Martin Short returned to host Saturday Night Live for the fifth time. A former cast member, it’s hard to believe that he was only in the cast for one season from 1984-1985. During that season, he brought so many legendary moments and unforgettable characters to the show, like Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers, Jr. and the synchronized swimmers (with Harry Shearer), just to name a few. He’s a natural, and granted he had seven years on SCTV prior, you can’t deny that Martin is simply an amazingly talented performer.
So much to talk about – this was the official Christmas episode, Martin joined the exclusive Five-Timers Club, and Hozier was the musical guest. The show was jampacked with incredible moments, so let’s get into it!
The Cold Open
The show opens with Tom Hanks sitting in the Five-Timers Club Lounge, sporting the official jacket, explaining that he started the Five-Timers Club in 1990 as a lazy way to avoid writing a monologue. He’s first joined by Paul Rudd and the sketch quickly becomes a cameo extravaganza.
Martin enters, exclaiming, “What a surprise that I’ve known about all week!” Highlights included Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost standing in the doorway and Scarlet closing the door in Collin’s face, Melissa McCarthy falling through the wall, leaving a hole through which John Mulaney enters, and Jimmy Fallon is the club’s Jacket-boy. With ten cameos and hilarious banter, this was an incredible kick off to the last show of 2024.
The Monologue
We haven’t had a musical monologue that goes backstage in a while and this one was perfect – every interaction and one-liner was entertaining. Sarah Sherman starts it off by interrupting the monologue because she’s depressed and everyone is stressed out. She’s joined by other cast members, and Martin has a solution, but just for the purposes of this bit. I could watch Sarah being Sarah in every episode – her unique personality is so refreshing.
Martin sings “We Need a New Prescription”, a parody of “We Need a Little Christmas.” He sings about various medications as he makes his way through the hallways, stopping to throw a child off of Santa‘s lap to make room for himself, and a faux make out with Jimmy Fallon. The song itself was okay, but Martin’s energy really made it work.
An Act of Kindness
Keenan Thompson plays a homeless man who returns a gift to Heidi Gardner that she drops as she passes by him on the sidewalk. She then takes him for a haircut, buys him a new suit, takes him to dinner, and gives him money to get back on his feet. The twist in this sentimental story comes when they’re at dinner and Heidi gets a phone call from her husband (Mikey Day), asking, “Where the f*** are you? It’s 9:30 on Christmas Eve!” Keenan and then gets on the phone and starts talking smack, telling him that it’s, “Steal your bitch o’clock.“ He shows Heidi the watch that he stole in addition to the one she bought for him, and eventually steals her car. You have to appreciate a good reality check to an overly-sentimental setup.
Christmas Airport Parade
In a follow up to the Thanksgiving Airport Parade sketch from 2023, Umberto and Chartreuse are back to host the parade of people we don’t want to see while travelling. This time we have Martin Short as the overly-aggressive Delta lounge employee. An elitist who takes his job very seriously, he turns one passenger away because they’re not dressed well, and won’t let Paul Rudd into the lounge, because his name ‘sounds poor.’
We see some classic passengers like the “white woman who’s going to find a way to make the flight about her”, and Marcello as a guy who just got a cheap BBL in Turkey. We essentially get appearances from the entire cast, and a few Five-timer cameos, including Tom Hanks as Captain Sully. This is such a fun, albeit sadly realistic sketch that I was excited to see return.
Weekend Update
Bowen Yang is the only Update guest, playing a New Jersey drone. In a timely take on this recent phenomenon, his personification of the drone is defensive, refusing to explain himself, but does disclose that he’s dating the helicopter from Succession. He likens himself to Elphaba from Wicked, ending the bit with a parody of “The Wizard and I.” I live in prime drone territory, so I appreciated the humorous take on this unsettling situation.
The biggest Update moments came during the annual holiday joke swap between Colin and Che. Colin always get the worst of it, and this was no exception – watching him see the jokes on the cue cards for the first time is fantastic. This time he’s forced to tell jokes about Scarlet turning 40 and their baby, as they cut to her watching it play out from backstage. The visible discomfort and nervous laughter from both of them was as funny as the jokes themselves. This joke swap will be hard to top but I can’t wait to see them try.
Sabado Gigante
This was the second Sabado Gigante, and the formula is that a non-Spanish speaking, white guy is selected to come on stage and has no idea what’s happening. This time it’s Paul Rudd, playing Greg, who was given a ticket to the show instead of a voucher, when he missed his flight home. Dana Carvey makes a brief appearance as the English-hint-guy, whose hint is less than helpful, telling Greg, “The language they are speaking is Spanish.” There’s not much to this sketch except for complete chaos, but it works. I liked this one better than the first Sabado Gigante sketch with Nate Bargatze, but I may have been expecting more to happen -when the joke is simply the chaos and the contestant’s discomfort.
Charlie Brown Christmas Pageant Rehearsal
The highlight for me was Martin short playing local community theatre director, Drake Tuttle, in the unhinged way that he does so perfectly. Bowen Yang plays the choreographer, Lestat, who used to date Drake, and they inform the kids that ‘their relationship is very weird.’ Lestat wants to change the Peanuts-style dance to modern hip-hop, when they realize that Snoopy (played by Keenan Thompson) is the real star.
Martin was noticeably absent in the previous couple of sketches, so I’m glad that he was in the last one. I feel that in any other episode, this sketch could have been closer to top of the show, it was that good.
Parting Thoughts
What an incredible episode…10 out of 10 for me! We don’t often get one this perfect, and naturally it’s not easy to do. Part of SNL’s magic lies in the imperfections. The star power tonight certainly helped, but the writing was fantastic and they really leaned into Martin’s ability to hit everything out of the park. This is one that I know I’ll be re-watching many times.
SNL returns live on January 18th, and at this time, the host doesn’t appear to have been announced yet. On January 16th the four-part docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, drops on Netflix.
That’s a rap on 2024! It’s been a joy to write these recaps this season. Thanks for reading, happy holidays, and until next year, ‘’Goodbye everybody, goodbye!’
