It’s been a dramatic couple of years for Saturday Night Live, which has seen a big turnover in cast, plus truncated seasons first as a result of the pandemic and then, this summer, the WGA strike. Now that strike has been settled, SNL is finally back, only a few weeks behind its regular schedule.
The actors’ strike, which is still going on, doesn’t affect the program due to a separate agreement that is not subject to the union’s strike order. It may, however, make finding hosts difficult for the foreseeable future.
The show couldn’t have picked a heavier week to return, with the bloody and devastating conflict between Israel and Palestine escalating by the hour. SNL recognizes the gravity of the situation by foregoing any cold open.
Instead, host and former cast member Pete Davidson solemnly addresses the situation. He makes light of the fact that, on paper, he seems like the last person who should do so, before reminding viewers that his father – a New York City firefighter – was killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The images of children suffering in both Israel and Gaza remind him of that dark period, but he also recalls the first time he smiled after losing his dad, when listening to a CD of Eddie Murphy’s Delirious that his mother bought him. Davidson believes that “sometimes comedy is the only way through tragedy”, and promises that he’ll try to be funny tonight, because it’s all he can do. He strikes the right tone here and acquits himself well.
For his monologue, Davidson jumps right into a new standup set. He talks about trying to bond with his sister by watching Game of Thrones together. Having missed the show when it aired, he’s shocked to learn how messed up it is: “I thought it was like dragons and stuff … hardly any dragons. Lots of incest! Tons of incest! So much incest!” He also talks about his hometown of Staten Island – “it’s the only island whose reputation is worse than Epstein’s” – and early encouragement he received from a former booty call – “Maybe one day, I’ll be watching TV with my husband, and you’ll pop on, and I’ll turn to him and say, ‘I banged that guy!’”. He slightly loses the live audience with the super-dark punchline to his story, but on the whole it’s a solid opener, and a reminder that Davidson – who, during his time as a cast member, never really worked in sketches – is best when he’s just being himself.
On Fox NFL Sunday, the roundtable of analysts initially tosses off some smug jokes about the new prevalence of Taylor Swift fans being interested in football now that’s she’s dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, before arguing about the couple’s relationship status and who amongst them is the bigger Swiftie. Before they sign off, Kelce himself shows up for a quick cameo. Being that he was the best host of last season, here’s hoping he becomes a regular fixture.
Davidson eavesdrops on the cast making fun of his recent Peacock show, Bupkis, flopping. This leads to a parody of the Just Ken number from Barbie – now Just Pete – in which he assembles the various versions of himself (First Update Pete, Met Gala Pete, Black Pete) for a soulful bit of musical solipsism.
Next, the cast of a new Marvel show join Wired’s YouTube channel to learn the most popular internet searches for them (via Google autocomplete suggestions). The first few are innocent enough, until Davidson’s dweeby actor’s results reveal him to be the guy whose bout of diarrhea during a Delta flight was so bad it forced the plane had to turn around and make an emergency landing. It certainly seems like SNL is playing catch-up with everything that went viral during their time off the air.
Heidi Gardner plays a foxy, flirtatious secretary in a 1960s Mad-Men style law office. Her commitment to the saying “a good secretary doesn’t react, she anticipates”, proves impressive at first, but quickly becomes grating. The sketch doesn’t commit to any central joke or idea and goes off the rails by the end, but it does contain a great pratfall from Gardner.
In a new short from Please Don’t Destroy, Davidson visits the boys (whose names he gets completely wrong, calling Ben “Ice Spice”). He finds them watching old clips of his standup from when he was just a teenager. They reveal they also started out as young, having played to packed Def Jam audiences when they were just little boys. Davidson’s best bud John Mulaney makes an appearance, bombing in front of the same crowd. It’s the best the trio has been in over a season.
After the first performance from musical guest Ice Spice, it’s time for Weekend Update. Colin Jost describes the past week as being terrible for the world, but “a great week for random idiots who like to share unhinged thoughts wherever they can”. This doesn’t just include social media, but statements from Donald Trump, who called Hezbollah “very smart”.
Later, he and Michael Che are joined by Christopher Columbus (Bowen Yang), on to discuss Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Columbus is fine with people taking down statues of him, but is still adamant that he discovered America. He also claims to have discovered spice, electricity, Tex-Mex, jazz, the band Boy Genius, and gentrification. It’s the same old, same old from Yang, only with a (decent) over-the-top Italian accent.
Che starts the pranking of Jost early this season by forcing him to read racist jokes about new ebony alerts for missing black children.
Then, they’re joined former NFL and MLB star and current head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, Deion Sanders (Keenan Thompson). He crows about turning that school’s football program around (as well as his musical performance when he hosted SNL many years ago) but refuses to acknowledge his team’s losses. Thompson turn in another in a long list of braggadocios sports personalities, but his chemistry with Jost – especially when he’s ribbing him for being so white – is palpable.
On a Star Trek-like show, the crew of a spaceship currently under attack from an enemy vessel are visited by Bowen Yang’s annoying alien, a former employee who’s back to visit. The whole thing is as grating as Yang’s character.
As if the premiere wasn’t already star-studded enough, Taylor Swift pops in to introduce Ice Spice for her second performance (alongside Rema). Then, following a total dud of a beach party sketch, we get a commercial for Glamgina, which is makeup for vaginas (“Now my snatch looks snatched – that’s the magic of Glamgina!”).
This feels like a Sarah Sherman special, but unfortunately it wraps up before it gets properly deranged.
The episode then wraps up with a bar-set sketch in which Andrew Dismukes and Davidson play father and son weirdos trying to convince Thompson’s blue collar worker to let them sell picture of his feet and genitals online. This one is all over the place, but credit to the cast members for delivering a lot of tricky lines without stumbling.
The show wraps up with no mention of the Republican-caused chaos in the House of Representatives, outside a single joke about Jim Jordan during Update. This feels like a dereliction of duty. That said, as season premieres go, this was a cut above the last few. The cameos gave the episode a big show feel, and while the sketches were hit or miss, they were a little more the former than the latter.
