‘SNL’ Host Martin Short Outshined by Star Cameos

In case you weren’t aware Martin Short was the host Saturday Night Live last night, you might have had a hard time figuring it out. It’s not that Short wasn’t into sketches — he used his natural flair to show off as he sang about getting meds for the holidays. It’s just that a lot of other celebrities were there too. Lots and lots of them: Melissa McCarthy, Tom Hanks, Kristen Wiig, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd.

The evening felt like SNL flexing its muscles as it heads into its 50th anniversary celebrations in February, a testament to its power as an entertainment superpower — and the episode capped a fall season in which the guest spots have grown from fun cameos to essential elements of the show. Yet this episode’s excess also felt like a criminal underuse of Short, who after all these years is still relegated to sidekick status.

The cold open set the tone. It began with Hanks sitting regally in a robe and explaining the concept of the show’s “five-hour club,” the somewhat hollow honor bestowed (along with a robe emblazoned with the number 5) on those who have hosted five times. After Rudd joined Hanks, Short arrived in the clubroom to cheers, but the applause for his big moment was quickly drowned out by hosannas for the parade of others who followed. In addition to the aforementioned stars, there were Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Emma Stone, John Mulaney and Jimmy Fallon.

The sketch emphasized how much the current iteration of SNL rely on familiar faces. Fey turned to Short and said, “First of all, we need to make sure you’re really ready to be five hours. Quick: Name three current cast members.” Kort paused, then blurted out the correct answer: “No idea.”

The self-cutting gag turned out to be more than a punch line for the episode. Sure, a few cast members had breakout moments — Bowen Yang was killed off on “Weekend Update” playing a sassy drone; Marcello Hernandez repeated his fast talk Giant Saturday host Don Francisco—but throughout the night, it was the cameos (such as Rudd playing the Spanish-language game show’s confused English-speaking guest) that maintained the sketches’ momentum.

For another example, just when you thought “Parking Lot Altercation,” in which Short and Mikey Day played Christmas shoppers arguing over a parking lot with exaggerated mimes, was wearing thin, McCarthy appeared as Short’s aggressive wife. Wearing a wig with a Kate Gosselin hairdo, she spat what appeared to be iced coffee onto Day’s car window and rubbed her breasts into the remains. Chloe Fineman, who plays Day’s clever daughter, couldn’t help but tear up.

Read: Self SNL is about vibes

Later, the “Christmas Airport Parade” was just that: a procession of special guests. Yang and Ego Nwodim played enthusiastic TSA agents who introduced all the strange characters that populate Newark airport during the holidays, but the biggest audience cheer came when Rudd appeared as himself, McCarthy played a gate agent who obnoxiously pronounced passenger names wrong, and Hanks reprized his role from Clint Eastwood’s Sully as the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Smart observations about how people behave while traveling were overshadowed by the glare of Hollywood.

Even “Weekend Update” benefited from the added star power. Michael Che and Colin Jost’s annual ritual of mutual humiliation, in which each co-host reads jokes, the other writes invisibly, was enhanced with reaction shots from Jost’s famous wife, Johansson, who watched in horror from the stage as Che made him recite. jokes at the couple’s expense with a banal “black voice”.

SNL has relied heavily on cast alumni and high-wattage friends from the show this season. Election coverage featured Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg as Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, respectively. And Dana Carvey can’t seem to leave the studio, even though the series no longer relies on his Joe Biden impression. He was there last night too, just because he was crazy Giant Saturday sketch.

On the one hand, this celebrity cornucopia feels a little lazy. Rudd and Johansson get automatic cheers that can lead to well-deserved laughter or applause. On the other hand, it’s smart business to bring them all up, serving as a reminder of the show’s brand loyalty and staying power in the run-up to a banner year that it hopes can also translate to big ratings.

And yet the overuse of this crutch was frustrating last night, mostly because Short suffered for it. In the final sketch of the night, “Peanuts Christmas,” he played a flamboyant director who had no time for the silly dancing of Charles M. Schulz’s characters. It was a belated reminder of Short’s irresistible dynamism on stage. Short and Yang made a great team that put the Peanuts kids to shame. If only we had seen more of it.