When Charli XCX shows up, SNL is Brat

Photo: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC

Somehow, in a year where Beyoncé and Taylor Swift both dropped massive albums, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan each rocketed to superstardom overnight, and Kendrick Lamar reduced Drake’s career to rubble and earned five Grammy- nominations in the process, Charli XCX still unequivocally emerged as the music story of the year.

The hit-making British club kid came to own 2024 through perhaps the most well-executed album cycle ever. Abrupt had instantly identifiable iconography in its color palate, a title concept so strong it bent linguistically to its will, but more importantly, it managed to sustain intense cultural attention for five straight months, an eternity in the TikTok era. Now her coronation with Charli’s ends SNL-host debut in an episode whose structure reflected brat album rollout: great influence abovesurprisingly twists and turns to keep the momentum going, and a strong finish.

Although she will soon start appearing in films, i.a one she co-wrote (!) with Jeremy O. Harris over the summer, the singer does not yet have the acting experience of recent host Ariana Grande and may not be ready to carry a skit like Grande’s “Charades.” Still, her established, fashionably-bored-British persona translated well to numerous sketch roles, including fellow chanteuse Adele and Victoria Beckham. She got laughs throughout the show without breaking a sweat or breaking character.

Elsewhere in the episode, Marcello Hernández cemented himself as the new cast member with the most reach. Perhaps it was the rare absence of Mikey Day, usually a utility player who appears in a host of sketches, but Hernández seemed omnipresent throughout the night, casually teetering between center stage and supporting roles, original characters and celebrity impressions. Like Charli XCX, he’s been a rising star for a while, and now he’s gone.

With the election still too fresh in Americans’ memories, the writers wisely avoided taking the cultural ricochet of the host’s presidential endorsement. There was no meeting between Charli and Maya Rudolph, which assured the latter that Kamala Harris is still brat Instead, we simply got a largely consistent night of comedy to help viewers forget any of what ever happened.

Here are the highlights:

Joe Biden spent much of his time in the White House bending over backwards to prove his bipartisan bona fides while paradoxically emphasizing the fascist intentions of the other side. The only result of his overly sunny embrace of Trump as president-elect is that it means more Dana Carvey as Biden on SNL. The cold open immortalized the couple’s sweet summit and also introduced the Trumps Dr. Caligari style the horror company. (“They’re some of the most dynamic, free-thinking, animal-killing, sex-criminal, medically insane people in the country,” says James Austin Johnson’s Trump.) Sarah Sherman dons a Neanderthal forehead and chevron eyebrows to play the freakazoid congressman. Matt Gaetz, while Alec Baldwin lowered his voice a bit to play RFK Jr. While Sherman’s portrayal has great potential, it would be better for humanity if we never see any of the characters on this show again.

Like a supercharged episode of Nailed Itthis skit revels in the baking competition shows challenges gone horribly wrong. The wildly different ways they go wrong, however, along with the instant dismissal of Heidi Gardner’s lone competent baker, is what makes this sketch work. Charli XCX’s no-nonsense affect is particularly successful here because it’s such a contrast to the unholy abomination of her baking project – a squirming turkey with a full bush giving birth to a pile of thick stuffing. You kind of have to give it up for any skit that’s sure to ruin several viewers’ Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this episode’s weekend update was a bountiful feast. Whether it was just the universe providing an abundance of material to work with or a burst of inspiration, the political jokes were razor sharp. (Well, except for an unfortunate Michael Che joke that would have fit in nicely with Bill Burr’s unfortunate monologue last week.) Bowen Yang busted one four years too late. Joe Exotic impression who hit his beats so hard it felt right on time. After the huge marionette tiger claw from that segment disappeared, it was soon replaced by another wild animal: Sherman’s Widow Squirrel. In a very physical performance, she achieved a level of facial gymnastics that I would not have thought possible.

Look, this sketch is not for everyone. If you happen to be the kind of demented pervert it was made for, however, it will be so up your alley that the alley might have to be renamed after it. So many different kinds of humor come across throughout, all of them silly. Yang’s character is inexplicably named Gidget. (Though he almost cracks when he accidentally says “Gadget.”) Sherman’s character seems exhausted from having to remind his friends, “Yes, directors can be men too.” Someone in Avatar the theme park apparently exhibits crack rocks and calls them “unobtanium.” It’s a heady weird brew and a high note to end the episode on.

Although a Please Don’t Destroy short was promised in the opening credits, it never quite got there in the feed of the east coast. It must have aired on the West Coast, though, as the skit appeared on YouTube this morning without being marked as “Cut for Time.” In any case, it’s a shame it didn’t make it to air, as this is the best PDD short in some time. It has the same brutally self-deprecating energy to it the incredible “Roast Battle” card from Dakota Johnson’s episode last season, including another nepo baby jab. This time, the guys went a step further, admitting that they now only appear on the show “once every six or seven episodes.” Practice. If they really wanted to take a shot at themselves, the guys might have mentioned the very real thing insurance business they appeared confusingly between the sketches.

• Surprising to have former cast member Kyle Mooney’s cameo the monologue and also the bake-off sketch without mentioning that he wrote and directed an A24 film which will be published in three weeks. He probably wouldn’t spoon feed us baby birds, and we appreciate his trust in us.

• It feels a little premature to bring back the Kel Squad another song dedicated to “Domingo,” but considering the first one has 10 million YouTube views and launched countless TikTok videos, the rush to return is understandable. However, this new iteration worked better, in part by abandoning the painful premise that the Kel Squad is awkward at singing and choreo.

• The Wicked Auditions sketch was a fine opportunity to welcome home cherished impressions which Yang’s Fran Lebowitz and Devon Walker’s Shannon Sharpe and introduce some new ones like Chloe Fineman’s immaculate Leslie Mann. And in the same way that having Andy Samberg on contract for election reasons means a bonus Lonely Island songhaving Carvey around means a fresh celebrity impression here from him: Al Pacino.

• Julia Fox introduced Charli XCX to her performance of “360” because she is actually the Julia referenced in that song’s “I’m so Julia” chorus.

• The hosts of Banger Boyz going from a story about a sack punch to a discussion of how the pyramids were built, all while surrounded by bottles of Prime, was a solid encapsulation of the kind of podcast Trump frequented during the election. However, the cold open closed on such a big joke about Trump’s cabinet picks that it felt a little unnecessary to weave that thread any further here.

• Hernández’s whimsical commercial acting director who helps his students “almost” get roles, just might have the juice to become a recurring character.

• I can’t help but think of Heidi Gardner’s Cher wearing a black chef’s hat with a diamond pilgrim buckle underneath The It Girl Thanksgiving sketch.

• Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that Alec Baldwin’s bow tie was wide open during the farewells.