sketch

As we mentioned last time when Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live,” there’s no substitute for a host who fully throws themselves into “SNL.”

He may not have done double duty as host and musical guest the way Carpenter did, but Miles Teller appeared to fully embrace the challenge of returning to host for a second time (the first was in 2022). The “Top Gun 2: Maverick” star, who’ll next be appearing in the movie “Eternity,” gave a solid performance, appearing in nearly every sketch, including the cold open and two pre-recorded videos.

He first appeared as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York mayor, in the cold open with help from Ramy Youssef and Shane Gillis as opponents Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.

After that, Teller played a hungover game show contestant recovering from Halloween, a hockey player shooting a public service announcement for the unfortunately named Nashville Predators and both twin Property Brothers in a video sketch about the current White House renovation.

Teller was also in a sketch about a TV newsroom that decides to show viewers what its background employees are doing, a Netflix promo for a true crime story about husbands who don’t know where their wives went, one about a police press conference that takes a turn and a show closer about a silly Italian restaurant in Nebraska.

Teller handled it all well; he’s good with accents and earned strong laughs, especially playing two characters at the same time in the “Property Brothers” sketch and as Cuomo in the cold open.

Musical guest Brandi Carlile performed “Church & State” and “Human.”

This week’s cold open was one of the stronger (or at least funnier) political sketches of the season so far, tackling the New York mayoral race. As hosted by Errol Louis (Kenan Thompson), “the least famous person to be impersonated on ‘SNL,’ ” the debate sketch portrayed Cuomo (Teller) as a sexually harassing (“Yadda yadda yadda, honk honk, squeeze squeeze) panderer to Jewish voters; Mamdani (Youssef) as a force-smiling, TikTok-flirting candidate who’s pretty sure he won’t be able to implement his promises; and long-shot candidate Sliwa (Gillis) as an “old-fashioned New York nut” with one traumatic story after another to recount. The biggest surprise may have been Gillis, who as Sliwa recounted stories about being hung by his testicles and getting assaulted by a Times Square Spider-Man. Where was this energy when Gillis hosted “SNL”? As has been the habit on many a cold open, President Trump (James Austin Johnson) interrupts the proceedings to mock the candidates and insert his own commentary. This time, that included singing a song from “Phantom of the Opera” to conclude the sketch.

Teller’s monologue was short and simple, relaying how as a kid who moved around most of his childhood, “SNL” was a constant. He shared a photo of himself and his sisters dressed up as the “Night at the Roxbury” characters from the show and then made up a list of memories from the show, like having his first beer in the audience and falling over after having a few beers. Teller mentioned that he and his wife lost their Palisades home in January’s Los Angeles fires. As such, he made sure to point out the fire exits for the audience.

Best sketch of the night: An extreme White House makeover

The Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott (Teller times two) meet their toughest clients yet: Trump and First Lady Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) who need help with their current renovation of the White House to make room for a new ballroom. Melania shared her skeleton and withered tree decorations (“They are for Christmas,” she said), and the couple complained that 55,000 square feet and 132 rooms just isn’t enough space. With a budget of “$350 million to infinity” the brothers get to work with the help of park rangers and astronauts working through the government shutdown. But when it comes to getting paid for their work, there’s a problem. “Aren’t you guys from Canada?” the president asks. Then he calls ICE on them.

Also good: Nobody asked for this much transparency in news

On a show called Newspoint, the host (Fineman) and her guest (Thompson) are trying to have a serious news discussion, but because the show has opened up its full newsroom to viewers, all the workers in the background draw attention. Among them are Mikey Day, who awkwardly notices the cameras are on him before spilling a carrier of drinks, Bowen Yang as a worker who gets electrocuted by a copy machine and Teller, who has manga erotica up on his work screen. It’s nice to see some physical comedy from Day in particular and the sketch’s visual gags work nicely.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: George Santos is back, untruthful as ever!

Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla (who should be a full cast member at this point instead of a featured player) played a couple who just made out but are trying to discuss the government shutdown. But it was Yang as chronic liar George Santos who stole “Update” (and some jewels) after Yang missed an opportunity on the last “SNL” episode to play the former representative, whose prison term was commuted by Trump. Santos claimed he finished the New York marathon, which hadn’t happened yet, and kept interrupting his chat with “Update” co-host Colin Jost to take calls with prisoners with a jail window and phone he brought with him. He purported to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs before revealing that the key to making prison rice pudding is preheating the toilet to 350 degrees. Santos ended the segment by revealing the necklace he stole from the Louvre and insisting that he’d just won the World Series.

Pop star Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time ever, but it sure didn’t feel like it.

Carpenter was the musical guest last year when Jake Gyllenhaal hosted, and at the 50th anniversary special, she performed with Paul Simon and appeared in a sketch. Whether it’s because she’s done the show both as a musician and a comedic performer (her song performances are often a mix of both) or not, Carpenter seems perfectly at ease in Studio 8H, like she’s always been there.

That served her well on an episode that started badly with a retread of a sketch that’s been done a few too many times (keyword: Domingo), and a monologue that, despite Carpenter’s charm, didn’t seem to connect with the audience.

But after that, Carpenter’s quicksilver timing and ease, plus a diverse set of sketches, put the episode over the top. She sounded just like a 12-year-old boy in a sketch about preteens hosting a podcast called “Snack Homies” with President Trump (James Austin Johnson) as a guest, sold a provocative neck pillow in a funny Shop TV sketch, performed a pretaped “Grind Song” with Bowen Yang, and was thrown out of a window as the host of a girlboss seminar. She scared a co-worker (Ashley Padilla, quickly becoming a critical “SNL” utility player) on her birthday and played a singing and dancing washing machine alongside new cast member Veronika Slowikowska.

It also didn’t hurt that Carpenter’s two playful and well-sung musical performances, for “Manchild” and “Nobody’s Son,” were showstoppers. Her love of the show was evident: she performed the former wearing a “Live from New York” T-shirt and panties with “It’s Saturday Night!” written on the back.

The best argument for inviting Sabrina Carpenter back sometime might be that she held the show together with no outside guests or surprise cameos, which hasn’t happened on “SNL” in a long time. The only exception was a short film from “Please Don’t Destroy” writer Martin Herlihy at the end of the show that may have been about racism and Frankenstein’s Monsters (yes, plural).

We’ll keep this short because the less said about this week’s cold open the better. Chloe Fineman and Andrew Dismukes returned as Matthew and Kelsey, a couple that has struggled in the past with trust issues from Kelsey’s frequent trips with her friends that usually end with a passionate affair with a guy named Domingo (Marcello Hernández). This time, they’re celebrating Matthew’s 30th birthday, but for some reason, Kelsey has flown in her girlfriends (including Carpenter) to sing some pop songs in bad karaoke style about a recent weekend they spent in Nashville. This time the songs are modeled after Taylor Swift’s “Fate of Ophelia,” Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and Alex Warren’s “Ordinary Song.” The ladies went to Nashville and of course Domingo is still around. “This is strike six,” Matthew cries haplessly. “Babe, it won’t happen again,” Kelsey promises. Let’s hope so. The Domingo sketches need to be put to rest.

Carpenter’s monologue was largely about dispelling (but not really) the notion that the singer is overly sexualized, or as she described it, a “Horndog popster.” “There’s so much more to me,” she said, “I’m not just horny. I’m also turned on.” She made hay of the controversy over her “Man’s Best Friend” album cover by joking that it was cropped and revealing that Bowen Yang and Martin Short both originally appeared on it, with Yang pulling her up by her hair and Short pushing her away from a buffet line. The monologue started to fizzle when Carpenter went to the audience for some interaction to prove she can have chemistry with anyone or anything, only to come back to the stage for an awkward bit with Kenan Thompson, who said he wanted a Cameo video for his niece. Carpenter has charisma to spare, but the monologue was too disjointed to go anywhere.

Best sketch of the night: Does making plans to see “Plans” also scare you?

Mock horror movie trailers have done well on “SNL” lately and the streak continues with “Plans,” a Blumhouse horror film featuring Ben Marshall and Carpenter as a couple horrified to realize that plans they made back on Fourth of July have suddenly come to fruition with a cousin and her husband. As their terror grows, they remember that the cousin (Sarah Sherman) talks about marathons (“The way I see it, losing toenails is a badge of honor”) and the husband (Dismukes) likes to show off 11-minute YouTube videos. They’re going to end up at a crowded ramen restaurant and then a bad interactive play. For anyone who’s ever regretted saying yes to socializing, this might be your worst nightmare.

Also good: The neck pillow monologues

The Shop TV sketches wouldn’t work so well if Padilla and Mikey Day didn’t do such a good job infusing their characters Bev and Rhett with such practiced professional panic when things go awry, as they’ve done before. Carpenter appears as Virginia Duffy, a crafter who’s designed an ergonomic pillow that looks just like a giant vagina, which comes in different colors. “Why would you bring the pink one?” asks an exasperated Rhett. By the time the faux fur lining is added and Rhett tries on the neck pillow, culminating in an unwanted baby sound effect, Shop TV has done it again. Bonus points for Johnson as Tim Tucker, who appears at the beginning of the sketch with a trick-or-treat pail in the shape of Jesus Christ’s head. “Trick or treat, smell my feet, walk with Christ down the Halloween street,” he chants.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Did you see ‘Saw’? He did not

New cast member Tommy Brennan discussed moving to New York and growing up in Minnesota, but it was the return of Hernandez’s Movie Guy character, who wants to talk about scary movies but has seen absolutely none of them. “Everybody saw ‘Weapons!’ I have to tell you, I was not one of those people,” he says. Movie Guy expresses that horror movies often tell you what they’re about: with “Scream,” “everbody scream!” With “Smile,” “everybody smile!” How about “Saw?” “Everybody saw! But not me, I did not see.” He goes on to touch on why Stewie from “Family Guy,” “Shrek” and others are also scary (even if he hasn’t seen them). “‘One Missed Call’ … is this a movie about my mother?”

After last week’s worrisome Season 51 debut with Bad Bunny, it seemed like a 50/50 chance on whether the second episode of the season with guest host and beloved “Saturday Night Live” alum Amy Poehler would turn things around. Would the writing feel sharper and less obvious in the hands of a veteran sketch performer?

Poehler, host of the popular podcast “Good Hang,” made all the right moves and may have even overextended herself, appearing in almost every sketch, including the cold open and “Weekend Update” for a joke-off. You could (and should) give Poehler lots of credit for her boundless energy, which lifted weaker sketches, like one about a menopausal mom who goes goth and one where Poehler and Bowen Yang are the composers of the “Severance” opening theme (the joke is that their theme songs always start with a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”-like rap as their first draft).

But Poehler also benefited from much stronger sketch premises compared to last week’s, from a beautifully performed sketch about a TV psychic, Miss Lycus, who rushes everyone because she has a hard out at 7 p.m., to a spot-on parody of Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives,” with a guest appearance from Poehler’s “Parks & Recreation” co-star Aubrey Plaza. The writing afforded Poehler with big, broad characters, like a CEO giving birth during a meeting with her employees, the matriarch in a family of jerks called The Rudemans and an elderly lawyer who interrupts a TV commercial to one-up other lawyers on the basis of having the most experience.

Poehler also got a little help from some long-time friends and alums, including Tina Fey, appearing as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the cold open, and Seth Meyers, returning to the “Weekend Update” desk with Poehler and Fey.

Maybe podcasting has allowed Poehler to store some stage energy to burst-fire on “SNL”; she put in a great performance for a solid episode overall.

Musical guests Role Model performed “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” with a surprise appearance from Charli XCX as Sally, and “Some Protector.” Before the close, “SNL” memorialized Diane Keaton, whose death was announced Saturday, in a title card. She never hosted “Saturday Night Live” but was portrayed on the show multiple times.

The cold open this week parodied Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi’s contentious meeting this week with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Poehler appeared as Bondi and responded to questions from Democratic senators with a series of withering insults she described as “roast-style burns I have on this piece of paper.” After mocking them and avoiding questions about the indictment of James Comey and the Jeffrey Epstein files, Bondi makes way for Noem (Fey, returning to “SNL” cold open politics), who joins in the mocking, telling one senator, “That makes me laugh more than the end of ‘Old Yeller.’ ” After being reminded that a dog gets shot at the end of that film, she responds, “Dogs don’t just get shot. Heroes shoot them.” While the first half of the cold open was shaky, with insults that weren’t landing despite Poehler’s forceful delivery, Fey’s appearance livened things up and ended strong with a call-and-response between Fey and Poehler that made fun of ICE recruitment ads. “Do you take supplements that you bought at a gas station?” Noem asked, “buckle up and slap on some Oakleys, big boy, and welcome to ICE!”

Poehler’s monologue was sweet, wistful and self-deprecating. “I found my first love here,” she said, “being famous.” She went on to describe her life now, saying, “I am a podcaster. If that’s not a recession indicator, I don’t know what is.” She also pointed out that this episode marked the actual 50-year anniversary of “SNL,” which first aired on Oct. 11, 1975. “Just like (host) George Carlin, I am extremely high,” she said. Poehler poked fun at AI actors who’ve been in the news and might want to take her job. “You’ll never be able to write a joke, and I am willing to do full frontal, but nobody’s asked me, OK?” she concluded defiantly.

Best sketch of the night: The thigh squeezes are bigger in Texas, too

It may be a little late to the party (the show came out in July), but this mock trailer for Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives” hits all the right notes with Poehler as frequently topless Margo and Chloe Fineman as Sophie (Malin Ackerman and Brittany Snow, respectively, on the series). The trailer promises that as the women get hornier and drunker, thighs will be squeezed and guns will be drawn. Aubrey Plaza appears as a new wife from California and soon she’s being caressed by all the other women in the cast as they make mimosas. A few great lines from this one: “It’s like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for women who shop at Bass Pro Shop,” and “Don’t watch it on a plane.”

Also good: Don’t settle for just 100 years of legal experience

Pohler’s character in the Psychic Talk Show sketch was very funny, but the sketch about one-upping lawyers edges it out only because it goes to some extremely weird and dumb places for much longer than needed and incorporates what looked like the entire cast. What starts as a basic personal injury lawyer commercial explaining how the firm has 50 years of combined experience ends up including long-living turtles, Sarah Sherman as a vampire attorney named Dracu-Law, and an ageless tree, Yggdrasil (Yang), who once represented Zeus.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Someday, that 13-pound baby is going to watch this

On a packed “Weekend Update,” Sherman debuted over-caffeinated Long Islander Rhonda LaCenzo, who rails against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. And Marcello Hernández and Jane Wickline returned as a seemingly mismatched couple discussing their Halloween plans. But it was an epic joke-off featuring past “Update” anchors Poehler, Fey and Meyers facing off against current ones Colin Jost and Michael Che to make fun of the birth of a nearly 13-pound baby born in Tennessee. “It was so big that he slapped the doctor on his ass!” Poehler began. Some of the better jokes: “The woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon.” “Did she give birth or did it drive out?” “The baby’s name is AHHHHH!” Poehler rounded out the contest by declaring, “The record was for loosest vagina and the previous held… by me!”

The problem with betting on a sure thing over and over is that eventually your luck will probably run out.

“Saturday Night Live” has bet multiple times on Bad Bunny, an incredibly charismatic performer who was all over the show’s 50th anniversary specials earlier this year and who was an excellent host and musical guest in late 2023.

For the “SNL” 51st season premiere, Bad Bunny’s streak as a perfect go-to personality for the show has ended with an episode that was bafflingly weak, with dated sketches and writing that didn’t cater to the host’s strength as the show’s done in the past. Even appearances from Jon Hamm, “One Battle After Another” actor Benicio del Toro and Huntr/x, the trio of singers from the wildly popular “KPop Demon Hunters,” barely moved the needle on an episode that couldn’t find its footing until “Weekend Update” and then quickly lost momentum again afterward.

The musician is coming off a lengthy residency of concerts in Puerto Rico and was just announced as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performer. Hosting the premiere should have been a victory lap with a summer’s worth of strong sketches to kick off the season. But it comes at a time of major cast and writer turnover, which couldn’t have helped. Last time he hosted, Bad Bunny was served well by sketches that either let him play himself, or let him speak throughout in Spanish (“The Age of Discovery” being a perfect example).

This time, he had to portray in English an obsessed “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan who happens to be an adult, a contestant on “Jeopardy” who simply can’t form answers into questions, a man who wants to donate sperm to strangers in a restaurant, and a member of a group of Spaniards in 900 A.D., including del Toro, trying to form the rules of their language (but discussed in English, for some reason).

The host fared a little better in two late sketches, one about an amorous principal (Ashley Padilla) disciplining a student (Marcello Hernández), and an homage to “El Chavo del Ocho” that wasn’t very funny, but was at least a pretty accurate recreation of the Mexican sitcom.

We’ve seen Bad Bunny soar on “SNL” when the material is built around his charm and abilities. This time, the writers shoehorned him into multiple sloppy sketches (“Jeopardy,” in particular, felt half-baked) that could have been written for any guest host. He deserved better.

Musical guest Doja Cat performed “AAHH MEN!” and “Gorgeous.” She didn’t appear in any sketches.

In the season’s first cold open, “SNL” relied again on the premise of a sketch getting going — in this case Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) berating U.S. military generals — and then being interrupted by a President Trump (James Austin Johnson) monologue. Given all the new cast members, Jost was a surprise to carry the first part, in which he complained as Hegseth, “our military is gay as Hell!” Hegseth said the military must be a place where there are “no fug-ups, no fatties, no facial hair, no body hair. Just hot shredded hairless men who are definitely not gay!” When Trump appeared, he said, “‘SNL’ 51 — off to a rough start. Seventeen new cast members and they got the ‘Update’ guy doing the cold open.” His meta commentary included references to the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival (Jost claimed he wasn’t invited), and a bad joke about Saudi Arabia that drew groans: “We like the Saudis because they like to saw-deez journalists in half.” Mikey Day appeared briefly as FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and before Trump concluded, he made the “SNL” crew, whom he claimed as Trump voters, promise to “keep an eye on Marcello for me.”

In his monologue, Bad Bunny said the reason he wasn’t serving as musical guest like the last time he hosted was that he needed to rest. He showed footage from one of his concerts, including a shot of Hamm dancing along. Hamm was shown in the audience wearing the same tropical outfit. As for the Super Bowl controversy, the host deftly addressed it by showing a spliced together Fox News clip with hosts saying, “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.” Then, in Spanish, he thanked Latino fans in particular who’ve supported him and said that no one can erase their contributions to the United States. “If you didn’t understand what I said, you have four months to learn,” he concluded.

Best sketch of the night: ChatGPTío might take unexpected pictures of you

ChatGPT might be too nice and sycophantic; what if it were more like a Latino uncle who’s honest to a fault with you? In this mock commercial for OpenAI hosted by Chloe Fineman, Hernández and Bad Bunny play AI characters within ChatGPT who give loud advice and sometimes call in the middle of the night to ask about Smash Mouth. How do you make vegan banana bread? “You don’t!” Was Jesus really God? “Yes.” It doesn’t quite work as a concept if you think too much about it, but Hernández makes a meal yet again out of playing a Latino elder with strong opinions.

Also good: Huntr/x keep it ‘Golden’ for a superfan

While it wasn’t the best showcase for Bad Bunny, who struggled with line deliveries, this sketch about a “Kpop Demon Hunters” fan had a surprise appearance by the singers from the animated movie’s soundtrack, who performed part of their hit “Golden” and had some strangely funny dialogue, such as the reveals that one of the brunch companions is on the Epstein list (for flying JetBlue through his island) and another was the writer of the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Jeans commercial. It also featured Bowen Yang as “Demon Hunters” villain Jinu singing “Soda Pop,” another fun surprise.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Expect someone to make They K. Rowling shirts after this

New cast member Kam Patterson made his debut in a segment begging “SNL” to let him use the N-word (“I’m a stand-up comedian from Florida, saying that word is what I do!”). But it was Yang in prosthetics as Dobby the House Elf from “Harry Potter” who won the night despite a hilarious wardrobe malfunction — his rag outfit kept coming off at the shoulder. Dobby begins by defending J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender people, but ends up questioning the author’s views and freeing himself in the process with his possession of a They K. Rowling T-shirt. It’s a good thing Yang didn’t leave “SNL” as was rumored because this episode badly needed him.