Continue reading “Everything is furiously spinning out of control, so let’s talk about Miss Piggy”
Tag: snl
Ariana Grande was the perfect parting gift for Bowen Yang’s final ‘Saturday Night Live’ episode
Saturday Night Live
Ariana Grande & Cher
December 20, 2025
Ariana Grande returned to host Saturday Night Live for the third time, tasked with helming what is traditionally one of the best episodes of the year: the holiday episode. Recent previous hosts include SNL alums and royalty, including: Kate McKinnon, Martin Short and Steve Martin, Paul Rudd and Eddie Murphy, and so choosing her to host this episode suggests a degree of trust and faith SNL and Lorne Michaels have in Grande to deliver. On top of all that pressure, this episode was also now-legendary cast member Bowen Yang’s final show. So not only did Grande have to carry the Christmas episode, it also fell to her to usher Yang’s goodbye. And I’m happy to report she pulled it off.
This episode was easily the consistently funniest of the season so far. Grande was her delightful elfin self, leaning into whatever ridiculous task she was given, while also providing emotional support for Bowen’s final bow. All in all, a terrific episode, and she’ll be back for her Five-Timers jacket in no time.
Looks like tomorrow’s ‘SNL’ will be Bowen Yang’s last
Josh O’Connor kisses his way through the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Josh O’Connor & Lily Allen
December 13, 2025
I do not know who Josh O’Connor is. Despite having watched and enjoyed Challengers, and having seen Peaky Blinders and The Crown, I have no idea who this man is.
And it would seem that the SNL writers were in a similar quandary this week, because they placed this man in so many sketches where he basically just filled space. He also occasionally made out with a male cast member, playing off the homoeroticism of Challengers, which I am guessing is the only thing the writers’ room saw him in.
It’s a shame, Josh O’Connor seems like a perfectly endearing actor: his monologue was self-deprecating and amusing, and I’m sure they could have done something more with his British charm. But it certainly feels like the show sandwiched him between two reliable hosts, Melissa McCarthy and Ariana Grande, and they decided to just take this week off.
Continue reading “Josh O’Connor kisses his way through the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’”
Melissa McCarthy pratfalls her way back into our hearts on ‘Saturday Night Live’
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.
Continue reading “Melissa McCarthy pratfalls her way back into our hearts on ‘Saturday Night Live’”
Netflix was unprepared for how excited you people were for ‘Stranger Things’
Scrub in: We have our first peek at the return of ‘Scrubs’
Move over ‘When Harry Met Sally’: This is the absolute funniest version of the ‘enemies to lovers’ rom-com trope ever
Glen Powell’s charm offensive is overshadowed by the return of ‘MacGruber’ on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Glen Powell & Olivia Dean
November 15, 2025
Confession: I don’t get Glen Powell. I understand that he’s conventionally handsome and that he’s a huge movie star and that he has a “boyish charm” or whatever. But I also find his face kinda punchable? Not my thing, I guess, is what I’m saying; his name on the marquee is not going to draw me in.
So color me shocked at how charmed I was by Powell’s freshman outing as host of Saturday Night Live. He was funny and clearly having a great time in every sketch, and, dare I say it, endearing, thanks in large part to a winning monologue that helped explain why this is his first time on the 8H stage. I don’t know that you’d count me as a “fan” of Glen Powell now, but I definitely walked away from this episode liking him more than I did coming into it.
Oh, and yeah, they also gave us new “MacGruber,” as a little treat. And though it’s only the 6th episode of the season, it’s the best so far.
Nikki Glaser hosts a perfectly safe, perfectly obvious ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Nikki Glaser & sombr
November 8, 2025
Nikki Glaser is first and foremost a stand-up comedian who specializes in brash comedy — she talks a lot about her sex life — that makes some people (men) uncomfortable. Personally, I never loved her stand-up; it feels a little try-hard and is sometimes just mean (often to herself). But then she became host of F-Boy Island on HBO Max, and her sense of humor, her shrewd eye, and ability to roast these dumb men to their faces, it made me a fan — of at least her hosting reality shows. Honestly, I wish ABC would replace Jesse Palmer with Glaser to host The Bachelorette, but ABC would NEVER.
So how’d she do as host of a sketch comedy show? She was fine. She was goofy and funny, and she seemed to be having a lot of fun. The sketches were inoffensive in the sense that they didn’t punch down (because let’s be clear, there was some “offensive” material, i.e., toilet humor and sex doll jokes, in here). But there also seemed to be a lack of willingness to do anything daring or anything that would make Nikki Glaser look unattractive.
This week, there was a piece on Pajiba complaining that SNL has a “hot person problem,” arguing that when an attractive host comes on the show, SNL often writes sketches about how good-looking they are. But what the piece ignored is that the host has a lot of say about which sketches make it on air. For instance, Leslie Jones talks about how she admired Margot Robbie for daring to look ugly in her episode, and this is a long piece about all the sketches that were cut when President Megalomaniac hosted because he didn’t want to look like a “loser.” So, in a sense, the Pajiba article is right: SNL does have a hot person problem, in that they allow hot people to only choose sketches that make them look hot.
This is a long way to go to say that I think Glaser’s whole brand is being a funny hot girl, and it seems clear she was unwilling to do anything that might contradict that image. As a result, we had an episode that was perfectly fine, but not nearly as edgy as you might expect from the likes of Glaser.
(So many words to say the episode was just OK!)
Continue reading “Nikki Glaser hosts a perfectly safe, perfectly obvious ‘Saturday Night Live’”