of the Hugh Laurie/Beck episode from season 32 as Deej and I will be covering it on the next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast.

• After that, we'll do a couple more episodes with season 32 specific topics that I will not reveal here yet. I'll wait until Deej and I nail down a few more things before doing so.

• See you in a few days and have a great summer!

Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire (05.10.2025)

A Mother's Day Message From SNL

• Huh…with as big a news week as this was you'd think they wouldn't do this as a cold op…HEEEEEYYYYY WAIT A MINUTE IT'S THAT GUY WHO PLAYS TRUMP AGAIN…WHAAAAAAAA?!?!?

• Well, at least he shoos away Kenan, Marcello, Bowen and their moms to shake things up.

• He is legitimately speaking for a large portion of the audience when he questions why the show isn't doing a “Chicago Pope/Daaaa Prayers” thing right now.

• I do like his blunt slams on J.D. Vance and…HEY, CECILYS’ BACK…AND SHE'S PLAYING JENEANE PIRRO AGAIN!!! YAAAAAYYY!!!

• I always liked Cecily in this role and was wondering why they wouldn't save this for next weeks’ Update until Colin came out as Pete Hegseth. Very clever way to revive the ol’ red wine spit take gag here.

• Ah, what the hell. Another format breaking JAJ/Trump cold open that actually worked for me. This is about the second best thing they could've done to a Chicago Pope cold open…well, distant second, but still. B-

Monologue 

• Huh…this wasn't what I was expecting either, but OK.

• A male host opens his monologue with a string of humblebrags about his status as a “sex symbol” right after yet another JAJ as Trump cold open? Are we sure this is a new one and they're not just rerunning the Bad Bunny episode from last season again?

• I liked the “I've had this same hairline since I was seven” joke at least.

• I do like how he transitioned into a sincere mother's day monologue with his actual mother in the audience. 

• Suddenly, I feel like I'm watching Gary Busey's monologue from season four…or Blake Sheltons’ monologue from season 40. C+

Second Amendment 

• A sketch set during the American revolution that DOESN'T have Nate Bargatze in it? Well, NOW I've seen everything!

• Already, I'm laughing at Waltons’ slick monosyllabic utterances about “guns”. 

• I love how his whole outfit appears to be a Leno-like jean jacket.

• JAJ really gets to shine here as do Mikey, Dismukes and Longfellow in support roles. 

• Anyone else think Dismukes’ voice sounded oddly like Bobby Moynihan at one point? 

• My one complaint about this sketch was that it felt like it got out before it made any point it might have had or gone anywhere.

• This felt like it had to be WAY edited down from dress rehearsal for some reason. B-

Tiny Baby Shoe (In The Middle Of The Zoo)

• Hmm…hard to get a bead on this but it's cute enough to work for me.

• Walton worked in an absurd small footed man and I liked the twist of Walton thinking he will date Jane and Jane immediately shutting him down.

• Sam Rockwells’ cameo worked for me as well in the exact same type of role as Walton…but he makes balloon animals.

• Maybe pretapes would be a better venue for Jane's musical talents if she makes it to season 51? B-

Mother's Day Brunch

• Ok, now we get a whole ass sketch playing off Waltons’ “sex symbol” status. Fine.

• I liked Heidi and Sarah in this. I did like how Walton played off Mikey and Andrew.

• I actually liked how Mikey delivered his line “LOVE to peek at some menus” as well as how Walton just thunked down Mikey and Andrew's menus on the table.

• I get the sense that Walton isn't quite used to performing in front of a live audience yet because he was noticeably tripping over his own lines all night and this sketch had the most instances of that.

• This sketch suddenly got WAY raunchier in a way I wasn't crazy about but I did like how it ended right when it felt like it was overstaying its welcome. C-

Handful of Hope

• Hmm…service dogs being trained to sit through a Tennessee Williams like play seems like an original enough twist on modern era SNLs theater sketches.

• Seems like they're drawing on Waltons southern heritage a lot in this episode. I guess some of the writers are big “Righteous Gemstones” fans?

• I liked how they used Longfellow and Jane as the trainers in this sketch.

• I wonder how they pulled off the eye roll effect on the one dog. Speaking of which, I did like the gag of the “not asleep” fake eye glasses being put on Jane's dog.

• I liked the speech buttons gag with Longfellows dog. That reminds me, did Dismukes write this? That part feels like a direct callback to his commentary from Billie Eilishs’ episode from season 47. 

• I also got a kick out of the “didn't go to Juilliard” back and forth between Walton and Bowen. B-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• I liked Josts’ Pope material (as well as Che's “juvenile” crack). I also liked Che's Trump/Eric Adams, Elon/Ye and penis size study jokes, Josts “yacht carrying influencers sinks/aircraft carrier/Dick Splinter, ND/GTA” jokes. This was that rare Update that was worth watching for the jokes just as much as it was for the commentaries.

• I was OK enough with Marcellos’ “movie guy” the first time that I didn't mind it being bought back once more. I did get a kick out of his whole Jurassic World rant and the “Gary Fields/Garfield” rant (as wholly unoriginal as the whole “why does he hate Mondays?” joke was) and “Gatorade Zero” jokes.

• Speaking of which, if nothing else bringing back Marcellos’ “Movie Guy” was worth it for no other reason than hearing Che's callback to Marcello's new catch phrase “am I right, guys?” during that K-Pop singer joke. I laughed just as hard at that one as Colin did.

• I liked Mikeys’ “guy who just walked into a spider web” as just an excuse for him to be extremely physical. What I liked even more was the rapid fire black out nature of it. This felt like a piece Mikey may have auditioned with or just wanted to get on the air before he left.

• I liked Heidi's new one off Update character much more than I thought I would (especially the “porn/sunglasses” joke). B+

Deathly Diner

• Hey, Ego and Ashley aren't completely shut out of the live show! Good for them!

• They, along with Bowen, performed their parts well. I liked that this sketch wasn't quite as repetitive or as one note as I was expecting it to be and I liked that Bowen was used in a more restrained role here.

• I also liked their interaction with Heidi and Kenans elderly characters. C-

Midnight Matinee: Squatty Potty

• Ok, I think this one sets some kind of record for being the shortest Dan Bulla short ever produced (certainly felt that way compared to all his others).

• Thank God this was as short as it was because it was the second piece of the night that went absolutely nowhere.

• I did like the ending with Dismukes suddenly running screaming and jumping out of a window.

• Speaking of the ending, until the entire caveman sequence, none of this felt unique to Dan Bullas’ style. It was like anyone on SNLs’ current staff could've written or produced this up until the talking slug came out. D+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Jack Black/Elton John & Brandi Carlile (04.05.2025)
3. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
6. Quinta Brunson/Benson Boone (05.03.2025)
7. Jon Hamm/Lizzo (04.12.2025)
8. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
9. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
10. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
11. Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire (05.11.2025)
12. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
13. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
14. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
15. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
16. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
17. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
18. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
19. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
20. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts 

• This episode was wildly uneven until after Update when it was just kinda…blah. It had a strong enough start despite sputtering a bit, but completely ran out of gas in the last third. Still, there was some fun to be had in the first half if you were willing to look for it.

• Walton Goggins seemed like a game host who was just a bit too full of himself for me to fully get into. I guess all the hype surrounding “The White Lotus” is making him start buying into his own to take himself too seriously, huh?

• I mean, it was foolish of me to expect a Mother's day episode to be anything above “middle of the road” since the second episode in a May run is usually a total wash but this host got a ton of comedy buzz from stuff like “Vice Principals” and “The Righteous Gemstones” which themselves got rave reviews from comedy needs, so…I guess I also should've expected that “White Lotus” hype to kind of ruin this guy for me.

• Chloe got shut out. Devon and Emil almost did. Apparently, I blinked and missed them. Oddly, Kenan felt like he was barely in the show. Other than that, everybody else got a fair amount of airtime.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, next week is SNLs’ 50th Season finale with host Scarlett Johansson and musical guest Bad Bunny.

• Part of me is expecting another real “running out the clock” type episode, another part of me is expecting an episode full of big tributes to those players who may (or may not) be leaving (guess we'll find out soon, huh?)

• Another part of me is expecting a possible fourth Domingo sketch. I mean, we've established Bad Bunny as a canonical part of the “Domingo-verse” and ScarJo seems like she's always gonna be down to sing purposely off key for laughs. If they are planning a big blowout for next week, all signs point to this as a distinct possibility, so…watch out.

• Anyway, my next blog post will be a full review of this season's finale and the week after that I will be posting a full length review of the Hugh Laurie/Beck episode from October 28, 2006 because it will be the subject of the next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast coming out on Thursday, May 22nd. That's right, we're officially creeping into season 32 now!

• See you then!

Jon Hamm/Lizzo (04.12.2025)

Cleansing Of The Temple

• Okay, as soon as I heard Steve Higgins intoning the word “Easter” over an very clearly biblical/Christian themed text crawl, I knew fucking EXACTLY where this was headed.

• Seriously, this is like, what the fourth of these types of cold opens they've done since they hired JAJ to join the cast? Hell, it's the second one they did this very season.

• (*sigh*) Well, I guess I liked the following jokes from JAJ as Trump “messiah made of the economy”, “look at your 401k and say ‘Jesus Christ'”, “price of eggs/just can't crack it/end joke”,“the most homophobic people you see see dressing as gay as possible”, “I don't go to church on Easter either”, “pray/prey/predator” and “lump shaped”.

• I kinda liked the extra wrinkle/challenge of the freeze frame being Mikey tipping a table over.

• Really, the only thing saving this (or even making it watchable) are the meta jokes directed at Emil, Mikey, Sarah, Kenan and Ego here.

• I'm choosing to think Kenan's early exit ISN'T a Morgan Wallen reference and that they've gotten all of that nonsense out of their system.

• All in all, one of the more tolerable “JAJ/Trumps talks directly to camera over historical freeze frame” cold opens if you give it a fraction of a chance. C+

Monologue 

• Well, I certainly like that Jon is playing himself as the same “gleeful idiot” character he played so well on 30 Rock. I find that fun.

• You know, I remember a lot of people saying Jon Hamm could be the next Alec Baldwin even as early as October 2008 when he FIRST hosted (y'know, back when that would've for sure have been meant as a compliment).

• I actually see one more Baldwin parallel here in that by the time Hamm had first hosted, Baldwins’ subsequent monologues all devolved into him gratuitously waxing nostalgic about personal highlights from each of his previous hosting stints, so I like the idea of Jon Hamm doing an equally charmingly pathetic/narcissistic monologue about all 14 of his cameos in the past…14 years. God, that's like…almost one cameo a year for each year he HASN'T hosted, right?

• While I wasn't too crazy about how telegraphed that “aimless monologue” joke felt, I do like that the cameo turned out to be Kieran Culkin. He was a solid host who made a few unexpected cameos, too. Let's hope they don't make us wait another 14 years to see HIM host again, right? 

• The only strange thing about this monologue was how it ended on Jon clearly waving Kieran over to come back on stage only for the camera to cut away before he could be seen again. B-

Check-To-Check Business Channel 

• My visceral reaction to the title alone was “ooooooooffffff” but the sketch itself made me go “oh, this is supposed to be relatable in the fun way (*phew*).

• I liked Egos’ “Top Ramen” joke as well as Kenan's cheap brand name alternatives (“Uncle Bubble”, “Sgt. Munch”) and Dismukes’ Funko Pop report. B-

PDD: Missing Girl Pizza Party

• I feel like placing a Please Don't Destroy Short this early in the lineup may feel like Lorne & the shows’ way of making something up to the boys. Anyone else?

• Anyway, I do like how this was another short that took the boys out of the office and how framing this as a gritty crime procedural set up Jon Hamm to immediately play wildly against type more.

• I liked how Hamm immediately started playing a fragile manchild instead of the no-nonsense police chief you might expect him to play in this setting.

• I also loved how this wasted no time in devolving into chaos, getting everyone sucked into the pizza discussion. It's nice to see PDDs’ rapid fire pacing be put to effective use once again. 

• Other highlights were John Higgins firing a gun into the air, Ashley as the missing girl's mom and Jane as the delivery girl. B-

Guess The Correct Answer

• A game show sketch after the SECOND commercial break? Well, NOW I've seen everything!

• I didn't like how rapidly Jon Hamm just laid out the whole joke of that sketch, but I did like how that allowed this to have a very quick not quite “blackout” but still very “get in/get out” style pacing and nature to it (even if Ashley and Emil could only be used as set dressing here).

• Longfellow is still a decent game show host (even if part of me would've liked to have seen JAH get another chance to play one). I did like the ridiculous character name of “Marky Mark Brandon Marcus”.

• This sketch felt like a sort of inverted prequel to Hamms' role in "I Didn't Ask For This" from October 2010. C+

The White Potus

• Geez, even the live studio audience seems to be having an extremely mixed reaction to this.

• I wonder how many people just noped out or had a rage stroke from the combo of that title immediately followed by Chloe doing an inexplicable Parker Posey impression in the same room as JAJs’ Trump with slightly more makeup? I did like the quick visual of him swallowing a McNugget whole from a bottle like a pill.

• Speaking of Chloe, her playing “Melania Trump” as Parker Posey in The White Lotus feels like they're DEFINITELY making something up to her that she must've taken way too personally and made a big deal about.

• I do like the zoned out vibe JAJ gave to his Trump for this and while I'm grateful he is still Baldwins’ official replacement in the role, I will admit Baldwins’ take on Trump still would've fit this particular sketch like a glove (again, not that I would’ve particularly liked to see that).

• Apparently, the guy playing commerce secretary Howard Lutnick was just actor Jon Gries, shown here in a clip just straight up taken from a White Lotus episode he was in. Okay. I didn't know you could incorporate cameos THAT way.

• Also, THAT’S the guy who.played Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite? Wow.

• Hey, we got an Alex Moffat cameo! Since he left a few years back it's just this and I THINK being in the background of the Mulaney New York musical from the 50th for him?

• Oh, hai Scarlett. Bye, Scarlett.

• If RFK Jr HAS to become a recurring character/impression on this show, I'll take Jon Hamm in the role over Alec Baldwin any day.

• I thought Sarah's huge buck teeth were supposed to be an “RFK Jr. wants to ban fluoridated water” joke until I watched the SNN Hot Take show where Jon explained that Sarah was supposed to be playing Aimee Lou Woods’ character from the show and then I thought “Oooooooh right, I guess that explains the cockney accent too, huh?” 

• Yeah, please don't ask me how or why I know who Aimee Lou Wood is either.

• Hey, Ashley Padilla got her first political impression as AG Pam Bondi. Congratulations, Ashley. I can tell you're DEFINITELY gonna make it on modern SNL. Good to see Heidi bring back her classic beloved Kristi Noem impression again (*eye roll emoji*).

• I did like how they used Marcellos’ Rubio impression here, though.

• Hey, there's Beck Bennet again…as shirtless Putin. Great. Even if it's his most well remembered “political" impression…and even though it's still more subtly tinged with exactly as much cheap homophobia as it was back in 2017…it's nice to see Beck again.

• Hey, a sudden Lizzo cameo. She had one decent line there.

• Like, I'm not gonna say this whole pretape was WORTH airing just for the Moffat/Bennet cameos…but they were clearly the highlights. I did just watch both clips of Alex as Terry Fink on Update the other night and that plus his putting a watch in a blender reminded me of how great Alex was on the show, so…Yeah.

• I was surprised to find that this was only five minutes long when I tried rewatching it on YouTube. Even though it felt like a mini-epic with its use of many different characters and sets, turning this into a pretape obviously allowed them to tighten this up substantially but the heavy & specific political focus of it made this feel like I was watching a cold open/debate sketch from season 45 (or maybe the fact that I ended up writing an unprecedented 16 different bullet points worth of my own commentary on this sketch is making it feel like a 13 minute long sketch in my mind?)

• God, that moment with JAJ/Trump pointing a gun at Andrew dressed as fucking Uncle Sam talking about placing a tariff on China is like the most hamfisted political joke I've ever seen on SNL. Seriously, that felt like something one would only see in a fucking New Yorker cartoon. That and the sudden (merciful) ending with Kenan as Tiger Woods are things I was thankful were only dream sequences.

• My other main takeaway from this was that not having watched any of The White Lotus I can still somehow tell that this sketch was densely packed with specific references to the show meant to make people who DO watch it laugh. At least from that, I can tell this was a labor of love so…Yeah, that part of it was far from my biggest problem with this pretape.

• I wonder if Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider came back this week to write this 2017-ass sketch? I mean, it's obviously written by people who are VERY pop culture savvy and juuuust savvy ENOUGH about politics to semi-tenuously connect the hottest prestige HBO show to the current Trump administration, so…yeah, this just SCREAMS them to the point I'd be surprised to find they DIDN'T write this. C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• This was a week where Che had the lions’ share of better jokes. That's all I really care to say about the Jost/Che portions of Update.

• Bowen as Chen Biao? Man, this episode really DOES feel like a throwback to 2019 in all the worst ways!

• Boy, he must've REALLY grown to hate this character over time since he's giving it even less effort than he gave any of his performances as J.D. Vance (maybe that's what that “Peasant Elegy” joke was a subtle reference to?)

• Jesus, was Egos’ “Miss Eggy” commentary from last week THAT big a viral hit or has it understandably become an inner office inside joke at SNL?

• Thankfully, Emil showed up to give us perhaps the sharpest and funniest moment of the entire episode.

• …which was almost immediately followed by Sarah giving us something that, I think, was cut from last week's show? If so, I can see why because this was definitely her most juiceless and aimless performance to date. 

• At least Sarah tried to open with some attempt at classic Squirm gross out humor and end with a different angle of the Update set we haven't seen.

• I did like Colin, seeming to actively fight his own giggly discomfort at reading the lines on his cue cards and fully accepting being the butt of the joke during this commentary (by the moment he winks at the camera after delivering that “any chair can be a toilet” joke you can see what I'm talking about).

• Yeah, they definitely should've switched the order of Emil and Sarah's commentaries at least. C-

Randy & Trevor's Baby

• Did…this sketch use the same opening establishing shot as Bronx Beat?

• Anyway, I feel like this sketch is at least spiritually a sequel to the sketch Bowen did with Adam Driver last season where they just talked about TRYING for a baby. 

• The only twist here is that Jon Hamm is Bowens’ partner now and they actually DO have a baby but they defiantly deflect whenever anyone asks where it came from.

• With all the loud questioning of logistics, it's like this sketch was starring Bowen Yang, Jon Hamm and FOUR Mikey Days.

• Oh, and apparently Lizzo is their baby. Ok, sure. Whatever.

• I did like the AAPI joke…and at least this sketch was loud enough to keep me from tuning out completely. C-

Herpastopper

• Yeah, we may have seen medication ads deconstructed on SNL and other comedy shows before so, this doesn't feel TOO fresh.

• Still, I liked the slightly more creative meta angle of “the person in slo-mo always has herpes, especially if they're rock climbing.”

• Ego and Heidi did fine here.

• I did like Mikeys’ meta reaction to Hamms’ line about how the person having the most fun dancing in slo-mo in a whole group always has herpes as well as Jons’ reaction to him suddenly finding himself rock climbing. 

• I also liked the breakdowns of other types of medication ads (wives wearing oversized jerseys for erectile dysfunction, children's drawings for clinical depression, dancing in an office as an indicator of either diabetes or diarrhea).

• Well, I certainly liked those parts all more than the racial breakdown of these types of ads anyway. Oh hai, Devon & Jane. C+

New Employees

• Hey, I'm a new employee at my job right now. I mean, I didn't have to go that deep into my personal life during my orientation (I mean, I wasn't gonna talk about this blog or my podcast right off the bat to people I just met so I had to think of clever ways to deflect).

• Besides, workplaces don't spend this long on “getting to know you” stuff (not any place I've worked anyway) since they want to get you actually working on your own as quickly as possible. Maybe this sketch would work a little better as, like, a college freshman orientation with a younger host, like say, Mikey Madison?

• Anyway, I liked how Hamm kept revealing more ridiculous details about his parents’ death and how they made decent use of Ashley and Andrew here…but that's about it. C+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Jack Black/Elton John & Brandi Carlile (04.05.2025)
3. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
4. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
5. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
6. Jon Hamm/Lizzo (04.12.2025)
7. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
8. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
9. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
10. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
11. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
12. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
13. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
14. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
15. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
16. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
17. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
18. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Closing Thoughts

• Well, Jon Hamm certainly hasn't lost his touch. He's still a strong comedic performer who's game for pretty much anything and it seems like the show will pretty much always know how to use him.

• This episode was a little uneven, but Jon elevated pretty much all he was in as much as he could. Obviously, they wouldn't have been able to reach the same electric highs of last week's Jack Black episode but it was another case where the shows current staff put on the best show that they possibly could with a well liked now four time host from a different era that has at least one all time classic stand out episode from back in the day under his belt.

• It's nice to see Jon Hamm perform again on this show all these years later, but neither he nor Jack are able to completely cover up the shows’ various foibles on their own.

• The main difference between this show and last week's, in my mind, is a weaker bottom half that left me a bit more frustrated the more I sat with this episode and chewed on it.

• There's a cast imbalance again at this point. Marcello, Devon and Jane only appeared in pretapes tonight while Dismukes, Ashley and Emil are making decent gains and almost jockeying back and forth for who has the biggest breakout moment. Meanwhile, JAJ and Longfellow keep only being used in one specific role. 

• The show seemingly keeps pushing Bowen, Heidi, Ego, Mikey and Sarah in ways that increasingly disappoint and yet somehow…no one seems to be absolutely dominating the show right now…not even any recent hosts, oddly enough.

Overall Thoughts 

• After a two week spring break, Quinta Brunson returns to host for her second time. This is actually a pleasant surprise as two years ago, Quinta hosted one of the truly promising standout episodes of season 48 before the show lost steam and the dual strikes seemed to derail the shows’ momentum entirely. 

• There were a lot of fresh, unique concepts brought to the show the last time Quinta hosted, so let's hope she can bring some of that creative spark back next month.

• In the meantime, the next post you'll see on this blog will be a full length review of the Julia Loius-Dreyfus/Paul Simon episode from season 31 of SNL which Deej and I will be covering on the next episode of our We Heart Hader Podcast. The blog and the podcast should both be released on Thursday, April 24th. 

• After that, Deej & I might just be welcoming our first ever guest on the We Heart Hader Podcast! Spoiler alert: if you know either one of us, it'll probably be the exact person you're thinking it's gonna be…but you'll have to wait and listen to find out for sure. See you then!

Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)

Wrong Group Chat?

• Hey, this looks like a different type of cold op…ooooooohhhh, I can see exactly where this is going.

• Nice way to use the host in the cold open right out the gate.

• Dismukes as Hehgseth? Ok, that's ONE way to…possibly annoy him and/or Trump?

• Hey, they actually knew how to write decently for Bowens’ JD Vance here. All right.

• Marcello as Rubio didn't add anything to this (neither did Mikey as Atlantic Jeffrey but hey, it was one of the many beats they absolutely had to hit in this).

• At least this was short (I mean, for a modern SNL cold open) and gave us a Matt Gaetz joke without giving us Sarah's portrayal. 

• I've seen some people compare this to the Clinton/Lewinsky/Hussein three-way phone call cold open from 1998 but I personally see more similarities to the cold open from Emma Stone's 2016 episode (where we kept switching back and forth between Baldwins’ Trump and Kate's Kellyanne in an important briefing and the people Trump was obsessively retweeting) and maybe the 1993 John Malkovich sketch where his character from “In The Line Of Fire” keeps dialing all the wrong numbers until het gets to a confused Clint Eastwood (played by Norms’ voiceover set against real footage of the film, of course). C+

Monologue 

• Mikey is bringing the exact right amount of energy to this monologue. She's not low energy enough to leave me worried but she's not overdoing it either.

• The “horse girl” chunk probably could've been cut but I liked her “obligatory montage of the host's film roles” (especially the OUATIH clips).

• The pole dancing part was fun just for the fact that they incorporated some “on the fly” editing tricks into a live monologue for once. C+

Strop Acting Academy II

• I heard a rumor there might be a “reprise of a Marcello led sketch from the Charli XCX episode” tonight. I might've preferred another “Banger Boys” to this but…we could've gotten something way worse.

• Again, I'm still not totally against Marcello here but this character isn't suited to him that well.

• I did chuckle at his playing off each of the girls commercial copy and I liked some of the gags involving he and Ms. Madison listing their “acting credits” (even if she came nowhere near close to matching his energy) but not much else in this landed with me. C-

Big Dumb Line (A Weekend In New York)

• Huh, so everyone in New York just spends their weekends waiting in impossibly long lines for various trendy bullshit they heard about on social media.

• Hey, there's Joe Jonas all of a sudden. Ok.

• Yeah, no. This plays into the worst instincts of everyone involved.

• Gee, Sarah really DOES resemble Melissa Villaseñor. I genuinely got confused for a second there.

• This reminded me a lot of Chloes’ “C**ts’ Really Crossed The Pond” music video she posted on her Instagram over the summer. I guess it took her about eight or nine months to figure out how to rewrite it into something appropriate to air on NBC? (Note: that bit if self censorship two sentences ago is just my attempt to avoid having this blog post put under any kind of content/trigger warning like a few recent previous one of mine have).

• Hey, that reminds me. Why was everyone talk-singing in bad British accents in this? Was this a pitch that Charli XCX rejected on Monday? 

• Also, I couldn't help but notice that the official title of this sketch on YouTube happens to be “Big Dumb Line”. I do have to wonder if the same writing team behind such classics as “Big Dumb Hats” and “Little Red Glasses” had a hand in creating this? I know that may be a dumb question given that this is a music video and the others were just straight to camera live sketches but the focus and themes are just similar enough that indi have to wonder out loud a bit here. D-

Jury Selection 

• Oh, I see. The PDD boys really ARE back because they took their school board/tenant meeting sketches from season 47 and turned them into jury selection. 

• I mean, I figured that's what this would be as soon as I saw Ego addressing a group of people straight to camera.

• Finally, something comes along to breathe some life into this big “meh” of an episode.

• I liked Sarah and Ashley's characters. I also liked how they finally found a way to sneak JAJs’ Jay-Z impression on the show again and I liked Jane's callback.to that at the end.

• I liked Bowens’ exit. Was that Carl Tart as the bailiff?

• I liked Devon basically playing “Temu Louis Farrahkan”.

• I was pretty cold on Chloe randomly showing up as herself but I like the idea that this could be a meta moment poking fun at her own sheer desperation (especially since Ms. Madison got what was probably gonna be her role in the cold open up until the last minute).

• I liked Heidi's performance (and Mikeys’) and Kenan and Emils’ callback following it (even as cheap as casting Emil as Luigi felt).

• I liked Longfellows blooper and I chuckled more than I probably should have at Marcello doing the worst Benson Boone impression ever. B-

Varsity Valley Spring Break 

• …and I see whoever wrote those “dramatic heartfelt scenes with a bunch of wild ass crazy shit” happening in the background” pretapes from seasons 48/49 bought those back too.

• Oh well, at least we get to see Chloe and Marcello in more restrained roles than what they're normally given.

• Overall, despite Mr. Day, Ms. Madison and Ms. Nwodim giving this everything they had, I would say this one wasn't as strong as the one from Jenna Ortegas’ episode but still better than "The Right Track" from Nate Bargatzes’ first episode last season. Still, this had the right amount of focus to make it work for me.

• Dismukes suddenly brandishing an alligator may have been the highpoint of this for me. JAJ, Kenan and Heidi did great support work in straight roles here.

• Even Sarah puking was played as tastefully as possible while being cartoonish and absurd. B-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• I didn't care for much of Josts’ opening Signal rant except for maybe the Jared reference for how out of left field it came compared to the second Matt Gaetz reference I was half expecting (which is definitely the same reason I liked Che's “oilman/Diddy” punchline and Josts’ “deepfake revenge porn” joke).

• I will admit I liked how Jost delivered the “sucked on/suck off/Forrest Gump” punchlines (even as heavily telegraphed as the latter seemed.

• I thought Che's “Tesla protest/full pardon” joke and Josts’ “J.D. Vance in Greenland” joke were both solid.

• Hey, Che got through an entire Update without ONCE uttering the phrase “it's the 90s”! Way to go, bud!

• Huh, we haven't seen Devon Walker as himself on Update (the first time he did this two and a half years ago…it didn't go so great).

• I saw some people speculating that the show might do a parody of the “morning routine” trend on TikTok. I haven't actually seen this myself but I suppose this would've been the best way they could've done this.

• Still, Devon usually scores on Update (and he did here) and it's nice that he figured out how to actually use his own “self” persona effectively on Update. I think my favorite part was him calling out Che (especially the “Buffalo Wild Wings” mini rant).

• The return of Josts’ “Hear Me Out” segment was a lot of fun. I especially liked how Jost leaned into his fake anger at Paddington there.

• Ooh, hey! An Ashley Padilla commentary on Update. This is something we literally haven't seen all season.

• Ashley turned in one hell of a performance as Joann of Joann Fabrics fame. She really put her all into it.

• Even though a lot of this can be boiled down to more “lol suburban middle aged white women, amirite?” humor and some of the material was a bit shaky, I liked this quite a bit. I especially liked her detailing what she does at the store each day and pulling out a bejeweled flask.

• Most of all, I liked how they used this as an opportunity to give Ashley some airtime to perform some material that they otherwise would've given to Heidi who probably would've made it worse. 

• Wow, this may have been the best Update overall that I've seen in several months. It's certainly a high point of this episode (which isn't saying a lot for this episode, but whatever). B-

Pops’ Regrets

• Another Dismukes led sketch. He plays an older mafia figure who gets shot in a drive-by, complete with squids and blood packs. This could be interesting.

• Now, he's mumbling about half thought out standup routines he never got to try out as he bleeds to death. Also, Ms. Madison is his wife and she turns in her strongest performances all night. JAJ & Marcello are his sons. Good support work from them. Mr. Day is his assassin.

• This felt like an inverted version of the coffee shop sketch from Timothee Chalamets’ episode from two months ago.

• Hmm, I liked the idea of this but the execution left a little to be desired. Something felt missing here. Not as much of it hit for me as I had hoped. C+

Barry The Midwife

• Huh…I see they also decided to bring back what was possibly the only truly weak sketch from Quinta Brunsons’ episode two years ago (well, one of the only two, now that I think about it).

• Impressive how this managed to travel back and forth through time but ultimately go nowhere.

• I did like the jammed-in Conan reference and some of the jabs at Hilary Duff though. Yeah, this was writerly and detail heavy but not in the way I normally like.

• However, it's pretty obvious that having this in the lineup caused some production delays and timing issues so either way you look at it, this sketch just wasn't worth it. C-

PDD: Mikey Madison Is Squidward 

• Ok, now Please Don't Destroy is bringing back the basic premise of their “What if Bad Bunny was suddenly Shrek?” pretape from last season but changing it to “What if Mikey Madison was suddenly Squidward and also Ben Marshall was bald Spongebob, John Higgins was Patrick Star and Martin Herlihy was Mr. Krabs?” Come on.

• Well, I liked this one a little better than the previous Bad Bunny/Shrek one mostly for the very streamlined “cut right to the chase” nature of it where we just immediately saw the fully developed HBO show.

• I couldn't fully get into this. I mean, I kinda liked the idea of a love action makeup heavy Spongebob reboot done as a Girls style dramadey but maybe I was just sick of all the blatant retread sketches in a row tonight in the back half

• …or maybe I just had a problem with how parts of this just seemed to be an excuse to just repeat actual lines and memes from the shows’ early run (looking at you John…and to a lesser extent, you too Big Mart-Mart).

• Yeah, no need to include that brief shot of Bad Bunny as Shrek as a flashback/memory within the sketch. We all know what you were going for there, guys. C-

So, Like, What Are We?

• Oh, COME. ON. Now, they're just bringing back an old Abby Elliott/Bill Hader sketch from Eli Mannings’ 2012 episode and mixing it in with the template of the shows’ recent “social media based game show sketches.” Why?

• Anyway, I did like the focused nature of this with Longfellow being the sole contestant and the stakes of this being raised to “losing 100k from your bank account”.

• I also chuckled at the “daddy hungry for butt?” text. Otherwise, this came at a point where I had already had more than my fill of retread sketches for me to be that patient with it. 

• Also, I have heard via SNN that this sketch originally featured Kenan, Chloe and others as various judges and contestants. While part of me is curious how much differently this would've made the sketch play out, the rest of me knows that whittling it down to just Madison and Longfellow was for the best. C+

An SNL Animated Short: Planning New York

• Ok, at least they're ending the show on the most original concept they could muster this week.

• I've heard about this getting cut from multiple episodes this season so I'm glad to finally see it.

• The rapid fire back and forth between Bowen and Longfellow was OK but most of this felt too specific to Manhattans’ infrastructure to appeal that much to me.

• I'm not that crazy about this janky, jittery style of animation with it's Spongebob style detailed close ups either. Basically, this was just a slightly inferior followup to the “God” short from Timothee Chalamets’ show two months ago. C+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
3. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
6. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
7. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
8. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
9. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
10. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
11. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
12. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
13. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
14. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
15. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
16. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts

• Obviously, this was far from the best of the season…yet it was far from the worst.

• There was nothing aggressively terrible about this episode. Everything about it just felt flat and underwhelming. It was the most “middle of the road” episode produced this season (possibly of all time).

• The biggest problem this episode had was it relied way to heavily on recurring sketches and premises from up to three seasons ago (or thirteen seasons ago in one specific case).

• Mikey Madison wasn't a terrible host either. It's just that the show surprisingly didn't know how to use her effectively. There was only one sketch where I felt she truly went “above and beyond” but other than that…she did fine with what she was given. She just didn't blow anybody away or anything.

• Cast airtime seemed evenly distributed tonight. No one seemed shut out of the show entirely (Jane came pretty close though) but Devon and Ashley obviously had a big week (maybe not as big as Marcello, Sarah, Bowen or Mikey Day but they made string gains and that's what counts).

Closing Thoughts

• Well, that was certainly another episode of SNL.

• Next week, Jack Black returns to host SNL for his fourth time after a near 20 year hosting absence from the show (not counting the time Tenacious D was an actual musical guest back in ‘06).

• Putting aside any feelings about how Jack may have basically dissolved Tenacious D himself last summer out of apparent fear of potential boycotts of “The Minecraft Movie” or whatever family friendly DreamWorks fare nets him the biggest paycheck these days, this is a pretty intriguing “get” for modern SNL. I'm always interested to see someone come back to the show after at least a decade long absence just to see how they would fit into the mold of the modern show.

• After this episode, SNL absolutely NEEDS a host who can inject the show with some goddamn ENERGY! Plus, it's not like Jack Black was big on recurring characters and sketches during the times he hosted in the early aughts so it'll be interesting to see what they try to do with him this time.

• After that, you may see another retro review on this blog that I have pretty much already written for the Steve Martin/Prince episode from February 2006. As you may have heard if you've been listening, that particular episode will be the subject of the next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast set to be released on Thursday, April 10th.

• See you guys then!

Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)

White House Truce

• I had a feeling they might do another Trump cold open involving Mike Myers as Elon Musk again. 

• I hadn't heard about the meeting with the blowup between Musk & Rubio (guess he's finally starting to grow something resembling a spine?) 

• At first thought they might do something on Trumps’ Joint Address to congress but even with Kenan as Al Green and Longfellow silently reprising his role as Speaker Mike Johnston that might not be enough to sustain a whole sketch. Makes sense that they would rather just throw in a couple of callbacks to it instead.

• Still, I figured they might want to reprise Mikes’ Elon impression simply because it got under the real Elons’ skin more than Carveys’ did.

• Somehow, Marcello seems ill suited to play Marco Rubio, but it should at least appease his biggest critics to see him in a quieter straight man role off of Update.

• I did like JAJs line “we tried that in 2016 and it didn't work” line.

• Huh, so we're going from the “Curb” theme playing in Rubios’ head to JAJ/Trumps’ inner monologue. Not a huge fan of that.

• …and HERE'S the Mike Myers cameo this was building to!

• Seems like Mike either fine tuned his facial expressions for this role or the makeup department stepped up their game.

• Still, I don't mind seeing Mike Myers in this role (he certainly has a better take on Elon than his buddy Carvey did anyway). 

• I did like the “buffering” gag as well as Marcello asking Mike “what's this?” when he did his Elon dance again. 

• JAJ as Trump coaching Elon & Rubio on insulting each other was cheap and “been there, done that” but it is “on brand” for both Trump as a character, I'll give them that.

• I probably liked Myers “inner monologue” the most out of the three, forced Dr. Evil reference and all…because Mike's basic handle on this character seems to be “lane Dr. Evil but played AS a senile Austin Powers”. 

• Honestly, I still don't mind the idea of occasional Mike Myers cameos. I like seeing Mike pop up on the show sometimes. I just hope that if he is going to cameo on a regular basis like Carvey did that they at least attempt to fold him into the show in some other non-Elon/non cold open roles. C+

Monologue 

• Well, as I suspected, a more mature Gaga showed us she was more than comfortable poking fun at herself. I still feel like I haven't seen her act enough to really judge her acting abilities, but she must be better at acting and light comedy than she is at picking movie roles (heyooooo!)

• The lines about her performance with R. Kelly felt a little too tacked on. I thought acknowledging his unfortunate musical cameo in her first hosting stint during the “In Memoriam” at the 50th was enough.

• The Joker 2 stuff was fine. I did like the “Razzies/EGORT” lines.

• Her listing the other current pop girlies “ages” was fun (Chappel Roan is 58, Charli XCX is 75, Tate McRae is her biological grandmother)

• I like even the mildest SNL meta references but I would’ve cut Bowens' appearance since it didn't do anything for me…especially since he did a great job of actually introducing Gagas’ first performance anyway.

• The stuff about her engagement was cute but fell a little flat compared to the rest of the monologue. C+

A Long Goodbye

• Hmm, this is a slightly more Marcello heavy show than I was expecting.

• I really wasn't sure what the hell this was going for but the sight gag of Gaga riding a luggage caddy down a highway was enough to keep me interested.

• I did like the further escalation of this gag by having JAJ, Dismukes and (surprisingly the funniest part of this whole sketch) Jane Wickline as a Sons Of Anarchy-style biker gang riding on similar luggage caddies with Marcello chasing them on his own luggage. I might have cut the dog out of this sketch, though. That part felt too awkwardly shoehorned in for me.

• I also liked how this made good use of the backstage quick change hallways but perhaps most of all, I managed to blend sheer goofiness with sweetness. B+

Midnight Matinee: Pip

• Huh. Seems like a mouse named Pip is about to enter a weightlifting competition. Lady Gaga sings him an inspirational song, which might have genuinely been the best part of this.

• It's good they're spacing out these Dan Bulla pretapes because they are really all starting to feel the same thematically.

• Well, I can at least appreciate the cute sentimentality these go for…until the first in a series of “twists” is revealed.

• I do like how this didn't feel the need to stretch itself out and on as long as “Beppo” did.

• I did appreciate the ending, as telegraphed as it felt. B-

Wonderful Tonight

• Ah, HERE'S the exact type of sketch I was expecting to see as much of as possible. A Bowen and Gaga two-hander.

• It's the exact type of refined, odd-detail heavy sketch I would expect from Bowen but Gagas’ performance is really making this work for me and actually making me laugh.

• “Italians aren't white?” Geez, Gaga was a REAL good sport to go along with that

• “I recently…came…into some money?” Well, I could see where that was going…but I'm still a little surprised NBC could air that at any point before midnight.

• Even though the ending seemed a little rushed and clumsy for my liking, I enjoyed that. C+

Funeral Planners

• Hmm…they really seem stuck on this “roaring 20s” theme for a funeral.

• Roaring 20s? More like BORING 20s, am I right, folks?

• Kenans’ brief appearance was funny. Still, strangely late into the show for him.

• That was a helluva quick change for Heidi & Gaga there. Wonder how they pulled that off?

• Overall, while this felt like a retread of a long worn out SNL sketch trope that I had almost memory holed until now, I didn't hate it. C+

L’Oréal Easy Run Mascara

• This seems like a very specific premise. I mean, I know I may not be the “target audience” for this but I still feel like I “get it” enough. 

• It feels like an improvement over whatever last seasons “Diet Coke from Olay” pretape was supposed to be.

• Not a whole lot of individual lines stood out to me in this, but this was well performed and I did like how it made good use of the entire female cast (especially Jane and Ashley). C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• I liked Josts’ meta jab at Mike Myers right off the bat and Che's “Bin Laden” joke. 

• I also liked that Linda McMahon joke just for the odd visual element to it.

• Che's “40lbs of fentanyl/two buttfuls” joke was just goofy enough to make me chuckle.

• That Zelenskyy joke was WAY too awkwardly constructed for its own good.

• I like the IDEA of Update going in harder on Elon, but those punchlines didn't hit for me. I thought the Don Jr joke was OK (despite the audience reaction to just the set up). None of their other jokes really hit for me at all (except maybe “labia puffs/Honey Smacks”).

• Kenan seems like he's going for just a goofy voice and slightly silly dialogue with this Kendrick Perkins impression. The only context I have for this impression is that it's the guy Kenan was playing in those “cut for time” First Takes sketches from a few years ago. I did like the sight gag of him removing his beard to wipe his sweat.

• Mikey as “Lord Gaga”? Was this just a throwaway idea Mikey had for Taran Kilam or something from Gagas’ LAST hosting gig? Hell, we know for SURE it was used in a 2009 promo with Fred Armisen.

• Seemed like this wasn't going anywhere at first. Seems like the idea at first was to poke fun at the casual misogyny of the age of ACTUAL “lords and ladies” until Mikey revealed this to be another incredibly labored and stinging Jost roast.

• Overall, this was the rare Update that carried itself mostly on the strength of its own jokes than its commentaries. B-

Friendly's

• So far, the premise is Bowen is lying to a restaurant wait staff about Heidi's birthday to get a free song and dessert…and is SWORN to a veracity they see right through.

• Seems like this might go somewhere interesting with the whole angle of this being a Temple of Doom-esque satanic ritual.

• While this didn't quite escalate enough for my liking, the sheer strangeness of it was enough to keep me interested.

• I did like Sarah's brief voice modulated, bloody mouthed speaking part during the “ceremony”. 

• I'm especially curious to know who did write this because it seems like a long-gestating idea that Bowen or someone was saving for a specific host and thought Gaga would be ideal for (or maybe Mikey and Streeter wrote this? It explains enough of its own details that it makes me think this could be them). B-

Killah

• Yeah, I know I don't normally comment on the musical guest performances but I did like how she started this one by sprawling around the hallway before getting to the stage.

• Oh and also, did she actually say “talking that shit” on air? Oh well, it is about 12:45am where they are anyway. No big whoop, I guess?

Little Red Glasses

• Hey, speaking of sketch premises that would be ideal for a Lady Gaga hosted episode…

• I guess some combination of Allison Gates, Anna Drezen, Sudi Green and/or Fran Gillespie were guest writing this week?

• Even though Gaga, Squirm and Ego were carrying this, I liked Ashley and Heidis’ cameos a bit more.

• Speaking of Squirm, I did like Sarah's line “I was ahead of the curve on gay marriage…and that's where it stuck”

• Chloes’ impression is going right over my head but, ah, THERE'S the Chuck Schumer/Mom from Bobs’ Burgers’ references I was expecting (too bad Alex Moffat was apparently unavailable to cameo this week). C+

No More Slay

• Ok, good thing Bowen and Gaga were there to pretty much sing my immediate reaction to this sketch just as I was starting to wonder why they felt this was worth sneaking in under the wire.

• I did like the “Ollipop can” and “Diva Down” jokes. I especially liked Dismukes line “I named my son mother” as well as the final verse of the song. B+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
3. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
6. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
7. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
8. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
9. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
10. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
11. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
12. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
13. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
14. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
15. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, it was not a difficult feat, but SNL did clear the very low bar set by last weeks’ episode with Shane Gillis.

• This shouldn't be a surprise. As I said in last weeks’ blog, Lady Gaga did prove to be an effective SNL host when she was used in exactly the right spots back in November of 2013.

• More than a decade later, Gaga has shown she can be trusted to helm the entire show and be a more prominent host as she had gotten much more acting experience under her belt in the ensuing years.

• Plus, the show currently employs more die hard fans of hers who know how to play to her strengths as an actress (comedic or otherwise).

• Naturally, this led to a more fun and inviting atmosphere around the show this week which carried over into this episode very well.

• Cast airtime didn't change much. Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim are still hurting for screentime and Kenan took a slight hit but Ashley and Jane have made great gains. We saw a bit more of Marcello than we were expecting but everyone elses’ airtime seems to have stabilized.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, at this point, we have no idea who SNLs’ next live host will be, but I have heard that the next new episode will air on March 29th.

• I am cautiously optimistic about the next few episodes because lately it's been the late March/early April run where we've been getting some of the stronger episodes and better hosts of the season (Quinta Brunson, Kristen Wiig). 

• Hell, if nothing else we get at least one, unique off the beaten path choice of host around this time like Jerrod Carmichael or Molly Shannon (I say this because it wasn't clear what she was promoting in April of 2023 besides, maybe…the most recent season of The Other Two?)

• However, I do know what my next entry for this blog is going to be. I will write a review of the Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys episode from season 31. Of course, I'm doing so because this will be the next full length episode Deej and I cover on the "We Heart Hader" podcast. We hope to record that one in a couple of weeks.

• The next episode of the podcast that we HAVE just recorded should be out this Thursday. It's a deep dive into all of Bills’ guest appearances in the first two seasons of The Mindy Project.

• In addition to all the rest of our channels, you can now also listen to We Heart Hader on iHeartRadio as well as on our own new YouTube channel.

• Additionally, you can follow us on TikTok. That's right, folks. Deej actually created a new TikTok account just for the podcast so I actually made myself get on TikTok just so I could have another place to plug it to death. That's how much I care about reaching as wide an audience as possible with this thing.

• Anyway, see you soon!