Michael Keaton did a fine job hosting, Billie Eilish gave us someone to look up to, and Alec Baldwin, Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, and Andy Samberg each made cameos on a mostly solid Saturday Night Live. Here's everything that happened this week.
The Cold Open
Alec Baldwin was cast as Fox News host Brett Baier to recreate his recent interview with Kamala Harris, who was played by Maya Rudolph. Baier interrupted Harris constantly, and then threw to a clip of Donald Trump's own Fox interview, where James Austin Johnson played Trump like a sputtering, incoherent, senile man.
A decontextualized clip of Dana Carvey playing an out-of-it President Joe Biden was also shown, which Harris questioned and also used as an opportunity to praise the president. This busy cold open likewise satirized Trump's disastrous exchange with a Latino voter on Univision. Seemingly under the weather, Baldwin cleared his throat several times, but he and his scene mates got through an amusing and super-stuffed open.
The Monologue
Beloved actor Michael Keaton returned to host SNL, and recalled his time working as a production assistant on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. For a one-time stand-up comedian, Keaton was a bit stiff, but loosened up when Mikey Day and Andy Samberg each appeared as Beetlejuice. Even Sarah Sherman briefly turned up, but it was Day and Samberg who finally cajoled Keaton to use his Beetlejuice voice to tell us they'd be right back.
The Cookie Guy
Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day played Lindy and Rhett, hosts for an infomercial on ShopTV and welcomed "The Cookie Guy," Toby, as played by Keaton. He was hocking a zombie eye cookie for Halloween, which closely resembled a human breast, and inspired many double entendres and sexual comments from viewers who called in to be horned up. This was juvenile and not great.
please don't destroy: Skydiving
For their first appearance of the season, the pdd boys weren't playing themselves, which was odd. Instead, Martin Herlihy and John Higgins were first-time skydivers, while Ben Marshall played one of their very strange instructors — whose partner was recently divorced, depressed, suicidal, and played by Keaton. Surreal and awkward, this remote worked well and was funny.
Detroit, Michigan, 1955
At a family gathering, a union between characters played by Andrew Dismukes and Ego Nwodim was disputed because of interracial tensions. Dismukes's character tried to defuse it by performing a new song he'd written, which was actually "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train, and this aesthetically offended Nwodim's dad, who was hilariously played by Kenan Thompson. This was random but pretty good.
iPhone
This mixtape of a remote mimicked a person scrolling through their iPhone, mostly between texting their partner and random TikTok videos. With a few good callbacks, it was a hyperactive blur but a decent approximation of cultural attention-deficit phone life.
Billie Eilish
Shot from a camera in the floor, we could read "Hit Me Hard" and "Soft" inscribed on the bottoms of Billie Eilish's shoes, a reference to her album of the same name — and when we got a full view of her and the stage, we discovered that the superstar was dressed almost exactly like Silent Bob. She was seemingly singing "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" over a backing track as her brother FINNEAS played acoustic guitar and sang back-ups, but then a full band appeared on a unique, blue sky set, whose visuals were the most compelling part of this airy performance.
For the more sedate, heartfelt "WILDFLOWER," the stage was dimly lit in a dark blue hue, which allowed us to focus more on the song and singers' power, as Eilish and FINNEAS duetted during the emotionally dynamic and soaring song.
Weekend Update
Colin Jost launched Update highlighting the "subtle" differences between candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump by playing recent footage of the two making public statements, which made the latter look really hysterical and hateful. The montage of Trump bizarrely dancing to his recent 38 minute DJ set got special attention, and then Michael Che also went in on Trump's apparent dementia. Jost got an applause break for an IVF joke, while Che turned a gaslighting joke about Harris on its head. Elon Musk was diminished by Jost in a funny quip, while Che drew jeers for a bit about Catholicism and pedophilia.
Emil Wakim did sit-down stand-up about his Lebanese heritage and the hypocrisy of immigrants, like some of his family members, who oppose immigration once they assimilate and succeed in America. As a new cast member, Wakim did a great and outspoken job here.
Jost joked about Tom Brady becoming part-owner of the Raiders, while Che made a childish BRA Day joke, and later, an excellent visual joke at Jost's white expense. For his part, Jost made a good peanut M&Ms joke.
Sarah Sherman also swung by the desk to opine about Victoria's Secret's attempt to be more inclusive at a recent fashion show. Sherman was advocating for women she didn't see on VS runways and also did her thing, where she mercilessly heckles Jost about his supposed infatuation with her. Sherman did her best to gross us out about the state of her underwear and then begged to be part of a VA fashion show, all of which was bizarre but also fairly compelling.
Think About It
Ego Nwodim played a male Uber driver taking characters played by Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman to the airport, but then forcing them to play a conspiracy-themed trivia game, which was live-streamed. Keaton hopped into the car as a fellow conspiracist, and Sherman's Trish thrived during their terrible game, which satirized MAGA voters.
Halloween Rises
Andrew Dismukes played the director of a fictional Halloween franchise instalment called Halloween Rises, and a scene went awry when it seemed that the flamboyant stunt coordinator, Beau, played by Keaton, had instructed Mikey Day's Jaxson, the actor playing Michael Myers, to do sassy dances and struts in a kill scene — all of which was rather clever physical comedy.
Tableside Guac
At a restaurant gathering of two families who were brought together by newlyweds, things got weird when Keaton's elderly patriarch thought a much younger waitress, played by Heidi Gardner, resembled an old flame, which triggered something in her too. Truly strange with manic pacing, this was performance art as sketch and more haunting than humorous.