Season 51 overview

 As a whole, Season 51 was a bit of an improvement over Season 50. The cameos were toned down slightly, there were a lot more experimental sketches, and the new cast members mostly acclimated themselves to the show pretty well. Emphasis on mostly.

But for every good thing this season had, it wasn’t perfect. I think I can narrow the major problems down to three things…

1. Focusing on tired veterans instead of the newbies

2. Weekend Update is still a mess

3. Waaaaay too much Trump cold opens

Repertory Players

Mikey Day: Back when I started reviewing, I thought Mikey was a consistent highlight. Nowadays, I feel like I’ve already seen everything he can do. Don’t get me wrong, he still surprised me here and there, but for the most part, it was an endless supply of overacting, humiliation, and just plain bad ideas. (Best moment: Pinwheel)

Andrew Dismukes: To me, one of this season’s biggest problems is the bizarre lack of Andrew. After the last two seasons saw him rise to the top of my favorites list, he inexplicably took a backseat in a lot of episodes. When we did get to see him, though, he was just as funny as ever. But I’d keep an eye on him in Season 52. Things aren’t looking so good for his future. (Best moment: Rasta Driver)

Chloe Fineman: Thank goodness I never have to talk about this untalented alien ever again. This year, she was barely a factor, and every time she actually did get focus was horrible as fuck (Snack Homiez, anyone?). But this year also revealed a darker side to Chloe that none of us would have ever known about until she decided to blab about it in a Vanity Fair interview. What happened? Well, she revealed that when she was volunteering at a summer camp a long time ago, she deliberately pulled down the pants of a young boy and exposed his privates to everyone. This disgusted her fellow cast members in the room, and the media was pretty mad too. I don’t know if this played a factor in her getting fired over the summer, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Anyway, Chloe Fineman blows. (Best moment: NONE!)

Marcello Hernandez: After endlessly shoving him down our throats in Season 50, this year saw a bit of a downturn in Marcello’s fortunes. There were several episodes where he barely showed up, which of course I liked, and then, when he did get focus, it was mostly for his usual repertoire of stereotypical Hispanic characters. (Best moment: his Sebastian Maniscalco impression)

James Austin Johnson: Yet again, James proves what a talented guy he is by carrying most of the season on his back. Even his Trump impression, while still repetitive as fuck, has been starting to make me laugh more often. Is it just a case of Stockholm Syndrome or am I really growing to like it? Who knows? (Best moment: Why is this always so hard for me to pick? I’ll go with Mechanical Bull because his singing is what made that piece work.)

Sarah Sherman: JAJ’s Season 47 cohort sadly didn’t have much of an improvement this season. She’s only been on the show for five seasons and she’s already become a pale shadow of what she used to be. I cannot stand the stupid, audience pandering Update commentaries she was often saddled with. The one time she did something different ended up being cut! Anyway, I only see Sarah getting worse in the future if they don’t allow her to go back to what she does best: freaking the Hell out of us. (Best moment: Auctioneers)

Kenan Thompson: Get the fuck off this show while you still have your dignity intact, man. That really hurts me to say about him, because he’s the one I’ve been following for most of my life. But what else am I supposed to say about a man who’s entering his 25th season???? At least Darrell Hammond knew when it was time for him to leave. (Best moment: Hey, I actually have something for him! His pastor character on Update was pretty good.)

Bowen Yang: He was only in half the season, but it was clear that his time in the spotlight was up. Aside from his final episode, he barely did anything. (Best moment: NONE!)

Featured Players

Tommy Brennan: Who’s that? Did someone named Tommy actually join the cast? Out of all the newbies, I feel like this is the one I know the least about, because he barely did anything. It says a lot about his biggest role in a sketch that I initially mistook him for that night’s host, Connor Storrie. (Best moment: His introductory commentary)

Jeremy Culhane: My favorite newbie by a long shot. He just seems like a really funny guy to be around, and his big roles really show that. He even managed to give Tucker Carlson some humanity, which is amazing. (Best moment: a tie between Free Sample and his Mr. On Blast character)

Ben Marshall: Ben was the one I was looking forward to the most out of all the newbies, but I’ve been somewhat disappointed by the results so far. There was a troubling trend of him being typecast in audience pandering sketches (like that awful gay Harry Potter thing and the tanning commentary), and I didn’t see a lot of the likability he had in the Please Don’t Destroy stuff. (Best moment: Tutoring the Cool Kid)

Ashley Padilla: Given how great her first season was, it’s a shock that they didn’t promote Ashley to repertory status, especially since she’s now the lead female of the cast with Heidi and Ego gone. Her airtime this season was insane, the kind of results you usually only see from someone in the sixth or seventh season of their tenure. And while her actual sketches were hit or miss this time around, she’s clearly got a lot of talent. Here’s hoping she’ll get even better in Season 52! (Best moment: Haircut)

Kam Patterson: Ehhhh, not the biggest fan of this guy, to be honest. He was just there for most of the season, then he suddenly started popping up on Update every other episode in the second half. I thought for sure he would get fired after this season, but surprisingly he stuck around: (Best moment: Michael Irvin commentary)

Veronika Slowikowska: This chick has some real talent! From what I understand, she was a pretty popular stand-up performer before she joined, and if that’s the case, then I’d love to see her get more roles like that in the next season! (Best moment: White Castle Drive-Thru)

 Jane Wickline: Now here’s the biggest surprise of Season 51. After a frankly horrible debut season where she was barely a factor and only focused on lame songs, she suddenly started giving more of a shit this year. I’d mark the Cousin Planet film as the point where I started taking notice of her improvement, and then she solidified it with that excellent commentary in the Finn Wolfhard episode. Before this season, I couldn’t wait to see her get fired, but now I’m a hundred percent on her side! Here’s hoping Season 52 will be even better! (Best moment: Tamara commentary)

Colin Jost and Michael Che: While Michael Che was his usual anti-white people self, Colin’s airtime outside of Weekend Update exploded. Mostly this was because of his overused and unfunny Pete Hegseth “impression”, but he also kept popping up for no apparent reason in other sketches, such as Buzz in that awful Home Alone parody and as a pimp in that funeral sketch. Is this some kind of hazing routine meant to humiliate Colin for his seniority among the cast, or is it just some bizarre desire to be “famous” now that he has an A-list celebrity for a wife? Either way, I’m not laughing.

So what were the best and worst episodes this season?

Best episodes: Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile, Nikki Glaser/Sombr, Glen Powell/Olivia Dean, Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky

Worst episodes: Bad Bunny/Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter, Josh O’Connor/Lily Allen, Ariana Grande/Cher, Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo

And now, my favorite part…ranking the sketches!

Best sketches: Parent-Teacher Conference (from Bad Bunny), Experienced Lawyer (from Poehler), Social Experiment (from Carpenter), Gone Without A Trace (from Teller), Two People Who Just Hooked Up (from Teller), Press Conference (from Teller), American Girl XL (from Glaser), Mechanical Bull (from Glaser), Sorority Meeting (from Glaser), Pinwheel (from Glaser), AI Photos (from Powell), I Miss My Ex’s Dad (from Powell), Haircut (from Powell), Free Sample (from McCarthy), A Helping Hand (from McCarthy), Cousin Planet (from McCarthy), Mochi (Cut), Espresso Martini (Cut), Boy Band (from Wolfhard), Tamara commentary (from Wolfhard), Guy’s Girl (from Wolfhard), Euphoria Writer (Cut), One Battle After Another Action Figures (from Taylor), Confidence Class (from Taylor), both On Blast commentaries (from Taylor and Ferrell), Blowing It (from Taylor), Mom’s Camera Roll (Cut), Monologue (from Skarsgård), Funny Boyfriend (from Skarsgård), The Gentleman’s Code (from Storrie), Tutoring the Cool Kid (from Storrie), Lies (from Gosling), White Castle Drive-Thru (from Styles), Words to Live By (from Black), Husbands (from Black), Simon’s Life (Cut), The Knowledge Hour (from Domingo), Prep School (from Domingo), My Room (from Rodrigo), Rasta Driver (from Rodrigo), Mom: The Movie (from Damon), Auctioneers (from Damon), Monologue (from Ferrell), Bobbin’s Sacrifice (from Ferrell)

Worst sketches: EVERY SINGLE COLD OPEN, K-Pop Demon Hunters (from Bad Bunny), Dobby the Elf commentary (from Bad Bunny), The Rudemans (from Poehler), Rhonda LaCenzo commentary (from Poehler), Theme Song Masterclass (from Poehler), Kel Squad (from Carpenter), both Snack Homiez sketches (from Carpenter and Wolfhard), Girlboss Seminar (from Carpenter), Surprise (from Carpenter), George Santos commentary (from Teller), Bob Army (from Powell), Drunk Raccoon commentary (from McCarthy), Homes for the Holidays (from McCarthy), Teaching Hospital (from O’Connor), Wizard of Oz (from O’Connor), Study Group (from O’Connor), Home Alone (from Grande), Black Santa (from Grande), Love is Blind: The Reunion (from Grande), Heated Wizardry (from Wolfhard), Gate Agents (from Taylor), Backstab Island (from Taylor), Immigrant Dad Talk Show (from Skarsgård), Mr. Fronzi (from Storrie), Monologue (from Gosling), Cyclops (from Gosling), Passing Notes (from Gosling), Goo Goo Man (from Gosling), Best Buy (from Styles), Harry For Him (from Styles), Kathy (from Black), Self-Defense (from Black), Grandpa’s Wake (from Domingo), Edge of Destiny (from Rodrigo), ShopTV (from Rodrigo), My Ex (from Rodrigo), Alix Earle and Alex Cooper commentary (from Rodrigo), Godzilla (from Damon), Kamikaze Dolphins commentary (from Damon), Post Op (from Ferrell), Mechanic (from Ferrell), The Nudemans (from Ferrell)

Season 51 Cut for Time rundown

 Because there was an increase in Cut for Time sketches being uploaded this season, I thought I’d take a look at the ones I didn’t cover already.

Biohacker Chuck Spyro commentary (cut from 10/18/25)

Chuck Spyro stops by Weekend Update to discuss his eating habits.

• Sweet, a JAJ commentary! I have no idea if he’s playing a real person or if it’s an original character.

• As soon as he said “Vitamin F-off, man!”, I was won over.

• I love how the cover of his book has a picture of him holding it. And so on, and so forth.

• “More likely to put a gun in my mouth than a piece of fruit.” Ha!!!!

• Great ending where he runs away from the desk.

• I liked what this was going for, and JAJ was good as usual, but I don’t think we would have missed too much of this was left in.

Jane Wickline Dating Song (from 11/1/25)

Jane sings about texting people late at night.

• Another one of these?

• As much as I’ve grown to like Jane this season, I’m still not a big fan of these Update songs.

Espresso Martini (from 12/20/25)

The dangers of a new substance are exposed.

• Um, what an odd concept.

• Sarah and Chloe are pretty good in the hidden camera footage.

• I love Sarah cutting a standee of her boyfriend in half, then getting upset as if it was the real thing.

• Bowen’s brief scene was pretty pointless and stereotypical.

• Ashley: “For years, I’ve studied espresso martinis. Or as we call it, ‘girly meth’.”

• Amazing coked-up performance from Ariana once her character gets all crazy.

• Ariana, to Ben: “You look like if Pennywise took an improv class!” Funnily enough, in Season 52, Ben actually does an Update commentary as Pennywise.

• Nice plug at the end for the “Sangria Straight Jacket”. I’d love to see a sketch about that.

• This was way better than anything that made it into the final episode.

Tommy Brennan ICE commentary (from 1/17/26)

Tommy Brennan does a commentary about the deployment of ICE officers in Minneapolis.

• As he revealed in his introductory commentary, Tommy Brennan is from Minnesota, so it figures they’d let him do a commentary about this.

• I don’t know how to feel about this, to be honest. While it is nice to see Tommy at the desk again, I don’t think a political commentary is what he needs to stand out.

• The video of the ICE officer slipping unsurprisingly draws heavy applause from the libs in the audience.

• Don’t tell me the only joke here is going to be constant replays of this video… 

• *Several replays later* Yep. I should have known.

• This wasn’t as cringeworthy as I was afraid this would be, but I still think they made the right choice by cutting this.

Mom’s Camera Roll (from 1/24/26)

Two guys sing about the photos on their mom’s camera.

• This song has a nice vibe to it. I think it’s based on the song “I’m Every Woman”.

• I can definitely relate to this song, because I have a ton of photos on my phone as well.

• Some funny awkward photos on Teyana’s camera, even if none of them particularly stand out to me.

• I like Teyana’s brief verse about her photo taking process, which is then cut short because she doesn’t know how to work the camera.

• Great turn at the end where the song becomes about Kam’s photos instead, most of which are photos of attractive women.

Walk Club (from 1/24/26)

Parents passive aggressively chat with each other while out for a walk.

• The Southern accent from Sarah is already giving me a bad feeling about this. 

• Several minutes later, I have nothing else to say other than this was a total snooze.

Epstein-Barr (from 1/30/26)

A scientist is misrepresented by the newscast he is appearing on.

• The lame joke about KOMO 4’s name already has me in a bad mood. Also, why pick this particular station to make a sketch about? 

• “Jones Earl James” and “P. Taraji Henson”??? Ugh, I officially hate this sketch now and it’s barely even started.

• Ashley: “And what’s black and white and red all over? A biracial man who ate fireworks and exploded in blood.”

• Is that why they set this sketch in Seattle? Just so they could do a lame joke about how it’s always rainy there???

• Ugh, another Colin humiliation sketch. Stop putting him in sketches, please!

• Aaaaaaand it’s just another Danny Bangs/Incest Twins/Blowing Yourself variation.

• Great, now Colin is actually pointing out the misleading graphics. The thing that made the original Danny Bangs sketch so good was that the graphics went completely uncommented on until the very end when he gets arrested for bestiality. 

• When Mikey comes on as a guy named Bill Young, I instantly knew what the next joke was going to be. 

• Lame joke at the end with Jeremy and Tommy as the “Menendez Brothers”.

Car Song (from 2/28/26)

Jane and Veronika’s inability to open the car door inspires a song.

• Love the odd robotic vocals.

• JAJ’s scene as a foreign-accented man was funny.

• Wow, sudden turn with the song becoming a hardcore dubstep number.

• I don’t even like dubstep, but this song is really catchy!

• I love the turn this has taken with the girls breaking into the manufacturer’s office.

• Connor’s performance as the CEO is really good, and would have been his best role of the night if this was left in.

• Given how much the audience tends to love these kinds of pretapes, it’s odd that this got cut. Couldn’t they have gotten rid of Marcello’s “funny” accented teacher sketch instead?

Tourette’s PSA (from 2/28/26)

Disgraced celebrities blame their problems on Tourette’s syndrome.

• This sketch is in response to an incident that occurred at the BAFTAs that week, in which a Tourette’s syndrome activist blurted out the n-word while two black actors were on stage with him. It led to a lot of controversy for the BBC (what else is new?) and some nasty words were said about this poor man, and I guess SNL decided that they would add their two cents as well.

• As much as I love Andrew, he isn’t much of an impressionist, and his take on Mel Gibson here isn’t doing much to change my opinion. Also, Mel Gibson? Really??? That DUI incident was twenty years ago. It’s a little too late to be making jokes about it.

• Connor’s impression of Armie Hammer is pretty good.

• Good to see Kenan as Bill Cosby again, with the sweater, and the verbal tics, and the gibberish. His scene is probably the best one.

• Ugh at the whole J.K. Rowling scene.

• Never mind, my favorite scene is actually JAJ as Louis C.K. 

• Random inclusion of Che as himself. I’m guessing he wrote this since the tone is all over the place and doesn’t know what it’s trying to say.

• Kam’s Kanye impression was just awful. Bring back Chris Redd.

• While there were some funny bits here, I think it’s for the best that this got cut from the show. And it isn’t just me who hated it. The CEO of Tourette’s Action, an organization that helps sufferers of the condition, including the man in question, criticized the show for mocking Tourette’s victims.

Chad Maxxington commentary (from 3/14/26)

Social media influencer Chad Maxxington stops by Update to talk about the peak male body.

• Sarah in drag with fake “buff” arms??? No thanks, I’ll pass.

CPAP (from 4/4/26)

This new sleep machine comes in different styles.

• I like Chloe’s delivery of “Oh, never mind…” when she sees Jack about to kiss her with his sleep mask on.

• Great design for the new “Cool-PAP” mask: sunglasses, a fake beard, and a cigarette.

• Veronika: “Is that a CPAP machine?” Andrew: “No, I’m a pilot! Good night!”

• I like the designs for some of the other Cool-PAP variants, such as Master Chief, a pillow, and Deadmau5.

• Great scene with Jeremy going to bed with a sleep mask that looks like a creepy face, which horrifies his wife.

• Another great Jeremy scene at the airport, where his Cool-PAP carrying case (strapped to his chest) scares everyone into thinking he’s about to blow himself up.

• We end on a perfect note with Chloe wearing the same creepy mask as Jeremy as she’s about to go to bed with Jack.

Chili’s Waitress (from 4/4/26)

A wacky waitress makes things confusing for patrons. 

• Take a shot!

• I love Sarah’s random line about the war in Iran at the beginning.

• I also like Mikey’s lame joke about Applebee’s, and Sarah not being impressed by it.

• Um…what an unusual voice Veronika’s using for this character. This is apparently a character she has tried to get on the show since the Nikki Glaser episode. Then she tried it out on Update for the Glen Powell episode, before it finally turned up here.

• As much as I love what Veronika’s been bringing to the show, this just reminds me of a typical bad Kristen Wiig character. The voice is very Target Lady-esque.

• Mikey is providing my only laughs here, like his “Would still smash” comment after Veronika leaves to go get the drinks. It’s funny because that’s exactly what I was thinking at that moment…I’ll see myself out of here…

• For some reason, Jack’s voice reminds me of the lead singer of Cameo, and in turn, Tracy Morgan’s hilarious impression of said singer. Word up!

• Now Veronika is starting to sound like one of Heidi Gardner’s vocal fry characters.

• This is eventually just devolving into gibberish.

• Things get even worse when Marcello is thrown in for no reason. 

• Mikey: “He’s my least favorite one!” Glad to see Mikey agrees with me about Marcello.

• Jack and Veronika’s birthday song is pretty good.

• Overall, I thought this had a lot of potential, but if some of the performances were toned down or at least recast I would have liked it better.

A Guy And His Girlfriend Who’s Always Cold commentary (from 4/4/26)

The girl demands more and more articles of clothing.

• The first joke is a jab at Colin and Scarlett Johansson’s relationship. I think I’m gonna hate this.

• It sucks for Chloe that both of her big roles were cut from this episode, but who cares about her anymore? In fact, I just realized that I barely said anything about Chloe in my review of her last episode. That’s how forgettable she is.

• And now this is turning into a shoutfest with Mikey humiliating himself by taking off all of his clothes. It figures that right after I praised him in that last cut sketch he goes back to his usual out-of-place antics.

Jack Harlow commentary (from 4/11/26)

Jack comes on to promote his new album, while also explaining why he said that his sound has gotten “blacker”.

• Figures that Ben would be cast in this role.

•  It’s kind of surreal seeing the show mock someone who hosted only a few seasons ago. 

• He’s going into a list of names people have been calling,  none of which are really jumping out to me as being particularly funny.

• I had no knowledge of this “controversy” when it happened, and as such, several months later when it’s been forgotten, this is coming off even more tepid.

• I had to do a double take when Che said the name of Jack’s album, which is “Monica”. It sounded a lot like he said a certain racial slur.

• I did like Jack’s explanation that Monica “went down on (his) favorite president”.

• Okay, I’ll bite, “Raised By (But Not Near) Black People” is pretty funny.

Hormuz Jeff (from 5/16/26)

Jeff’s boat is perfect for traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.

• This sketch was seemingly supposed to air, but was cut at the last minute.

• Will’s character is bizarre, but certainly nothing that we haven’t seen him play before.

• Will talking about how he’s got more “panoony” than the Free Solo guy was pretty funny.

• What is the original name of the boat that Will painted over with “Hormuz Hornet”? I feel like it was supposed to be something funny given the focus on it in the closeup shot.

• I love how the “satisfied customer” is someone who’s been blacked out to protect his identity.

• I feel stupid for laughing at the dumb “Iran/I Walked” pun.

• This wasn’t the worst thing ever, but I feel it was a bit too long.

Dad’s Birthday

Dennis has to deal with his rough son.

• Finally, we’ve reached the end. Apparently another cut Martin Herlihy film was also uploaded after this episode aired, but it doesn’t seem to be up on YouTube anymore.

• Ashley in drag??? WTF?!!???

• Tommy seems a bit too young to be playing somebody’s boss.

• Will’s manchild routine is a bit stale in 2026. Wasn’t Holmes and Watson enough to kill it off???

• Yeah…several minutes later, this isn’t for me. What a shame.

Sketches I would have put in the live show: Espresso Martini, Mom’s Camera Roll, Car Song, CPAP

Sketches that should be wiped from the archives: Epstein-Barr, Tourette’s PSA, Chad Maxxington commentary, A Guy And His Girlfriend Who’s Always Cold commentary

SNL Reviews: Will Ferrell/Paul McCartney (5/16/26)

 Cold Open: Epstein’s Ghost

Trump gets some advice from the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein.

• Another appearance from Jeremy as the Vice President. I don’t like how he’s starting to get typecast as crazy Republican people.

• And now we get a rip-off of that Christmas Carol sketch from the very first episode I reviewed, this time with Will as Jeffrey Epstein.

• It seems Will has a thing for playing strangely likable versions of horrible people (the Unabomber, Janet Reno, Fidel Castro, etc.). That said, I don’t know if he’ll be able to save this.

• I love Epstein’s “Wink!” after he says he killed himself.

• More lame pedophilia “jokes” with the two of them. I bet SNL is mad at themselves for not making fun of Epstein while he was still alive, so they’re using all of their stock pedo jokes now to make up for it.

• I did laugh at Epstein’s lame “hanging” joke.

• The ELEVENTH frickin’ appearance of Colin as Pete Hegseth, ten of which from this season alone!!!! Also, Aziz Ansari is there again, but who cares about him?

Monologue

Chad Smith impersonates Will for some reason. Also, Paul McCartney is there.

• Random appearance from Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in disguise as Will. You can hear the audience react with confusion at first, which turn into cheers and laughter once they realize who it is.

• Chad is surprisingly good for a non-actor, and I love his interplay with the real Will.

• Great line from Will about how he received mouth-to-mouth from Lorne.

• I love how even after Chad has left, Will is still angry that he “ruined” the monologue.

• I laughed at the audience going “ohhhhh” when Will says he’s too angry to do the show.

• Will: “I’ll just do what the host does when they don’t have any ideas. So, I’ll take questions from the audience.” Is Will a reader of this blog?

• HUGE applause when Paul McCartney is seen in the audience.

• Who’s the Taran Killam-esque dude next to Paul?

• While extremely corny, I laughed at Paul telling Will to “get back behind the drums where you belong”.

• Was it necessary for the audience to cheer at every single one of Paul’s songs that gets namedropped?

• The song-naming gag is going on way too long. Even Paul looks pretty bored.

• Despite a shaky ending, this was a pretty creative monologue for the most part.

Sketch: Post-Op

A guy wakes up to learn that his penis was removed during surgery.

• I think we were all hoping for a sketch where Will and Ashley interact with each other.

• Aaaaaaand we get the lame reveal that Mikey’s penis has been removed.

• Stop explaining the jokes!

• Great, now Mikey’s cracking up. Can you please leave already?

Saturday Night Live Midnight Matinee: Bobbin’s Sacrifice

Bobbin the halfling sacrifices himself to save the kingdom.

• Whoa, now I’m in trouble. I have never read or seen any Lord Of The Rings media, and this is clearly a parody of the franchise. Still, I’ll give this a chance, especially since Dan Bulla is involved.

• As usual with Dan Bulla’s fantasy pieces (such as the Tiny Horse sequel and that bug people film from a couple weeks ago), the costumes and set design are breathtaking.

• I had to laugh at the reveal of Will playing a very short guy.

• The song Will’s singing is actually pretty good, especially when he reveals that he’s switching sides.

• Wait, the guy with the brown beard was JAJ this whole time? It didn’t even look like him at all, but then he started singing and I knew it had to be him!

• Not a fan of the people commenting on everything.

• Great twist with Will giving his invincibility necklace to an Orc, only for the Orc to immediately cut Will’s head off.

• And we end on Will winking at the camera while his head is impaled on a spear! What a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque way to conclude things.

• The Dan Bulla card at the end now has one of the bug people in place of Tiny Horse.

Sketch: Cast List

Mr. Koenig continues to insult his students.

• This is a sequel to a popular sketch that got cut from Will’s last episode. I’ve never seen that sketch, unfortunately, so let me go fix that right now…

• Hi, I’m back! That was pretty good! Now, let’s see how the sequel goes.

• Right away, you can see how much the cast has changed since the first one, as the only student left who is in both sketches is Mikey.

• Will’s character is still pretty funny, but it feels like a lot of his lines are cheap rewrites of what we had before.

• Will: “I still contend that doing The Color Purple with an all-white cast was brave.”

• I love Will’s insensitive hint as to who he’s going to pick first (he says it’s a “wheelie, wheelie” hard decision, and then we cut to a student in a wheelchair).

• They’re even copying Will spying on his students from last time, except that instead of spying on them from behind a theater mask, he does it from behind a Wicked poster, because corporate synergy is awesome! His face is also completely visible this time, whereas we only saw his eyes before.

• I like the running gag about Jeremy having “starred” in a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial.

• They also copy the detail with one of the students being Christian and thus being adverse to certain roles.

• Did Mikey really have to sing the exact same Aladdin song as he did before?

• Will: “To quote the great William Shakespeare, ‘Sluts with teats put butts in seats’.”

• Kenan for some reason gets applause just for playing the same character as last time. Did they think he was a special cameo or something?

• Now we get Molly Shannon for no reason. I mean, it’s great to see her again, but this sketch is already too long.

• Am I the only one who thought that Molly feeling up Tommy’s crotch was kind of creepy?

• While I certainly got a lot of laughs here, this was just a pale copy of the first installment. 

Musical Performance: “Days We Left Behind”

Weekend Update (featuring Mr. On Blast)

• Thank God we’ve reached the final Update of the season.

• The child labor “jokes” from Che are getting really old.

• Good to see Jeremy’s “On Blast” character again.

• I love how he reuses the “P.U.” punchline only thirty seconds or so after first using it.

• The only thing hurting this for me is, surprise surprise, Colin’s endless and unnecessary commentary on everything. Just shut up!!!!

• I actually liked Colin referring to Mr. On Blast as a “lesbian Bruno Mars”, but this is then ruined by a gratuitous fart noise for no apparent reason.

• Great dance routine at the end with Jeremy and the “Blast Boys”.

• When I first saw this, I hadn’t seen the original On Blast commentary, so it left me feeling a little baffled. But now that I’m more familiar with the character, I can honestly say that this was better than the first one!

• Pretty good slam at Drew Carey.

• Please stop with the “Stevie Wonder is blind” jokes. It’s just not funny anymore.

• Again with the Joke Swap? This is gonna suck…

• The first joke is about an autistic Barbie doll…I hate this already.

• Now Che is resorting to jokes about how black people allegedly have huge dicks, a joke that Chris Rock did much better back in 1991.

• Just to punish me even more, they’re telling some horrible Michael Jackson jokes.

• Weird bit at the end where this guy comes out to give Colin a haircut. What is the point?

• Definitely the worst Joke Swap ever. They should really think about retiring this stale format.

Sketch: Mechanics

Wacky mechanics spout gibberish.

• Just like the auctioneer sketch from last week, we get a weird intro telling us the name of the sketch.

• As someone who’s never owned a car or learned how to drive, I don’t feel like I can identify with this sketch.

• Ugh, yet another “wacky” Hispanic character from Marcello. Is it okay for me to start calling him “Latino Stepin Fetchit”?

• This is now degenerating into Will and Marcello making sexual noises.

• Not even the inexplicable involvement of Paul McCartney is saving this.

• This was, no joke, one of the worst sketches I’ve ever seen.

Musical Performance: “Band on the Run”

Sketch: The Nudemans

A family that always dresses in revealing outfits.

• Andrew’s lame banter with his girlfriend at the beginning was pretty funny.

• Oh my God at the reveal of Will’s skimpy outfit.

• Why are we rehashing that awful “Rudemans” sketch from the Amy Poehler episode? That was bad enough, but at least it didn’t involve seeing anyone’s ass!

• The bit with Marcello is really desperate. Can’t you guys see that he isn’t as popular as you think?

• Last year’s final sketch was about women eating disgusting garbage, and this year’s final sketch is about people wearing revealing outfits. I hope the writers are proud of themselves for having two shitty finales in a row.

Because SNL uploaded so much Cut for Time material for this episode, I’ll be reviewing two of them!

Cut for Time: Juicy Toobins

Kids waiting to meet their favorite band have to deal with a rough security guard.

• I love the knockoff Teletubby characters used to represent the band.

• Will does a great job in delivering all this cheesy kiddie dialogue.

• I love the bit about Will’s service in Iraq, by which he means he was a server at a Cheesecake Factory.

• It’s great how they’re not afraid to show Will manhandling children. The child actors seem to be having fun, too.

• Nice, blunt line from Will about how he thinks a good portion of the grownups there are probably on the autism spectrum. Unlike that horrible Update joke from earlier, this one actually made me laugh.

• The sketch kind of ends abruptly with “Baby Toobin” showing up with dolls for the kids and Will swatting them away. 

• I really liked this and wish it got in the live show instead of that awful mechanic sketch.

Cut for Time: Sarah Reflects on Season 51

Sarah stops by the Update desk to talk about the season.

• Yeah, I thought I’d look at this one because I heard Sarah wasn’t dressed as a stupid mascot in it.

• I love the audience going “ohhhh” when Sarah tells a fake story about Paul McCartney killing himself.

• Great bit with Sarah describing her hair as being a “Smollett”, because it’s a hate crime she did to herself for attention.

• Again with a joke directed at bisexuals? 

• Colin’s involvement, once again, seems unnecessary.

• Great montage of people allegedly pulling themselves away from Sarah.

• That booing is so fake!!!

• As much as I hate Colin’s role here, I do like the ending where he pepper sprays Sarah.

• While a bit short of the classics, this is probably Sarah’s best commentary in a long time. A shame it was left out, but I guess we needed more time for that awful Joke Swap.

Final thoughts: As I was expecting, this was a horrible way to end the season. While it was waaaaay better than Will’s last two hosting gigs, that’s not saying much, because there was still a lot of absolutely wretched material here (looking at you, Mikey!). Maybe Will should just stop hosting altogether.

MVP: Jeremy Culhane

Best sketches: Monologue, Bobbin’s Sacrifice, On Blast commentary

Worst sketches: Cold Open, Post Op, the rest of Weekend Update, Mechanics, The Nudemans

Before I do my end-of-season overview, I thought I would take a look at all of the Cut for Time sketches I skipped over.

SNL Reviews: Matt Damon/Noah Kahan (5/9/26)

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Cold Open: Martin’s Tavern

Brett Kavanaugh catches up with Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel at the bar.

• Cue the umpteenth straight appearance from Pete Hegseth. This routine has gotten so old that it now smells like dirty socks.

• Does anyone have fond memories of Matt Damon’s horrible Brett Kavanaugh “impression”? I sure don’t!

• Even though the sexual assault allegations were disproven ages ago, they’re still portraying Kavanaugh as a drunken frat bro, which is identical to how they’ve been portraying Hegseth, so I guess some things never change.

• Aziz Ansari again? Ugh. 

• I don’t think there’s been a single cold open this season that I’ve given a passing grade to. All of them are exactly the same, and whenever it looks like they’re doing something different, Trump interrupts it! Thankfully, he’s not in this one, but I doubt he would have made it any better.

Monologue

Damon tries to plug The Odyssey while delivering a Mother’s Day message.

• I’ve never been a big fan of Matt Damon, to be honest. He’s always come off as being kind of phoney, like he has a secret dark side that he’s been hiding under his pleasant exterior. But enough about Colin Jost, let’s see what Damon has to offer.

• *sigh* I thought I was done with the Spirit Airlines jokes, but nope!! You just had to throw one more in there, Damon!!!!

• The “audience member” who talks to Matt is writer Jack Bensinger, who has been responsible for some absolutely atrocious sketches this season.

• It figures that the only cast member whose mom gets to appear is Marcello’s, because they just keep trying to push him as the “star”’of the show.

• I’m sorry, but this was just awful. Already I can sense we’re in for another rough episode…

Sketch: Godzilla

Spitting sure is funny!

• “You’re watching The Monster Channel. Yep, that’s real.” UGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Am I gonna have to start doing a drinking game for these TV channel intros as well?

• It sure is strange how this supposed Godzilla movie has nothing but Caucasian actors in it. Unless it’s supposed to be one of those stupid American-made movies.

• *mega groan* Really???? A spit take?!!!??? I didn’t know it was still the 70s! There have been good spit take sketches on SNL in the past (like the one with Julia Louis-Dreyfus back in the 80s), but most of the time they’re just hack comedian material.

• Wait…don’t tell me this whole sketch is gonna be nothing but spit takes…

• *several spit takes later* It is!!!! Goddammit!!!

• It’s garbage like this that shows why Mikey has absolutely nothing left to contribute anymore. But it doesn’t seem like he’s gotten the hint, as he comes back for Season 52!!!!

Film: Mom: The Movie

The first movie made especially for moms!

• Funny idea for a short film.

• I love the shot of Ashley and her family doing the conga. Naturally, it’s in slow motion.

• Jeremy: “That’s a great story, Mom. And I love that you told me the race of all the people involved!” *Mom shrugs*

• Jane, as a theatregoer: “I liked when the kids all needed their birth certificates, and she had them!” I’d love to see what that scene was all about! 

• Funny bit with all of the characters in the movie putting on name tags for easy identification.

• Chloe: “How ‘bout that Mark Damon?”

• I love Ashley’s amused reaction when she’s told that a woman she hates has just died. As they say in the trailer, the only ones who die in the movie are people we don’t care about!

• A lot of that was more cute than funny, but I still loved every bit of it.

Sketch: Tough Guys

A group of thugs aren’t as tough as they appear.

• I groaned immediately when I saw Marcello in a revealing outfit.

• Ha ha, these tough guys aren’t so tough!!! That’s the joke!!!!

• Damon is at least trying his best.

• Weird ending where some kid comes out and yells at Kenan.

Fake Ad: Tidy Care Crystals

A strange new kind of cat litter.

• Feels like JAJ has become the show’s resident commercial voiceover. I love that!

• I love the casual conversations between the narrator, Matt, and Ashley.

• Andrew is doing a good job as their son who they think has been peeing in the litter box.

• Narrator: “There goes your cat theory, dumbass!”

• I love how things eventually deteriorate to the point where they’re actively telling the narrator to shut up.

• Great performances from Matt and Ashley in the scene of Matt accusing his wife of having used the litter box.

• The twist at the end with the dog being revealed as the culprit was genuinely surprising. I thought for sure it was going to be the father!

Musical Performance: “The Great Divide”

Weekend Update (featuring Tucker Carlson, Kamikaze Dolphins, and Jane Wickline)

• What was with the weird “Rubio!” interjection from Che while Jost was setting up the Marco Rubio story?

• STOP WITH THE SPIRIT AIRLINES JOKES!!!!!!

• And now Colin does a “Patel!” shout when Che talks about Kash Patel? I don’t get it. Is this some kind of backstage in-joke between the two?

• Jeremy is back as Tucker Carlson, which has been continually cut from these last few episodes.

• This is nowhere near as good as the one he did about the Oscars a while back. They’re just repeating the same beats as before, with little variation.

• Thankfully, Jeremy has a much better commentary coming up next week, but more on that later…

• We get it, Che, you hate the WNBA! Stop it!!!

• Horrible joke mocking Kyle Rittenhouse for getting a venomous spider bite.

• I gotta be honest, this Update is pretty wretched so far. I haven’t laughed at any of the jokes, and these two are starting to reach Jimmy Fallon/Horatio Sanz levels of annoyance.

• UGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! In case you thought this couldn’t get any worse, Marcello and Mikey now come out as…*sigh*…“kamikaze dolphins”…

• What the fuck am I even watching? Was this just an excuse to get these guys to crack each other up? Because that’s exactly what’s happening here! 

• By default, Jane’s song at the end is the most tolerable part of this Update. 

• One of the worst news segments we’ve had all year. Almost nothing worked for me.

Sketch: Substitute Teacher’s Goodbye

A teacher’s goodbye dance is treated with silence.

• Damon appears to have stolen the androgynous Pat’s clothes.

• I’m sure the dance sequence is supposed to be lame, but it’s actually coming off to me as kind of sad. The guy just wants to entertain his class for being so good to him, but none of them seem to care about him.

• I kinda laughed when Damon describes his dancing as being like at a bar mitzvah…in earshot of a Jewish student.

• This dance is going on for way too long.

• Chloe, stop laughing! You’re not supposed to have any reactions at all!

• Lame Reddit-esque “Did that happen?” line from Ben after the teacher leaves.

• Odd twist at the end where it’s revealed that the substitute teacher was actually Andrew’s father.

Musical Performance: “Doors”

Sketch: The Crumbling Marriage of Two Auctioneers 

An angry couple’s argument is delivered via an auction format.

• The introduction of the sketch reminds me of those sketches from the late 2000s/early 2010s sketches with a celebrity doing some mundane activity (Andre the Giant ordering ice cream, Al Pacino checking his bank account, etc.).

• I was on board as soon as Matt entered in a cowboy hat and started talking in an auctioneer voice.

• Sarah’s got a pretty good voice as well. This is one of her best roles in quite a long time.

• I assume this is supposed to be in Texas, so I love the attention to detail that all of the interstates Matt mentions are ones that actually go through Texas. Of course, they don’t all intersect each other, but who cares!

• Holy cow, a slap that actually looked real and didn’t have the sound effects delayed!

• One of the “B” names Sarah mentions her husband having slept with is “Bulla”. Gee, I wonder who that could be?

• I like how the above-mentioned “B” discussion transitions into Sarah doing the “Betty Botter” tongue twister.

• Sarah somehow manages to get through that very long list of things she’s been up to without screwing up once! You can actually see her staring right at the cue cards to make sure she doesn’t miss anything.

• I love the corny country music sting that plays when they both announce that they want a divorce. 

• Great bit with their children speaking the exact same way.

• Because you knew he had to be involved in some way, JAJ has a great scene at the end as “Neighbor Frank”, complete with hayseed and the exact same way of speaking as the main characters.

• This is, like, the tenth time this year that the best sketch of the show has been stuck at the end!

Final thoughts: Another mostly horrible show, with a couple exceptions. While I’m not a fan of him, I think Matt Damon deserved a much better episode.

MVP: James Austin Johnson

Best sketches: Mom: The Movie, Tidy Care Crystals, Auctioneers

Worst sketches: Cold Open, Godzilla, Tough Guys, Weekend Update, Substitute Teacher’s Goodbye

Next episode: Will Ferrell hosts the season finale. We also (thankfully) say goodbye to Chloe Fineman.

SNL Reviews: Olivia Rodrigo (5/2/26)

 Cold Open: Iraqi Press Conference

Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel brief the press.

• Hegseth AGAIN. Jesus Christ, give it a rest!!!! It’s not funny and it never will be!!! 

• Yay, another pointless cameo!!! This time, it’s Aziz Ansari trying to salvage his career as Kash Patel. Hey, remember when you guys fired the only Arab on your show? That was awesome. Maybe if you hadn’t gotten rid of him, you wouldn’t have had to call up a MeToo victim to play this guy.

• Unsurprisingly, Ansari does not fit the part at all and is only making things worse.

• In case you didn’t laugh at Ansari this time, don’t worry! He’ll be back in the next two episodes as well!

Monologue

Olivia talks about being young and sings a song.

• Lame joke about how her favorite SNL cast was the one she watched as a teenager, and she goes on to list people who are still on the show.

• I liked seeing that footage of young Olivia in an Old Navy commercial. 

• Not a big fan of the slam at Jake Paul, but I love how a lot of people started cheering when she said she used to be on Bizaardvark. I take it there’s a lot of millennials in the audience tonight?

• I feel bad for laughing at the video of Olivia falling off stage.

• Not another musical monologue. 

• Why does the audience seem so dead?

Sketch: Edge of Destiny

Stairs complicate soap opera confrontations.

• “You’re watching Pluto TV” STOP IT!!!!!

• Great, another soap opera sketch. Every single soap opera sketch I’ve seen on SNL is absolute garbage. Just watch SCTV’s “Days of the Week” sketches instead.

• Jesus Christ, even by SNL soap opera standards, this is pretty wretched. So far, the only joke is people falling down an endless flight of stairs.

• Poor Andrew shows up just to get pushed down the stairs, because the only thing funnier than someone falling down the stairs is if an old man does it!!!!

• Now we’re bringing a dog into this?? Sure, why not!!! We don’t need to make this any hackier!!!

• Speaking of hacky, Kenan appears as a servant doing his usual Kenan shtick. 

• It figures the audience would wake up for something as shitty as this.

• The only interesting thing about this sketch is that SNL uploaded a 360 degree panorama version of it that shows how they did the shots of everyone falling down the stairs.

Saturday Night Live Midnight Matinee: My Room

A girl sings about her life on a planet of bugs.

• Good to see Dan Bulla again.

• Nice reveal that Olivia is on a planet of bug people.

• The bugs all look really cute, which isn’t something I often say about insects.

• I love the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detail of one bug eating a popsicle shaped like Olivia’s head.

• My favorite part is the bug people version of A League Of Their Own, starring poorly-disguised bugs as all the characters. (“There’s no crying in Earth-ball!”)

• To make this even better, JAJ has no shirt on.

• Rather sweet ending.

• I don’t know how he does it, but Dan Bulla has worked his magic yet again!

Sketch: ShopTV

A lava cake looks like an anus and that’s pretty much it.

• *sigh* Not this shit again.

• I liked JAJ’s Jesus YA novel, “Nazareth High”.

• Ha ha, the lava cake looks like an asshole!!! Aren’t you just laughing out loud?

• Ugh at the phone call from Kenan pointing out the obvious.

• I won’t lie, the close up shot of Mikey sticking his finger in the cake is one of the most repulsive scenes in SNL history.

• I did get a laugh from the caller asking if he can get the cake in an “Asian” flavor.

• What an awful, awful recurring sketch. Hope this is the last we see of it.

Sketch: My Ex

Exes try to make each other jealous.

• Take a shot!!!

• Hey, Tommy still exists! 

• I think this is supposed to be a variation of that awful sketch from last season’s finale with Bad Bunny.

• Again Ashley is playing a character that feels more like a rejected Kristen Wiig character. What the fuck is happening to her lately?

• I wish Ashley would stop with the screaming.

• This is getting way too chaotic and campy. And just to add a cherry on top of the shit sundae, it ends with Kenan playing an old man with glasses for the millionth time.

Musical Performance: “Drop Dead”

• Debbie Harry?!??? Wow, what a delight it is to see her on SNL again!

Weekend Update (featuring Alix Earle and Alex Cooper, and Kam Patterson)

• Thank God that Spirit Airlines has finally shut down, so we hopefully won’t be getting any more jokes about it!

• I didn’t get the punchline of King Charles taking Mamdani back to England with him.

• Speaking of British Royals, I loved the Harry and Meghan joke.

• Why do they keep making “jokes” suggesting that Melania wants to get away from her husband? They did it with those “Melania Moments” that ran just before his first election, and they’re still doing it ten years later.

• I believe this is Chloe’s final appearance at the Update desk. Unfortunately, she and Veronika are playing two podcaster sluts I’ve never heard of and will probably be forgotten about in several months.

• I hate that I laughed at “statue-tory rape”. 

• I love it when Colin just randomly shouts “NO!” as a punchline to one of his jokes, which he does here when talking about a story that says we should stop scrolling through our phones while on the toilet.

• “Coors 0.0%. Get Custody Back!” Something about JAJ’s deep voice here made me laugh.

• Kam is back again, huh? This time, he’s talking about more celebrity gossip that nobody will care about in the future.

• I just have to ask; why is Kam so prominent on Update, while in the rest of the show he’s nowhere to be seen? Is it because he was just a cheap replacement for Devon Walker, and they’re treating him as such? Then again, at least Devon had some great moments in sketches every now and then.

Sketch: Busted

Multiple characters bust on each other.

• I love the dark, moody lighting in the first few seconds.

• Sorry, but Marcello just cannot sing.

• Another “cute dog” moment? Wasn’t the stairs sketch enough?

• Here comes JAJ to save things yet again!

• This was so weird, but not weird enough for me to enjoy it.

Musical Performance: “Begged”

• Why can’t they get cast members to introduce the musical performances instead of random celebrities? Was anyone clamoring to see Connor Storrie again just a few months after he hosted?

Sketch: Rasta Driver

A taxi driver randomly starts singing a Rasta song.

• Finally, another lead role for Andrew! These last few months have been awful for him.

• Awesome turn of events when Andrew randomly starts singing like a “rude boy” to reggae music.

• I love the looks on Olivia and Veronika as Andrew sings.

• Sounds like JAJ as the sportscaster on the radio.

• This is the kind of stuff I’ve missed from Andrew all season. 

• Olivia: “Oh my God, are you gonna sing it again?” Andrew: “I have to…” Great ending.

Fake Ad: SafeGuard Home Security System

This new security system makes burglars into celebrities.

• I love how much the show’s been relying on JAJ’s excellent voice talents lately,

• It goes by pretty quickly, but I love how the first security camera footage we see was uploaded by someone named “bootycall41”.

• Oh dear, after a promising start I do not like the way this has turned into a “fellow kids” bit with talk of “thot daughters” and other social media crap.

• “Sloppy Toppy”? What the fuck is that all about???

• Random appearance from Kam playing himself.

• No idea who that was playing Cory Booker but it looks nothing like him.

• Not gonna lie, this was pretty bad. 

Final thoughts: Why have all the episodes hosted by female pop stars this season been absolutely terrible??? The Sabrina Carpenter episode was atrocious, Ariana Grande was just as bad, and this one was too. I hated everything before Update with the exception of the Dan Bulla film, and the only other thing I liked was Andrew’s Rasta bit at the end.

MVP: Andrew Dismukes

Best sketches: My Room, Rasta Driver

Worst sketches: Cold Open, Edge of Destiny, ShopTV, My Ex, Weekend Update, SafeGuard

Next review: Matt Damon/Noah Kahan

SNL Reviews: Colman Domingo/Anitta (4/11/26)

 Cold Open

Trump calls up various members of his cabinet.

• A dumb meta joke about how all the female members of the cabinet are played by Ashley. 

• This is just like that awful Trumpwin cold open where the real Stormy Daniels showed up at the end. But the less said about that one, the better.

• Kenan as Tiger Woods is here to make limp jokes about his recent car accident. All these months later, when said incident has mostly been forgotten, I fail to see the point of his inclusion. It doesn’t help that Kenan looks and sounds nothing like him.

• Chloe’s awful Melania “impression” somehow sounds even worse here. Thankfully, we won’t have to see it again as Chloe’s only got a few episodes left.

• A scene with Jeremy reprising his Tucker Carlson impression was cut after dress rehearsal.

• Colin’s Hegseth routine has completely run its course. And he still goes on to appear in all three remaining episodes of this season! Not even Trumpwin was this overused. 

Monologue

Colman talks about his role in Euphoria before setting a good vibe in the studio.

• I’ve never seen Euphoria, but I loved Colman as Joseph Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic that came out right after this episode.

• While I’m not laughing at a lot of the material, I’m finding him to be a really charming host so far.

• The shot of Leon Pendarvis shrugging was pretty funny.

• It feels so good hearing the audience applaud Jeremy when he shows up, although his scene wasn’t anything special.

• The woman in the audience who Colman charms is Jimmy Fowlie’s partner in crime Ceara O’Sullivan.

• Who are the two people making out? Probably some more writers.

Sketch: Fashion District Robbery

A poorly dressed criminal is wanted by police.

• I liked James’ opening line about how we can experience NYC’s urine smell for ourselves.

• Just from the look of these characters, I can tell I’m gonna hate this sketch.

• “D’artangan Meringue”? Ugh.

• Colman’s lispy voice is also not doing it for me, though props to him for at least trying.

• No comment on Mikey’s weird homosexual stereotype walk-on. 

• Colman’s actually starting to sound more like he came from a rejected “Men on Film” sketch.

• The ending with JAJ wearing the same outfit as Colman was pretty stupid, but he did look funny in it.

• I had hoped that all of these poor attempts at camp would disappear once Bowen left, but I guess not. In fact, they’ve only gotten worse.

Fake Ad: Uneek Cutz

A black barbershop is just what you need to get through marital problems.

• Tommy looks a lot like John Mulaney whenever he wears glasses.

• Great concept. I feel like black barbershops are an untapped gold mine that more people should make jokes about. Sure, there was that sketch with Dave Chappelle a few years ago, and that scene in Coming to America, but I want more, damn it!!!! 

• The “ghetto” humor is coming off better in this ad, I presume because an actual black person wrote it.

• Colman seems to be going for an Eddie Murphy impression here.

• Great scene where they witness a shooting take place nearby.

• I love the short cut they give to Ben.

• Mikey: “By the way, fellas, I’d smash Pam all day!!!” *barbers cheer* Also, the fact the Mikey is wearing a durag in this scene makes it even funnier.

Sketch: Artemis II

Astronauts interrupt a video log with their antics.

• Getting bad vibes from the text crawl at the beginning…

• I love the attempts to make everyone look weightless.

• This feels like a ripoff of a sketch from the atrocious Steve Carell episode in Season 44 that also involved things going wrong during a space broadcast.

• Ugh, Marcello’s mugging away as usual.

• One thing this has going for it is Colman’s wonderful performance. Very subdued and full of wonder at being in space. If only stupid Marcello would let us enjoy it properly!

• It felt really cathartic seeing him push Sarah out of the way.

• Heh, you can clearly see someone’s hand holding up the hat as it’s “floating”. That’s pretty bad when my favorite part of the sketch is a blooper.

• And we end on a bit of random gross out with Mikey’s boogers? Eeewwww!!!

Sketch: The Knowledge Hour

A TV host breaks out after his furniture gag doesn’t work.

• “You’re watching PBS.” PLEASE. STOP.

• I love the filter applied to this to make it look like a retro series.

• Kam sure earned his salary tonight by playing a silent bookcase.

• This is a really fun and absurd sketch so far, and Colman is giving it his all.

• I wonder who the “plant” is.

• Wonderful shot of all the objects in the room leaving.

• Great interplay between Andrew and Colman, which ends with their characters getting married.

• One of the best “everyone dances” endings I’ve ever seen.

• Finally, a sketch that didn’t make me want to hurt someone!

Musical Performance: “Choka Choka”

Weekend Update (featuring Two Kids From The Back Of The Bus and Lindt Greer)

• Colin’s now resorting to making up a fake Trump post just so he can point out how indistinguishable it was from a real one.

• That Strait of Hormuz pun was awful.

• Priests molesting children are so funny, you guys!!! Please laugh!!!!

• I believe this Back Of The Bus commentary was cut from the Gosling episode.

• Why has Kam been on Update so much this year? Meanwhile, Jeremy’s been on twice, while their fellow newbies have only been on once each.

• I think I can see why this was cut before…because it absolutely blows. 

• Ah, now we have another Jane commentary where she plays a character instead of herself. I loved the last one she did, can she impress me again?

• Jane: “There are only two rules of sex. 1. Have fun. 2. No raping.”

• “I can’t define sex, but I know I’m having it.” There’s some really good lines in this!

• I’m glad they paired her up with Che again instead of Colin, because I’m sure he would have ruined this.

• This might sound crazy, but Jane is slowly becoming one of my favorite cast members.

Sketch: Grandpa’s Wake

Two people find out what their deceased grandfather’s lifestyle was like at his funeral.

• Someone in the comments claims that the old man whose picture is seen in this sketch was their grandfather, who wanted his picture to appear in an SNL episode as his dying wish.

• Already a bad omen when Kenan arrives as a pimp. He must have played more pimps in his career than Rudy Ray Moore!

• I had to laugh at Veronika’s odd raspy voice. It reminds of that wrinkly old lady from the SpongeBob episode where they sell chocolate bars.

• When the camera gets closer, it becomes apparent that the person in the coffin is just a dummy.

• I definitely don’t need Marcello and Jeremy commenting on everything.

• Now we’re getting Colman complimenting Marcello’s looks while disparaging Jeremy? Could it be any more obvious that there’s some kind of weird caste system going on behind the scenes?

• The bit with Mikey coming out of the coffin is so desperate. It feels like an old man trying to be “hip”. Even worse, in dress it was Chloe who came out of the coffin. I can’t imagine how much more terrible that would have been!

• As usual, good ol’ JAJ tries to save things, but it’s too late. The sketch is almost over.

• UGH, enough with the Colin cameos!!!!! He’s had more screen time in sketches than poor Tommy Brennan!

• Aaaand the sketch ends with a newspaper headline announcing that Jeremy has been hit by a bus. What an awful, awful sketch.

Musical Performance: “Várias Quejas”

Sketch: Prep School

In a Dead Poets’ Society parody, a math teacher advocates an alternative teaching method.

• Andrew has surprisingly gotten quite a bit of airtime tonight.

• I’m loving all the faux “deep” dialogue, such as “But the floor is where the dirt is” when the students are told to throw their pencils on the ground.

• Am I the only one who thinks it’s kinda stereotypical that they made Colman eat a banana in this sketch?

• Great fake number from Ben: “buhleventy”.

• Marcello’s antics are kind of out of place here, but he’s not doing too bad.

• Jeremy: “Why does Spanish math have ‘cuatro’, but not English?”

• Sorry to sound like a broken record, but Colman is really good in this sketch. 

• Kenan plays his 1,225,387th janitor role. 

• I love Ben trying to count every number at once before giving up.

• Tommy: “Why can you divide two numbers but not unite two numbers?” Andrew: “It’s called ADDITION!!!”

• Kam declaring his sexual attraction to the number 8 was also pretty good.

• I think Andrew messed something up when he fell out of the window. The sound effect of his landing is delayed and he appears to bounce off a bush. I hope he didn’t hurt himself!

• Definitely the best sketch of the episode. Is it no coincidence that Andrew has been in both sketches that I actually like?

Film: Beastomorphs

Transformation mix-ups mar a teenage action show.

• SNL takes on Animorphs!!! In 2026, for some reason. I’ve never seen the Animorphs TV series (apparently it aired on Nickelodeon at 6 in the morning), but I did read some of the books…just to look at the characters morph at the bottom of each page. And you can’t deny that the covers are still pretty distinctive all these years later.

• I noticed a strange lack of audience response during the intro. What, are there no 90s kids in the audience?

• I love Colman’s performance as the villain.

• The morphing effects are pretty good for SNL’s standards.

• Great cheesy one-liners from each character after they morph back into humans. (“This little piggy kicked some alien butt!”)

• Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we suddenly have to ruin this with a lame fart gag. That’s what all of this was building up to???

• There’s a lot to like about this film, such as the corny dialogue and the “halfway” makeup on Sarah, but then they just keep going back to the farts. I refuse to believe that Dan Bulla was one of the writers of this.

• Ooh, now they’re mixing it up with burp jokes!

• I love how the villain’s name is “Chumongous”.

• Can I also add how sick I am of the word “thang” on this show??? Surely they’re allowed to say “penis”, right?

• Overall, a huge disappointment. Animorphs is so easy to make fun of, and they certainly tried their best, but the gross out humor just killed it for me.

Final thoughts: Colman Domingo was easily one of the best hosts we’ve had this year. Always professional, always gave it his all despite the atrocious material. But the writing, on the other hand, was just as stale as ever. There’s only three to go, and, from what I’ve heard, they only get worse…

MVP: Colman Domingo/Andrew Dismukes

Best sketches: Uneek Cuts, The Knowledge Hour, Prep School

Worst sketches: Cold Open, Fashion District Robbery, Artemis II, Marcello and Kam’s commentary, Grandpa’s Wake

Next review: Olivia Rodrigo

SNL Reviews: Jack Black/Jack White (4/4/26)

 Cold Open: NCAA

Pam Bondi interrupts March Madness discussion.

• A non-political sketch??? Hmm, there must be a twist…

• I love the way JAJ looks as Ernie Johnson.

• Charles Barkley is captioned as “Sir Charles Barkley” for some reason.

• Barkley: “It’s the first time I went viral without a prescription for Valtrex.”

• Guess I spoke too soon. Now they’re shoehorning a political discussion into this. Come on, can’t we go at least a single episode without a political cold open?

• Not sure who Jeremy’s playing, but he’s pretty good.

• I love Barkley referring to Pam Bondi as a “freckle-chested dragon lady”.

• Pam Bondi: “So great to be here at the Final Four…years of this country.” Ugh.

• This was by default the best cold open we’ve had this season.

Monologue

Jack is inducted into the Five-Timers Club.

• It takes only 55 seconds for this to become a cameo festival. Jonah Hill is probably one of the least deserving people to become a Five Timer.

• Why is the club all dusty and covered with spider webs? We just saw it last season in the Godawful Martin Short episode!

• Ugh, Tina Fey. I hope we get another “hilarious” scene where she insults the current cast members!

• Dumb meta jokes about how they’ve done this so many times that it’s been literally run into the ground.

• Nice shout out to SNL UK, which had just started. On a side note, I’ve seen a few clips of that version, and it is way better than ours!

• Candice Bergen, what are you doing here???

• Melissa McCarthy is back again, and she has a dumb bit of prop comedy where she scarfs down a can of vodka.

• It was so satisfying seeing Domingo (ugh!) getting hit on the head with a frying pan by Jack White.

• Jonah Hill: “Wow, it’s Professor Snape!” Okay, I did get a laugh from that.

• Amazing musical number from the two Jacks!

• That monologue was mostly balls, but the final musical number saved it quite a bit.

Sketch: Kathy

An annoying co-worker wants to be involved in others’ affairs.

• I hated this as soon as Ashley’s character started talking. What the Hell is happening to her lately?

• Not helping matters is the fact that Kenan, Sarah, and Mikey are also in this, three cast members who I am absolutely tired of.

• Jack is at least trying his best.  

• “We talkin’ TV?” This bit goes on for like a minute and with every repetition, I can feel another part of my soul leaving my body.

• Lousy ending.

Film: Words to Live By

Country singers forget valuable words of wisdom.

• Already a big laugh from JAJ’s hairstyle.

• Great concept for a song.

• I love the sudden censor bleeps during Jack’s chorus.

• Finally, Andrew gets to be funny again after playing lame straight roles for the last few weeks.

• Is that kid really Andrew’s son? He looks remarkably like him.

• Another great performance from White.

• I love the callback to the “Men in Black thing” at the very end where they finally remember what it’s called.

• I know I’ve said this a lot, but the pretapes have been really good this year. This is just another one.

Sketch: Self-Defense

Self-defense teachers get rough.

• Uggghhhhhh, another “wacky” Marcello character. This is gonna be painful.

• I hate the cartoony accents. What are they even supposed to be? Italian? French? Mexican?

• This sketch probably would have worked if somebody else was cast in Marcello’s role, or if they got rid of the dumb accents.

• What’s up with the scene where Jeremy eats a caterpillar? Yes, that’s an actual thing that happens.

• Overall, a huge unfunny mess.

Husbands

Awkward guys get along through the singing of “Carry On Wayward Son”.

• Big night for Andrew so far.

• Great twist where the guys all start to sing “Carry On Wayward Son”.

• On the surface, this appears to be a rather thin sketch, but the performances are what make this special for me. 

• Great cover for “Respecting Women Magazine”.

• What more can we ask for from a sketch that shows JAJ in his underwear? One of the best sketches of the entire season 

Musical Performance: “Derecho Demonico”

Weekend Update (featuring Bryon Noem and Black Snape)

• There’s a “joke” in here about Trump going to the theater. Can you guess what the punchline is????

• UGGGHHHHH!!!!! Sarah is in drag as Kristi Noem’s husband to capitalize on a story everyone will forget about in several months!!! No thank you!!!

• We get it, Che, you hate women’s basketball! Tell another joke!!!!

• Now Kam has a commentary as Black Snape from that new Harry Potter show. Given that Heated Rivalry crap I had to sit through a few episodes ago, I’m not exactly excited for this.

• There’s a lot of ways to talk about what an awful casting choice it is, but giving it a stereotypical “ghetto” flavor just isn’t it. Sorry, Kam.

Sketch: 301 Spartans

An extra Spartan gets left behind.

• A 300 sketch? This would have been good…in 2007.

• I had to laugh when I saw Andrew in a fake beard. This is one of his best nights in a while.

• A big groan from the reveal of Jack’s Spartan.

• Why is this episode so boring??? I thought a Jack Black episode would be full of energy! Guess not, though.

Musical Performance: “G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs”

Sketch: Airbnb Superhost

A superhost and his friend disturb guests.

• *sigh* Again with the joke explanations!!! WE’RE NOT BLIND!!!!!

• I kinda liked Jack going “Wazzzap?” from behind the blinds.

• Why are you still here, Melissa McCarthy??? Go away!!!!!

• Now that she’s here, we get more dumb physical humor where they can’t open the door. What is even happening in this sketch anymore?

• Even worse, the two of them start torturing poor Jeremy with their lotion. Is this some kind of hazing ritual?

Cut for Time: Simon’s Life

Martin’s cousin Simon is odd.

• Well, here we have the last Martin Herlihy film.

• I love how his “cousin” is clearly just him with a different haircut and a mustache.

• Is it just me, or is his voice based on Igniknokt from Aqua Teen Hunger Force?

• As usual, I’m getting far more laughs from this film than the episode it’s attached to.

• Jane has some pretty good chemistry with him in the scene at the store.

• Great scene of Andrew modeling women’s lingerie.

• Strangely appropriate ending with Jack Black shushing the camera while dressed like a woman. Somehow, that really sums up Herlihy’s time on the show really well.

• Sadly, right before the next season started, it was announced that Martin would not be returning to SNL, so this ended up being his last film. It’s a shame, too, because I liked every single one of them.

Final thoughts: For a Jack Black hosted episode, this was shockingly bland. He wasn’t the problem, but I don’t think anyone would be able to make anything out of shit like that Godawful self-defense sketch.

MVP: Andrew Dismukes

Best sketches: Words to Live By, Husbands, Simon’s Life

Worst sketches: Kathy, Self-Defense, Weekend Update, Airbnb Superhost

Next review: Coleman Domingo/Anitta