Actor Josh O'Connor was a robust presenter who disappeared into every performance in which he participated, like a new, nervous repertoire player, and Lily Allenexciting musical performances West End Girl the songs were negatively affected by the producer's choice. But despite the guests' problems, this was one of the strongest and most intense episodes of the season, thanks to smart and rewarding writing (there were a lot of sketches this week) and great performances, especially from Ashley Padilla. That's all that happened on Saturday Night Live This week.
Cold opening
Donald Trump gave a press conference on Air Force One after introducing White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt, played by James Austin Johnson and Ashley Padilla, respectively. Trump criticized his first presidency, patted a curtain and launched into a bizarre speech about Cap'n Crunch when asked about the attack on Venezuela. As usual, Johnson's Trump is a hilariously maniacal sociopath, and it all happens at a nice, frenetic pace.
Monologue
Actor Josh O'Connor explained to America who he was, highlighting his roles in Crown, Contenders and new Knives out movie, Wake up, dead man. He also told a funny story about his connection to rumors of a live-action version of the film. Ratatouilleboth suggest that he didn't want it to exist, and yet, funny enough, he also lobbied for it. It was charming and fun.
Let's find love
Kenan Thompson played Garth Vader, the host of the game show Love Affair, whose male contestant was played by O'Connor. It was revealed that the series had raised its age limit, resulting in Ashley Padilla portraying an eccentric 84-year-old woman. As always, Padilla immediately captured every scene she appeared in, acting like a frustrated animated character and repeating key lines for comedic relief. This one had a nice twist ending too.
Uber eats in a package
In this episode, the show parodied Spotify Wrapped by inventing a very embarrassing new stats tool called Uber Eats Wrapped. Very funny.
Blood Trainee
Andrew Dismukes played a patient awaiting test results from a doctor. This led to Bowen Yang reprising his strange, mystical time-traveling character, here called Doctor Please. O'Connor played his intern Shirley, and the pair kissed at least twice. It was stupid as hell and provided the comedic timing it needed to succeed.
Bachelorette weekend
Ashley Padilla played a bride-to-be enjoying her bachelorette party when two strippers show up. These dancers, played by O'Connor and Ben Marshall, were sensitive and smart, which appealed to Padilla's character but prompted Jane Wickline's horned character to insist on getting someone's ass kicked ASAP. It was an enjoyable and surprising comedy that combined physicality and costumes.
Lily Allen
Sitting on a bed in an artfully decorated boudoir, Lily Allen wandered around the room singing the slinky “Sleepwalking,” which had a Dusty Springfield pop vibe. Allen was so busy with the camera crew that at one point a crew member's head inadvertently covered hers, which seemed appropriate because her singing here wasn't technically accurate on air. Something about Allen's choice to sing instead of ready instruments really made her performances seem different here. Her voice was too high compared to the pre-recorded music, which even Dakota Johnson's cameo in Madeline couldn't save.
Weekend update
Colin Jost poked fun at Trump's recent crazy casino speech about the economy. Michael Che introduced us to the term “Fatmentia” and Jost told the decent Kristi Noem/ Exorcist joke. Che reported on church sex scandals through a glory hole joke before Jost brought in Marcello Hernandez to do a seasonal stand-up routine about family gatherings.
Hernandez told us how his parents tried to teach him lessons by having heroes like Santa Claus, Spider-Man and Lorne Michaels “call” him on the phone. It was normal.
Che told us that Long Island spends the most money on OnlyFans, and Yost made a cheesy joke about Waffle House. Jane Wickline pulled out her keyboard and sang us a new song called “The Greatest Threat to Humanity Right Now.” Wickline seemed to surprise Jost when her song, apparently about the dangers of artificial intelligence, actually suggested that all the actors on Stranger Things must be killed to save humanity. Wickline rules, and these are rules too.
The Wizard of Oz: Deleted Scenes
To celebrate success Wicked fans were treated to deleted scenes from The Wizard of Oz. Among other things, we learned that Lev had no interest in being brave and wanted the Wizard to give him a giant penis. In fact, almost every character made the same request, with the exception of Dorothy. It's funny, but Toto wanted the opposite.
Brad and his dad's Christmas
This was the second time that the exhibition was presented Brad and his father animated function. As before, Brad and his divorced father had a sad meeting, this time before Christmas, in some different Mike Judge style.
Simon in college
At a college party, Bowen Young played 12-year-old Simon, a precocious, high-achieving young man who confounds his fellow students with his age and his emotional reaction to the arrival of his mother, Heather (Ashley Padilla), who stops by to raise him. Ian was superb in this, inspiring O'Connor to pull off the same explosive stunt to cap off this exciting sketch.
Characters about characters
On a funny idea, it's ripped off Diversitysmarmy peer-to-peer showbiz interviews in which various Christmas characters are paired up for heated conversations. The highlight had to be Ashley Padilla's still-in-shock grandmother getting hit by a deer.
lSongwriting by Ealy Allen
Unusually, the show devoted an entire essay to the song features of the evening's musical guest. Various restaurant scene actors barged into Lily Allen impressions to promote the sketch until Allen herself joined in on the fun. A little clunky, but it still worked.
