Saturday Night Live kicks off at the White House, where lame duck President Joe Biden (Dana Carvey) and President re-elect Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) hold a transition meeting for the press. Instead of “being rude and crazy, like usual”, Trump is doing “quiet and serene, which is, in many ways, a lot scarier”, while Biden, like the cartoon dog in the popular meme, claims everything is fine while ignoring the giant fire behind him.
Once the press leaves, Trump brags about the cabinet he’s assembling: Elon Musk and Matt Gaetz (“That’s an alien v. predator”), Kristi Noem and Robert F Kennedy Jr (“They’re killing the dogs, they’re killing the bears”), and Melania (“working remotely from divorce”). Sleazy creep Gaetz and grotesque wackjob RFK Jr show up, played, respectively by Sarah Sherman in giant forehead prosthetics and a gravel-voiced Alec Baldwin. Both caricatures are appropriately mean, but if the show is going to continue using them, it needs to take care not to sanitize the real people, as it has done with dangerously incompetent and malicious figures in the past, such as George W Bush or Trump himself.
Musician Charli xcx pulls double duty as host and musical guest. The British superstar considers herself a triple threat, “which, in England means I sing, I drink, and I smoke”. Later, after she claims that anyone can be Brat is, former cast member Kyle Mooney shows up to prove her wrong. Mooney is a sight for sore eyes and Charlie xcx seems at ease as host.
After an oddly-placed sponsored All State commercial starring the Please Don’t Destroy boys, a group of gal pals surprise their pregnant bestie Kelsie (Chloe Fineman) and her long-suffering husband Matt (Andrew Dismukes) at their baby shower by singing about her many infidelities – including her continued affair with Latin lover Domingo (Marcello Hernández) – to the tune of Chappell Roan’s Hot to Go. I didn’t think the Domingo sketch from just earlier in the season was memorable enough to bring it back so soon, but apparently it was.
In my review from last week’s episode, I lamented the lack of new movie parodies, so I can’t really complain about a brand-new screen test sketch. This installment sees various celebs reading for parts in the upcoming Wicked adaptation. We get the return of several recurring impressions – Fineman’s dire Jojo Siway, Bowen Yang’s even more dire Fran Lebowitz, Hernández’s Bad Bunny, Devon Walker’s Shannon Sharpe – as well as new ones, such as Sherman’s very good Bernie Sanders, Carvey’s just okay Al Pacino, and Fineman’s Martha Stewart and Leslie Mann (credit where it’s due, her Mann is on point). Charlie xcx plays Adele, as well as Troye Sivan (SNL just keeps having people play this guy, even though no viewer over 25 has any idea who he is).
This is followed by the third recurring sketch, this time a Thanksgiving episode of The Food Network’s baking championship. The collection of cakes is the expected horror show: the first is just stupid looking, the second is a overly sexual, stuffing spewing nightmare, and the third is so competent its boring. The best is saved for last, when Mooney’s contestant proudly displays his turkey cake made from dark chocolate and a “nine-inch dildo”.
We are then treated to a new musical Digital Short from Andy Samberg. He plays a suburban homeowner who loves nothing more than to snitch on his fellow whites, calling the cops on any Caucasian who steps foot on his lawn, be they old lady, a girl scout, or Colin Jost. Charlie xcx gets in on the action as his proud Karen of a wife. Not as funny or outrageous as bathroom sushi from earlier this season, but legitimately catchy.
Banger Boyz is a podcast hosted by three would-be alpha males. They discuss Trump’s recent appearance on their show, in between sponsored ads for the likes of Warm Plunges and Pube Whacker. Trump calls in from Mar-a-Lago to appoint one of the Banger Boyz Secretary of Commerce (“I think it means he’s charge of all the commercials”) and another ambassador to Iran. The glut of moronic, Roganesque dude-bro podcasts are long overdue for mocking, but this one is toothless.
Weekend Update follows Charli xcx’s first musical performance. Colin Jost and Michael Che cover the same ground as the cold open, reporting on Trump’s clown car cabinet picks of Matt Gaetz (“He said the same thing he says when he sees a teenage girl: I’ll do it”), Musk (“You can’t be surprised that the white African guy’s first idea is slavery”), and RFK Jr (“The first brain worm survivor nominated to a cabinet-level position”). More of this level of viciousness, please.
Their first guest is animal wrangler and incarcerated would-be murderer Joe Exotic (Yang). He proclaims his innocence (“All I did was take care of my cats, make love to my two straight husbands, and try to kill Carole Baskin multiple times”), and appeals to Trump for a pardon and position as director of Fish and Wildlife, all while getting mauled by one of his tigers. Yang’s impression is solid, although the regrettable Tiger King phenomenon deserves to be memory-holed.
Later, Jost brings on Sherman as Hazel, the widow of social media squirrel star Peanut, recently euthanized after biting a police officer. Dressed in a giant squirrel costume, Sherman is a ball of manic energy. The squirrel puns (“[Peanut] stuffed his cheeks on OnlyFans – both sets”) are funny, but the best bits are when she goes after Jost: “Can you imagine if they chopped off your penis every time you tested positive for chlamydia, Colin?” Their chemistry remains the best of any cast members on the show.
Charli xcx performs her second set. Then it’s time for the It Girl Thanksgiving special, hosted by Marc Jacobs (Yang) and Julia Fox (Fineman). Their dinner table is filled by the glamorous likes of Naomi Campbell (Ego Nwodim), Victoria Beckham (Charli xcx), Rachel Sennott (Sherman), the Olsen twins (Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline), Cher (Heidi Gardner), and Law Roach (Kenan Thompson). There are a few okay bits throughout – Campbell bringing The Substance to dinner, the Olsen’s getting lost in their “big ass coat”, but for the most part this is sloppy and annoying.
The final sketch of the night sees a group of friends hooking up with Shrek prior to and following a performance of Shrek the Musical. Charli xcx walking out of the theater with a bunch of green paint around her mouth is one of the show’s better sight gags of late.
This was a mostly middle of the road episode, which still made for a huge improvement on last week. Charli xcx was a game host, although the biggest highlights came from returning stars Baldwin, Mooney, Samberg, and Carvey (who might as well be a full time cast member at this point). It’s starting to feel a little more like a proper 50th season. Now that the election is over and done with, perhaps SNL will dedicate more time to recognizing and celebrating that milestone.