White House Press Briefing
- Huh, Karoline Leavitt. Quite a role for Ashley. She's killing it as usual and even playing off the rest of the cast well.
- Hey, there he is. At least he just suddenly pops in to frame instead of doing the whole "freeze frame/tableau" thing. Better use of JAJs Trump to have him actually interact directly with the press corps instead of doing another semi-soliliquy.
- Hey, they managed to sneak in the obligatory "Putin has photos of Trump blowing Bubba" reference everyone was expecting.
- Nothing really stood out to me about that cold open but writing-wise it's a substantial improvement over most of the last three seasons of Trump related cold opens (especially in terms of length). B-
Monologue
- I gotta say, Glenn Powell is doing extremely well as a first time host. He exudes an effortless charm without seeming to detached from the show.
- Perhaps the biggest kick I got out of this monologue was his setting up a 20 yr old clip of him lip syncing to Fall Out Boys first big hit as having a French art house influence.
- What I liked most about this monologue was how Glenn talked about how much the show meant to him without talking more about the show itself (aside from that quick Lorne impression he snuck in) and his connections to it than he did about a random UPS driver he happened to take a selfie with.
- Considering the episode Glenn was originally supposed to host was literally canceled due to Covid, maybe it's for the best for him that he had to wait four years. B+
A.I. Photos
- Hey, Ashley playing the grandma and Sarah playing the young daughter! There's a switch!
- Another switch, Marcello isn't chewing scenery and he has the best lines in this.
- It was pretty smart to have Glenn play the guy in the old timey photos in this. I remember someone tweeting a couple years ago when "Anyone But You" came out that he and Sydney Sweeney have names that make them sound like actors from the 1940s so it's nice to see he, Veronika and Mikey can pull off the LOOK of that time, too.
- I do like how the entire premise if this was just pointing out how most A.I. generated content is so visually fucked up that no one could possibly mistake it for being real and how it functions as a commentary on how it contributes to making the boomers generations' rampant Fox News brainrot even worse than ever in ways we never previously thought possible.
- This function well as a companion piece to the A.I. classroom podcast sketch from Chalamets' episode from January and even expands further on the idea behind that.
- Perhaps the biggest laugh I got out of this was Mikeys' fake Ken doll smooth crotch popping up. B-
Missing My Exes' Dad
- Ok, they're just taking full advantage of Tommys' sheer "aw shucks" midwesternness and Bens'...ability to...convincingly play a generic male country pop singer at this point, aren't they?
- Wait...a country trap beat? Well, we did get Pete back in the building. Did he bring "Big Wet" with him and introduce them to Ben & Tommy?
- I liked the premise behind this music video and how evergreen it was with the twist NOT being that SNL tried to tie in another pretape to whatever the hell this month's tired ass viral trend is. Song is pretty catchy too.
- Glenn didn't quite pull off the role of "middle aged ponytailed guy" as convincingly as I had hoped but he made up for it with his singing and dramatic acting when falsely accusing Jeremy's character of trying to kiss him multiple times.
- I liked Sarah's reactions to just being blown off the whole time. I do think Kenan should've gotten a bigger part though because it felt kind of odd to see him get washed off the screen so easily.
- Hmm...I wonder if that was Bens' actual dad playing...his actual dad? After all, we know his dad never actually worked on this show before. B-
Sebastian Maniscalco
- Huh...so I guess Marcello was just dead set on getting his Sebastian Maniscalco impression on the air this season?
- I mean, I've seen just enough real clips of Sebastians' real standup to know that Marcello...has the voice and physical movements down decently without exaggerating them too much.
- Hell, I even liked his "Twister" bit and Glenns' sudden "Your Body Is A Wonderland" shout out.
- Still, this makes me a bit bummed that we never got to see Melissa Villaseñors' impression of this guy make it to air.
- Did Marcello audition with this impression or something? Did he and Glenn bond over a shared ability to do...passable impressions of this guy?
- Hey, we get Chloes' Jennifer Coolidge as the obligatory Bachelorette party stripper! That's...an ending I'm genuinely OK with. C-
Scent Of A Marriage
- So, I guess Chloe is giving us a more grounded version of her "Ooli" character in a more cerebral setting?
- I wonder if this is an idea Glenn himself pitched? The premise of actors being overly hyped up in between takes of even the most dramatic, ennui-drenched Bergmann-esque art house films seems like something that would've come from the mind of someone who's spent most of their life on big movie sets
- ...and out of this sketches casts I'd say Glenn must've spent the most time on actual movie shoots with JAJ coming in a distant second and Chloe a distant third.
- I'm glad that this turned out to be the main "gag" of the sketch instead of the same take being ruined multiple times. I'm also glad Jane gave us the wackiest accent in this.
- Perhaps most of all, I'm glad that Jeremy and JAJ added some variance to this sketch. Even when Chloe's doing something that works well for me, there's only so much I can take of JUST Chloe bring the main focus of something. B-
MacGruber?!?
- What...the...HELL?!?
- Ok, the fact that this is completely unexpected (so unexpected that Chloe has to take the place of Kristen Wiig) automatically makes me WANT to place this slightly above the MacGruber from the episode Will actually hosted around the last time tonight's host was almost booked.
- Yeah, MacGruber being in the Epstein files isn't the most creative twist right now (and certainly feels a bit more out of character than him being an anti-mask/anti vaxx/J6 insurrectionist) but any unexpected Will Forte cameo is always a welcome surprise. C+
Slay Division
- Huh, were Bowen and Sarah watching Spice World at some point this week?
- Ok, I gotta say...for a sketch that seems designed in a lab or by some A.I. for me and others to hate...the performances from pretty much everyone in the cast (and Glenn) are actually saving this for me. Hell, even Tommy and JAJ somehow fit into the vibe of this sketch surprisingly well.
- I liked Bowens' "get the manager" line and Sarahs' quip about how they like to "listen to Tate McRae and do poppers until they pass out". Plus, another dolled up Sarah look. Not bad there.
- I didn't even mind the button on the end of this since I liked the performances so much and I still don't even know if "Zara Midtown" is even a real place.
- Yeah, the writing of this sketch seems to have "James Anderson" stamped all over it in big red letters...but really, it's like an old first draft of a James Anderson sketch was punched up by a much more competent and engaging sketch writer.
- Yeah, it also reminded me and others of that "It Girl Thanksgiving" sketch almost on it's exact one year anniversary but it seems more like whoever wrote that sketch rewrote it to makes it roughly 1000x more accessible to the large swaths of SNLs audience who...didn't care for that sketch (and not just because it contained numerous references to people they don't know or care about). B-
Weekend Update w/Jost & Che
- I suspect this might just be my (and many others) favorite Weekend Update since the one Tina and Jimmy did back when Conan hosted in March 2001 due to it's sheer length alone more than the way Jost & Che were able to work an already hyped up crowd (with Che especially being able to play them like a fiddle)
- Josts' best jokes: "duh", Dahmer email, Dementia Dome
- Che's best jokes: Epstien/"take him down", Home Depot, Trump/BBC, Different World/HBCU, Pennies, Hitler DNA. B+
Taken
- The more I chew on this sketch the more it sinks in that Glenns' pretty decent Liam Neeson impression alone isn't enough to distract me from the fact that this is basically another "Dismukes plays another cucked, emasculated dork to Chloes' character who just so happens to be the dumbest, horniest bitch ever" sketch.
- Still, I will say that it's a much better version of what they were going for with the Jason Momoa cast away sketch from two years ago.
- Hell, I'll just go ahead and say it. This is a slight improvement over the same basic formula that gave us fucking Domingo (just swipe out Marcello for for any handsome male hosts the show may happen to have and nobody will notice it's the same basic sketch!)
- Oh yeah, I am relieved that they buried the closest thing they had to an "obligatory host is hot" sketch in the post Update half of the show. C+
MacGruber?!? II
- I...guess Jorma just called up Forte & Lorne and pitched him this idea this week and Glenn was just game enough to go along with it because he's just a fan of the show and of Fortes' era in general?
- I liked MacGrubers' threats to furlough Glenns character just before adding him and Chloes' character to the list with a marker.
- I did like the twist that for once the bomb DIDN’T go off but MacGruber actually tried to get it to go off anyway to destroy the Epstein files by any means necessary. B-
Haircut
- I LIKE IT!!!
- ...but seriously, it was great to see Ashley anchor yet another sketch that manages to invert and tweak each individual element of her office birthday/fart sketch from last month that didn't work and yet still is unafraid to be as unashamedly goofy and absurd as any obscure [adult swim] series you could name.
- I liked how Ashley entered this scene immediately trying to sell us on the same sense of barely repressed shame and embarrassment she did in the office/fart sketch, but even more subtly and how she named other random made up celebrities whose hair her hairdresser has done.
- I also liked Mikeys' brief outburst of "I HATE IT!!!" before suddenly promising to get them a new waiter. I also liked how the sketch ended with Kenan as the new waiter revealing himself to be supportive and he has a similar "skin square" to Ashley's character as they have the same terrible hairdresser. B+
MacGruber?!? III
- Ok, the twist of MacGruber only being a ground crew member on the plane who's only "crime" was selling cut-with-playgroujd-sand cocaine and meth to Epsteins' actual "clients" worked for me because does feel more "in character" for him.
- The song could've been cut and I wasn't crazy about the ending though. Seemed a little too out of left field for me. B-
Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst
- Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
- Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
- Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
- Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
- Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)
- Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)
Overall Thoughts
- Somewhat surprisingly, this turned out to be the second best episode of the season. I know some of you reading this would be more inclined to give it the top spot in your rankings but I'm placing it second simply because while I was pleasantly surprised throughout the whole show, I felt the highs of this episode weren't as high as last week's with Nikki (but the lows were middle of the road enough that they were practically non-existent). Even Olivia Dean made for a solid musical guest!
- I went into this episode with a mix of high and low expectations. I had high expectations for Glenn as a host because with him being a first timer my only real hope was that he wouldn't be a complete stiff and would be a game host for anything. He certainly exceeded my expectations there to the point that I would like to see him host again either next year or whenever his next movie comes out.
- The only low expectation I had for this episode was that it was the last one before Thanksgiving break and those are usually kind of a wash when they're hosted by a regular actor (and when a Thanksgiving episode is hosted by a comedian or pop star all bets are off) but something about this episode made all of its individual parts come together in a way that exceeded that expectation as well.
- Even the high levels of energy and electricity from last week were still everywhere in the studio because it was evident they were still trying new things and taking some new chances with old formats that paid off.
- Hell, they even found ways to use Chloe and Marcello in ways that actually made them seem likable and professional!
- Speaking of cast usage, Ashley absolutely dominated tonight (as well she should) and most everyone else the show leans on (Bowen, Kenan, Chloe, Sarah, Marcello, Mikey & Veronika) felt like her supporting cast (even Glenn at certain points).
- Ben, Tommy & Jeremy continue to make their presence known as the show tries out different types of roles for them to see what sticks.
- JAJ & Dismukes feel like they took some hits this week but that's mostly because they were relegated back to just playing Trump and/or various cucked losers from being used in more prominent roles through the night.
Closing Thoughts
- Next week, Melissa McCarthy returns to host for her sixth time Overall and her first appearance on the show in eight and a half years (not counting the odd cameo appearance here and there) with musical guest Dijon (who may or may not be the Chinese phrase for "Oh, brother" according to Aunt Linda)
- Hey, you can read my review of that sketch and the episode that callback comes from here and listen to my podcast about it here.
- Seriously though, Melissa McCarthy has always been a reliably stellar host so it will be intriguing to see her return in an era where the show is substantially different from her last appearance. Let's hope SNL can keep on this upward trajectory to close out 2025!
- Before that episode airs, my next blog entry will be my list of top five Bill Hader sketches and moments from SNL season 32 as this will be the subject of the next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast. Both the podcast and the blog post will be coming out this Friday with special guest Demi Constantine from the SNN Patron Feedback Shows and the newest regular cohost of my WHH cohost Deej Barens' other podcast Saturday Night Ladies (where they graciously agreed to let me be their second ever guest to review last week's Nikki Glaser/Sombr episode)
- Speaking of which, the release of that episode was the main reason my personal review of that episode was as late as it was so in case you didn't get to read it...feel free to because it definitely exists.
- Happy turkey day, everyone!
