Cold Opening – Trump/Mamdani Meeting
President Trump (JAJ) & Mayor Mamdani (Ramy Youssef) catch up
- What is it with the wild audience applause for Ramy as Mamdani? Do they think that’s really the real guy or something? Unless Ramy Youssef, whom I like a lot, is more popular than I have thought.
- For a while, I thought we might get an overlong summer recap cold open, but I like how this one seems more low-key and New York-focused.
- While he looks nothing like him, Ramy is at least fun as the Mayor, especially lampooning how he uses social media.
- And here is JAJ as Trump. I knew sooner or later, we would pair them two together, considering how much Trump seems to fawn over Mamdani.
- JAJ’s Trump is coming off funnier than usual of late, maybe because he is not paired with Colin’s Hegseth for yet another cold open, but also with better writing and pacing.
- Ashley as Natalie Harp. The visual of her all wet from the rain is cracking me up. She also does psychotic well.
- The Natalie/Mamdani moment didn’t work for me, though Ashley was very good as usual during it.
- A decent way to open the season. The pacing and energy worked well, especially how streamlined it was.
Rating: ***1/2
Opening Montage
- Same montage as the past three seasons. I am somewhat disappointed we did not get a new one, but I guess they had to have a montage that lasts more than two seasons, as the last few lasted two seasons each.
- Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline have been upped to reportory players.
- Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter have been added to the cast.
Monologue
host’s teammates crash his monologue
- I like the laid-back, chill vibes Jalen has, which is the type of energy I like in a season premiere host.
- I did not care at all for the whole Kenan portion in this. The man is reaching Darrell Hammond-levels of irrelevancy to the show by this point.
- Like many prior athlete monologues, we now get cameos from Jalen’s teammates. This whole part has nice energy and quite an endearing visual for the season’s first monologue back.
- The latter portion with the back-and-forth between Jalen and his teammates is going perhaps a little long, and some of the jokes are going over my head as a non-sports fan, but the endearing energy is still there.
Rating: ***
Office MVP
host is secretly the office’s MVP
- Feels odd seeing Mikey and JAJ next to each other in this sketch. Maybe because of how out-of-place Mikey Day has been in recent seasons being surrounded by relatively newer performers.
- A cute premise of Jalen basically playing a version of himself in an office setting, as we see a good use of his skills. The show did more memorable sketches with athletes in the past with a similar feeling to this, but the sketch is fine. Certainly far better leadoff than last season’s.
- Fun part with Jalen’s many failed attempts to score a shot, which is a cute tongue-in-cheek, considering his MVP status at the Knicks.
- What in the world was it with the extended Mikey portion? He came off so bad during it and distracting, throwing off the sketch’s pacing and dragging to a halt. Sigh. Words cannot express how unwatchable this guy has been of late.
- JAJ’s response to Jalen about being the potential first “office shooter” is great. Perfect example of how damn good JAJ is at these quick line deliveries.
- Not sure we needed that ending dance portion, but an overall decent leadoff, excluding a bad Mikey Day performance.
Rating: ***1/2
Dream Academy: The Debut
new girl group team is dysfunctional
- I am not familiar with this program, but the opening intro got me onboard by quickly making me familiar with it. And a great parody doesn’t need you to be familiar at all with the subject, as some SNL’s parodies were, as well as SCTV, which had the finest parodies and pastiches in sketch history.
- A nice way for Saidah and Grace to debut.
- Ashley Padilla is very solid in this pretape in general. A great example of how much she can elevate even the tiniest of moments with her expert delivery and pure presence.
- Grace is cracking me the hell up in this whole pretape. Impressive for a perfomer in her very first role.
- Sarah is coming off kinda out-of-place in this short. She also is not given much to do, compared to the other women all getting funny moments (Ashley, Grace and Jane especially).
- Speaking of the other women, did they forget that Saidah is in this? She seemed to vanish, as the pretape now focuses on Veronika, Grace and Jane. I am still laughing, though. But, that comes off odd to me.
- Jane, like Grace and Ashley, is a lot of fun in this short, especially the magic trick and the part with her legs hitting Sarah as the latter discloses an emotional fact.
- Excellent quick cutaway to an angered Ashley. In general, Ashley is terrific in this short. This piece is a microsom that, even when not being the focus, Ashley Padilla can wring so many laughs and steal whole segments without much of an attempt. A trait that is found in my all-time favorite cast members.
- A fitting way to include KATSEYE in a pretape.
- That ending music video is legit catchy, especially by its end. Reminds me of the spot-on-and-catchy music videos the Gemini’s Twin sketches always had.
- A solid first pretape for the season.
Rating: ****
Men’s Support Group
men share their concert-going trauma
- This SNL era seems to love doing these support group sketches. Many of which seem to use the same exact set, too.
- The lines given to him aren’t too bad, but Kenan’s delivery is not working for me. I also did not need yet another goofy-voiced delivery from him. Ugh.
- How is it that Jalen Brunson, an athlete without any acting experience, is giving a better performance than freakin’ Kenan Thomspon, who’s been doing sketch comedy for 30 years?
- The YouTube description box for this sketch has JAJ instead of Marcello in this sketch. Unless that was a typo, I imagine he replaced him for the live airing as he was nowhere else to be found in this episode. Not that he was missed at all.
- The sketch is getting better, as I especially laughed at the Kam/Jalen interaction.
- I can see this sketch not working for some, but this is the type of a pleasant filler sketch for me. The performances are mostly fine, and I got some laughs from the disclosures of incidents the men had in concerts.
- What an awful ending with Kenan’s hammy performance.
Rating: ***
High School Musical: the New Generation
high-schooler’s (JEC) song is interrupted by hits
- After we got a female-led pretape focusing on newer talent, it is cool to get a pretape focusing on last season’s rookie guys.
- This basketball short turning into a musical is a fun premise and about time seeing Jeremy getting the spotlight he deserves. He is much more than just Tucker Carlson.
- The “take a shot!” part with Jeremy constantly being hit with the ball is very fun.
- This short in general is a great use of Jeremy’s physicality, which was my favorite aspect about him when I first discovered him, like many, through Smosh and then Dropout.
- Like Dream Academy, nice to see another use of Veronika’s fantastic singing voice.
- A funny turn with Jalen getting Jeremy’s girl instead of him.
- In some ways, this reminds me of a similar pretape with Vanessa Bayer and Ronda Rousey from season 41 (Love Struck), but this still stood on its own as a fun, slick-paced pretape. Ever since last season, the pretapes have been some of the most consistent aspect of the show after a few shaky seasons with them.
- All-in-all, a very fun, solid showcase for Jeremy Culhane.
Rating: ****
Airport Message Chairs
message chair elicits orgasmic reaction from passenger (MID)
- For a brief moment, I thought this would be a reprisal of that forgettable Gate Agents sketch from last season.
- Is SNL kidding me? After distracting me by his performances and how out-of-place he is coming off even more than ever this premiere, we now get a full sketch centering around Mikey Day making orgasmic sounds as others stand around and look? How the hell is such a sketch is on the show, not just a season premiere of all episodes, but the first half of said season premiere?
- It feels painful this is the first sketch appearance of Andrew this season as a dull straight man. A role he played way too many times of late. A huge waste of his talent.
- Another Kenan walk-on moment of late that reminds me he is still a cast member.
- As if this sketch hasn’t been wretched enough, we go even more desperate and pathetic for laughs, with now the yelping of men’s names. I am beyond tired of seeing these types of roles/performances from Mikey these past few seasons.
- Overall: NO.
Rating: *
Musical Performance – “Animal”
Weekend Update
Dario Amodei (JAW) on AI’s threat to humanity
Tucker Carlson (JEC) reviews the summer blockbusters
- I am so checked out of this Update era and what I perceive to be a major decline in its quality towards the end of season 49 (which afterwards began a decline in the show’s overall quality in general, after a good three seasons stretch with most of seasons 47-49), that I zoned out from this.
- Compared to the biting and hilarious Israel/Sheeran jokes from SNL UK Update team, this is as weak and safe as often. I am also not a fan of that “relocation” joke. Call what it is, SNL. Or, never bring up world events if you do not have the balls. But…. I guess endless women’s sports jokes should be enough.
- Considering I need some laughs, thank God Jane showed up. Between this commentary and the pretape earlier tonight, she is having a good start to her season.
- That massive forehead visual is quite something, accurate as it is to the ghoul Jane is parodying here.
- Good delivery from Jane, though not much is standing out to me in this piece. However, I did enjoy the whole “urge” spiel/line.
- I finally liked a joke: the Meta/Zuckerberg one. Otherwise, meh. Between toothless and overdone. At least Che/Jost aren’t scream laughing through half the jokes like that awful prior edition of the desk.
- I love Jeremy’s Tucker Carlson impression, though I worry if it is utilized a bit too much. Probably because I wasn’t crazy about the writing for it last time, but I will give this a chance.
- Having Jeremy’s Tucker reviewing movies again feels redundant, but it makes sense for the first show after a lengthy summer break.
- Some solid lines here. My favorites being the whole heterosexual relationship about Obsession (a movie I have yet to watch – I am much more into Old Hollywood than recent decades), and the Odyssey talk. Helping it as well is how damn good Jeremy is at delivering those lines.
Rating: **1/2
Parent-Teacher Conference
mother (ASP) invites her support system (host), (KET) to parent-teacher conference
- Right from Kenan’s entrance as a “kooky” character with that wig and glasses, already a very tired and overused look for Kenan by this point in his tenure, I can tell this will be a rough sketch.
- Between that wretched Mikey embarrassment earlier tonight and now this, Lorne seems to be working overtime convincing us it was a wise choice to bring both these performers back for yet another season.
- Ben is fine in his role, but I cannot think of any who can elevate such writing. I am so done with these types of sketches. I totally can see why some fans might enjoy them, but they leave me very checked-out and without much to say.
- Poor utilization of Ashley Padilla’s talents, despite an always-solid performance from her.
- Another JAJMukes walk-on to enhance a bad sketch, as their turn was a decent way to end this whole thing.
Rating: *1/2
Musical Performance – “Hootie Frutti”
Shark Tank: Respectacles
inventors (BEM) & (JEC) attempt feminist invention
- A lot of airtime for Jeremy and Ben tonight. This is also a so-far rare time with Jeremy leading a sketch. Feels nice seeing two classmates headlining a sketch for a season premiere, too.
- I am not sure this whole premise is working for me. Maybe because Shark Tank parodies have a rough history on SNL. Also, this whole faux feminist men premise has been done to death before.
- JAJ’s delivery as Kevin O’Leary is cracking me up. I am also really loving that voice he is using for him.
- A hacky joke, but I admit I got a guilty laugh from Jalen’s Daymond being out when hearing the glasses do not work on asses.
- Much like her two classmates, Veronika has been in a lot of sketches tonight.
- This sketch keeps going on and on, with the same beeping sounds and being called out as rude.
- All-in-all, despite good work from Ben and Jeremy, I was not crazy about this sketch as a whole. Still not horrible or anything.
Rating: **
Old Friend
strangers (KET), (KAP), (GRR) pretend to know host
- Lots of JAJ tonight. That non-sequitur with him did crack me up, at least.
- This type of role is one Kenan still can make me work, especially that he isn’t hamming it up so far.
- I got a good laugh from the drawing reveal. A decent buildup to Kenan being just some random old man and not actually Jalen’s former coach.
- Another moment with Grace Reiter making me laugh easily, this time by just her mere walk-on into this sketch.
- Kam almost getting a BJ from Grace’s character gave me a surprise laugh.
- Kam’s delivery and performance really improved over the summer. He is coming off well in this sketch.
Rating: ***1/2
Cut For Time: Young Rell’s Crew
rapper (host) has way too many members in his entourage
- A decent way to use the large size of the cast in a sketch.
- Ben’s shy attitude is pretty funny.
- Ashley is a solid straight man as usual. Very good line readings.
- Andrew’s recurring “YO YO! YO! Chill…” is cracking me up so damn much. Love his delivery of it, too. He is so damn good at these types of moments.
- Kenan is surprisingly low-key and good in this.
- A good appearance from Jeremy and Veronika.
- Despite some amusing performances from the cast and seeing many of them have fun moments, this sketch is really slow-paced and sluggish so far. I can see this one being a little better had it aired, though.
Rating: **1/2
Goodnights
Segments Ranked From Best to Worst
High School Musical: The New Generation
Dream Academy: The Debut
Office MVP
Trump/Mamdani Meeting
Old Friend
Monologue
Men’s Support Group
Weekend Update
CFT: Young Rell’s Crew
Shark Tank: Respectacles
Parent-Teacher Conference
Airport Message Chairs
Final Thoughts:
- Not too bad a premiere. Maybe I am being a little nicer than I should be, but this episode had a nicer flow and more energy than the past two premieres. In spite of a few duds (including a fucking wretched embarrassment with Mikey Day moaning for 5 minutes), there were enough good segments to make this whole effort passable. The cast use was fine, with Ben and Jeremy especially dominating. Jeremy had in particular a strong showing with three showcases tonight. Ben was good, as he often is when not removing his shirt, and while I did not like the Shark Tank sketch, I enjoyed his duo with Jeremy and their energy. Jane and Veronika, as well as Ashley and JAJ, also had a good first week for the season.
- Jalen Brunson had a laid-back, cool vibe to him as host that helped with the premiere. While he did not stand out as a memorable host like Michael Jordan or LeBron James before him, to name just two, he did not derail anything for me either. His likability and charm helped give the episode a nice vibe.
My Favorite Moments of the Episode, Represented with Screencaps:
My full set of screencaps from this episode is here
These are essentially my thoughts as well. A much better premiere than I feared, but nothing too crazy.
The leading forces of this episode, to me, were Jane, Jeremy, and Ashley, which is great to see considering they’ve, at most, been here three years only. It does highlight how most of the veteran cast is just sort of there nowadays, but I’m hoping some of them (namely Andrew and Sarah) get to have a bigger, more unique prescence than they did last season.
Oh man. How many more seasons do we have to deal with Mikey being the most insufferable human in the world?!?
I’m surprised how nice you are about this premiere, but I suppose that’s a good thing.
Eh, I don’t know, I thought this was a typical season premiere of this era. I don’t really think any of the sketches stood out to me, and there were so many that were just dumb. And not just the massage chairs sketch, I also mean that one where Jalen pretended to be bad at slam dunks.
Oh, and another thing, while you brought up LeBron and Jordan earlier, I don’t think any basketball player who hosted SNL can come even close to Charles Barkley.
Slam dunks? Lol
Well, that’s what it seemed like to me.
Dammit Blood, I was hoping you’d tear this episode apart, so I wouldn’t be too much of a Debbie Downer haha.
But man, I honestly think this is the worst SNL episode I’ve seen ever since I started watching in 2022. This whole episode just felt so dead, and energy draining. Even the sketches I didn’t entirely hate had a few moments of dead air.
On paper, the cold open and the monologue are decent enough, but they both felt very dull. I did like Ashley’s moment in the cold open, though. And one of Jalen’s teammates was pretty funny (for the life of me, I can’t remember his name).
The Office MVP sketch probably would’ve worked under a better athlete host (LeBron comes to mind). I can honestly picture this sketch working pretty well if it was in LeBron’s episode. Jason would’ve played Mikey’s role, and delivered his slaps and ramble WAY better than Mikey would’ve, probably. I will say, looking back, it was one of the few sketches were there was some energy in it.
The Dream Academy pre-tape was one of the things I liked. Jane and Grace were great here. I didn’t care for the music video at the end, though.
The Support Group sketch was a dud for me. It feels like all the jokes about those Usher/Chris Brown concerts have already been made. It also doesn’t help that this feels like it’s coming a year or 2 too late.
I wanted to like the High School Musical pre-tape, and Jeremy was great here, but all of the moments of Jalen just hitting Jeremy with the basketball didn’t work for me, and this went on a bit too long.
The Airport sketch was one of those dumb sketches that I want to like, but I didn’t. I feel like it would’ve worked if the entire setup was changed. (ex: Mikey and Jalen see new massage chairs at the mall, they try them, become obsessed and don’t get out of them)
Update was the only other part of this episode I liked. Colin and Che’s jokes were less forgettable than they usually are, and Jane and Jeremy’s commentaries were great. Jane’s commentary in particular is definitely one of my new favorite things she’s done on the show. Her neurotic rambling and constant talking to herself with two different voices was hilarious. Between this and the Dream Academy pre-tape, Jane already seems to have improved as a performer IMMENSELY. Jeremy was great as Tucker Carlson once again, but I think it’s time to take him outside of the Update desk.
The rest of the sketches after Update for me was pretty much just dud after dud. The Parent-Teacher Conference sketch was just lame, and a poor utilization of Ashley. The Shark Tank sketch was also lame, despite Jeremy and Ben’s best efforts. The Locker Room 10-to-1 just felt pointless, though Grace gave me my only big laugh from it.
Jalen wasn’t the main issue with this episode at all, but he really wasn’t the type of host for an episode like this. A much more capable host probably could’ve helped a good deal of the sketches and made this episode more meh, then flat out bad.
Overall, yikes.
I’m very excited for Dakota Johnson. She was great in her last episode, and that episode (despite being mixed as hell) features some of the highest highs of this era so far (in my opinion). See y’all next week.
I have a confession to make: this is the first episode that I quit watching live midway through in a number of years.
Admittedly, I was feeling increasingly cynical/jaded about the show in recent weeks, especially with all the vets (well, minus Chloe) returning for yet another season to give us their tired schtick. So, I was going into this premiere already checked out.
Okay, so let’s start off with the good. The two pre-tapes in the first half were pretty good. It’s nice to see the show’s writing be more consistent in that area after a couple of rough seasons. I’m also glad to see the newbies getting plenty of airtime.
The female side of the cast especially feels rejuvenated. I can already tell Grace, Jane, and Veronika will make for a solid trio. Imagine, a group of SNL cast members having *gasp* actual chemistry with each other?!
Ashley remains fantastic as well, with thankfully none of the hamminess/yelling that somewhat plagued her in the back half of last season. I’m excited to see what else she’ll bring to the table this year.
And now for the bad: Mikey has officially reached S20 Kevin Nealon levels (if not even LOWER) of embarrassing himself. That Massage Chair sketch was so aggressively awful and painful to watch. This felt like a desperate cry for help, as has much of his work in the last two years or so. I just can’t understand why this guy continually brags about never leaving the show and then does shit like this. He has no dignity and no self-respect. This is a full on midlife crisis playing out in front of millions live every week. Mikey, start using Viagra, get a new fancy sports car, and get the fuck off the show please.
After that dreck, seeing Colin and Michael smugly smiling behind the Update desk for yet ANOTHER half-assed season made me quit right as Update started. I’m just so ready for these two, Mikey, and Kenan to all move on and I’m convinced that the show will never improve with these guys (and Lorne) desperately holding on to any form of relevancy they can in their old age.
But maybe I’m being overly harsh. Looking back, aside from that Mikey dreck, there wasn’t anything in this episode that was aggressively awful or offensive. And compared to the prior two season premieres, this one at least had energy and some actual solid concepts. Perhaps my cynicism and jadedness is more at fault here than the actual quality of the episode.
Great review as always Blood. I agree with pretty much everything you said here and I liked this premiere more than season 51 and 50’s. That said I’m so tired of Mikey, Colin, Che, and even Kenan. I’d rather have much fresher voices on the show. Colin and Che I especially can’t do anymore especially when Ania and Paddy are soooooo much better on SNL UK.
Jeremy is my MVP of this episode. The moment as Tucker Carlson when he tells the audience to stop laughing was gold and a sign of how confident he is in a live setting. The female cast is already much stronger than last year too. Also have to shout out our mutual fave JAJ. Every appearance of his got a laugh out of me. I want Mikey gone so that they give him (and Andrew) more leads in sketches. Until then he might be the best pure utility player the show has ever had. I’m still hoping that he’ll be like Bill Hader in his last few seasons.
The host didn’t do it for me but he seemed to try and enjoy being there. The musical guest on the other hand…oof that second performance was TERRIBLE and one of the worst I’ve seen on this show. A true trainwreck.
Loved the OG part in the monologue where he referenced the famous Farley line.
Second season premiere in a row where Ashley is in a parent/teacher sketch.
Che and Jost are beyond stale at this point. Mikey and Kenan are actively hurting their legacies. Time to let others shine
Great review as usual Blood
This episode was hard to watch. The host was boring, the music was bland and sounds like that stuff tgat plays in H&M, the cast is just odd. It felt like I was watching a high school talent show featuring a jock with no charisma, musical performances by the pick-me baddies, and cheesy sketches featuring the nerds from the theatre department, film geeks, and teachers having a midlife crisis. The writing is absolutely atrocious and I cannot believe how much wasted potential there is for this cast! They’re individually talented but they’re getting horrible scripts!! This cast and writing staff has no chemistry with each other. Why is SNL afraid to lean more into the goofy side of things lately? Omfg I’m convinced Lorne is sabotaging the show on purpose.
I can see why you’re being a little nicer for the season premier because clearly it’s downhill from here. Cut this season short please! They clearly need to cut a lot of the staff and hire more cast/staff. This era ain’t it.
Five quick thoughts:
1. Jalen Brunson felt like…a featured player? I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult. He rarely stood out, frequently had nothing roles, but he also didn’t derail anything and didn’t try to hog the spotlight. I usually like hosts who fall in the latter category, but I also felt like he never had a chance to cut loose. Honestly, the biggest laughs from a NBA player in this episode came from his teammates in the monologue (OG was hilarious). That said, Jalen was 100% not the biggest issue with the episode, and I’ve seen worse hosts.
2. Speaking of which, I felt bad for Jalen in how Mikey kept trying to make him break in two different sketches (including the lead-off one!). It’s one thing to do this on a cast member every now and then, or in a particularly zesty episode, try this on a host (like in Gosling’s episodes, or maybe in a very late sketch), but on a non-actor host in a sketch where you’re not the focus (the office one)? No. Jalen clearly not breaking to any particular extent made Mikey seem desperate and selfish.
3. I’ll further dump on Day in that while he did generate some laughs in the chair sketch–which was very thin anyway–we’ve seen his bag of tricks before. He’s pretty good at that stuff. But the part is a simple one, why not let…I don’t know Kam or Tommy or whoever play that?
4. I thought the episode as a whole was fairly solid, honestly, especially compared to other premieres. The pace was snappy, some of the pre-tapes were really funny, and I (rarely anyway) felt that total despair that I sometimes do in, say, a mid-January episode. I did think there were some warning signs–one-joke premises that never escalated, bizarre unfunny premises like that Chris Brown sketch, and the fact that the most lively stuff was pre-tapes.
5. I will take some time to defend that Shark Tank sketch, which gave me some of my biggest laughs. JAJ’s impression was gold, Ben and Jeremy offered a kind of throw back to Forte/Sudeikis or JAJMukes as the two cheerful idiots, and while Jalen’s delivery could have been better, I did like his deadpan interest in the idiotic invention. I confess I’m a sucker for the “obvious joke done multiple times in a row,” so the alarm constantly going off made me laugh.
Michael, you nailed it with #2. Mikey honestly came off like a jackass in both of his sketches with Jalen. Had this been a looser episode or if Jalen were a cast member Mikey had a connection with, I could at least understand and appreciate what he was going for more (even though that’s entering into dangerous Fallon and Sanz territory). But doing this in the premiere with a lowkey host felt so selfish and “look at me!”.
I’ve lost all respect for Mikey. As I said in my own comment, his latest work has felt like a cry for help. He’s now older than Phil Hartman was when he left the show. Compare their work in their respective later seasons, and it’s like night and day. It’s like the guy saw the response to his (overrated) Aerial Tramway piece and thought “let me just do that all the time.”
Like if ALL he did was the chair sketch, okay, that’s a dumb premise and I kinda see what he was trying for, as grating as he was.
But in the office sketch, a low-key sketch that was humming along well enough, where your non-actor host probably wants to focus on his first live sketch…why would you do that?
Thank you as always for your reliable, high-quality reviews and screencaps. I am not really interested in what the show is now choosing to do but I still have a lot of respect for your work.
From Saturday Night Network, cut sketch info:
Cut from Update. Veronika – Stella Lefty. She changes all the lyrics to “Boston” as she rips off more and more songs.
D-DAY HR TRAINING: Mikey and Ashley give D-Day troops HR training before the invasion. JAJ is the captain. Jalen, Andrew, Tommy, Kam, Ben as troops.
Info on sketches that made the episode:
The Ben and Jeremy catchphrase in the Shark Tank sketch was from a UCB show they did with O’Sullivan.
Mikey was cut from the final sketch – he played an old man.
Sarah was cut from the chair sketch. She was the leader of a Christian youth group.