Recap of Saturday Night Live
The SNL veteran hosts a solid episode that also includes some of her old characters making a comeback
Saturday Night Live celebrates Easter with a re-enactment of the Last Supper, interrupted by the newly indicted/indicted Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), who immediately compares himself to the Messiah: “Mr. Jesus, quite a guy! But now people might say I’m even better than Jesus because I’m a self-made billionaire and I was Christ, let’s call it what it is, a Nepo baby, okay?”
The ex-Prez and potential future ex-con babbles about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (“I was very generous in pretending to like him, then he made a Judas… now he can’t even do Disneyworld gays out”), Good Friday (“We’d do Great Fridays with me, maybe even TGI Fridays, with that stuff on the walls…”) and egg hunts (“I’ve got a lot of nice eggs from the White House days and now the Justice Department says where are the eggs, we need the eggs back”). As with last week’s Trump-centric cold, there’s not much meat on the bone, but Johnson’s impression remains a winner.
Former cast member Molly Shannon returns as presenter for a second year. The actress, comedian, and new writer briefly discusses her struggles before, with the help of the neurotic cast, a smug Lorne Michaels and a rabid Martin Short, in the throes of Ozempic withdrawal, she begins a rendition of Everything is Coming Up Roses begins before wrapping things up with her autograph “Superstar!” Pose. It’s nice to see Shannon literally get her roses, even if it’s Short who gets the monologue’s only real laugh.
During a job orientation session, Andrew Dismukes’ veteran valet demonstrates to a trio of new hires the cornerstones of success: “Lil joke, lil bow, lil jog.” Things quickly get out of hand when the trainees verbally abuse, tease, and threaten hotel guests. As with many SNL sketches, there’s no forward narrative progression, just a bunch of gormless heists that quickly fizzle out.
Shannon is bringing back her ‘legendary’ stand-up comic book character Jeannie Darcy for a new Netflix special. Though the ad promises a “no prisoners” show, Darcy’s is freaky material (“Have you heard about this TikTok thing? The only tick-tock I’m running is my biological clock. Don’t get me started…”) and wooden delivery note the audience cold. Barring a tinge of nostalgia, the sketch also falls flat, especially as it initially promises, but then fails to deliver, a parody of Chris Rock’s recent divisive Netflix special. It’s also haunted by another in Chloe Fineman’s long line of bad celebrity impressions (in this case, Sarah Silverman).
At an office baby shower, Shannon’s mom-to-be discovers her baby bump was just gas after she “rips up a big ol’ fart.” Pleasantly youthful, if noticeably plagued by some off-timing.
Then, in a new Please Don’t Destroy, Ben, Martin and John Shannon introduce their favorite video game that happens to be based on their lives. Molly Shannon 2k23 lets you play as Shannon and “balance your acting career while raising your family.” Though confused at first, she soon becomes addicted to it, turning into a withdrawn gamer who pees in Gatorade bottles.
Next, a playwright (Heidi Gardener) and her new boyfriend (Devon Walker) attend the opening night of their new autobiographical play, A Year of a Thousand Men. He is forced to sit horrified and humiliated as the play depicts them breaking through 999 men — including musical guest Nick Jonas’ handsome ex and the entire Los Angeles Lakers — before reluctantly settling on him. Just as another meta-twist makes things interesting, the sketch ends abruptly.
In Weekend Update, Michael Che gets Aladdin villain Jafar (Bowen Yang) to talk about Ron DeSantis’ all-out war against Disney after the company opposed its “Don’t Say Gay” law. Jafar concedes that DeSantis is rightfully nasty (“I mean, ban Rosa Parks in schools? I’m a dark wizard and even I’m like, Jesus, dude, it’s Rosa Parks”) but scoffs at his attempts to Disney World gay-free: “If there is no gay, there is no Disney. And everyone loves Disney, including you – because your idiot got married there. And that’s the gayest thing you can do!” Watching Yang lend his swagger to a real character (as opposed to just playing a heightened version of himself, as usual) is a welcome change. It’s also about time SNL started working hard after DeSantis.
Later in the segment, Gardner reappears as Your Very Busy Coworker, Crystal, an over-stressed, hypermanic office worker who makes a huge mess by throwing paperwork and lettuce all over the desk, and Colin Jost. That kind of high energy performance has been sorely missed at Update since Cecily Strong departed earlier this season.
Next, Shannon plays a commercial actor who directs a musical commercial for a new menopausal drug called Vagerted. Several different themes play out simultaneously – the drug’s horrid name, Shannon’s actor turning viciously on her co-stars, Kenan Thompson’s pitchman deviating from the script – and none of them are given enough time to develop.
To coincide with the Easter holidays, Shannon is bringing another of her beloved characters back to life, this time with cheeky 50-year-old showwoman Sally O’Malley, who has been newly hired as the Jonas brothers’ new choreographer. With the group in tow, she demonstrates her signature moves (“Kick! Stretch!”) along with some heavy camel toes.
The episode ends by returning to Trump’s impeachment via CNZen, a new meditation app for people whose “whole personality hates Donald Trump.” The app features newscasters, political reporters and elected officials – including Wolf Blitzer (Sarah Sherman), Maggie Haberman (Shannon) and a tearful Lindsey Graham (Johnson) – who provide erotic ASMR coverage of the case against Trump for wearing pussyhats Liberals to back up relax and pick up their rocks. Thanks to SNL for finding a clever new angle to approach this story while also taking some much-needed pee from the other side for a change.
While not quite as consistent as last week’s episode, this edition of Saturday Night Live still had its fair share, including some predictably solid moderation from veteran Shannon, another entertaining edition of Weekend Update – which is a marked improvement throughout the season has shown – and a particularly strong closer.
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