Charli XCX hosts and serves as musical guest

Welcome back, humble Coneheads. It is Saturday Night Live in review: anniversary season edition. Tonight’s show is hosted by Charli XCX, who first appeared back in season 40. She last appeared during the Oscar Isaac episode in 2022. Fans of Abrupt the artist will also remember Bowen Yang’s impression of her from a few episodes ago.

Asking someone to host SNL and performing can be mocking – not all artists are built for it (just ask Bad Bunny or Frank Zappa). Tonight I will be joined by the former SNLis Patrick Weathers, who joined the Season 6 cast when Debbie Harry pulled double duty as host and musical guest. He says he can “definitely hear” Harry’s influence in Charli XCX’s music today. (Actually, Charli has previously collaborated with Blondie, write a song for theirs Pollinator album.) Weathers was confident Harry could pull it off, calling her a “great artist, a great star.” He also knew her personally going into 8H, from his days in the Mudd Club; he was friends with one of Blondie’s guitarists, Frank Infante.

Weathers sees Donald Trump’s re-election as a perfect opportunity for the show, comically. “This should be their golden year. Look at these characters around him. He’s got every personality you can think of — good grief, everything from RFK to Elon Musk. You couldn’t have dreamed of a better situation. Pull this off and make this their biggest year ever. If they’re not (able to do that), they’re doing something wrong.”

Commenting on Kamala Harris’ recent cold-open cameo, Weathers offers, “I think they shouldn’t have done an endorsement. But hey, if I was in Maya Rudolph’s shoes, I definitely would have because I mean, it’s her livelihood. But I think it was wrong; it’s really stupid for any celebrity to get up and do that, because if you’re an entertainer, and depending on the population and your fan base, why would you risk that pilling half of them? And it didn’t do her any good.” Apparently not!

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Cold open

US President-elect Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) and President Joe Biden (a deeply grinning Dana Carvey) discussed Ukraine and the Middle East on Wednesday in a cordial meeting in the Oval Office designed to demonstrate a smooth transfer of power despite deep disagreements on policy. Weathers sees the recent election, and recent political moments like this, as a sign that the show should throw back to where it would let its cast show their big impressions. He notes, “Dana can do anybody. I’ve always thought that guy was extraordinarily talented. I’ve met him before, spent some time with him when he first did the show.”

Instead of being rude and crazy, Trump is calm – which is more frightening. SNL the crew even captured the aggressive size of the fire at the White House! “We love the ‘This Is Fine’ dog,” comments Trump, who recalls how much he hates the job and living in the White House. But he can’t go home to Mar-a-Lago; Elon Musk is there and won’t leave. He is so delicate. Weathers recalls, “Peter Aykroyd actually sent me clips of James Austin Johnson the summer before he was going to be on the show, saying, ‘I think this guy really beats Trump.'” Yes! And RIP Peter Aykroyd.

The audience loves Johnson’s speech about Trump’s recent appointments. “Giggity giggity,” says Sarah Sherman’s Matt Gaetz, clearly aware Family guy memes. Crazy that Pete Davidson once played Gaetz. I guess what is past is prologue i SNL land. Weathers adds: “The Trumpsters won really big, and that’s fine. It’s hysterical. But the truth is, Trump is funny, and he’s even funnier when someone else does it. It’s rare – it’s hard to parody a parody. That’s why it’s really hard to pull one of these TV preachers that you had around you, like Jimmy Swaggart. The thing is, Trump is a (self) parody, but at the same time he’s really funny when they do impressions of him, because he can just go in any direction at any time. You can take it all kinds of places because he tends to go down rabbit holes.”

Oh good lord – Alec Baldwin is back again. Why are they doing this to us? This time he plays Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has a dead dolphin in his car. JAJ is as meta as Trump — he doesn’t comment on this casting? Instead, he offers Biden a place in his cabinet; so out of touch is Biden these days! The president says it: He’s going to do what any broken-down old guy does these days: fight Jake Paul! Referencing yesterday’s Mike Tyson fight is a nice punchline to this cold open. I liked this, with the exception of Baldwin.

Monologue

The Abrupt summer songstress talks about her origins and love of autotune. Autotune makes everything sound better – even breakups. She explains what brats are…and her love for her gay fan base. She parties a lot.

For some reason, Kyle Mooney shows up here to find out if he’s a brat. i get ‘SNL lore’ this season, but it’s gratuitous. (His directorial debut Y2K coming out in a few weeks, FYI…)

“Domingos”

Chelsea (Chloe Fineman) is due to have a baby in several weeks. The artistic and random friends went on a bestie baby moon. This is a follow up to a skit from a few weeks ago where Ariana Grande and actors Sarah Sherman, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim played bridesmaids who performed their own version of the Sabrina Carpenter song “Espresso” but also revealed a lot to the groom about the group’s bachelor party. After describing the bride’s encounter on the dance floor with a guy named Domingo (Marcello Hernández), they reveal how she took off her ring and got lost. Surprised to see this one back.

This time it’s “Hot to Go!” by Chappell Roan. I like that it continues the story from the last sketch, even though the revelations are essentially the same. Poor cockerel Dismukes.

‘Never seen auditions before Evil‘

Oh, yes, this premise. Audition for celebrity impressions. As I’ve said before, this is diminishing returns. The impressions are just not that funny.

Bowen Yang, who is with Evilplays Annie Leibovitz. This is a big moment for Chloe Fineman’s one-shot – she plays so many people here. Dana Carvey dusts off his Al Pacino. You will never be nostalgic for Kevin Spacey people, but show his top-tier Walter Matthau or Jack Lemmon tries with Star Wars, this is not. I can’t believe JAJ can’t crush this template.

‘Food Network Cake Challenge’

Another familiar sketch template. Baking contestants faintly create Thanksgiving-themed monstrosities. Eddie Murphy did something similar a few seasons back – which did Timothée Chalamet and Simu Liu. Skip this.

If you wanted Kyle Mooney back for a sketch, is that what you had in mind? A nine-inch dildo cake?

‘SNL Digital Short’

Andy Samberg calls the police about people messing with his lawn and trash. Including Colin Jost! This is sweet, great production value, catchy Lovely Island tune. Good use of Charli XCX too. Obviously, the show is putting her in permanent premises.

‘Banger Boyz’

The podcast that goes hard every single week! Online Trump bros get SNL treatment: They discuss Marcello getting his nuts hit, then the origin of the pyramids. Donald Trump was recently on the show. He appoints one of them secretary to Converse; another is ambassador to Iran. It’s funny, I would prefer these kinds of Trump comments to the cold open.

Top Golf is a sponsor – find out which of your colleagues is an alcoholic – and male chimpanzee. Others: Warm Sponges and Pube Whacker. They talk about the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, well done.