Megan Thee Stallion proved herself to be an excellent all-round host and her musical performances were thoughtfully staged, as a season of musicians doubling as hosts continues. Here's everything that happened on Saturday Night Live this week.
The Cold Open
The Cold Open
C-SPAN's broadcast of the recent January 6 Committee hearing was parodied, with Heidi Gardner's Liz Cheney ascribing a lot of her woes to being the child of former Vice President Dick Cheney. In clips, Chloe Fineman appeared as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and, more ridiculously, Sarah Sherman played Senator Chuck Schumer, as depicted in the behind-the-scenes footage that was released publicly over the past week. James Austin Johnson appeared as his usual delusional Donald Trump, spouting off about Rocky IV while seated on a golden toilet and obtaining a Diet Coke from an aide. The sketch ended with some barbs about how feckless this whole exercise was likely to have been. Overall, this was an amusing opening.
The Monologue
Megan Thee Stallion elicited cheers for virtually everything she said, and even busted out an amusing Bridgerton British accent. She spoke quickly and emphatically, playfully tweaking how she's perceived, and seemed confident warming the crowd up with some brisk comedy.
Hot Girl Hospital
Megan, Punkie Johnson and Ego Nwodim played nurses and doctors on a new TV series about women obsessed with shaming some women while making over others at a hospital subsidized by Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors. This thing was one-note but had its moments, and Heidi Gardner's transformation drew a huge hoot from the audience, who seemed into its juvenile salaciousness.
We Got Brought
In this remote music video, Megan, Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim played friends of mutuals who get ditched together at a club and are forced to make awkward small talk, which showed off some fine writing and performances.
Daddy Deer Rest
At a housewarming where the new home was located in a woodsy area, Kenan Thompson played a dad who can't seem to spot a deer that everyone else can see outside of the window. Ever more frustrated, he resolved to ignore the excitement until things got increasingly absurd (and dangerous), all of which was a nice bit of Kenan silliness that made Megan break a little bit.
Girl Talk
Ego Nwodim played Mo'nique Problems, the host of a frank talk show, whose sidekick, a very grateful DJ Willy, was played by Kenan Thompson. Megan played Stacey, her first guest, and had an issue, which led to a stark exchange of ideas between the two women. Punkie Johnson was up next, playing Kim, which enabled some amusing subtitles to appear for the benefit of white and male viewers. Andrew Dismukes played Paul, and somehow wound up on the show, confusing Mo'nique, but was saved by Stacey, which was kinda funny.
Please Don't Destroy: SNL Writing Nights
The PDD guys looked horrible. It turned out that they had not been taking care of themselves and were in physical and mental peril, which led to a long litany of good jokes and sight gags. Another brilliant blast of oversaturation from these three manic dudes.
Megan Thee Stallion
In a pointed bit of pageantry for "Anxiety," Megan and her backup dancers were dressed as beauty queens, whose sashes bore inscriptions like "Miss Anxiety" and "Miss Overlooked." It was both minimalist and theatrical and put the song and its intent across well.
With its rap rock feel and '90s sartorial aesthetic and choreography, a medley of "NDA" and "Plan B" was gritty, and Megan was feeling herself so much that her toughness and confidence oozed through the screen. This was a sonic and visual spectacle, with the vibe and scale of an edgy MTV awards show performance.
Weekend Update
Colin Jost went in on Donald Trump's 14-page letter on his social media site, while Michael Che got in a funny dig at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's side hustles. Jost belittled Herschel Walker's recent debate fiasco, while Che randomly invoked Lenny Kravitz in a Ye joke, which was good.
Chloe Fineman and Heidi Gardner played southern women named Debbie Hole and Stacey Bussy, who viewed things like Hocus Pocus and Skittles and just about everything else as demonic. The crescendo included Debbie getting possessed, which showed off Fineman's amazing physicality as a performer.
Che implied that he murdered the world's oldest dog, while Jost began to question his use of whale oil. Some good medical jokes about contact lenses and colonoscopies were split between the two, before Che welcomed newcomer Devon Walker to the desk. Walker talked about his tough adjustment to life in NYC after moving there from Texas. He also did a funny bit about how tough it is to be a straight man in this day and age. Short, somewhat stilted but still funny, Walker did well with this shot.
Butt Stuff
This exercise spoof about the difference between women with bigger booties and smaller ones had some great potential, and especially strong performances by Chloe Fineman and Heidi Gardner. Megan had her moments, too, but the first half of this was severely hampered by technical issues, where either the camera work or direction miscues made for awkward shots of participants doing nothing, while others were heard delivering their lines off-camera. Ironically, what should've been a funny sketch about butts started off sucking ass, but slowly redeemed itself.
St. Andrew's Center for Shivering Girls
In this remote, fake ad, Megan and many of the show's women appeared as sad ex-girlfriends who dreaded being single as fall turned into winter. The joke, emphasized by Kenan Thompson goofily singing "Hallelujah," was that they cherished their exes' oversized sweatshirts, which was pretty good.
Ms. Fink
Ego Nwodim played a substitute teacher who aimed to make a strong and inspirational impression with an oblivious speech before a trio of Black students, as portrayed by Megan, Punkie Johnson and Devon Walker, whom she presumed were in some sort of remedial class. What she didn't know was that she was assigned to a STEM school and was actually teaching a honours level physics class, both of which rendered her the unintelligent one. This was funny.
