Saturday Night Live
Walton Goggins & Arcade Fire
May 10, 2025
Walton Goggins is having a moment. Thanks to his simultaneous roles in The White Lotus and The Righteous Gemstones, he was all but unavoidable this winter/spring; and let us not overlook his starring role in Fallout, too (which just wrapped filming season two, hooray!).
Of course, Goggins has been serving sexy dirtbag energy for a long while now, delivering memorable performances in Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Vice Principals, and The Shield and going as far back as the original Beverly Hills 90210 where he played “Mike Muchin” in an 1992 episode I’m sure we all remember.
Just look at that collar.
This is a long way to go to say that it took a minute, but Goggins is one of those rare character actors whose talent and charisma has finally been appreciated by the audience at large, and has overcome the odds to become something of a household name. As such, it’s not a surprise he’s hosting Saturday Night Live this week — but it was a surprise at how little the show exploited his particular energy and brand. Of the six characters he played, only two were typical Goggins roles. Otherwise, the episode leaned into surrealist comedy, and relegated Goggins to the straight man, which often felt like a waste of his particular and specific talents.
The cold open begins as a typical SNL Mother’s Day open with a few cast members onstage with their mothers, expressing love, except! In comes James Austin Johnson’s Trump to interrupt the proceedings to make it all about himself. He does mention and immediately dismisses the elephant in the room: whether or not SNL was going to do a Pope cold open with the “Da Bears” joke that everyone and their drunk uncle made online this week. (They will not.)
But then, in a genuine surprise, Cecily Strong appears to do her amazing drunk Jeanine Pirro on the news that President Fox News has appointed her the interim US Attorney in Washington, DC, and to spit wine into the face of Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth. It goes on too long, we’re all exhausted by this fucking adminstration, but hey, they didn’t do the expected thing, and for that (and the return of Strong’s Pirro), I give them points.
Grade: B+
Walton Goggins’ monologue focuses on the backhanded compliments that come with becoming a sex symbol in one’s fifties, mentioning his receding hairline, and bulging eyes. And then because it’s Mother’s Day, he mentions that his mother taught him to two-step and clog, before bringing her up to dance with him. It’s adorable.
Grade: A-
In an oddly paced sketch, Goggins is Matt, a sunglasses-wearing attendee at the Constitutional Convention of 1789, who suggests the Second Amendment. That’s the entire sketch.
Grade: B-
In this digital short, Jane Wickline finds a tiny baby shoe at Central Park Zoo, and imagines who it might belong to. It’s not who you think.
Spoiler: I think we might have found a match for Dooneese.
Grade: B
Here, Goggins leans into his “greasy” sex symbol persona by playing a waiter at a Mother’s Day brunch who is really really into the moms, and could not care less about their sons. It’s the most conventional sketch of the night, but also one of the best because it’s Goggins being Goggins.
Grade: A
Someone came across this five-year-old photo of service dogs watching a performance of Billy Elliot as part of their training and decided to write an entire sketch about it:
Actual photo of service dogs watching Billy Elliot The Musical as part of their training
byu/Porodicnostablo ininterestingasfuck
It’s fine.
Grade: B
“Weekend Update” finally gets around to making whatever Pope jokes haven’t already been made on Bluesky, a couple of questionable Kanye jokes, and of course they come for President Wig.
Grade: B
Marcello Hernandez’s “The Movie Guy” returns to the “Weekend Update” desk to talk about the movies he hasn’t actually seen. It’s a funny bit made funnier when it turns to teasing Colin Jost about his marriage to Scarlett Johansson. Get those jokes in while you can, kids!
Grade: B+
Mikey Day also swings by the “Weekend Update” desk as a guy who ostensibly is there to talk abotu President Dumbass’ tariffs, but instead is “A Guy Who Just Walked Into a Spiderweb.” As he realizes that the spider is inside his shirt, the character devolves into unrestrained hysteria. It is a wonderful piece of pure dumb physical comedy, and I loved it.
Grade: A+
Finally, Heidi Gardner pops by the “Weekend Update” desk as Dianne, the Mom Who Has Only Read about New York City on Facebook, and she shares the fearmongering nonsense that is passed among people of a particular age. As someone who had this exact conversation just yesterday with some lovely people who have never been to New York before, I can tell you that Gardner’s character is not an exaggeration — if anything, she’s playing it too small — and it hit really close to home.
Grade: A-
Here, a family attends a horror-themed restaurant at an amusement park where the entire concept has not been fleshed out much more than the waitstaff warning people that this meal “might be [their] last.” Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim are clearly enjoying themselves, but I’m not convinced anyone else is.
Grade: B-
The final sketch is another digital bit, wherein Andrew Dismukes is invited over to his boss’ house to receive some good news: he’s being made partner! However, his joy is short-lived after he goes to the bathroom, and then can’t stop imagining his boss and his wife on the toilet. Also, cavemen? I don’t know. This is one of those sketches that did nothing for me, but I bet there are some folks who are REALLY enthusiastic about it, because: poop.
Grade: C+
Final Grade: B.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.