Wow! What a night on “Saturday Night Live”!
The show itself was hilarious from beginning to end, with very funny sketches, not a dud. Everything worked, even Weekend Update which was off the wall with a special appearance by Scarlett Johansson, wife of anchor Colin Jost.
This was all to celebrate Martin Short’s fifth time as host. Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, John Mulaney, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy, Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Fallon participated in the cold opening welcoming Short to the club. Surprisingly missing was Candice Bergen. Steve Martin was also AWOL but Short joked he didn’t want him there.
Later in the show came Dana Carvey, who’s been making appearances all fall. Even Lorne Michaels was drafted into a sketch.
Short followed the cold open with an exceptionally funny monologue that roped in a lot of the cast. Of course, Short got his American start years ago on “SNL,” and is now a huge star of “Only Murders in the Building.”
Two funny moments in the cold open: Johansson coming into the clubhouse and rudely closing the door on a jealous Jost; and Baldwin on the phone, smoking a cigarette, complaining he has too many children! The writing for the whole episode was A plus. Michaels will glean many awards for this one.
Jost and Michael Che’s Weekend Update was their annual joke swap, but there was a twist. Che insisted that Jost — whose running joke is about his extreme whiteness– tell his jokes in a “Black voice.” It was racist, in appropriate, and kind of brilliant. They each gave as good as they got.
“SNL” closed out its fall season on a high. Next comes the 50th anniversary show on February 16th.
Here are some clips. The parking lot sketch at bottom was particularly good. So was Bowen Yang as a drone.PS Hanks, Short, and Michaels — as I reported earlier this week — were all at the premiere of Mulaney’s Broadway show, “All In,” on Monday. Mulaney was busy last night, coming over after “All In” ended.
