SNL UK: Aimee Lou Wood/Meek (05.02.2026)

Chuck & Camillas' Hijacked Flight Home

• I should've guessed that they'd do this sketch this week. I figured that they'd cast Larry & Emma as Charles & Camilla respectively. Those roles call for brits who are good at facial mugging and stuffy royal aristocratic accents which Emma (and to a lesser extent Larry) have shown that they can pull off in spades.

• Although I was hoping to get a bit of a break from Keir Starmer cold opens (I mean, it's not an impression I see myself getting sick of that easily or anything, but I like seeing them try something different every once in a while) I do like this new wrinkle to Georges' Keir Starmer character in that he's suddenly daring and courageous but only in the name of keeping himself in power because he's so damned ineffectual that redirecting the royals' plane is what he has to resort to.

• I did like the other sudden bursts of brief Austin Powers-like violence but I feel like I might have enjoyed this more had I any idea who Celeste was supposed to be playing or what she might be planning. I did get a kick out of the dumb lisp she was speaking with, though. All I've been able to gather from some light Googling is that Angela Rayner is a member of the British Parliament (I found out more about her from one of Anias' jokes on Update, but more on that later.

• I did appreciate this sketch being written so that no one was supposed to know who Jack was playing (just a regular Brit who was "indoctrinated online by the radical center left"). I did like the visual of him tearing away his outfit to reveal an identical outfit. His character being "poisoned" by Camillas edibles wasn't much of a great ending, though. B-

Monologue 

• This feels the most like we'd get from any SNL US host out of all the SNL UK monologues we've gotten so far.

• I didn't get the Kim Cattral scatting reference but I did like the Sex Education/White Lotus joke. 

• My favorite part was when she just started speaking random gibberish. Very Eric Idle Rutland/Pythonesque.

• I also liked the conceit of the rest of this monologue being her trying to prove to the audience that she is, in fact, an unrelatable weirdo in an effort to break free of her bubble, relatable image...but she kind of lost me with the whole astrology/past lives rant.

• Most of all, I'm just glad she didn't bring up her feud with the American show from last year and left that to the mid week YouTube promo. C+

Dangerous Women

• So, the basic premise of this faux 80s synth vaporwave video is that the "dangerous" woman who is the subject of the song just turns out to be a dumb, accident prone klutz with little to no self awareness or safety awareness?

• This is one of those things that feels like it should've been done by some kind of sketch show years ago but somehow hasn't despite it being the simplest of ideas and yet at the same time also feels like something that only a show with a uniquely British sensibility would produce.

• Does anyone else see a slight resemblance between Aimee Lou Wood and Cecily Strong here? Maybe I only say this because this seems like something that SNL US would've done during her time there.

• Other than that, I feel like this was a solid premise that was lacking a little something in musical execution (although Celeste and Hammed turned in strong performances here. If Hammed can actually sing that well, it's a shame it took this long for him to get to show off his chops). C+

Doctor Who

• Anyone else wondering why they wouldn't...wait a couple of weeks to do this sketch? You know...when they have the ACTUAL current doctor hosting? We're they just afraid to pitch this to Ncuti or was this something Hammed wrote specifically for himself?

• Anyway, I liked the conceit of this sketch being that the doctor and his current companion are forced to interact with a visually nauseating mcguffin of a prop. I just wish they had the ability to go a bit further with it.

• There wasn't much else here. I suspect even if you were around real Doctor Who Superfan who was dialed in to this there wouldn't be much for you here either. Wasn't crazy about the ending either, but I'm at least glad that Dr. Who producer Russell T. Davies was pleased with it. C+

Marios' Got Marital Problems

• Interesting...accent choices here. George doing the classic Fr. Sarducci-esque Italian accented Mario we all knew and loved was an obvious correct choice (even if some of his lines weren't 100% distinguishable).

• Aimee playing her Princess Peach as an Amy Poehler/Rachel Dratch-esque Americanized Jersey Italian stereotype added a new wrinkle that...honestly dovetails well with this sketch. 

• I guess it works because Princess Peach was never portrayed with one specific idiosyncratic accent that Mario fans wouldn't accept her without?

• Hell, Aimees' pretty much doing the exact same voice for Princess Peach that Chris Pratt used to play Mario in those newer Mario movies. Could that alone be at least the partial inspiration for this?

• Anyway, no need to overthink this sketch any further. This sketch worked well as an exploration of what struggles a real Italian working class plumber and his girl friend/spouse would go through in a more real world setting...except, you know funneled through the lens of Mario & Princess Peach.

• This is such an obvious "parallel thinking" type of idea that I'm surprised no one else has done this exact thing before (by which I mean all the other Mario parodies I've ever seen take place in the world if the video game & cartoons rather than "the real world".

• This was very funny but due to its rapid fire pacing and the performers essentially breathlessly shouting their lines over the audience and each other to be heard (maybe it's a sound mixing issue?) so I'll just say I also liked Jacks' ending walk on as Toad and whoever ran in an out in the Yoshi costume gave me a bit of a laugh). B-

Famouz 5

• Yeah, I'm not familiar with the "Famous Five" and have no cultural context for them whatsoever. 

• I do have PLENTY of cultural context for just the concepts of endless IP reboots and rehashes coming out of Hollywood and just how generally irritating it is when any new piece of media is when it's creators just blindly attempt to reach out to the generation after mine with just a casserole of now formerly hip new slang abd buzzwords.

• So yeah, I do get what this was going for...but even if I didn't feel something was missing this would still be an idea I've seen mined to death over and over again so I still wouldn't be into it. The fakes reviews were the only part of this that hit for me...which is very sad. D+

Lost Luggage

• So...this is just another "Jack plays a girls' gay woke best friend" sketch with Aimee in the role that probably would've gone to Annabel on the week there was a male host...but Aimee is trying to blatantly sneak a bomb that actually turns out to be a George Foreman Grill past security?

• Honestly, one could rewatch this sketch to examine how it explores the dynamics of this type of platonic male/female relationship (especially since Jack's character seems to regret coming out to Aimee at the wrong moment) because there seems to be more than one layer to this. Still, the ending reveal is the only thing that came close to working for me. C-

Weekend Update w/Paddy & Ania

• Paddys' Best Jokes: Melania Meets Charles, Clog Dancing, Heroin In Southport

• Anias' Best Jokes: Royal Visit, WHCD Gunman, Nigel Farage

• Oh boy, I don't know about this "professional lip reader" premise. As much as I like getting to see Hammed make his Update debut, the last time I saw an SNL sketch centered around reading famous people's lips was in the infamous Jacob Elordi/Renee Rapp episode from two and a half years ago.

• OK, Hammed is clearly making this work much better than the Elordi sketch and he had the audience on his side...but then again he had a low bar to clear. I did chuckle at the Camilla/Melania and Camilla/Charles portion of this bit.

• Great to see Larry get his first Update commentary as himself. I really like his range and accent work. As an American, I did appreciate his bit on how our northern blue state liberals talk vs how southern red state conservatives talk. I also liked his bits on green party voters and how he deftly avoided falling into the "how do they vote in China?" trap Paddy set up for him.

• I didn't quite get Anias Angela Rayner joke but at least I was able to gather that Ms. Rayner us another English career politician who's blatantly angling to take Keir Starmers' job as Prime Minister.

• I did get a kick out of Paddy shouting at his underground pit of tortured writers as well as how he turned that into a recurring callback to the point that he invited Ania to climb in with him at the end.

• Ayoade played such an Ego Nwodim in season 46 of SNL US coded character here that I kind of wished Paddy hadn't introduced her by her actual name as that kind of took something away from it at first.

• Upon rewatch, I discovered that this works because it's actually just Ayoade genuinely speaking her mind doing a standup like bit from her own personal experience rather than just doing the type of specific niche character piece that Ego would've done. Overall, I'd say it was a very fun bit. B+

Posh Gits

• The title of this sketch alone has me intrigued. I hope it doesn't bear TOO much resemblance to a certain Kroll Show sketch beyond its title.

• Apparently, this is based on an actual British reality show called "Made In Chelsea". Haven't seen that one, but I will say what this reminds me of the most is MADtvs' parody of MTVs' Laguna Beach from 20 years ago.

• This sketch was clearly trying to have some fun with how dumb it was. I will say that Hammed, Jack and Larry pretty much made this for me.

• Hey, look! Paddy and Ania make their live sketch debuts! I mean, they're basically extras, but still. B-

How British Pork Got The Lot

• OK, I know I spoke against either SNL cast just recreating old, obscure viral clips in a previous review and that's part of what this was but I did like this sketch.

• As much as this reminds me of the old Polaner All Fruit/Aspic Beef Jelly bit from Family Guy, I did like that this had the extra layer of "we're going to deconstruct this obscure 1984 British Pork Commercial just to show you how it could look more normal and friendly instead of terrifying".

• Also, as slightly questionable as it seemed at first to see Hammed with pieces of bone sticking out of either side of his nose, I did get a kick out of the insane visuals of the "pork council" scenes.

• Who was that in the bald cap sitting next to Emma? Was that Jack or an extra? I wouldn't put it past them to put Jack in this sketch with no lines since they pretty much just did that to Emma.

• I don't blame George for breaking at all having to deal with Al's director character bringing down the insanity of this premise and also the mistimed camera filter glitch possibly throwing him off. Plus, I have seen George's Instagram post about how he had been obsessed with this ad for years and I assume that he, Al and Hanned may have cowritten this together...so, good for them that they could bond over this and have a sketch labor of love come out of it. B+

Ranking SNL UKs First Series From Best To Worst

1. Jamie Dornan/Wolf Alice (03.28.2026)
2. Nicola Coughlan/Foo Fighters (04.25.2026)
3. Tina Fey/Wet Leg (03.21.2026)
4. Riz Ahmed/Kasabian (04.05.2026)
5. Aimee Lou Wood/Meek (05.02.2026)
6. Jack Whitehall/Jorja Smith (04.11.2026)

Overall Thoughts 

• This was one of the more uneven episodes of SNL UK. I don't quite know what to make of it. On the one hand, the writing and performances were quite strong from all involved. On the other hand, this episode was front loaded with sketches that I wanted to like but couldn't quite get into because they just lacked a certain appeal.

• One thing this episode does have going for it is that the writing made it feel more and more like a uniquely British/European comedy show with it's own identity. SNL UK is continuing to step out of the shadow of SNL US. I mostly say that because there was very little about these sketches that made want to point out a specific SNL US sketch from the past that they reminded me of.

• Really, the only way this episode resembled an SNL US episode is that most of the weaker sketches were up front and most of the more odd niche sketches that I found myself actually liking were buried near the end. Weekend Update was a strong highlight of thus episode though as was MEEK who turned in some strong performances even if her type of music isn't exactly my cup of tea lyrically.

Closing Thoughts 

• Next week, SNL UK will have Ted Lassos' Hannah Waddingham as host. I know she was also in Sex Education with Aimee Lou Wood. I'm not terribly familiar with the rest of her work (which I can also say about much of the previous SNL UK hosts), but she seems to be in good company having worked with this episodes host as well as an alumni of SNL US, so she'll be able to get some good advice on how to succeed on this show even for just a week.

• Speaking of SNL US, my review if their latest Olivia Rodrigo double duty episode is up for all to read. I was fortunate enough to be able to time them so that they could both be published simultaneously. Who knows if I'll be able to pull that off again next week or the week after?

• What I do know is that the next blog I will be working on is a review of the Elliot Page/Wilco episode from SNL US season 33 which I hope to have finished writing by next Wednesday when Deej & I are supposed to be recording a whole new episode of the We Heart Hader podcast on that one. That blog and podcast should be published in two weeks when that podcast episode is released but, boy am I glad to have an extra week to work on that one because it's gonna be a tough one to get through. Hell, that one's probably gonna be one of our shorter podcasts for reasons that will seem obvious by the time it comes out.

• You'll probably be able to read my reviews of next week's SNL US and UK episodes before you get to read or listen to that one, but anyway that's what I'll be working on. See you soon!