Saturday Night Live
Melissa McCarthy & Dijon
December 6, 2025
NOTE: I am obviously running behind with my SNL recaps because I was out of town for the last couple of weeks. This week’s recap will be up sometime hopefully later today or tomorrow. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Melissa McCarthy is an SNL pro, but you know that already. McCarthy is maybe our funniest female physical comedian (maybe our funniest physical comedian, full stop), but she is also gifted at creating endearing weirdo characters whole cloth. She’s a natural fit for the show; every time she’s on, it’s a joy; and you just know Lorne Michaels would hire he in an instant if he could afford her.
So why is it that this is the first time for McCarthy to host in over EIGHT YEARS? I know it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since she hosted, thanks to a handful of cameos here and there, but the last time she hosted was in May of 2017. HOW? Did Lorne Michaels lose her phone number? Did she go live on an island for a few years? Did she have beef with someone on the cast in those missing years? Did she just really hate Chris Redd?
It’s a mystery for the ages. But after this episode, which I thought was solidly funny, I hope McCarthy isn’t a stranger for so long again.
Colin Jost returns in the cold open as the aggressive Pete Hegseth in a Pentagon press conference to address questions about “Operation Kill Everybody,” better known as our military murdering Venezuelan boaters. Jost’s Hegseth screams at reporters, calls them fat, and fantasizes about drinking. Sarah Sherman revisits her soooooper icky Matt Gaetz (which looks nothing like Matt Gaetz, but nails his creep factor), and Hegseth brings out President High Energy Alpha for backup, only to find President Redbull fast asleep.
Grade: A-
Melissa McCarthy brings her trademark physical comedy to the cold open, but it feels a little meh. She plays the “mouth horn” (just her humming into a microphone), gets a bunch of snow dumped on her, and is attacked by a piano. It’s fine, but I honestly expected more from her.
Grade: B-
McCarthy plays an attention-starved weirdo who doesn’t know how to act when offered a free sample at a grocery store. It goes a little long, but McCarthy shines in this kind of role, and her chemistry with Jeremy Culhane is delightful.
Grade: A
Feeling the holiday spirit, a young boy helps shovel his elderly neighbor’s sidewalk. Touched by the gesture, the woman repays the favor over and over again in increasingly inappropriate ways. I don’t want to give away the jokes, because this one literally had me laughing out loud. Just … just watch.
Grade: A++
Here, McCarthy is a UPS driver who is confronted by management over some customer complaints; specifically from one house that she has repeatedly terrorized, and it’s all caught on doorbell camera footage. There aren’t any new ideas here, but it’s a perfect showcase for McCarthy’s physicality and willingness to do anything for a laugh. In fact, this sketch serves as a reminder that she is one of the few hosts who can break the cast.
Grade: A+
After a few mild weeks, “Weekend Update” seems to have retrieved its mojo. Jost and Che drag President Fake Peace Prize for filth; make a pointed ICE joke; a great Home Alone joke; and manage to joke about that Epstein dentist chair without mentioning those creepy-ass masks.
Grade: A
Ben Marshall makes his “Weekend Update” debut as A Redhead Who Went on Vacation. Basically, he’s sunburned. Really really really sunburned.
Grade: B
And Sarah Sherman returns to the “Weekend Update” desk as the official mascot of 2025: the drunk raccoon. Mostly, it’s an excuse for her to come on to and harass Colin Jost. (And no, she did not use a slur against him; she called him “fat.”)
Grade: A
A group of wine-drinking moms play a game of Truth or Dare in which all of the dares seem to be sexual in nature, while all of the truths are completely mundane questions about recipes and holidays. Their southern accents and the latent lesbianism make it feel like a spoof of The Hunting Wives, which would be fine if they hadn’t just done an explicit spoof of The Hunting Wives a few episodes ago. Still, it’s amusing, thanks in large part to the contrast of the inspidness of truths compared to the outrageousness of the dares.
Grade: B+
A group of friends has Sunday dinner together, but when one friend suggests they do it every week, and the others gently shoot down his idea, he proceeds to freak out. It’s a little Tim Robinson-y, but it doesn’t quite go absurdist enough to pull it off.
Grade: B-
Here, Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska make a video as a pair of siblings who are confused as to where their cousins go after the holidays. I’m sure this is for someone, but I am not that someone.
Grade: B-
Finally, a Yonkers couple gives the local news a tour of their holiday decorations.
I thought this was going to be a spoof of this amazing HGTV clip:
… and maybe it was? But if it was, it wasn’t particularly successful as the original is much funnier than SNL‘s version.
Grade: B-
Final Grade: A-.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.