Jon Hamm finally returns to ham it up on a great ‘Saturday Night Live’

Saturday Night Live
Jon Hamm & Lizzo
April 12, 2025

Last week, we learned that Jack Black hasn’t hosted Saturday Night Live in over 20 years, and this week we learned that Jon Hamm — SNL and 30 Rock favorite, Jon Hamm — hasn’t hosted in almost 15 years? What is even happening because neither of these things can possibly be right, could they? It feels like Hamm has been hanging around 30 Rock forever! And yet, this is only his fourth time actually to helm the show, the last time being all the way back in 2010. HOW CAN THIS EVEN BE?

Because the thing is, Jon Hamm is great on SNL. His leading man good looks allow him to play both to and against type. Hamm uses that square jaw of his to be both the serious news anchor/straight man/Don Draper and the dimwitted buffoon with absolutely nothing going on behind those pretty eyes. (Which is also what made him so perfect on 30 Rock as Liz Lemon’s dimwitted doctor boyfriend, Drew Baird, a man so handsome he unintentionally manipulates everyone around him. “So Handsome…so, so stupid!”)

And in this week’s episode, he made the most of both of those types in an episode that was almost all hits, zero misses. I don’t know what has been in the water at 8H for the past couple of weeks, but this was another consistently very funny episode, buoyed by a confident and capable host. Lorne, if you don’t give this man a Five-Timers jacket by the end of 2025, I … well, I don’t know what I’ll do other than be very upset. MORE HAMM.

The cold open begins as an Easter message, with a reenactment of Jesus overturning the money-counters’ table at the Temple, but the action is frozen by James Austin Johnson’s Trump, who compares himself and his erratic tariffs to Jesus. “Wow, I also got rid of money last week, but instead of one temple, I did whole country, maybe even the globe. The money’s gone. Hi, it’s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump, comparing myself to the Son of God once again. You know, many people are even calling me the messiah because of the mess-I-ah made out of the economy, all because of my beautiful tariffs.”

Similarly to when they did this on the January 25th cold open with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Founding Fathers, Johnson’s Trump then turns his attention to mocking the frozen actors who attempt to not break. Some are more successful than others.

Grade: A-

Jon Hamm’s monologue focuses on the fact that though he hasn’t hosted since 2010 (NO, REALLY, HOW?), he has cameoed some 14 times. And if you think about it, Hamm argues, cameos are super important to bringing a “medium sketch to a marginally better medium sketch” or to give an “aimless” monologue a jolt of energy. Cue the Kieran Culkin cameo where he alludes to the Hammaconda, and Hamm insists Mad Men was better than Succession. (Debateable.)

Grade: B+

Hamm and Ego Nwodim are the anchors of “Paycheck to Paycheck News,” news for people who don’t have stock market money, and are more concerned with the fluctuations in the price of boxed mac and cheese. Timely, funny, an excellent use of Jon Hamm’s anchor face, and worth watching again just for the crawl at the bottom, noting the changing prices for things like “Little Debbie,” “Cricket Wireless,” and “trampolines.”

Grade: A

“Please Don’t Destroy” drops early in the episode, with this sketch about a police detective who is WAY too excited about the pizza they’ve ordered to tide them over while they search for a missing girl.

Grade: A-

“Guess the Correct Answer” (or is it “Answer Questions Correctly”?) is essentially the $100,000 Pyramid, and Hamm’s character is worried that he’s going to give a bad answer that will go viral. In fact, he gives TERRIBLE answers that reveal him to be a racist alcoholic with a small penis. Best of all, the whole thing comes in under 4 minutes and manages to button it up just fine.

Grade: A

The sketch everyone is talking about this morning is this pre-tape: The White Potus. It’s this most recent season of The White Lotus, except populated by figures from the Trump administration, including the First Family themselves, as the rich family who don’t yet know that their patriarch has committed financial fraud and bankrupted them the country.

Brought back for the fun are SNL alums Beck Bennett to do his shirtless Putin thing, and Alex Moffat for his doofy Eric Trump. Scarlett Johansson also pops in briefly as Ivanka/Piper. There are a lot of moving parts with references to Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and RFK Jr. and a brief nod to Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea which wasn’t well-received by the actress herself. Overall, a very clever spoof of both the show and the bat-shit insane world we are all just trying to get through without being shot by a monkey.

Grade: A+

“Weekend Update” takes on the crazy roller coaster that has been this tariff mess, Elon Musk, DEI, and that weirdo RFK, Jr.

Grade: A-

Returning to the Weekend Update Desk: sassy Chinese Trade Minister Chen Biao, who we haven’t seen in a minute. Biao made four appearances in Trump’s first administration, and I suspect we’ll be seeing more of him in the coming years, what with all the tariff stupidity that is happening FOR NO GOOD REASON. The more things change, the more they stay exactly the same (seriously, click on that first link and watch Biao’s first appearance on the show 6 years ago: they could have just played that last night and no one would have known the difference).

Grade: A

Newbie Emil Wakim discusses a recent poll that shows young people are not proud to be American. He explains that he knows his life is great, he just doesn’t want to see all the cruelty that goes into making it that way. Sharp and honest.

Grade: A-

Sarah Sherman has found a new way to roast Colin Jost: this time as his accountant.

Grade: A

Bowen Yang and Jon Hamm are a gay couple who show up to a friend’s house with a new baby that they did not have the day before, and when the friends try to get to the bottom of the mystery, Yang and Hamm insist they can’t ask gay people such questions. Oh, and Lizzo is the baby. It’s fine … for a while, until it falls flat. (Also, this one feels familiar — I feel like there was a similar sketch sometime in the past couple of years where a gay couple claims their friends are being homophobic when they are just asking perfectly reasonable questions. But for the life of me, I can’t find any trace of it. Does anyone know what I’m talking about?)

Grade: B

As someone who spends all day working with MSNBC playing in the background, I could write a dissertation on pharmaceutical ads. But I don’t have to because SNL made this literally note-perfect commercial spoof. I understand why “The White Potus” is everyone’s favorite moment from last night, but this one was mine.

Grade: A++

Finally, at a work orientation meeting, new employees are encouraged to share one fun fact about themselves. While most folks share anodyne facts, like they are a twin or they like to paint, Jon Hamm’s character shares something much wilder. I won’t spoil it here, but Jon Hamm’s golden retriever smile is what makes this bit work to the degree that it does.

Grade: B

Final Grade: A — easily the best episode of the season so far.

Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.