Jon Hamm returned to host Saturday Night Live for the fourth time. It’s hard to believe that he last hosted in 2010. He has made 14 cameo appearances, so at this point, he’s pretty much a regular on the show. Lizzo was the musical guest, killing it in her performances as usual. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, so let’s get into it!
Cold Open
The episode opened with Mikey Day as Jesus Christ, cleansing the temple by getting rid of all its money. My first thought was that perhaps this was going to be a non-political cold open—until Trump (James Austin Johnson) walks in, and everyone freezes. Trump compares himself to Jesus, because he also got rid of a lot of money last week—not just for a temple, but the entire country, and possibly even the world.
It was very similar to the “Founding Fathers” cold open in January, when Trump enters and gives a monologue as the cast freezes in the background. With this episode being the Easter show, it was a smart way to connect the holiday with the economic turmoil of the prior week.
There were some good jokes—for example, when Trump mentions that Emil (Wakim) is thinking he should have played Jesus, because Jesus would have looked like him IRL. But we don’t like to think about that, so Mikey is playing Jesus, with his blue eyes. He also declares, “The tariffs were working so well, I had to stop them.”
He starts talking to the cast behind him, as they try not to break, doing their best to remain “frozen.” Keenan Thompson announces that he’s going to leave, and exits via the middle of the stage. I’m assuming this was a reference to Morgan Wallen walking off the stage two weeks ago—but Keenan can do it, because he’s Keenan. Trump references ‘Miss Eggy’ from last week’s episode, saying, “Because men ain’t… don’t say it, we’ll get in trouble.”
This was a really clever and funny way to open the show. I appreciate political sketches that do more than just recreate a speech or interview from the past week and get more creative with it. I also like how the show has been getting meta the past couple of weeks.
Please Don’t Destroy – Missing Girl Cop Drama
This short film takes place in a police station, with the PDD guys as the police. Ben Marshall is briefing everyone on the case of a 22-year-old woman who has gone missing, telling them it’s going to be a long night—so he ordered pizza.
Jon Hamm plays a detective who is solely focused on the pizza. As Ben tries to bring their attention back to the case, he mentions that the pizza order is half plain and half Hawaiian, which then angers everyone—because who orders that many Hawaiian pizzas? The victim’s distraught mother enters, and just then we hear a girl’s voice—but it’s the pizza delivery girl, and everyone cheers.
This was a different type of short for PDD, taking on a police drama rather than playing themselves. I thought it was a solid, funny sketch, and while I love their traditional sketches that take place in their office, I like that they’re trying different things.
Answer Questions Correctly!
“Guess the Correct Answer” is a game show in which contestants are paired up, as one gives clues and the other tries to guess the word on the card. Jon plays a contestant who admits to being a little nervous that he might do something that will go viral and ruin his life.
Mikey plays his partner, who gives him clues like “something that is racist.” His guesses include: “me,” “my family,” “my friends,” “my jokes.” When the word is “daydreaming,” he goes on about his daughter‘s friends, ending with the answer “hypersexual daydreams.” Getting the answer correct—albeit disturbingly—he does a few more embarrassing things before shouting, “In your face! Try to make a viral fail clip out of that!” Michael Longfellow, who is hilarious as the low-key snarky host, responds, “Wow, that was a disaster.”
I’m a fan of the game-show-gone-horribly-wrong format. Adding the more modern fear of doing something embarrassing and going viral was perfect.
White POTUS
This White Lotus parody was an absolute highlight. As someone who has been obsessed with White Lotus for the past two months, I got nervous when I saw a parody was coming. The sketch begins with Trump and Melania (Chloe Fineman) in their hotel room at the White Lotus resort. Chloe’s Melania was an impression of Parker Posey’s character from the actual White Lotus, which made no sense—why would Melania have a North Carolina accent? But then, cut to the kitchen, with Alex Moffat returning as Eric Trump, and Mikey as Don Jr., and I quickly became more optimistic.
The way the sketch drew parallels between White Lotus storylines and the Trump presidency was brilliant. Melania talks about how awful it would be if America lost all its money, while Donald stares at his phone, reading the headline, “Trump Triggers Worldwide Recession.” Don Jr. questions why Melania has a Southern accent, being from Slovenia. Meanwhile, Eric is enjoying his butter noodles.
Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and Marco Rubio are basically the three girlfriends from White Lotus, with Kristi and Pam wandering off to gossip about Marco. Just then, Beck Bennett makes an appearance, bringing back his iconic shirtless Vladimir Putin.
We also got spot-on comparisons—RFK Jr. to Rick, Howard Lutnick was an actual clip from White Lotus of Greg/Gary, Lizzo appears as Belinda, and Scarlett Johansson returned as Ivanka Trump, who has been MIA because she’s at the monastery.
They even went there with the infamous scene from episode six (IYKYK). This time, instead of the brothers, it’s Don Jr. and Tiger Woods. I was honestly so confused as to why Tiger Woods was there, but a quick Google search informed me that he’s dating Vanessa Trump, Don Jr.’s ex-wife.
Weekend Update
Weekend Update had three features this week—an unusually high number—but all were well-deserving of airtime, and also timely. First up was Bowen Yang as Chinese Prime Minister Chen Biao, to talk about the tariffs. He made some good points like, “You can’t live without our electronics, but we’ll survive without your Newman’s Own salad dressing.”
Emil Wakim addressed the recent statistic that only 18% of young people feel proud to be American. He talks about the guilt he feels when ordering Uber Eats, subtly comparing it to slavery, which garnered the traditional groans from the audience.
The third feature was Sarah Sherman as Colin’s accountant. She roasts Colin, calling out things from his tax return, like letting people use his private jet for free… for ICE deportations. Sarah’s features on Weekend Update, along with the cringe lines that Colin hesitatnly reads from the cue cards, are quite possibly my two favorite recurring bits on the show right now.
I give this week’s entire Weekend Update segment a 10 out of 10. The one joke that’s going to stick with me has to be: “Tesla is having trouble selling its Cybertruck. It could be due to their new slogan, Cybertruck: What if Kanye was a car?”
Final Sketches
In the last 30 minutes of the episode, there was a hilarious sketch about a gay couple, played by Bowen and Jon, who arrive at a friend’s house with a baby. The friends are confused and asking a lot of questions because the couple did not have a baby the night before. The couple takes offense, arguing that people just think it’s okay to ask gay people anything, and accuse their friends of being homophobic. The scenario was perfectly ridiculous and well-written.
The final sketch of the night is about a group of new employees taking part in an icebreaker. They’re asked to share a fun fact about themselves. Most share things like, “I like to garden,” or “I have a twin.” Jon plays Greg, whose fun fact is that his mom killed his dad—naked—on TV. We learn that it happened on Jackass and it was a little sad, but also a little funny. They all end up gathering around to watch it on YouTube. This was a great take on one of my most dreaded workplace activities.
Parting Thoughts
This was a really strong episode. Jon Hamm is always fantastic, and it seems like he’s the type of host who is up for anything. There really weren’t any bad sketches—I truly enjoyed each one. I’d love to see Jon come back to host more often.
The show is off for two weeks, returning on May 3rd with host Quinta Brunson and musical guest Benson Boone. Thanks for reading!
Really appreciated the breakdown of the cold open—it’s wild how SNL keeps finding ways to blend current events with cultural or religious moments, like tying Trump to Easter through that Jesus comparison. The callback to the ‘Founding Fathers’ sketch also shows how they’re threading themes this season. Curious to see if this meta approach continues in the lead-up to the election.