Along with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, Melissa McCarthy is one of the artists who has appeared on Saturday Night Live so many times as a host or producer. extremely memorable guest performancesthat it's easy to forget that she wasn't a real actor.
McCarthy certainly could be, as she showed it off again in her sixth time as host, demonstrating her incredible commitment to comedy episodes. She has a talent for highlighting moments and introducing characters, from sad, strange loners to cunning and self-confident schemers. Even when McCarthy is simply portraying an improved version of herself, as in this episode's monologue, she is prone to throwing herself on the piano bench or introducing a new talent, namely the “mouth horn” (more on that in a moment).
As reliable a comic relief as McCarthy is, she can still be held back by a weak script, as has happened several times in past performances. She was helped in this episode by a sharp, cold opening featuring Colin Jost as the aggressive Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and a funny monologue that turned into a trio of sketches that were as great as anything she'd done on the show before, despite a few instances where her microphone sounded muffled.
She played an obsessive woman who clings to supermarket worker (Jeremy Culhane) is a friendly older neighbor handing out cheese samples. who goes to extremes show your friendship to a 12 year old boy and a terrible UPS employee caught for bad behavior on someone's doorbell camera.
Things got a little more complicated after “Weekend Update” with sketches that pushed McCarthy into supporting roles, such as Andrew Dismukes as overly sensitive Sunday dinner host and one about mothers who play truth or dare for the first time (gets sexy very quickly). It was okay, but it didn't take full advantage of McCarthy's ability and felt like it could have been done any other week.
Things improved later when McCarthy played the town's mayor. Cousin Planet in a very silly music video from Jane Wickline and Veronica Slowikowska and one half of a New York couple (with Bowen Young) showing off their kitschy holiday decorations for Spectrum News NY1.
McCarthy is a national comedic treasure, and when she's allowed to hit her stride on “SNL,” as she was in several late-night sketches, there's nothing quite like it.
Musical guest Dijon performed”HIGHER!” And “Baby!/Another baby!Before the farewell, the title page honored Craig Kellem, the series' producer. first season of “Saturday Night Live” WHO died this week.
This week's cold open brought back Yost as Hegseth at a White House press conference. Jost stars him as an irritable, energy drink-drinking hoodlum who begins by asking the assembled reporters, “Where are the fatties?” Referring to US attacks on shipping in VenezuelaHe told reporters: “Pretend I'm a random fishing boat and keep shooting.” Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman) was among the reporters who came to ask if the US intercepts all illegal items moving across borders or just drugs. Hegseth made references to pop culture in his responses, including references to “6-7” and sing some of the famous “Animaniacs.” song of the peoples of the world. A sleepy President Trump (James Austin Johnson), seated next to Hegseth, awakens from a sexy dream about New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to remind us that the “fog of war” only lifts when people try to cover up war crimes before taking a nap again. “We need to send him for another MRI before he wakes up,” Hegseth said.
In her monologue, McCarthy kicked off the Christmas season on “SNL” by showcasing her talent for “mouth horning,” a sort of humming/blowing/beatboxing of songs like “Carol of the Bells.” She had a lot of snow dumped on her and got into an argument with actor Marcello Hernandez as he tried to move a piano across the stage. Dejected, McCarthy was joined by Kenan Thompson, whom she called “Santa Kenan,” before the cast took the stage to close with “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with McCarthy crooning the song.
Best Sketch of the Night: Firing Worst UPS Employee – USPS Benefits
McCarthy plays Donna, a UPS delivery driver who dumps packages on a customer's porch, opens boxes and even squats to relieve herself until it gets dark, all shown in a series of surveillance videos. Donna's denials, her attempts to sneak out of a meeting with UPS managers (Mikey Day and Ashley Padilla), her fake fainting, and her persistence in chewing the paper while Day tries to get it out of her mouth were all excellent. So much so that Day, who worked with McCarthy from her days in The Groundlingsbegins to break character and hold back laughter, which is extremely rare for him.
That's also good: in July, cousins don't even exist.
You could make a strong argument that videos about a vengeful old lady and supermarket sketches are best suited for McCarthy, but there's something haunting and truthful about this low-quality video about where the cousins go when you don't see them during the holidays. It turns out that they live on the Planet of Cousins, where family secrets are revealed and every conversation becomes interesting. The first rule is that cousins should not date, but the second rule is that the first rule is flexible. It's a fun, weird video and a great showcase of famous players Wickline and Slowikowska.
“Weekend Update” winner: That's it, drunk raccoon, you're getting cut off
Ben Sherman was interesting as Lanceginger, heavily tanned on vacation (he even brought a choir of red-haired boys with him), but it was hard to top Sarah Sherman's ubiquitous depiction of a drunken raccoon that went viral after he was found passed out in a liquor store in Virginia. Sherman asked Update co-host Yost if they had met the night before and proceeded to proposition him (“I'll ride your head like Davy Crockett's hat”) while insulting him (“Quiet, piggy!”). The guest episode made good use of black and white to show Sherman as a raccoon caught by a Ring camera.
