How’s this for an October surprise? Alec Baldwin’s big, baggy mug was the opening shot on Saturday Night Live this weekend. It marked the first time the show’s longtime friend had appeared since a judge dismissed his involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. However much his presence is still a jolt, Baldwin did good work lampooning Fox News’ hunk-pulled-out-of-a-hearse Bret Baier. His Baier baited and nipped at Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, who wasn’t going to let him rob her of her always viral upper hand. “See how I don’t let men interrupt my answers?” Rudolph told the camera. “Very demure, very mindful.” And after pointing out how hundreds of Republicans have put country over party in their support of her, she turned once more to her Gen Z audience on TikTok, explaining, “Because in da clerb, we all fam.”
Baldwin’s former Beetlejuice co-star Michael Keaton was our night’s host. It’s always worrisome when a monologue lunges to song or extra guests on stage; Keaton had barely gotten a joke off, a rambler about working as a PA on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood fifty years ago, when Mikey Day and Andy Samberg flanked him in their respective Beetlejuice costumes begging him to “do the voice.” Samberg has been a jolly Doug Emhoff this season, and seemed as surprised as Keaton to find himself in a wig and striped suit. Why was he there? “The writers couldn’t find a way to jam [Emhoff] in this week, so here we find ourselves,” he said. The monologue ended just as quickly as it began, without getting any real sense of Keaton’s vibe for the evening beyond his inability to stand still.
Keaton’s wig handler, for one, did incredible work. In each of his sketches, from Anthony’s grey mullet in “Think About It” to stunt movement coordinator Beau’s Liberace piece in the Halloween sketch, Keaton’s mop top was a marvel. But as a sketch performer, he was workmanlike. His comedy was game, but unspecific and therefore unmemorable. His best turn was perhaps in a sketch called “Shop TV,” in which he played The Cookie Guy hawking a creation called the Zombie Eye cookie. We’ve seen iterations of this bit before, but here Keaton help up his tit of a spongey cake cookie, explaining that the center was red in honor of a zombie’s bloodshot eye. He fondled his cookie and rubbed and pinched its nipple. “I always say, squishy is delishy!”
New cast member Emil Wakim was called up to bat during Weekend Update. His origin story is fascinating, a bio that will surely elevate the writers’ room. Wakim described himself as a Christian Arab from Lebanon, the son of an immigrant father who had hustled so hard in America that he was now a staunch Republican with anti-immigrant tendencies. For what was essentially a two-minute debut, Wakim swung wildly, trying to include some material that still needed working out.
If he needs time to find his legs, Sarah Sherman came out sprinting. She had a bone to pick with Victoria’s Secret’s inclusivity and diversity claims from their recent Fashion Show. “Where my Midwestern 4s?” she said. Models with “anxiety hives” and “infected bellybutton rings,” and underwear that “comes in packs of twelve at CVS”? Throughout she tried to fend off Colin Jost’s imaginary obsession with her, hammering him in a way that seemed to genuinely amuse and unsettle her castmate.
Four weeks into the season, finally we were treated to a return of Please Don’t Destroy guys. But alas, it was not a homerun. (Forgive me my grousing. Is it because the election is only sixteen days away, and my nerves are like razor blades?) In a perfect world, this trio is always in their cramped office, or at least operating as a triangle of trust on a misadventure. But last night had them up in a plane, on an ill-fated skydiving trip. John Higgins and Martin Herlihy’s first-timers were stuck with Ben Marshall’s instructor, who predicted doom, and Keaton’s, who was just looking to off himself.
Musical guest Billie Eilish was mesmerizing, if lulling, company. She danced on cubes covered in clouds during “Birds of a Feather” and then went deep during her breakup anthem “Wildflower.” I do wish she’d shown up in more than the one TikTok sketch, in which she offered Bowen Yang’s influencer Harry Daniels money to stop following her around. That whole montage of the TikTok rabbit hole felt like it could have been broken up and expanded. I’d have liked to see Heidi Gardner’s trad wife on a Weekend Update segment, and Chloe Fineman’s Alex Cooper or Kenan Thompson’s Keith Lee in a full-length sketch. If Andrew Dismukes can make a whole sketch out of singing “Soul Sister” to Ego Nwodim, anything is possible. The gang has next week off, so fingers crossed for better nights ahead.
