Your attention please. It’s the return of the… “Ah, wait, no way, you’re kidding, He didn’t just recap what I think he did, did he?” Yes indeed, it’s SNL in Review time!
Tonight’s host is Jason Momoa, star of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which comes out next month. Momoa made his hosting debut back on December 8, 2018, the eighth episode of Season 44, with musical guests Mumford & Sons. He has also made two cameos on the show since then.
Tonight’s musical guest is Tate_McRae, who once was called “Canada’s answer to Billie Eilish” by Elle.
Thanksgiving is days away – let’s see which sketches we should be thankful for this week!
Cold open
A C-SPAN cold open! Joe Biden (Mikey Day) holds a ‘very safe’ press conference regarding his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, AKA roman numeral eleven. (He’s trying to read directly off the teleprompter.)
Rather than focus on policy, he calls up Panda (Bowen Yang), who hates sex. A typical Bowen Yang performance. The show makes a couple jokes about the media’s fixation on Biden’s age and general indifference to voting for him, over Trump, narratives they have fueled in previous episodes!
It is weird seeing former Biden James Austin Johnson here as a reporter! HE used to be the man in the arena! Day’s Biden is growing on me – pretty show-friendly take.
Monologue
Jason Momoa loves life! He talks about growing up Iowa, before moving back to Hawaii and getting a job on Baywatch! Today, he is an environmentalist and wants to save SpongeBob.
Pretty quick monologue – mostly an informer dial for his drinking water company?!
Old Timey Movies
A scholar of L. Frank Baum introduces found footage. It is the early 1900s in New York City – Baum (Michael Longfellow) is captured writing on a park bench. Film was shot at a lower frame rate, so people move at a faster pace. A random man (Mikey Day) notices the camera and keeps getting in the way. Momoa plays his friend, who also distracts and goofs around. Chloe Fineman and Kenan Thompson also have the opportunity to chew the scenery.
Roman Empire
Ego Nwodim and female cast members sing a lament about their sad marriages – they are disconnected from their unknowable husbands. What are they thinking about? Ancient Rome. Their vulnerable musicality of the wives is met by the blunt rapping of the husbands, spitting about trivia and facts they learned about Nero.
“Stop thinking about Rome all the time!” Nwodim demands, slapping her husband (Momoa). Their son is thinking about dinosaurs. And the women? They are secretly thinking about astrology. This is not good.
Nightclub Line
Marcello Hernandez and Jason Momoa attempt to gently reject would-be clubbers who are not attractive enough to be let in. Momoa: “You are… an ugly person,” he accidentally tells Sarah Sherman. Same thing happens to Michael Longfellow.
Hernandez has to save face – he wants to speak in metaphor.
Hudson News Thanksgiving Week Parade
We are with Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodim at Newark Airport, everybody’s “third choice.” They comment on the various travelers and their eccentricities. Jason Momoa is a horny pilot hitting on Nwodim, while Kenan is a TSA agent. The grand finale is “woman about to go viral” – the recent ‘not real’ traveler played by Sarah Sherman.
A Please Don’t Destroy video
Our Treasure of Foggy Mountain movie stars have “ramen fever” – their plans to order takeout however hit pause when Higgins gets dumped over text. Still, their desire for ramen persists. Furtively, Martin and Ben try to order.
I asked former SNL writer, filmmaker and cast member Tom Schiller about his thoughts on this next generation troupe of short film aficionados. He said: “They’ve mastered the art of casual banter veering into the bizarre. I love it. Their blend of surreal humor is both impressive and a touch envy-inducing. I really admire their creativity and the camaraderie that fuels their work. It’s comedy that’s refreshingly offbeat and brilliant in its simple execution.”
It’s funny that John’s ex is actually Sofía Vergara.
Musical performance #1 – Tate McRae
This is the lead single from McRae’s next album Think Later. The song was co-written by OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder, who also helped produce. “Greedy” is her most commercially successful to date, earning over 300 million streams on Spotify and peaking at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Not my cup of tea.
Weekend Update
Pretty muted Update, at least initially – Colin Jost jokes about Secretary of State Antony Blinken cringing at Joe Biden, and the President’s remarks about LL Cool J. Michael Che discusses the Supreme Court’s new code of conduct, as well as Tim Scott. (He also seems to adlib Trump is going to win the 2024 election – yikes!)
George Santos (Yang) returns to the Update desk. He is facing expulsion in Congress – House ethics investigators found that he used campaign money on personal spending splurges in the Hamptons and Atlantic City, as well as on Ferragamo, OnlyFans and Botox. “But George I do have a perfect body,” Jost is forced to read, after Santos/Yang claims everyone lies, even Colin with his tailored suits. Santos does the “Cups” song from Pitch Perfect: “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone!”
Draymond Green (Devon Walker) was ejected and hit with a five-game suspension by the NBA after putting Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold during an NBA game. He comes on to apologize – except he doesn’t. “I play dark skin basketball!” he asserts. Why don’t people talk about his community work? He throws turkeys at people in his neighborhood during Thanksgiving! Nice showcase for Walker.
Back-up musical guests come on: Remember Lizards (JAJ, Andrew Dismukes) are not Imagine Dragons, but it is a similar genre. Pretty funny spoof of this kind of awful “arena rock that is Christian curious”. Great stuff – JAJ and Dismukes kill it. “Chemical!”
Cast Away
Laird and Elaine reunite – another funny premise for Dismukes! He is the nebbish current beau to Chloe Fineman. Her island ex, played by Jason Momoa, has been invited over for dinner – and maybe to rekindle the old flame? “We actually have a shirts on in the house rule…” protests Dismukes, before disrobing. Pretty funny image – them stripping should go viral.
He proposes a push-up contest: “winner gets Elaine!” Now he is the one on an island.
Musical performance #2 – Tate McRae
This is an unreleased song, I believe. It doesn’t do much for me – but this isn’t for me! Enjoy everyone.
Untold Stories – Battle of the Sexes
Sarah Sherman plays a tragic tennis pioneer Charna Lee Diamond in this Netflix documentary. Ronnie Dunster (Momoa) is enlisted as her match-up before Billie Jean King took on Bobby Riggs. The monstrous Dunster annihilates her with a hole in her stomach. She does not give up — to her own demise.
Fineman sports a great Gloria Steinem impression – her talking head commentary blames Diamond for the reason why there has never been a female president. (I think former cast member Casey Wilson just played Gloria in History of the World: Part II.)
Taxi ride
Kenan Thompson gets picked up by cab driver Jason Momoa in Albany. Not DC. He gets a call from his Doctor on speaker – his test results are in, and his cholesterol is high. He’s also positive for Herpes and something called “Hepatitis Gold”. Goofy. Kenan tries his best to not listen in. Meh.
Final thoughts
-What did you all think? Vote here!
-Thank you to Tom Schiller for his comments! Did everyone like Treasure of Foggy Mountain? Always fun when a big movie opens, then the stars are still doing yeomen work at 8H the same week. Long tradition of that!
