For some “Saturday Night Live” episodes, the promise of a first-time host brings excitement and anticipation, as it did a few weeks ago with Oscar-winner Mikey Madison.
Other times, it’s nice to expect a comfort-food episode where you know you’ll probably like what’s being served. In his fourth outing as host, “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm (promoting his new Apple TV+ show “Your Friends & Neighbors”) didn’t have to prove anything; he just had to be as solid as he’s been in past stints, not to mention the 14 (!) cameos he’s made since he last hosted in 2010, as he discussed in the monologue before being joined by Oscar winner Kieran Culkin.
The show started strong with a game-show sketch featuring a family man and successful dentist (Hamm) who is terrified of embarrassing himself, which of course he does in short order. Hamm also played the co-host in a piece about a financial news channel for those of us who are broke; a police officer who just wants pizza in a Please Don’t Destroy video; one half of a gay couple who won’t explain how they got a newborn daughter overnight (or why she has the face of Lizzo); a new employee whose parents were on “Jackass”; and a spokesperson for a herpes medication.
But the standout of the episode was one in which Hamm featured only briefly: a lengthy video parody of “The White Lotus.”
Although Hamm was solid as ever, much of the material past the midpoint of the show didn’t rise to meet his talents.
Musical guest Lizzo made statements with two T-shirts: one read “Tarrified,” the other “Black women were right.” She performed a medley of “Love in Real Life / Still Bad” and “Don’t Make Me Love You.”
This week’s cold open was a callback to a Last Supper sketch from two years ago in which President Trump stopped a Biblical sketch featuring Mikey Day as Jesus to deliver a rambling monologue while the rest of the cast remained frozen. This time, Trump (James Austin Johnson) discussed the state of the economy while comparing himself to the messiah, “Because of the mess-I-a made out of the economy.” Trump said the stock market died, rose from the dead on the third day, and on the fourth died again. “Jesus Christ is a name we’ve been saying a lot lately,” Trump said, “‘Look at my 401k, Jesus Christ, where did it all go!?’” As in the earlier Easter sketch, he chided frozen cast members individually, including Day, Emil Wakim, Sarah Sherman, Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson, the latter of whom said, “Yeah, I’m leaving,” and did so before receiving any of Trump’s ridicule.
In his monologue, Hamm played a self-obsessed version of himself who brought up his own Wikipedia entry, which cites 14 cameos on “SNL” since 2010. A brief clip played of those appearances, and Hamm said, “Anytime they call me to come on the show, I do it. I love watching myself.” Hamm said that cameos can liven up a sketch or prop up a flatlining monologue, and at that moment he was joined by Kieren Culkin, who recently won an Oscar for “A Real Pain.” They sparred about whether “Mad Men” is better than “Succession,” Hamm asked Culkin to give him his Oscar and Culkin referred to paparazzi photos of Hamm in sweatpants, which was a whole thing more than a decade ago.
Best sketch of the night: Cameos aplenty on “The White Potus”
“SNL’s” pre-taped take on the third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” included former cast members and another dose of Trump, with Johnson as the president taking on the role of the Ratliff patriarch (spiraling thanks to a self-inflicted economic crisis) and Chloe Fineman as Melania Trump doing a thick North Carolina accent like Parker Posey’s.Trump’s sons, Don Jr. (Day) and Eric (Alex Moffat) make a blended shake out of a Rolex (Eric: “You said it’s about time”), and — in an apparent nod to the golfer’s recently announced relationship with Don Jr.’s ex-wife Vanessa — the sketch ends with Tiger Woods (Thompson) getting a sexual hand in bed. Other stars in the sketch included Scarlett Johansson,former cast members Punkee Johnson and Beck Bennett (who returned as a shirtless Vladimir Putin) and Hamm, playing a crazed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The sketch’s best surprise? A cameo from actual “White Lotus” cast member Jon Gries, who played Greg Hunt on the show. Did the sketch have much of a point? Not really, but it did a nice job capturing the visual vocabulary and tone of the show.
Also good: In this economy, candy bars went from “Sure, baby,” to “put that back”
On the Check-to-Check Business News Channel, two hosts (Hamm and Nwodim), one of whom is wearing a suit from Kohl’s, analyze news about the world’s financial crisis, but they really don’t understand it. “Sounds like gibberish to me,” Nwodim says of S&P 500 stats. Instead, they discuss the rising price of boxed Mac & Cheese, a “big-ass box of Bisquick” and candy bars, which are no longer viable to buy for kids. Thompson appears as a correspondent discussing ways to replace foreign imports like Perrier with American versions like “Uncle Bubble,” made from Tennessee tap water. And Andrew Dismukes is a Funko Pop figure collector who’s holding out for a big payday. Best joke of the sketch: the hosts cracking up with laughter at the thought of paying back student loans. “Never gonna get it, never gonna get it,” they sing in unison.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Chen Biao is back with “Peasant Elegy”
This week’s “Update” had three guest segments, including Wakim discussing whether Americans should feel some guilt about their privilege and Sherman playing Colin Jost’s wacky accountant. But it was Bowen Yang’s return as Chinese trade minister Chen Biao that won the night, chiding Americans over Trump’s ongoing trade war. “145%, cool number, bro,” he said. “Which side is more willing to endure hardship for the glory of their nation? The one that’s been around thousands of years or the one that’s sending Katy Perry to space?” Biao said Americans can’t live without Chinese technology but China will be fine without American exports like Newman’s Own salad dressing. Biao concluded by congratulating Glenn Close for winning a “Chinese Oscar” for “Pleasant Elegy,” a dig at vice-president JD Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy” (and recent comments about the Chinese people).