Thursday, May 21, 2026

“SNL” Scores with Perfect Cold Open — Cecily Strong Returns as Boozy Pirro, Plus Marcello Hernandez’s LOL Movie Reviews

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The two really great moments on “SNL” last night were worth some of the lesser ones.

The cold open was perfection. James Austin Johnson’s Trump was on fire doing stand up. Then came the obvious surprise of the great Cecily Strong reviving the boozy Jeanine Pirro, and Colin Jost — in a rare non-news appearance — as Pete Hegseth. If this had been the whole show, it would have been fine by me.

I also liked the sketch with Walton Goggins selling the 2nd amendment to the writers of the Constitution.

Weekend Update was reliably good, although the Scarlett Johansson jokes are getting a bit tiresome. Michael Che scored some good laughs, however.

The best part of WU: Marcello Hernandez as the movie usher reviewer. Hernandez has really taken off a la Bowen Yang, and how he’s undeniably a star we look forward to seeing. Plus, he has a hot mom.

A minus show. We’ll see how the rating went. Arcade Fire, always rockin’.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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