Quinta Brunson played it cool despite internally nerding out about being back on Saturday Night Live, an assignment she clearly cherishes, while Benson Boone likely didn't move the public opinion needle about his brand of contrived, retro karate-oriented pop music. Here's everything that happened on SNL this week.
The Cold Open
Donald Trump's first 100 days were satirized with an address by James Austin Johnson as the president. Mikey Day soon appeared as creepy aide Stephen Miller, armed with a series of executive orders, which were all preposterously offensive. Marcello Hernández also showed up as the spineless Marco Rubio who, as usual, dutifully and in great pain, did the president's bidding. Some nice riffs on Connections and A Christmas Carol were mixed into this solid open.
The Monologue
SNL superfan Quinta Brunson made her second appearance as a host, and took a moment to tout her recent honorary university degree. She made some funny jokes about being short and then sang a song about being 4'11." Fellow shorty Sabrina Carpenter made a brief (short) cameo, and they each made some dad jokes about shortness. Even Dwayne Wade, who is notably tall, turned up to celebrate shortness, all of which was surprising and funny.
Will & Todd's Radical Experience
A riff on Bill & Ted found Marcello Hernández and Andrew Dismukes playing the titular characters, who were saying farewell to historical figures who were being sent back to their respective time periods. Kenan Thompson and Brunson portrayed Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, who stubbornly and hilariously didn't wish to return to their time in America, which was particularly racist. A smart sketch.
OnlySeniors
In this remote ad, Kenan Thompson and Brunson played parents of a young couple and told them about their financial planning for their grandchildren's futures. A play on OnlyFans, this pleasant sounding commercial was really a disturbing promo for a voyeuristic seniors sex service, which was rather shocking and clever.
BurSweeto
Chloe Fineman and Emil Wakim played leaders of a Leadership Summit teaching employees about "compliment sandwiches," which went awry quickly, as the employees said very wrong things to each other. Things took another kind of turn when Bowen Yang's bizarre, recurring time-travelling character appeared to ask an inappropriate question, and then even the session leaders submitted to this amusing madness.
Ferry Parking Traffic Jam
Chloe Fineman and Mikey Day reprised their father-and-daughter-in-a-car duo, who communicate with other drivers in traffic jams via remarkable charades-like mannerisms. Brunson appeared in the very first one of these as an angry road rage participant, and was incredible in it, so it was nice to see them all reprise it, this time while parked on a ferry. Though impossible to top its first iteration (as a subsequent attempt with host Martin Short proved), Day's aghast reactions to Fineman's sexualized physical humour are worth it on their own.
Forever 31
In this remote, many of the women in the cast joined Brunson in this satire of saying goodbye to your youth when you're in your early 30s, which is a confusing time, fashion-wise. This was fine.
Two Bitches vs. a Gorilla
Riffing on the viral "100 men vs. one gorilla" debate, Brunson and Ego Nwodim played attitudinal women who entered a gorilla enclosure at a zoo and tried sassing a gorilla to death, which did not work out in their favour. This was a bit incomprehensible really, but also not terrible in a Mad TV kinda way.
Benson Boone
Backflipping and cringe-y 1980s anthem lover Benson Boone made the most of his SNL debut with a brash stage show for "Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else," which even incorporated Brunson for a spell after her intro.
For his second performance, Boone and his band played "Mystical Magical," which owed more than a little to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," with vague bits of Queen thrown in too. Adeptly performed, but rather unoriginal.
Weekend Update
Colin Jost began with a bit about Trump posting AI photos of himself as the Pope, while Michael Che mocked Pam Bondi's fentanyl claims. Jost introduced a segment called Oh Hell No!, in which he ranted about Trump's statements about doll shortages at Christmas.
Che told us about the racist Homeland Security department, while Jost mocked Trump's Columbus Day pronouncements. Che told a good Ye joke.
Michael Longfellow stopped by to discuss a new government rule about travelling with "real ID" and his protest against it. Longfellow ranted and railed against this rule and his lack of work at SNL this season. This turned into a remarkable bunch of airport and flying jokes, which was great.
Jost reported on an army jet falling into the ocean and made a curious Osama Bin Laden joke before Che had a good Harriet Tubman bit. After a slew of jokes that earned groans, Che introduced us to two Applebees Barflies, Darlene and Duke. Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang played this trashy couple, who lamented about the economic hardship the restaurant chain was enduring, but while they didn't make a great case for such chains, they were funny, and even Benson Boone got in on the act.
Addiction Intel
At a group meeting for addicts, Brunson played the session leader and Kenan Thompson played Marcus, a cocaine addict desperate to obtain some cocaine and trying to gather info about how to do so via the other participants. Thompson is almost always great starring in anything and, despite the weak premise here, he made it work.
The Greats
James Austin Johnson played the host of a show about sports history and profiled fictional boxer Jerry "Jackrabbit" Tulane, who was known for his witty repartee. Played by Brunson, Tulane wasn't so sharp and apparently not much of a boxer. Brunson was made to portray a progressively CTE-addled boxer, which was darkly amusing.