Saturday Night Live
Colman Domingo & Anitta
April 11, 2026
You might not know who Colman Domingo is — no judgment! My husband had no idea, for instance. But as Domingo points out in his monologue, Dhemingo has been in the business since the 90s (one of his first credits is as an extra in Friends), and he genuinely deserves to be more famous than he is. I first came across him in Fear the Walking Dead, where he was honestly the best thing on the show, and I walked away from that series a huge fan of his. Like his Fear the Walking Dead character, Victor Strand, Colman Domingo just oozes coolness and sophistication (you should definitely Google “Colman Domingo red carpet looks”) and intelligence.
However, aside from his role in Netflix’s The Four Seasons, there’s not a lot of comedy in his CV. I wasn’t sure if Domingo could tackle comedy, much less broad sketch comedy that might require him to drop the cool act — this is a man who was in Lincoln, Selma, and Sing Sing, hardly yuck fests. But it also turns out one of his early recurring roles was in the cast of an early 2000s sketch comedy show, The Big Gay Sketch Show, where he was cast members with the likes of Kate McKinnon. And that experience shone through in last night’s performance: Domingo was goofy, game, and genuinely funny on his own, helming one of the best episodes of the season, all without losing a shred of his effortless cool. Bring him back, Lorne; he’s a gift.
Welp, we knew it couldn’t last: President War Crimes is back for the cold open. Here, they touch upon his completely bonkers Easter tweet (I know it’s not a tweet, shut up); Tiger Woods’ arrest; Melania’s weird press statement about Jeffrey Epstein; and the war in Iran. Points for Chloe’s Melania, which is quite good.
Grade: B+
Colman Domingo spends most of his monologue assuring people that he knows they probably don’t know who he is, but that he’s been acting since the 90s, before reminding them of some of his bigger roles, notably Fear the Walking Dead and Euphoria. He then “gets a vibe going,” altering the lighting to something more flattering for people of color, changing up the music, and adjusting the camera angles. It feels very on brand.
Grade: A-
Here, a news reporter interviews the witnesses to a bank robbery, all of whom happen to be bitchy students and professors at The Fashion Institute of Technology, and who have many thoughts on the robber’s fashion crimes. Domingo absolutely shines here, and it bodes well for a strong night. Side note: I spend a lot of time in New York these days, and my only criticism of this bit is that the FIT students’ outfits are not nearly outrageous enough. Genuinely.
Grade: A
Are you a white man who needs therapy but can’t afford it? Have you tried a black barber shop where they will insult you, give you sex tips, and give you the best/worst haircut of your life?
Grade: A
Domingo is Artemis II’s pilot, Victor Glover, and he’s just trying to send Earth a message of inspiration from space. However, his fellow crew, specifically Reid Weisman and Jeremy Hansen, keep floating by, doing shenanigans. It’s funny enough, and the zero gravity effects are well played. (Between this and the ice skating sketch from Connor Storie’s episode, it feels like the set designer is really going for some big swings this season.) However, the ending feels a little half-baked.
Grade: B
You’ve seen the “Jonathan Frakes Asks You Things” supercuts, right?
This sketch is kinda that, except Domingo plays a TV host who “surprises” his audience by revealing that pieces of the set are actually people in disguise. This is one of those sketches that just didn’t work for me: it went on way too long, and the ending came out of left field. But the absurdity is such that I know some people are going to be very enthusiastic about it.
Grade: B-
“Weekend Update” was strong this week: Jost presents a tweet that is so batshit insane that it is possible President Rotting Hand very well might have posted it; there’s an amazing JD Vance clip that I somehow had not seen; they touch on the Iran war, Tiger Woods, RFK’s new podcast, and Melania’s weird Epstein statement.
Grade: A
“Two Kids From the Back of the Bus” visit the “Weekend Update” desk to give a report on the economy and make “deez nutz” jokes.
Grade: B
And a Gen Z Sexpert who has clearly never had sex also stopped by the “Weekend Update” desk.
Grade: B+
Ashley Padilla plays an adult daughter welcoming guests to her elderly father’s wake while her teen sons are shocked to learn that their grandfather was a sex worker, or, as grandpa preferred to be called, a “boy whore.” There are a number of things that make this sketch work and elevates it from being a one-joke bit: Padilla’s nice vanilla middle-aged lady who is completely nonplussed about her father being “in the life,” and who is friendly with all of his many pimps, the recurring joke that one son is good-looking enough to go into the family business but the other should go to college, Colin Jost, and the surprise inclusion of Mikey Day’s Waffle House character. I love that we have a whole Waffle House universe.
Grade: A
A new teacher at an all-boys prep school encourages the students to think outside the box, except the subject isn’t poetry or art, it’s math, where you can’t just make things up. I didn’t love this one, but, again, it feels like that might just be another preference thing. (One of my least favorite movie genres is “Privileged Prep School Boys Learn About Life.”) That said, props to Andrew Dismukes who does a pretty good straight man here.
Grade: B-
It was announced last week that Ryan Coogler will be adapting the ’90s kids’ series, Animorphs, into a new TV series at Disney, which certainly inspired this wacky end piece. Here, the “Beastomorphs” defeat an evil alien, only to have one of them sneeze and fart simultaneously when she is shifting back into her human form, pausing the transformation halfway through and turning her into an abomination. This one, down to its dark ending, has Sarah Sherman’s surrealist fingerprints all over it.
Grade: B+
Cut for Time: Jack Harlow on “Weekend Update” discusses his new album and the allegations he tried to sneak the “N-word” into a song.
Final Grade: A-.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.