Saturday Night Live
Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish
December 16, 2023
In my mind, the pre-Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live has traditionally been hosted by a former cast member — the perfect episode for some nostalgia and a homecoming. However, I did the math, and it turns out that over 49 seasons of SNL, only 10 of the Christmas episodes have been hosted by previous cast members, so go figure!
In any event, it’s the wonderful Kate McKinnon’s first trip back to SNL after having left the show in 2022 after 10 seasons. McKinnon is one of the best SNL performers of the past 20 years, a solid comedian who prefers to go full weird, and who has been the savior of many a sketch. And so I had high hopes for this episode, hopes that I’m afraid were unmet. It wasn’t a bad episode — McKinnon is always fun, she was joined by two other SNL greats, and the annual Christmas Joke Off is one for the ages — but overall, it feels like it could have been so much more.
A rare non-political cold open features “The Christmas Awards” — a flashy awards gala that hands out prizes for “Most Disappointing Gift to a 10-Year-Old Boy” and “Most Unwelcome Uninvited Guest.” Perfectly amusing enough, and an improvement by tenfold from last week’s cold open.
Grade: A-
Kate McKinnon’s monologue is about how weird it is for her to be doing the monologue because she vastly prefers just playing the weirdos in costume. And then, SURPRISE! Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig join her to sing a version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” because they are! They’re all home! It’s delightful.
Grade: A
A news report from the North Pole details a horrific killer whale attack on Sanat’s elves, of which McKinnon’s character is the only survivor. It’s fine — but I liked it better on Eddie Murphy’s episode back in 2019.
Grade: B+
Pongo! He’s the perfect pet! It has no holes and can never die! Also, it’s kinda wet! This is 100% a Sarah Squirm bit, and while I liked it at first … it drags a bit.
Grade: B
Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph return with McKinnon and Bowen Wang to pay homage to disco icons, ABBA. This is one of those bits where it feels like you’re watching your friends share an inside joke that you’re not a part of: the performers are clearly having a great time, but you’re not convinced you’re getting it.
Grade: B
Here, McKinnon is a mother who is so insecure about the gifts she’s chosen for her daughters that she screams at them to return them all and calls herself garbage. You know the type. Someone in your family is this woman.
Grade: B+
Here, McKinnon sings a folk song about women running a “tampon farm” where they harvest … tampons. Former SNL writer and comedic genius Paula Pell is down on the farm along with Rudolph, Wiig, Billie Eilish, and the entire female cast. Absurdist and the kind of sketch I was expecting more of on this episode.
Grade: A-
“Weekend Update” is, as always, fine. There are jokes about the $150 million judgment against Giuliani; Biden’s popularity (or lack thereof); the Harvard University president’s troubles; and … milk … and they’re fine.
Grade: B-
Ego Nwodim stops by the “Weekend Update Desk” as Rich Auntie with No Kids, and the entire joke seems to be that she dislikes her nieces and nephews and children in general.
Grade: B-
Che and Jost keep up their holiday tradition of the “Christmas Joke Off” and with the inclusion of “Dr. Hattie Davis,” a civil rights activist that Che has wheeled out to sit next to Jost while he tells racist and sexist jokes, this might be the greatest Joke Off yet.
Grade: A+++
At a company Christmas “Yankee Swap” — or white elephant, as normal people call it — a co-worker gives her fellow employee a cure for Sickle Cell Anemia, but he and everyone else are more interested in a “Boogie-Woogie Santa.”
Grade: B+
“Cinema Classics” explores the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, where the production tells Kate McKinnon’s child actress character that her dog died to elicit an emotional response from her. It goes poorly for everyone, including one unfortunate snowman.
Grade: B
Finally, with an assist from Billie Eilish, McKinnon revisits her recurring character, Barbara DeDrew who runs Whiskers R We, a cat adoption center. This time, instead of being joined by her girlfriend, she’s joined by Billie Eilish’s intern who also happens to be Barbara’s long-lost daughter. This is the ninth time Barabara has been on the show, so you should know what to expect with this: lots of cats, lots of cat puns, lots of innuendo.
Grade: B
Finally, this commercial featuring Paperless Post’s newest feature was cut for time, but as someone who has recently sent an Evite out for an upcoming event, I feel every part of this.
Final Grade: B+. It should have been higher.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.