Longtime “Saturday Night Live” fans don’t need a reminder that Kristen Wiig, the recent star of “Palm Royale” on Apple TV+ and a new set of “Target Lady” ads, is widely considered one of the sketch show’s all-time greats. But it’s nice to get that reminder anyway, as this week’s episode proved yet again.
Wiig, who left the show in 2012, earned her Five-Timers jacket (but not without some drama during the monologue) with a performance that was note-perfect in sketch after sketch. And to make an already great episode even more buzzworthy was the large number of celebrities and former “SNL” talents who showed up for Wiig in the monologue and were sprinkled in sketches throughout the show. They included: Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, Martin Short, Will Forte, Paula Pell (the “Girls5Eva” star used to write for the show), Matt Damon, Fred Armisen and next week’s host Ryan Gosling. Even Kaia Gerber showed up in a “Pilates” video later in the show.
It was great to see them all, but none of it overshadowed Wiig’s absolute mastery of an assortment of oddball characters, from a fast-talking secretary named Tootie who works alongside Heidi Gardner’s Trudy to an oxygen-tank-carrying smoker at a retirement party to a hyperactive French dancer on a ‘70s show called “La Maison Du Bang.” Wiig evoked laughs as a woman who will not be Jumanji’d, a mom about to break some very bad news to her two kids at a go-kart track and as movie reviewer Aunt Linda in a Weekend Update throwback. Wiig could have leaned on any number of her classic characters for more sketches, but for the most part, these were new, hilarious creations.
Musical guest Raye performed “Escapism” and a mix of her songs “Worth It” and “Let There Be Light” There was no Please Don’t Destroy video this week.
This week’s cold open made a very strong case for this year’s women’s NCAA tournament completely eclipsing the men’s side (more on eclipses later). On a TBS March Madness post-game wrap-up, hosts Ernie Johnson (James Austin Johnson), Kenny Smith (Devon Walker) and Charles Barkley (Kenan Thompson) admitted they aren’t paying much attention or can even remember the teams playing in Monday’s championship game (Barkley: “Quinnipiac College vs. Northern Southern State?”). Instead, all eyes have been on women’s teams including Iowa and Connecticut, whose matchup drew 14.2 million viewers. Said Smith, “That’s ‘Young Sheldon’ numbers!” LSU coach Kim Mulkey (Gardner) made an appearance, wearing a hot pink outfit that she said makes her “look like The Riddler went to Talbot’s.”
In her monologue, Wiig took questions from the audience, which was filled with a lot of the aforementioned celebrities, including Rudd, who says he showed up to be in “one of those Five-Timers sketches” and asked if there was a script, and Pell, who says that producer Lorne Michaels is now handing out Five-Timers jackets “like free maxi pads.” Damon, wearing a jacket despite having only hosted twice (“Lorne said the first time I hosted was so good it counted for three”), earned a second jacket for his cameos as eventual Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, to Wiig’s dismay. Wiig, of course, got her jacket and even had it lint-rolled by Gosling. She was serenaded by her peers, who name checked some of her characters and sang, “This is your night!”
Best sketch of the night: ‘Jumanji’ is real — we mean the original
You could make a case for “Retirement Party” as the sketch that gave lots of cast members past and present lots of funny lines this week, but Jumanji wins the prize for its flawless execution when a Ticket to Ride game night is derailed by Nina (Wiig), a woman who doesn’t do board games. Not because she doesn’t like them but because she’s “afraid of getting Jumanji’d.” Nina won’t risk getting pulled into a series of “Jungle emergencies,” but the party host (Andrew Dismukes) calls her out on her arbitrary Jumanji criteria and a shouting match ensues in which the word “Jumanji” is yelled at high volume dozens of times. Of course, Nina’s fears come true when Will Forte shows up as a train conductor ready to put all the players in great danger except for her because she opted out early.
Also good: Pilates is torture, but also somehow boring
This pre-taped horror-movie trailer had similar vibes to “Horny Little Dorks” from a few months ago and it was just as effective. In this scary movie about the cult of pilates, instructors who are either ex-dancers or first-time moms train “eight gorgeous women, one gay man not wearing underwear (Bowen Yang) and sometimes Kaia Gerber.” Everyone is called “mama” or “mamacita” and using a one-pound weight can lead to instant death. Just don’t let them put you on The Reformer.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: The eclipse and East Coast earthquake join forces
Wiig’s Aunt Linda was a hoot, as always, but the topicality and hilarity of Marcello Hernandez as the 4.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the Northeast and Kenan Thompson as Monday’s much-anticipated total eclipse couldn’t be topped. Hernandez, wearing a tight black outfit with the city of New York on his head, shook and bellowed, saying he threw New York into pure chaos and was the new puncher of faces (or at least “a bunch of teeny tiny punches like a scary massage”). But then Thompson’s eclipse (Thompson’s face surrounded by the moon and sun), called out the earthquake and the two began exchanging pro-wrestler-style insults. Earthquake threatened severe aftershocks that would cause a book to fall gently off a shelf while the eclipse hopes fake eclipse glasses will cause eye damage. The two decide to team up for some Biblical trouble. “I”m sure Mayor Adams will have it under control,” the eclipse joked.