When Ariana Grande appeared as the musical guest on a March episode of “Saturday Night Live,” it wasn’t hard to predict (and we did) that she’d be back in the fall to promote the November release of her movie “Wicked.” But instead of doing double-duty as host and musical act like Bad Bunny did last season, Grande insisted in her opening monologue (in song) that she’s planned to keep it low key.
Thank goodness she was joking.
After accurately imitating the singing voices of Britney Spears, Miley Cryus and Gwen Stefani in the monologue, Grande told Yang, dressed in a pink “Wicked”-inspired gown, that their sketch about the movie was cut. Then she kick-lined with dancers and promised not to duet with Nicks (“Worth a shot!”).
Grande, who could be up for some Grammy nominations soon, may not have been the musical guest, but she had plenty of songs to show off her powerful voice on the show. In addition, her sketches played to her strengths as a performer with crack comedic timing, who turns out to be as talented a mimic as the show’s own cast members.
The guest host expertly spoofed Celine Dion’s recent NFL appearance with a UFC-themed version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” and in a sketch that required Grande to do an impression of Jennifer Coolidge in a Maybelline commercial opposite current “SNL” impressionist Chloe Fineman and “SNL” legend Dana Carvey doing their own Coolidge takes, the pop star’s sounded most like “The White Lotus” Emmy winner.
Grande also sang — in a very, very high voice — as a castrated boy in the Italian renaissance whose parents (Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg) explain the concept of “Castrato.” In a pre-taped video, she performed a song about the smells of her best friend’s house (it takes a dark turn). And in a sketch about a competitive mom meeting her son’s boyfriend for the first time, she fought with, and kissed, fellow “Wicked” cast member Bowen Yang. She also played a double-crossing hotel detective inspector as well as a member of a wedding party singing purposefully off key lyrics, inspired by “Espresso,” to expose bad behavior at the bachelorette party.
The guest host broke character a few times, but she always recovered quickly and turned in a stellar performance on an episode that started five minutes late due to college football. Musical guest Stevie Nicks performed her new pro-choice anthem “The Lighthouse” and “Edge of Seventeen.” For the third week in a row, no Please Don’t Destroy video, but the boys can be seen in a recent Instagram video shot at the “SNL” offices and are apparently working on an ad for Allstate.
“SNL” knows when it’s struck gold, as it did with the season premiere’s stacked cold open featuring Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris and Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden, which it followed by bringing the same guest stars back for the vice presidential debate. This week, the show reverted to a fantasy episode of “Family Feud” aired by CNN with the Democrats facing off against the Republicans and Steve Harvey (Kenan Thompson) hosting the “Feud.”
Kamala referenced her busy week of media appearances – she says she went on Howard Stern’s show to appeal to horny cab drivers — former President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) insisted immigrants are eating Moo Deng and J.D. Vance (Yang) accused Democrats of turning The Joker “into a gay guy obsessed with Lady Gaga.”
The format was fun but the comedic beats were almost identical to the previous two cold opens, with a confused Biden, the bombastic dad-energy of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and second gentleman Doug Emhoff (Samberg). The only new wrinkle was including Mikey Day as Donald Trump, Jr., who laments about Vance, “It’s almost like my dad picked me to be vice president…. But he didn’t.”
The impressions were still solid, but triple dipping bled a lot of the humor from the piece.
In Grande’s monologue she pointed out that the last time she hosted in 2016, the country was “Right on the verge of electing our first female president, so I guess… second time’s the charm.”
Best sketch of the night: Celine Dion makes broken bones sound beautiful
Following Celine Dion’s strange surprise appearance in an NFL promo, Grande imitated the singer delivering a similar message — this time for the even more brutal sport of UFC. With lyrics including, “There was breaking of bones / and there’s knees to the balls,” this version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” celebrated the violence of UFC, from cauliflower ears to 300-pound Bosnian athletes vomiting up their own teeth. Grande’s Celine Dion promised to see you in The Octagon.
Also good: Do you like Jennifer Coolidge? How about three of her?
As mentioned above, Grande aced her Jennifer Coolidge Academy of Jennifer Coolidge Impressions entry exam in a mirror sketch with Fineman, who has played the actress before on the show. The two free associated things to talk about on a date, such as lemons, until they were joined by Carvey as their mirror moved to reveal a third Coolidge. The only surprise was that it was Carvey seated there instead of the real Coolidge herself.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Amazon employee Monica is a bit overworked
James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman played the quarreling brothers from Oasis, Noel and Liam Gallagher, but Ego Nwodim hit harder as Monica, an overworked Amazon employee still recovering from the company’s recent two-day sales event. Monica has worked eight days in a row — so long she had to make up a whole new day of the week, “Fluesday.” Monica discussed hooking up with a drone at work and at one point fell asleep with her eyes open. “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che pointed out that the conditions seem inhumane. But when asked if he’d stop ordering stuff from Amazon, he went silent. Relatable!