It’s been a big week for SNL, with Beyond Saturday Night dropping on Peacock last Thursday to kick off a month of SNL celebrations! Not to mention the new season of Severance, and three new Tom Green projects coming out in the next two weeks. So, it looks like those New Year’s reading goals of mine are going to take a hit for the time being. But, I digress.
And we’re back… for the first show of 2025, following a three-week break. How has it only been 3 weeks? I guess it feels longer because 2025 has already been a lot.
Dave Chappelle returned to host for the fourth time, and as expected, he kept it light and no one was offended. Just kidding-let’s get into it!
Cold Open
Opening with an MSNBC parody was a fitting way to address- or at least allude to-the events of the past couple of weeks. Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman) starts off by reassuring us that they won’t get sucked into Trump’s crazy statements –but the segment devolves into a barrage of breaking news interruptions, as Trump tweets about Wicked, and how we need to buy the Emerald City, which he may have confused with Greenland.
We get a quick cutaway to James Austin Johnson as Trump, talking about TikTok, where he introduces his new Secretary of Fact-Checking and “Ambassador to Sephora”, George Santos, played by Bowen Yang. The sketch had its moments, but with the inauguration just two days away, I thought there would be more focus on that, or perhaps Biden’s exit, yet Dana Carvey was noticeably absent from this episode.
Monologue
Chappelle‘s stand-up monologue was 15 minutes long – but worth it. Dave covered everything from the LA fires, to Luigi Mangione, to his concerns around why he wasn’t invited to Diddy’s freak-offs, and his experience living one town over from Springfield, Ohio.
He ended with a poignant story about President Jimmy Carter, followed by a heartfelt plea to Donald Trump – and everyone else- to do better, and exhibit humanity and empathy for displaced people. This monologue was definitely one that I’d watch again.
The Immigrant Dad Talk Show
This was the second time for this talk show, with Marcello Hernandez as Joaquin, hosting the show from his backyard. Dave Chappelle plays his neighbor, Richard, while Mikey Day returns as their awkwardly woke neighbor, Kevin.
Parenting styles collide as Joaquin and Richard refer to their traditional approaches, and are not into Kevin’s more modern methods – including a secret handshake with his son (played by Andrew Dismukes), that ends with a kiss on the lips.
Bringing this sketch back for Dave was a great choice, as it felt totally on-brand for him.
Wildfire Evacuation Alert
I was thoroughly impressed with this sketch. The way the show found a comedic angle to such a dire, ongoing situation was incredible.
The story centers around a family played by Dave, Ego Nwodim, and Devon Walker. They just received an evacuation alert and are preparing to leave their house when the father reveals a number of shocking secrets, starting with $500,000 in cash and a fake passport hidden in the wall. He then takes two guns from behind a picture, handing one to his son to be ready for the Bosnians, who are on their way.
Things escalate quickly, and the fake blood spurts begin, as Dave shoots the Bosnian intruder. When they look for the family dog, and bring out a stuffed animal, I knew this wasn’t going to end well for the dog. Dave cuts open the stuffed animal because there’s something valuable hidden in his stomach. He also reveals his other family, who have been living in their bookshelf – and takes a call in Mandarin, just before they receive another notification that the evacuation alert was a false alarm.
Weekend Update
Michael Longfellow was the first featured guest, as himself, pleading his case for not banning TikTok. He argues that we can’t just ban something because it’s Chinese, pointing out that, according to a TikTok he saw, Jesus was in fact, Chinese. He confessed that he doesn’t know how to function anymore without TikTok, questioning what he’s supposed to do at work, or when he’s bored for a few seconds during a movie. At one point, he tries to swipe up on Michael Che because he’s bored with him. This was a hilarious take on the unsettling reality of TikTok’s prevalence, and Michael’s delivery was perfect.
The entire Weekend Update segment had great energy, including a new bit from Colin called Hear Me Out, which felt very much like the joke swap, as he attempts to defend AI-generated child porn as a solution for pedophiles, met by totally justified groans from the audience. He quickly recognizes the flaw in his reasoning, saying, “Ok, now I see the problem.”
Another standout moment came from Sarah Sherman, the second featured guest, who roasted Colin, in character, as “The Original Nosferatu”. She seems to be slightly bitter about not being asked to audition for the role in the new movie, but quickly moves on to Colin, implying that he has a coke problem and making him read uncomfortable responses from the cue cards – which we love to see.
Missing Girlfriend and Balloon Pop
“Missing Girlfriend” stars Devon Walker, who is describing his girlfriend to two police officers. As they ask him how much she weighs, Keenan Thompson plays a janitor who stands behind the officers, silently signaling Devon on what to say, or not say, regarding her physical description. He ends up describing her as an 85-pound grown woman who is a queen with a beautiful soul.
When they reveal the drawing, I was expecting something more unusual, instead it was just a conventionally attractive woman. The joke seemed to hinge on the idea that the police wouldn’t find her because the description was what his girlfriend would want to hear on the news, so she wouldn’t be angry.
The sketch was okay. It’s certainly an awkward question that could have negative consequences, but I guess I was expecting a bigger payoff.
The final sketch was a pre-tape of what’s apparently a YouTube show, where a person comes out, and the contestants pop a balloon to indicate that they’re not interested in dating the person. Since it’s impossible to tell pure satire from parody of a real show, I looked this one up – and wow, it is a real show. This sketch was a clever way for Dave to bring back his Silky Johnson character, along with co-stars from Chappelle’s show, as contestants.
Parting Thoughts
This was an interesting episode with the cold open and monologue taking up the first 30 minutes. After GloRilla‘s two performances and Weekend Update, there were only four sketches. Overall, the show had some memorable moments, and I felt like Dave really brought his A-game.
Next week, Timothée Chalamet is back as both host and musical guest. And we’re less than one month away from the anniversary special on February 16th. Check out this list of anniversary special and events. Thanks for reading!
