After last week's terrible season opener, Saturday Night Live rectified the situation with a well-written, beautifully acted, cameo-heavy episode celebrating the series' 50th anniversary. Amy Poehler was a wonderful and funny host, although the show suffered from the nastiness that Role Modelmusic. Here's everything that happened on SNL this week.
Cold opening
Host and SNL Hall of Famer Amy Poehler wasted no time in getting to work, starring outdoors as the strange, evasive and despicable Attorney General Pam Bondi as the series navigated its recent contentious Senate hearings. After some funny and salty conversations with various actors, Bondi ceded her spotlight to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who was expertly lampooned by Tina Fey. When Poehler and Fey are paired up, it's always a hit, and this one was especially well done.
Monologue
Poehler had some fun poking fun at her new life as a podcast host (Good hang), and also celebrated the 50th anniversary SNLwhich first aired in 1975 on this very day. Poehler made it a point to briefly introduce us to all the new actors, blew up the AI, and offered to go completely naked upon request. All in all, it was an entertaining and enticing monologue.
Roodemans
Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes played a couple, and she brought him home to meet her eccentric family. Poehler and the rest of the Ruedemans seemed to be incredibly awkward, condescending, distant and sarcastic, I guess? It was very nice.
Non-alcoholic beer
In this deleted TV commercial, Andrew Dismukes played the salesman of a new non-alcoholic beer that was actually extremely alcoholic, which was darkly funny and perfect for Will Forte's Dismukes energy.
Miss Lycus, fast psychic
Poehler played a psychic on television, the whole point of which was that she offered psychic readings incredibly quickly because she had just had a colonoscopy and had a severe attack at age 7. It was stupid and good.
Hunting Wives: Season Two
In this remote we came across the trailer for the second season of the series. Hunting wiveshighlighting the lesbian subtext that inspired this over-the-top, funny satire that includes a cameo from Poehler's film. Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza.
Labor birth
Poehler played a business executive who was nine months pregnant and refused to take time off. Tuck was so dedicated that she installed a birthing pool in the office, prompting Ben Marshall to appear as a wacky doula named Zachariah, Mikey Day to appear as her half-naked partner, and finally Bowen Yang to appear as her grown-up, spirited child. This was a good example of well-written physical comedy.
Role Model
Former hip-hop artist Tucker Pillsbury traded his rap for country-pop, borrowed from Rick Springfield, who inspired Charli XCX to walk around and dance during the horribly bland “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out.”
During his second performance, Pillsbury played “Some Protector” and came across as a man who had inherited his sibling's old Bright Eyes CDs and discovered Bob Dylan by watching Complete unknown. With his flashy Gibson acoustic and high-tucked flannel shirt, he was the role model of the contrived folk musician.
Weekend update
Colin Jost began the update with stories about the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and Trump's loss of the Nobel Peace Prize. Michael Che suggested that Trump made progress on the peace deal because “crazy people” are good at negotiating with each other. Jost made a good joke about RFK Jr. looking like a discarded foreskin, and Che highlighted the rift between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump and also made a great joke about Harriet Tubman.
Sarah Sherman played Rhonda LaCenzo, a Long Islander concerned about Zoran Mamdani's rise to become New York City's leading mayoral candidate. LaCenzo was the maniacal conspirator Sherman was into, and she still managed to make an awkward sex joke at Yost's expense, which is her shtick in Update. It was good.
Yost slightly upset former New York Jet Mark Sanchez, who got into trouble with the law, and Che used artificial intelligence to insert Yost into a video featuring Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Marcello Hernandez and Jane Wickline reprized their favorite can't-believe-together couple, Grant and Alyssa, who discussed “cuffing season.” As usual, Grant was a cheerful extrovert, while Alyssa remained a quiet book nerd. It was funny.
Yost told us that his family were Nazis and suggested that the 13-pound newborn baby was Helper Man. This led to a Weekend Update joke pitting previous hosts Poehler, Fey and Seth Meyers against Jost and Che, all of which were very funny.
Billson and Lieberman
Andrew Dismukes and James Austin Johnson played lawyers filming a personal injury law infomercial that was interrupted by Lachlan Mulchburger, Poehler's crazy character who acted like a professional wrestler (or, again, The Help Man) and promised better legal help. It was the first of an incredible descent into chaotic legal absurdity that only got better and better as it went on.
Mom's Midlife Crisis Poehler played a matriarch regressing through perimenopause and a slutty goth teen. Much to the chagrin of her children and the benevolent indifference of her husband, this mother fell to her death in a wild and rather funny way. Title-song composers Poehler and Bowen Young played title-song composers while performing in front of a class at Juilliard whose finished work was very different from their rudimentary rap-oriented demos. Really funny, this was one of the best endings to a show in a while.
