Jack Black returned to host Saturday Night Live, 20 years since his last hosting gig. Jack brought his contagious energy, which salvaged an otherwise mediocre episode. That said, there were some laugh-out-loud moments, and one censorship snafu that people will likely be talking about for a while. So let’s get into it!
Cold Open
The cold open referenced Trump‘s tariffs announcement, poking fun at the oversized chart that Trump actually shared, comparing it to a Cheesecake Factory menu, which Howard Lutnick (Andrew Dismukes), mistakenly handed to him first. Trump (James Austin Johnson) noted that it’s organized neither alphabetically nor numerically, for maximum confusion.
He goes on to discuss “MAWA”, or Make America Wealthy Again, but before that we’re going to be “MAGDA”, or Make America Great Depression Again. He mentions the uninhabited islands, on which he imposed tariffs, one of them being McDonald Island. Lutnick hands him a mockup of his ideal version of McDonald Island – a Big Mac in a hula skirt. He says, “Take me to God’s country, right?” Clearly referencing Morgan Wallen‘s awkwardly abrupt exit from the Goodnights last week, and his subsequent Instagram post.
The sketch closed with Mike Myers returning as Elon Musk, introducing the new Tesla “Model V”, the first self- vandalizing car.
It was a decent cold open and I think that Mike Myers’ Elon impression is getting better each time. The writing was solid, but the meta Morgan Wallen reference got the biggest laugh by far.
Big Monologue Energy
The show got off to an energetic start with Jack Black’s musical monologue, as he walks through the studio, stopping near Bill Burr in the audience. He brings in a seven-piece marching band, performs some impressive moves including a front-roll, and gives 100% to this performance. Sally O’Malley would be proud.
Love Match
In this Dating Game-like game show, Jack Black plays Gene, a contestant who is dressed as Indiana Jones. Except, he claims not to know who Indiana Jones is, which the host (Andrew Dismukes) doesn’t believe, as he becomes increasingly angry.
When fellow contestant, Dan (Marcello Hernandez), asks Gene whether Indiana Jones was from Indiana, Gene replies, “No it was his nickname”, prompting the host to ask “Did you just state a correct fact about Indiana Jones?” Even after responding that his biggest fear is snakes, he’s still not willing to admit that he knows who Indiana Jones is.
Andrew’s reaction to finding out that Gene actually knows who Indiana Jones is, was the best part of this sketch, but otherwise this didn’t really hit for me.
Goth Kid on Vacation
In this pre-taped spoof of Jamaican tourism ads, Keenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim sing about how they find joy amid the struggles in their country. And that comes from watching a Goth kid on vacation.
Michael Longfellow is perfect as the Goth teenager, dressed in black jeans, leather jacket, and combat boots on the beach. He sweats through his shirt as he sulks in the background while the rest of the family has a great time.
Cut to Jack Black in a parody of My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade”, in which he was the Goth kid whose parents took him to Jamaica for his high school spring break.
This was easily the best sketch of the night for me. It went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, and as a 90’s kid this was so relatable. Not that I was Goth, at least not outwardly, but seeing the Goth kids in mainstream places that were the antithesis of their entire personality, was nostalgic.
Weekend Update
Colin Jost opens with commentary on the recent stock market plunge, while working in another shot at Morgan Wallen, by saying, “Money is leaving the stock market faster than Morgan Wallen at Goodnights.” Michael Che seemed to get all of the controversial jokes, eliciting the usual “boos” from the audience, but that didn’t stop him and Colin from cracking up- because the jokes were good.
We got the long-awaited return of “The Couple You Can’t Believe are Together”, Grant (Marcello) and Alyssa (Jane Wickline). They give advice on how to maintain a healthy relationship, like boundaries, for instance Alyssa does the cooking because Grant isn’t allowed to touch the stove. She’s also teaching him new words, which makes him feel “undoubtedly”. They used the same formula as the first time we saw them, and it worked again.
A big highlight of the show was Ego Nwodim’s feature, in which she petitions that she should host the White House Correspondents Dinner, after it was announced that they would not have a comedian host this year. She explains that her set would be about the food, and not divisive political jokes. She then goes in front of the desk to perform as her stand-up persona, “Miss Eggy”.
Starting with jokes about the food, then segueing into jokes about men’s excuses, mentioning her five kids, as Colin points out that she doesn’t have kids. She prompts the audience to finish a few lines, the first one being, “Miss Eggy don’t…”, to which they respond, “Play”. After a filibuster joke she says, “Because men ain’t…”, this time the audience yells “Shit!”. She clearly wasn’t expecting the audience to actually respond, given the shocked looks by Ego, Colin and Che. She tries to correct by saying “No, worth a damn”, but you can barely hear it over the laughter. She goes on to say “We’re gonna get fined for that. Lorne’s gonna be mad at you all.”
I can never understand how certain words are still now allowed on television, especially at 12:30 AM. There are far worse things televised, but I digress. This was such a hilarious live moment and a really solid Weekend Update overall.
Final Sketches
The episode started running out of steam with the last two sketches. The funnier of the two was about a band playing “Free Falling” and inviting others to join them on stage. But everyone who joins them plays bass, and they end up with too many bass guitars, drowning out the melody.
The last sketch was a take on the famous Times Square Kiss photo of a sailor kissing a nurse. Basically, her husband, Arthur (Jack Black) was out of frame but actually there. She continues to kiss sailors, as Arthur is about to eat five hot dogs, and we find out that he’s a racist cartoon artist. The MVP of this sketch was probably the hot dogs, but hey, it was 12:55.
Parting Thoughts
All in all, the episode was decent. I was truly impressed with Jack’s ability to lead in just about every sketch, and with enthusiasm that made it engaging. I think that a less charismatic host would not have been able to save this one in the way that he did.
Next week John Hamm returns as host, with musical guest, Lizzo. Thanks for reading!
