Sabrina Carpenter Does It All

For the eagle-eyed Saturday Night Live observer, news It's no surprise that Sabrina Carpenter will be doing double duty as host and musical guest this season. Although last night's episode was Carpenter's first appearance as host, the singer appeared in one form or another with Jon Hamm-level frequency throughout the show. SNL Universe over the past year. In particular, she appeared in the sequel to the insanely viral “Domingo” sketch (starring the original Triple Threat film) Ariana Grandeused Carpenter's hit “Espresso”) along with Pedro Pascal for SNL50th Anniversary Special. And okay, of course, there were a million and one cameos during filming. SNL50and Carpenter was already there to sing a duet with Paul Simonso we won't count it.

But here she is I'll work a little with Marcello Hernandez (as Domingo) at her concert in Los Angeles! And there she accidentally appears as a short queen in Monologue by Quinta Brunson last May! And there's Kyle Mooney appears in her Netflix Christmas special! AND Jane Wickline then gave a weekend update talk. about said Netflix special! All this said, Carpenter has been preparing for this performance for at least a year, so perhaps it's no surprise that she did an incredibly good job on Saturday.

It would be easy to call Carpenter a natural, but it's important to remember that she's a Disney kid through and through, and I mean that as a compliment. Star Girl meets world At age 14, Carpenter underwent the grueling comedy acting training reserved for Disney's group of hard-working child actors. Her charisma and stage confidence were on full display in this solid episode, along with her finely tuned sense of timing and truly unexpected line readings. Put this girl in a Goldie Hawn-style romantic comedy. Now!

Obviously, the show's writers and producers had confidence in Carpenter's abilities as a performer because she was in every sketch nights – including cold openwhich was nothing less than part of the ever-expanding Domingo canon. This is notable for several reasons. Usually the cold open covers some political and/or topical current event (which is certainly not what it used to be), and unless they're old-timers, the host usually doesn't show up. The sketch itself was… correct! Domingo, as a character and a conceited sketch, has diminishing returns for this reviewer, but Carpenter's unconventional reading of the word “together” at the top of the sketch was a fun moment.

Monologue of the evening was short and sweet, perhaps due to an overtime college football game that crashed during the show's run. Immediately Carpenter turned to nothingburger scandal around the release of her latest album, panning to reveal that it was, of course, Bowen Yang “helping her up by her hair” on the controversial cover Man's best friend. The biggest line of the monologue was that Carpenter's whole point is that she's horny, but you wouldn't know it from her performance in last night's episode. In fact, the show was at its best when it allowed the singer to show off her comedic chops outside of herself. sexy babe stage image.

Here are the main points:

In this sketch, which began in the evening after Carpenter's monologue, Carpenter, Chloe Fineman, Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska play a group of teenage boys who host a podcast called “Snack Homiez.” What really impresses me about this sketch is that it could so easily turn into Gen Z hospital areabut the characters are so well-defined and, as many online commentators have noted, eerily accurate that this disgraceful sketch avoids cringing. That's not too far off from how teens and tweens will actually speak in 2025! Snack Homiez's calming, stupid movements reminded me of this. Kate McKinnon-Aidy Bryant, two-handed weapon from 2021. The sketch comes to full fruition when James Austin Johnson joins as his signature dopey Trump, and there are so many great lines here that they can't be listed, but “I'm going to heaven, babble?” was a winner for me. It occurred to me that I actually prefer Johnson's Trump when he is placed in such meaningless, unexpected situations rather than, say, next to him. Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth.

Although Bowen Yang unfortunately missed yesterday's episode (he was busy accepting the honor from the Academy Museum in Los Angeles) he luckily had time to pre-record this digital short with Carpenter about the joys of grinding at a high school dance. “Grind Song” feels like a late-2000s throwback to the best viral Lonely Island sketches (see: “Like A Boss” or “I Just Had Sex”). I think the main thing is that the song is really well written and catchy! The sketch is also full of fun little character moments, such as Kenan Thompson's long-suffering principal climbing onto a bridge. I could see the hook of this song finding a second life on TikTok, like “Big Boys”

Carpenter shines here as the crazed (and, frankly, probably concussed) Quinlisha, the host of a seminar on how to be a girl boss. In the same vein as past sketches such as “Seminar on male confidence.” “Girlboss Seminar” is essentially a showcase of how a protagonist can say crazy things, and Carpenter does a great job of it. “Girl, there's a special place in hell for women who are women,” Quinlisha preaches after being thrown out of a window by her dancers. “But when you're riding in the car of success, the only thing Susan B has is Anthony. I during menstruation! There were a few technical errors in this sketch, such as the sound cutting out briefly at the top and Kenan Thompson throwing a dummy offstage that missed its target, but these only added to the overall sense of comedy-horror chaos.

“Plans” is a digital sketch that covers well-trodden territory—Ben Marshall and Carpenter play a couple who forget their plans to spend a weekend with an annoying family member—but it's enhanced by hyper-specific character details. Shot like a horror film, the sketch includes chilling footage of an annoying family member played by Sarah Sherman, who is a big fan of running marathons, and her husband (Mikey Day), aka “the guy who always shows me YouTube videos.” It's a universal premise of the sketch and a strong example of Carpenter's commitment to the episode—her delivery of the line “They don't believe it” is a definite highlight.

I have to say that I'm not usually a fan of fart jokes, but “Surprise” really got to me. Ashley Padilla plays a woman in this film who practically can't stop farting in front of her co-workers. This sketch has a 10 to 1 chance of being completely Padilla, who actually seems to be in pain when she farts. It's unpleasant to watch, almost upsetting, and ultimately very funny. Some of the actors seem to break down here, including Ben Marshall and Chloe Fineman, which is a good sign of a well-written and executed sketch. It's important to note that the version of the sketch posted on YouTube is actually from a dress rehearsal for the episode, not the live sketch that aired last night. In this version, Padilla skips a line, but somehow it makes the sketch better.

• “My grandmother always says that short people will be tall in heaven.”

• At the very end of the episode, Martin Herlihy (who is officially the writer, not the actor) starred in a digital short film the tone was very reminiscent of the “Please Don't Destroy” sketch. I don't know what to make of this, but the short was funny!

• “You know what should be stuck in your head? Our anniversary. Today.” “Once you cheated, I decided to forget.”

• I liked the production of both of Carpenter's musical plays.

• Weekend Update is back with a bunch of solid, if expected, jokes about George Santos and Trump's TIME cover. But my favorite part of this segment had nothing to do with any of the trending topics. Instead it was Colin Jost's reaction to a message about a shorter fall foliage season: “Cool, I think I'll just kill myself then!”

• New cast member Tommy Brennan made his Debut update Last night with the opening line for all time: “I look like a guy who was really good at football before integration.”

• We miss Heidi and Ego so much, especially in an episode that felt a lot like a bachelorette party.