Walton Goggins danced with his mama and played a series of unsavoury characters on the spirited penultimate episode of Season 50. Here's almost everything that happened on Saturday Night Live this week.
The Cold Open
Maintaining an SNL tradition, cast members were accompanied by their actual mothers ahead of Mother's Day for a lovely song. But they were quickly interrupted by James Austin Johnson's Donald Trump, who did a stand-up routine about the new American pope and trade deals.
Then, as predicted on Twitter, Cecily Strong reprised her Jeanine Pirro impression because Trump had appointed the Fox News personality for a top prosecutor position. Even Colin Jost stopped by to play Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and had Pirro spit alcohol into his mouth. This was chaotic but good.
The Monologue
Walton Goggins danced onto the stage, clearly excited to be hosting SNL, and discussed his breakout role on The White Lotus. He made hay out of unflattering yet horny headlines about his physical appearance. Goggins then paid tribute to his mother, who was in attendance, and the two clog danced together, which was charming.
The First Amendment
In a period scene set in Philadelphia in 1789, the founding fathers were creating the constitution's amendments, and Goggins played Matt, a witness to the proceedings who suggested that after freedom of speech, the second amendment should be "have guns." Matt impressed some of the younger legislators before leaving for an ironic fate, but he made his mark and it was an amusing one.
The Shoe
In this musical remote, Jane Wickline sang an ode to a baby shoe her character found at the Central Park Zoo. In her search for its owner, she discovered it belonged to a man played by Goggins, who had very small baby feet. Sam Rockwell also showed up and he too had baby feet, which was ridiculous.
Mother's Day Brunch
At a Mother's Day Brunch, Goggins played a flirty waiter who attempted to seduce the moms in front of their uncomfortable sons. Mikey Day and Andrew Dismukes played the hapless boys who had trouble enduring his extreme dirty talk, but that's all there was to this one-dimensional sketch.
Handful of Hope
Bowen Yang played the host of a play, whose audience consisted of dogs being trained to enjoy watching plays. Goggins played the star, who was distracted by the departure of a few of the less-than-impressed dogs. One who stayed rolled its eyes, while another checked its watch. The dogs' trainers, played by Michael Longfellow and Jane Wickline, were not great audience members either, and this was all very silly and fun.
Weekend Update
Colin Jost reported on the first American pope with some lowbrow Chicago jokes, and improved matters by ridiculing criticisms of him being woke. Michael Che highlighted Trump's appointment of Jeanine Pirro, his strange film tariffs, and his bizarre pitch to reopen Alcatraz.
Jost mocked the White House for posting AI Star Wars images, while Che continued to love highlighting NYC Mayor Eric Adams. He also earned groans for a bit about Catholic pedophilia, but it was a good joke.
Marcello Hernández reprised his character, the Movie Guy, who wore a bygone movie theatre usher's outfit and highlighted movies to recommend. He himself had not seen any of them, so he merely guessed their plots, which was more amusing than it should've been.
Che told us about Weight Watchers trying to lose its debt and later got a laugh for a Movie Guy callback. Jost made a funny social media influencers joke, then repeated a recent good Osama bin Laden joke about yet another fighter jet inexplicably falling off of an aircraft carrier and into the ocean.
Mikey Day played a guy who just walked into a spiderweb and was incredible in this flurry of physical comedy.
Che reported on sexual assault accusations against Smokey Robinson, which was darkly funny and Jost told us more about Dick Splinter, North Dakota. There was more good penis humour from Che.
Heidi Gardner conjured Carol Burnett to play Dianne, the mom who's only read about New York on Facebook — a comically paranoid, middle-aged woman who lived up to her designation, reciting conservative talking points about the wildness of NYC and revealing she was hiding most of her valuables in her butt. Gardner is always great at these odd characterizations, and this was no exception.
Deathly Dinner
Goggins and Ashley Padilla played parents taking their two kids to the horror-themed Deathly Diner, whose staff repeatedly told them that everything might be "their last." Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim played two such employees who were not great at being scary. This was pretty good.
Midnight Matinee
In this remotely made film clip, Goggins played an employer informing Andrew Dismukes's character Nick of a promotion after having him over for dinner with his wife, played by Sarah Sherman. Things were going fine until Nick entered the bathroom and was unnerved seeing a squatty potty set-up for the toilet, and then could not stop imagining all the ways in which his boss and wife might defecate. This was both disturbing and funny.