It’s almost like a Saturday Night Live cheat code when a retired cast member returns to host with a bunch of famous friends and former colleagues in tow. But much like Air Bud playing basketball, as depicted on the show in a regrettable sketch last month, there’s nothing in the rulebook against it.
Last night’s episode was unusually guest-dense, even for one led by a returning champion — and for good reason. It marked the occasion of Kristen Wiig joining an elite cadre of former cast members turned Five Timers. (Only Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, and Will Ferrell also have that honor.) Since welcome-home parties and Five-Timer coronations, each individually bode for an episode chockablock with high-wattage cameos, last night’s perfect-storm twofer came with an entire roster of ringers. Although Wiig was in such fine form she may not have needed them to deliver possibly the best episode of the season, it certainly didn’t hurt.
The guestapalooza began with Wiig’s monologue, in which she was inducted into the Five-Timers Club by more familiar faces than seems reasonable to mention here. So many celebrities with longevity have joined the club in recent years that the show has recently had to invent new Five-Timers lore to keep things spicy. Last time, in Emma Stone’s episode from December, we learned that Candice Bergen had established a women’s wing of the club; this time, we found out Lorne Michaels now uses fuzzy math to determine new members. (Matt Damon apparently made the cut because his first outing was such a smash it counted as three episodes.) The cavalcade of cameos reaches a peak of giddy delirium when next week’s host, Ryan Gosling, pops up in the monologue. (Something I’m not sure has ever happened before on the show, and wouldn’t even know how to confirm.)
So many famous guests dropped by throughout the all-star episode that the current cast got drowned out at times — especially in the lengthy Retirement Party sketch, which featured consecutive spotlight moments for Paul Rudd, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, and Matt Damon. Almost all of the newer cast members get moments to shine throughout the night, though. It’s a nice touch, for instance, when Wiig twins with Heidi Gardner in a sequel to the wacky secretary sketch the latter debuted earlier this season, rather than having Gardner play second fiddle on a Penelope or Gilly retread. It’s a torch-passing moment typical of a supercharged episode that expertly melded the show’s past with its present.
Here are the highlights:
Jumanji
If there’s a Guinness World Record for most utterances of the word ‘Jumanji’ within five minutes, it just got shattered. Wiig here plays what appears to be the latest in an infinite scroll of weirdos she’s brought to life on the show: Nina, who refuses to play board games out of an irrational fear of being Jumanji’d. As the writers of this season-highlight of a sketch know all too well, the best way to treat an irrational weirdo on this show is to have everyone take her seriously. (Andrew Dismukes’s screaming indignation at her ideas about Jumanji works particularly well.) They also know, of course, that the best way to end such a sketch is with the irrational weirdo being proven correct.
Secretaries
The inaugural outing of Gardner’s secretary sketch was so Mad Men–coded in its scene-setting that having Jon Hamm appear in the sequel is just a no-brainer. As mentioned in the intro, though, so is making Wiig and Gardner peas in a pod with this character. If there was ever any question of which current cast member most embodies Wiig’s specific gift for physical comedy, the sight of her and Gardner mixing a drink “on the racks†style should answer it.
Retirement Party
Even if the only humor in this sketch came from the variety of wigs and facial hair on hand, it would still be uproarious. Bowen Yang appears first, with dark Shirley Temple curls and upfront space buns, looking like a monster from Big Mouth, and Rudd later joins him styled like a post-barber Bob Ross, Fred Armisen in ‘80s metal hair, and Will Forte in a Prince Valiant pageboy. The fact that these wigs are just a little piece of what makes this sketch funny, though, speaks to its favor. The premise of an employee (Kenan Thompson) retiring is just an excuse to let one character after another perform a bizarre soliloquy of some kind. Wiig’s contribution alone has the kind of game baked into it — every bit of praise for her retiring colleague sounds like an allegation — that might sustain an entire sketch of its own. Here it’s just one highlight, however, during seven minutes of comedic chaos.
Weekend Update
An extra-hot Weekend Update is a great way to prop up an episode that is otherwise lacking. It also makes a nice addition, though, to an episode that is already on fire. Donald Trump’s daffy behavior this week fed Che and Jost layups that they still approached with dunk contest flair; Marcello Hernández and Thompson committed hard to the inspired idea of treating the recent New York earthquake and the coming eclipse as rival professional wrestlers in a stealth nod to Chris Farley’s 1998 turn as El Nino; and what a subtle flex to make the only classic Wiig character to come back in this episode Aunt Linda, who returned last night for the first time since Wiig was a cast member. This Update absolutely did not need to go this hard, and yet here we are.
Go Karts
What stands out about this darkly funny sketch, which wrings laughs out of imminent childhood trauma, is its pacing and escalation. Andrew Dismukes spends a full half of the sketch grounding the reality of what it’s like to be a child about to receive devastating news from his parent, only for Chloe Troast to appear in overalls and a sad little birthday hat, making the sadness even more real. The genius of this sketch, though, is the lingering mystery of it. While it sure seems like the news James Austin Johnson and Wiig are about to break to their kids is that a divorce is coming, the end keeps viewers guessing. Who, exactly, is Sheila? Why does she know Johnson as “Big C� The sketch is better off for never letting viewers know.
Cut for Time
• The March Madness cold open was ultimately the coldest part of the episode, but it was worth it to introduce Garner as Kim Mulkey, “resting QAnon face,†and all.
• This episode’s only crime is putting former writer Paula Pell in a cameo during the monologue and not finding a way to let her promote the somehow still underrated Girls5Eva.
• It takes an incredible episode of SNL to relegate an excellent horror movie parody like the Pilates sketch to this section, but this was that episode. Shout out to all the exercise machines that look like they were “designed for torture but somehow also sex.â€
• When Fred Armisen appeared in the monologue, it sure seemed to herald a Garth and Kat appearance on Weekend Update, but Wiig already brought those characters back the first time she hosted, and once again the following year, randomly during an Amy Adams episode. It was rightfully Aunt Linda’s turn.
• The La Maison du Bang likely just launched Wiig’s “Je danse†catchphrase into thousands of TikToks.
• Wait, is there a chance the retirement party sketch is a quiet way to set up that Kenan Thompson will finally leave the show when the season ends next month?