If you've seen some of Glen Powell's films, including Top Gun: Maverick, Hitman, Anyone But You, or Twister, you probably already know that a big part of the actor's appeal is that he delivers smooth, effortless performances.
With good looks and great charm, he is definitely a leading man. But there's also a streak, especially in his Richard Linklater film The Hitman, where the goofy comedy nerd is itching to break out of that pretty shell (see also: Jon Hamm), even if he was there to promote a new action movie:running Man“
It's this sensibility that seems to have helped create the remarkable episode of Saturday Night Live that Powell hosted for the first time. This was the silliest episode of the season, and miraculously, almost every sketch in the episode worked at least on a basic comedic level.
Powell wore wigs, especially in a war skit about bob vs bangs; yes, hairstyles. In related sketches about him, he used Norwegian and Irish accents. overly enthusiastic actors in a Scandinavian film and one based on Liam Neeson's films “Taken”. He even wore a long ponytail and sang in a pre-recorded musical number about men. who miss their ex-girlfriend's father (Powell was one of the dads). But he also gave a great supporting performance as Marcello Hernandez in a sketch about a comedian. Maniscalco connections at the bachelor party and one about a woman (Ashley Padilla) who joins friends at a restaurant after disastrous visit to the hairdresser. And he played a good silent game in a visual sketch in which Artificial intelligence technology brings old photos to life Badly.
It was a week where even the return of former cast member Will Forte, who appeared in three new MacGruber sketches where the character learns he's in Epstein's files (explosions ensue), didn't completely overshadow a lot of other very good work.
Two quick notes about this week's episode: Padilla continues to help keep the show going with great sketches, this time as a hair-styling victim, a shocked grandma in a nursing home, and White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt in the cold outdoors. As each episode establishes Padilla as a major player rather than a full-fledged actor, it feels like a growing mistake.
Second, for the first time in years, Weekend Update had no guest segments. We'll get to that a little later.
Musical guest Olivia Dean performed “The man I need” And “Leave the one you love alone“
President Trump's (James Austin Johnson) cold open becomes a mixed blessing; the impression is still strong, and the president is certainly in the news often enough to warrant reference every week. But the sketch's format, starting with a news-of-the-week premise and then interrupted by Trump's meta-monologue, feels reflective at this point, a simple response to the end of increasingly disjointed and strange news cycles. At the White House, Leavitt downplayed news of the release of Jeffrey Epstein's emails, defending the president as “loving too much and perhaps too young.” When a reporter asks about sending millions of dollars to Argentina, she tries to turn her attention back to the files, causing Trump to appear and ask questions such as, “If there was anything incriminating in the files, why would I hide them?” and “If I were innocent, wouldn’t I just publish the files?” The President is proposing to sell framed copies of Epstein's letters for $800 each. The incoherent defense leads to the Trump multiverse theory, which argues that Trump exists in many timelines and we live in the worst of them.
In Powell's monologue, the actor admits that he was so hyped that even he was tired of seeing his own face. “You know who isn’t tired of seeing my face?” he asked. “Your mother.” Powell rejected the idea that he was an overnight success; he has been acting since age 10, starting with commercials and safety videos while growing up in Austin, Texas. Powell said he was scheduled to host “SNL” four years ago as part of the “Top Gun: Maverick” promotional tour. But when the film's release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposal was put on hold. The UPS driver, who showed up as Powell was celebrating the first “SNL” news, ended up taking a selfie with the actor and his family. Powell said his sisters tracked down the driver and Powell invited him to come to the show. Thus, UPS driver Mitch appeared in the monologue and again at the end of the good night show. Glen ended the monologue with the words: “The best things in life don't happen overnight. Nobody knows that better than UPS.”
Best sketch of the night: The AI isn't advanced enough to do crotches correctly.
A family is visiting their grandmother for Thanksgiving at a nursing home and, as a treat, they used an app to animate some of her old black and white photos using artificial intelligence. But AI can only imagine so much; he brings to life a dog with tails on both ends for a head, an old family friend who takes off his pants to reveal a Ken doll-like crotch (Mikey Day), and a terrifying child who folds up like an accordion as an atomic bomb goes off in the background. Padilla's reactions and Day and Powell's silent comedy top this sketch.
That’s also good: of course, MacGruber is in Epstein’s files, how could he not be?
It's always great to see Will Forte back on “SNL,” and this time he brought back his most popular character in three short video segments that continue the story of MacGruber, the tech genius who always failed to defuse the time bomb. This time the clock is ticking as MacGruber's comrades (Powell and Chloe Fineman) figure out that MacGruber is in Epstein's files. Their first clue? Having leafed through the copy, he immediately tries to destroy the entire document. Over the course of three sketches, MacGruber stops, deflects, and then eventually decides to testify against those who actually behaved worse than him on Epstein's island—until he learns that he could be paid a lot of money to keep quiet. Cut to an explosion that completes the sketch.
Weekend Update Winner: No guest segment, but two very funny episodes
Typically, “Weekend Update” features actors such as Bowen Yang or guests appearing as a character or themselves for a few minutes. Apparently there was no time for that this week, so “Update” was nothing more than jokes from Colin Jost and Michael Che. However, there were two that stood out. One of them was about salacious rumors involving Trump and former President Bill Clinton, which are very difficult to discuss in detail in this space. The video, which apparently featured a sound bite as a punchline, went so well that Yost had to stop himself from laughing so hard. Another was a great and simple joke about the US Mint. cessation of production of kopecks. “Not a cent!” – Che exclaimed. Well done, Che.
