Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)

Trump Cabinet Meeting

• Of course...

• Yeah, just get us all caught up on January real quick...

• There's Marcellos' Rubio...

• The "don't read this note out loud thing" was unexpectedly lame.

• Hey, THERE’S Jeremy as J.D. Vance! Calling attention to the new guy, I see.

• I at least like how Jeremy's Vance is much more grounded and less gimmicky than the idea of casting Bowen in that role was.

• Hey, THERE’S the window thing!

• Padilla as Noem. I already like this more than Tina and Heidi's portrayals.

• Hey, THERE’S Josts' Hegseth here to save this! Already loving the big creatine jar and kettlebell.

• This cold open gave me pretty much what I was expecting with a couple of pleasant surprises tossed in so I can't be mad at it. B-

Monologue

• Well, the use of clips, backing music and cameos from Finns' now former costars gave this monologue about 100x more energy that I was expecting.

• Even though I saw the alcohol spit take coming from two towns over and the timing of Gatens' "former child star" joke is a bit...diffie, this was an enjoyable monologue. B-

Snack Homiez II

• Aw, fuck...I had a feeling they'd make this recurring given this host. 

• I genuinely was NOT expecting them to actually bring back Sabrina for this (I figured Finn would just be her replacement not the guest they bring on) but hey, January show. They may need all the help they can get.

• Yeah, I was pretty rough on this sketch back in October when it debuted, but I'll admit...it became a guilty pleasure of mine.

• Finn as a guest who's an expert on "facial structure" is an interesting idea they should have explored a bit more but really, this didn't work.

• Going into this with an open mind, it seems to be less a meaningless collection of GenZ buzzwords than the first one. I'll admit, the Mrs. Indcredible/Pirates' Booty jokes got me.

• OK, I guess A$AP Rocky (who's musical performances were high points of this episode if I'm being honest) being a guest in this makes the most sense out if anything here. Having him just shamelessly plug his own brand of "rap snacks" kinda bummed me out. C+

Heated Wizardry

• OK, part of me was wondering how a network show like SNL even COULD parody a show as ribald and steamy as "Heated Rivalry" (heard of it, haven't seen it, don't plan to, it's just not for me) but...replacing hockey with Quidditch? In 2026?

• To quote the actual star of the Harry Potter franchise in his 2012 monologue on this very show "how lazy can you get?"

• I will say that the fake J.K. Rowling "I'm not a part of this" review got me and some of the less obvious casting choices in this worked well for me (JAJ/Snape, Ashley/McGonagall, Tommy/Malfoy, Chloe/Hermione...and as for Dobby, I guess Jeremy has a real knack for picking up Bowens' old roles).

• Boy, this went on WAY too long, am I right? Personally, I could've done without Kenan as Mad Eye Moody or Jason Momoa as Hagrid.

• Seriously, what the hell was Jason Momoa of all people doing in this...and how the hell is he not gonna get canceled for...THAT line?

• Honestly, this felt more it was littered with the exact type of shameless GenZ pandering I was expecting from the "Snack Homiez" sequel. 

• Oh, well. I'm sure Ben Marshall has plenty of female fans going crazy over this one, so as it'll be nice to see them happy. D+

Indie/Boy Bands

• I could immediately tell where this was going from the beginning but once JAJ entered the scene in a goofy 98°/NSYNC inspired get up playing it completely straight inbetween dance numbers, I immediately got on board.

• Still, I feel like this sketch had some serious pacing and energy problems that pretty much everyone can share the blame for here. 

• Everyone gave it there all and yet still it's like Finns timing was off in a specific enough way to lead to a minor chain reaction that led every other moment play for a beat too long, letting a tiny bit of energy fly out of the scene each time.

• This had a very pleasant ending, but maybe I was a fool to expect more palpable tension and heightened drama out of this. C+

Stranger Spinoffs

• "Strangerous Minds" was delightful and I got a kick out of how Jeremy dragged out Wills' coming out scene

• "The Wheeler Report" just feels like whatever potential to be had there was squandered.

• So...Finn, Gaten and Caleb are just doing...Sex And The City For Dudes?

• "Mike In Manhattan" was a little too long for my liking, but I liked the subsequent scene with them basically just trolling the "conformitygate" conspiracy nuts.

• Mikey as "Mike's Dad" was OK but something I could've done without. JAJ did great voiceover narration here.

• Other than that, I feel this was another pretape that went on too long. C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts' Best Jokes: Greenland/Puerto Rico, Trump/Retribution, RFK/War On Protein,Zaldana/Scarjo, Staten Island/Public Bathroom

• Che Best Jokes: ICE/invasion, RFK/Trump/slight breeze, Nose picking leads to Alzheimers

• I liked the sassiness Jost injected into his Trump/relationship and Exxon "playing too cute" jokes (but not as much as I liked Che calling him out on it with that "algorithm" comment).

• Kam Patterson as Michael Irvin may be the only thing I legitimately laughed at all night...and sadly, a lot of this episode's material (especially the pretapes) made his recent KillTony comments about the show...so eerily prescient it's like the show set out to troll him directly (ditto JAJ re:his recent Vulture interview, now that i think about it)...and then gave him this Update piece as a prize for winning their little test of endurance.

• Boy, this Update really fell off a cliff joke wise at this point, didn't it?

• OK, who DIDN’T see the punchline to that Autistic Barbie joke coming a mile away?

• While it's nice to see Jane get to play a character that isn't herself, this felt like too much of an abstract inside joke for me to fully get on board with since I have NOT seen whatever TikTok clip this was based on. C+

Space Emporer

• OK, this was pretty much the roman emperor sketch from Ashton Kutchers' notorious season 35 episode where he kept feeding Will Forte grapes...but also, Dune?

• I do like the "I'm going to go past making my cast mates break and just see how badly I am going to derail this sketch" vibe that Mikey is giving off. Hell, that's literally the only redeeming quality this had. 

• Hell, even the intro to this acknowledges they needed to update how they frame their TV parody sketches in the streaming age. They haven't quite realized how they should do away with the "you're watching (blank) on (blank)" intros but hey...baby steps. C+

Guy's Girl

• While I am pleased to see Veronika get her own showcase sketch where she plays off Ben and Jeremy in a semi-dramatic moment, I was disappointed to see this gradually turn into a cross the Kyle Mooney "killed the bit" pretape from season 46 and the "random" Sam Crap museum sketch from ScarJos' season 40 episode. 

• Also, is it just me or does this seem to be another sketch where whatever ending it may have had was heavily trimmed down for time between dress and air?

• Anyway, Veronika Slowikowska seems like a promising talent who I believe has the potential to be one of the new leads of the female cast along with Ashley. I just hope they don't misuse her. C-

Free Solo

• Normally, I'd say it's very odd for this to be Kenan's only live appearance all night...but given Chris Redds' recent revelation and given Kenans' rather muted appearance on Kelly Clarksons' show recently...and given how he apparently didn't do this week's warmup between dress and air, I think I can guess what his mental state might be.

• Other than that, he and Finn were actually pretty funny in this. I don't have much else to say about this except that it definitely felt like the type of sketch we might have gotten in 2015. 

• Hey Finn, taking an Uber to a bus stop might just make sure you don't MISS a bus. Did you ever think if THAT, buddy? B-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
4. Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
5. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
6. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
7. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
8. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
9. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
10. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, it's the first show of the new year...which means it's a January show so all bets were off to begin with.

• The whole show felt awkward what with Finn pretty much a disappearing non-enitity as host. 

• Outside of one or two things, I didn't have much of a problem with the writing or performances but the show still felt wildly uneven...and a bit divisive.

• Maybe this is the result of having a young host and the show feeling the need to play to his...rabid young fan base in such a tryhard way (and it mostly backfiring on them if the reaction on Twitter is to be believed).

• Still, this was far from the worst of the season. One thing I do like in this episode is that the show seems to genuinely be trying to give airtime to previously underused cast members.

• I have to admit, I am actually seeing one thing I said I was hoping for on my last SNN appearance in that they are giving JAJ a lot more airtime to play more non-Trump role and unique characters so, it's nice to see they actually DID continue that trend and I hope to see more of it.

• They're even giving Kam, Veronika and Jane more chances to showcase their own original character pieces and find their voice on the show...which I also find encouraging.

• While I wasn't too crazy about most of this episode, one thing I did like seeing was the noticeable seismic shift in how SNL is using the rest of its cast now that Bowen is out of the picture.

• Of course, we didn't see too much of Tommy, Kenan, Sarah or Andrew and Marcello felt scaled back a bit, but it's good to see their time being given to newer, less established cast members to develop their presence.

Closing Thoughts

• Next week, Teyana Taylor makes her hosting debut. She seems like she would be a good host, but not having seen as much of her acting I don't have any expectations going into this episode so it will be interesting going into another new SNL with that mindset.

• One thing I could see happening after next week is Teyana does such a great job on the show and gets such rave reviews in the press that the discourse surrounding the show becomes "see, THIS is why SNL needs another black female cast member now that Egos' gone"...because I have seen this exact scenario play out already more than a decade ago when Kerry Washington hosted.

• Oh well, either way I'm sure that episode will be miles better than this one and you'll be able to read my review of that episode on this blog around this time a week from now.

• One other review I am working on right now is a review of the Seth Rogen/Spoon episode from season 33. As you may have heard me mention before, Deej and I are reviewing both that whole season of SNL (since it's so short, we figured...why the hell not?) as well as the entire* first two seasons of Documentary Now for our podcast We Heart Hader.

• In fact, we just released our first Documentary Now review the other day. Feel free to listen to it!

• I gotta go finish my Seth Rogen/Spoon review before Tuesday night because I THINK that's when Deej and I are going to record that one. 

• Obviously, I'm working under a slightly less strict self imposed deadline than I am on this one but I think the demands of another new job have been draining my energy and focus for that one a bit...which may be affecting both that review and this one, but anyway you should hopefully see that review posted on this blog by the end of the month (hopefully right before my review of SNL Season 51s' upcoming Aleksander Skarsgard/Cardi B episode is posted).

• See you soon!

*Yeah, something tells me we might be skipping over "A Town, A Gangster, A Festival"

Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)

 Kelsey & Ma…AW FUCKING CHRIST!!! Jesus!!!

• Goddammit…FUCK!!! Should’ve figured they’d do THIS again.

• Sorry to get this review started off on the wrong foot. If you’re a fan of Sabrina Carpenters’ who somehow found this blog for the first time and are reading this right now, you’re probably unaware of my well established distaste for Domingo, so please bear with me here.

• Well, Sabrinas’ lines about nursing school were decently funny.

• I guess Kelsey has two new friends to…replace two of her old ones?

• Ok, I can’t quite recognize whatever song this is parodying…the intentionally off key singing doesn’t help…is it something from “Life Of A Showgirl”?

• I feel like I need to attend a self worth seminar after sitting through this and it’s not even over yet.

• Ok, this obvious “Abracadabra” parody is all right.

• Hey, there he fucking is. Finally…

• Ok, is Marcello singing a parody of “Beautiful Things”? I’m so lost at this point.

• All right, so we got the most obvious fucking thing ever out of the way. Go to bed, kids. D+

Monologue 

• Sabrina handled the monologue about as confidently as I expected her to.

• I liked the pull out of her “Mans’ Best Friend” album cover with Bowen and Marty.

• I wasn’t too crazy about the audience interactions. The shot of the stage hand taking her microphone as she walked back on to stage sadly may have been the most genuine laugh I got out of this so far.

• Kenans’ walk on was decent. I guess Sabrina didn’t want to step TOO far outside of her comfort zone at the start of the show.

• Ok, maybe I’m still a little bit put off by that cold open, but it’s SNL so who knows what else is in store? Let’s go into the rest of the show with an open mind and give it a fair chance. C-

Snack Homiez

• Ok, I CAN’T be the only one getting major Kyle Mooney vibes from Chloes’ performance in this.

• “Unc” is a new slang term, I guess. Great.

• I don’t HATE the way they used Jane in this.

• This is just a collection of Gen Z/Alpha buzzword slang, isn’t it? 

• Immediately, I’m getting strong flashbacks to “Gen Z Hospital” from this (which when you consider who hosted THAT episode is…NOT a compliment).

• Ok, I liked that line about having avocados having “a wooden ball in the center”

• You’re not the only one getting lost, Sabrina.

• Ok, this might be my favorite usage of JAJs Trump by default (as telegraphed as it felt and despite the fact that they did this same basic joke in the last TikTok compilation from last season's Michael Keaton/Billie Eillish episode).

• I did like the JAJ/Trump line where he just straight up asked the boys if he was getting into heaven.

• Yeah, this sketch was certainly “not” fire. D+

Plans

• Ok, I automatically like this just for something NOT aimed solely at Gen Z/Alpha.

• I also liked the heavily modern horror stylized visual takes on uncomfortable mundane, draining social interactions. Even though this feels like the writers went down some beaten path to get here, this was well done.

• Pairing Ben Marshall and Sabrina Carpenter is…quite the height disparity but it’s appropriate that he’s in this since the style and pacing seem reminiscent of a Please Don’t Destroy short while still closely resembling a modern horror movie trailer. B-

ShopTV

• Well, given how Sabrina and the writers just demonstrated in the monologue just how unafraid they were to play on Sabrinas’ “horny” image, I guess I should’ve expected one of these.

• JAJ showing off his Jesus head trick or treat bucket was pretty funny. Wasn’t expecting to get big Kyle Mooney vibes from two nearly back to back live sketches in one episode, but here we are.

• I do like how they used Ashley in this (even if it kind of hangs a lampshade on the idea of her being used on the show to fill the “skilled actress” void left by Heidi in the cast now). Mikey in particular had a lot of great lines and his timing was impeccable here.

• I’m glad that they even knew how to hit just the right beats with the two callers after the “deluxe fur lining” was revealed so that Mikey, um, “wearing” the pillow felt like just the right beat to end this on.

• Sabrina performed this well and I do like the slight variation that this is a blatant vagina based product. I would genuinely love to be a fly on the wall when the writers discussed this prop with the censors.

• Michael O’Donoghue must have been looking up and smiling at this sketch (get it? Anyone else here aware of HIS censor battles to get “At Home With The Psychos” sketch? iykyk).

• As hot and cold as I’ve run on these “Shop TV” sketches, this one is definitely my personal favorite. C+

GirlBoss Seminar

• So, this must be the sketch that was shown in that brief dress preview that was shown during the football game that made this show start 12 minutes late.

• Was…Sabrinas’ character named…”Queen Leesha”?

• I wanted to like this sketch more from the moment Jeremy and Tommy started swinging around that dummy of “Queen Leesha” and threw her out a window…but, I feel like it didn’t reach its full potential.

• Some of the beats with Sabrinas’ strings of gibberish and Sarah as the audience surrogate should’ve been cut just to tighten up this sketch because they didn’t quite go anywhere.

• I’ve heard Andrew Dick say on That Week In SNL that he enjoys gibberish and malapropism laden sketches like this, but somehow I doubt he will ever see it. Knowing him, I’m guessing he probably noped out of this episode by now.

• It’s not that great a sign for this sketch that the second big technical blooper was the biggest laugh I got out of it (not the brief mic outage at the beginning but the brief moment with Kenan having to throw the Jeremy dummy out the window because whoever threw it missed).

• I did get a kick out of Jeremy coming back into the scene with a big shard of glass embedded into his skull, though. That was my biggest laugh of this sketch. C+

Middle School

• So, this must be the pretape Bowen filmed this week before high tailing it to LA to accept that award?

• Gee, I better word my review of this sketch carefully. I don’t want any more of my reviews to get caught behind a fucking “sensitive content warning” without any explanation.

• This was a good use of this episodes’ seemingly unavoidable Sabrina/Bowen pairing and the rest of the cast playing middle schoolers (Jeremy/Jane, Veronika/Ben, Marcello/Chloe/Kam) performed this well.

• The scenes with Ashley and Kenan as the chaperones really made this for me.

• Strangely, the song sounded like something that would've been on the pop charts back when I was starting HIGH school rather than middle school (which I’m thankful for as it makes me feel less old than the first third of this episode did). C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts’ Best Jokes: Santos/aggravated identity theft, Trump's enemies list, Naked Portland bike ride, Argentina, Cuomo/Mamdani debate, Shortened fall season, 

• Che’s Best Jokes: Trump/Zelenskyy/nobel peace prize, Jost family chat (only for the reaction “what did I do to you?”), Venezuelan boat, Prince Andrew, Pig liver transplant

• I figured we’d see Marcellos’ “movie guy” in this one since this was expected to be a Marcello heavy episode (although those who tuned in solely to see Domingo should probably be in bed by this point).

• Yeah, “Da Movie Guy” is usually a pretty stupid and empty character but at least there’s something in there that loops it back around to being stupidly funny like the “Saw”, “Stewie” and “Alien” lines.

• I’m glad they gave Tommy Brennan his own showcase and I genuinely enjoyed his standup material. I especially liked his outlining of his unique midwestern upbringing and his “WWI locket/pre-integrated basketball star” jokes. He even added something to the masturbation material to make it feel lively and fresh. B-

Washer & Dryer

• Ok, Dismukes and Ashley are a quietly toxic couple. I like this so far.

• Figured we’d see Sabrina sing in this. I never guessed they’d use Veronika this way but I guess between this and her role as one of three “Drabble Sisters” in last weeks’ “Experienced Attorneys” I guess they might be making old timey roles part of her niche?

• I liked that they did different song styles for each setting and the details of each song ending with various reasons NOT to get these. I am a bit surprised that Veronikas’ dryer costume coming apart prematurely didn't get a bigger reaction.

• I’d definitely like them to showcase Veronikas’ singing more. She must be a powerful vocalist if she can hold her own next to Sabrina Carpenter.

• I also liked the other odd details that Andrew threw in there about eating spaghetti on his bicycle and handing Kenan a small bag of money for both the washer and dryer. B-

Surprise

• Jesus Christ, Ashley Padilla sure reacted to her massive farts like she was in pain. I sure hope she didn’t get a hernia from all the heavy lifting she had to do to singlehandedly make this sketch watchable.

• Seriously, though…she did really elevate this sketch (especially during the “CSO” rant where she finds out she earns the least and is the least promoted out of all of her coworkers). It was almost enough to make you forget that this was a sketch built around farts/fart lighting with an unrelated commercial tag/button on the end.

• Gee, I can't wait for the ITYSL/Tim Robinson stans to make the discourse surrounding this episode/sketch completely insufferable!

• By the way, the official SNL YouTube channel appears to have uploaded the dress rehearsal version of this sketch that has many noticeable differences from the live air version. 

• …and since Jon Schneider has already compared Ashley to Bill Hader on his SNN Hot Take show, I’d like to invite you all to listen to mine and Deej Barens NEW podcast “We Pine For Padilla” making its debut on January 2nd, 2045. C+

• (ha ha, just kidding Deej…but please feel free to check out our current podcast We Heart Hader)

Sabrina Carpenter Performs “Nobody’s Son”

• Did…she just drop not one but TWO live f-bombs on air? I don’t really have anything to say about her performance of “Manchild” but I had to comment on the second song here.

Social Experiment

• This must be the Martin Herlihy solo short that got cut from last weeks’ dress rehearsal.

• From the interaction between Martin and Jane followed by him and his crew of Frankensteins breaking into Veronika's apartment (after they broke up), I could tell this was automatically going to be the funniest segment of the whole night.

• I do like Martin Herlihy working solo was able to put out a more refined and better distilled version of the PDD brand/style of comedy that feels different from their previous output and just works better.

• I liked the additional detail of the elderly female Frankenstein dying and the song at the end. I also liked Kams’ part though I feel like it went on a beat or two too long.

• This reminded me a lot of Beck and Kyles “Mr. Riot Films” from season 40 where they played YouTubers conducting their own “social experiments”.

• Boy, I sure am glad Nathan Fielder doesn’t seem to have the same type of online fanbase Tim Robinson has! A-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)

2. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)

3. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, I was a little more frustrated with this episode than I probably should have been but after giving myself some time to digest it, I’m a bit more OK with it.

• Whatever problems I had with this episode barely had anything to do with Sabrinas’ performances as a host. She seemed like she would be a solid host, and she was. I guess I was just hoping that the writing served her better. 

• I suppose that it was too much to hope that Sabrina would’ve been trusted to helm the show on her own merits a lot more instead of building this episode's naked pop pandering around her.

• Still, this episode did just barely avoid taking the premieres’ place as worst of the season so far by not having the same dire lack of energy that the Bad Bunny/Doja Cat episode did. That doesn’t make up for the fact that the episode reminded me of what bothered me so much about last years’ double duty episodes hosted by both Dua Lipa and Charli XCX (and I’m sure I'm not the only one who feels this way).

• Even with one cast member not in the building and not in any live sketches, cast airtime felt pretty even this week. Ben, Jeremy, Sarah and Kam took some small hits but JAJ, Mikey, Jane, Tommy, Kenan, Veronika and (especially) Ashley really stepped up.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, that might have been what everyone except for me was expecting it to be.

• In two weeks, Miles Teller returns to host for his second time as host while Brandi Carlile returns for her fourth time as musical guest.

• The last time Miles hosted, he was decent but the episode itself was quite a divisive one that I probably disliked a lot less than most people (although looking back at that episode's rundown, I can see why people disliked it as much as they did).

• Still, HE wasn’t that episodes’ biggest problem and I’m hoping that will still be the case when he returns. I probably shouldn’t be confident that the writing of that episode will back that up but at least the writing of this season is feeling fresher and taking more chances than three years ago (last weeks’ episode may be proof of that) so here’s hoping SNL can find its way back on track next month.

• Before that episode airs, I will be posting a full length review of the SNL season 32 finale with Zach Braff and Maroon 5 on this blog. That one will actually be posted on Friday October 24th as me and Deej will also be covering that episode on the next We Heart Hader podcast coming out the same day. Hope to see you then!