It’s been 50 years, to the day, when Paul Simon hosted and was musical guest of the sophomore episode of then NBC’s fledgling new series, then called NBC’s Saturday Night. So it’s a cosmic twist of televised fate that Simon’s opening duet partner from the much-balleyhooed 50th anniversary special is hosting tonight, the third episode of the 51st season.
Aside from her status as a pop hitmaker, Sabrina Carpenter has an acting pedigree. Girl Meets World, anybody? She’s clearly a favorite at 8H: aside from her memorable appearance on the 50th, she served as musical guest for May’s season finale and her song Espresso was the basis for the popular Domingo sketch, also relaunched for the 50th. This time she’s serving double-duty. Let’s see how Ms. Please Please Please meshes with a recently-refreshed cast as the show grappled with a 12-minute late start-time thanks to an overrun football game.
Last season when Ariana Grande hosted, she went viral with her Domingo sketch during which a bridal party warbles through a spin on Carpenter’s song Espresso, which inadvertently reveals that the bride played by Chloe Fineman, is cheating on her clueless husband (Andrew Dismukes) with Domingo (Marcello Hernández). So tonight, instead of a political cold open, the show decided to kick things off with another chapter in the adventures of homewrecker Domingo. In this one, husband Dismukes is turning 30, which prompts Carpenter and friends to detail more cheating adventures to the tunes of Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra and Alex Warren’s Ordinary. They also sing to The Fate of Ophelia, the Taylor Swift track. The superstar was a long-rumored cameo for tonight’s episode as she continues to roll out The Life of a Showgirl, on which Carpenter also appears. Spoiler alert: she never showed.
Carpenter is center-stage and in lieu of singing (she will do that later), she delivers a hodgepodge of bits, many of which tied to the hyper-sexualized lyrics she regularly sings about. “I’m not just horny, I’m sexually charged and I love to read,” she cracks. Her controversial album cover? She jokes that hand was actually Bowen Yang yanking her hair back at the 50th. Meanwhile, a moment where Carpenter heads into the crowd was flat. What do you expect when you’re chatting with actual audience members (including a self-proclaimed venture capitalist)? Kenan Thompson comes in to wrap things up; he’s been on the show (23 years) just a tad longer than Carpenter’s been alive (she’s 26).
SNL’s always gotta cater to the times and with podcasts still a culture-dominating artform, they tackle the trend with this sketch where members of the female cast including Fineman, Jane Wickline and Carpenter all do pitch-perfect impressions of pre-teen boys who love snacks. Meanwhile, since James Austin Johnson’s Trump impression was MIA from the cold open (surprising, especially in light of the day’s headline-grabbing No Kings protests) he inexplicably shows up on the show to talk about candy, too. Johnson’s Trump also gets philosophical about his life, and the possibility of getting into heaven. “It’s been a good run, and a great time,” he muses of his life.
It’s spooky movie season, and what’s scarier than having to follow through on (gasp!) plans? Here, Carpenter is paired with Ben Marshall as a couple reeling with the possibility, nausea and anxiety that comes with the prospect in the motif of a Blumhouse-produced horror flick with lines like: “They want to do drinks here and then go to that viral ramen place!” It all leads Marshall to shriek “Just tell them we have Covid!” It should be noted that he’s the member of Please Don’t Destroy who was promoted to feature player after the trio was split up at the start of the season. He subsequently makes multiple appearances throughout the episode, proving his staying power.
Then a recurring sketch that combines the perkiness and style of 1995’s classic Will Ferrell and Nancy Walls skit Wake Up and Smile with the naive raunchiness of the show’s Christmas classic Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls with Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer. Here, cast member Ashley Padilla (who replaces Heidi Gardner who previously starred in the sketch) channels Walls, while Mikey Day plays the Ferrell-counter in a QVC rip. They invite guest Carpenter who is selling a travel pillow that, um, looks like a lady’s certain private part. Cue the puns and vagina jokes. The twist here is that opposed to Schweddy Balls, these characters know full-well what the pillow looks like, and are mortified. “Blur this!”
And a one-two-three. Carpenter plays a motivational dancer, whatever that is. The joke here is that she falls and is so concussed, she starts talking nonsense, to borrow the name of one of her signature songs. Though, sometimes the best moments are the unplanned ones. Here, a dummy that’s supposed to break through a window falls short, prompting Thompson to give it the heave-ho the rest of the way. The mishap causes Fineman to break character, arguably the most charming moment of the show.
Lorne Michaels knows his audience; he’s always said that one’s favorite SNL cast is whoever they watched growing up. So here’s another nod to middle school kids, this time in the form of an infectious pop song about, well, grinding at a school dance. The show needs to target the youngest viewers in order to stay relevant, of course. Meanwhile, Bowen Yang handily takes lead vocals in the pre-tape, a smart way to utilize him, considering Yang announced earlier in the day that he was skipping out on the live portion since he’s being honored in Los Angeles tonight at the swank Academy Museum Gala. Not a bad reason to play hooky.
Multiple Goegre Santos gags ricocheted through the second Weekend Update of the season with the recent news of Trump pardoning him. “President Trump has released what everyone has been asking him to release,” Colin Jost quipped before shouting out Santos.
Meanwhile, Hernández plays his Movie Guy character; dressed like an usher in a thick accent, his movie segment goes off the rails as he actually hasn’t seen much. “Balck Phone 2, ring ring?” he says. “Sorry you have the wrong number. I have not seen that one yet.”
Meanwhile new cast member Tommy Brennan makes his Update debut, combining Norm MacDonald’s dry delivery with the midwestern charm of Bill Murray with jokes about growing up with a milkman and his retro handsomeness. “I’m from a family of eight kids,” he says. “That’s probably the wrong choice.”
You know how washers and dryers play a little ditty when they’re done with a load? Well, what if they sang? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the concept of this sketch. Luckily, it knew full well how insane it was. When Dismukes’ character decides to buy one, charmed by the singing dryers, he goes to pay for it with a sack full of money with a dollar sign on it, a’la a Looney Tunes cartoon. If you’re going to be silly, may as well lean into it.
The deliciously stupid train continues here, as cast member Ashely Padilla, who is quickly turning into a female utility player appearing in a number of sketches since last week’s premiere, simply cannot stop farting in front of her well-meaning office colleagues, Carpenter and Marshall among them, who want to celebrate her birthday. The sketch eventually devolves into her asking what everybody makes. “Great birthday everybody,” she says. “I farted and got demoted.”
In the grand tradition of T Sean Shannon’s Bear City, and an array of short films from future directorial heavyweight Adam McKay, here writer Martin Herlihy becomes a rare SNL writer honored with a taped piece branded with his name. Timed to Halloween (one of the episode’s only nods to the upcoming holiday), Herlihy harkens back to Eddie Murphy’s White Like Me (1984) with a hidden camera social experiment of what people would do if they walked into a theater where the audience was full of Frankensteins. Throw in a Mary Shelley reference and multiple accusations of racism, and you have yourself an aptly weird end to a show that basked in its stupidity.
