'SNL' recap: Cecily Strong returns, Jack Harlow's Halloween double duty, and a Tom Hanks cameo - Entertainment Weekly News

Hi each — invited backmost for your acceptable and steady, EZ Bake Oven SNL successful Review. You privation a speedy download for the Jack Harlow occurrence — well, present it is! 

Harlow is the latest rap prima to beryllium fixed a changeable astatine hosting Saturday Night Live. Some rap purists presumption post-Drake multi-hyphenate artists similar Harlow arsenic an affront to the creation form. Yet, to an instauration similar SNL, he's a gateway to young fans. Let's spot if his charisma carries over. 

I americium joined contiguous by erstwhile SNL cast subordinate Siobhan Fallon Hogan, whose latest film, the upcoming Shelter successful Solitude, will surface astatine Kevin Smith's first-ever SModCastle Film Festival adjacent period connected opening night. She says she finds "rappers to beryllium large actors arsenic they are confident, precise astatine easiness and truthful large performers. In some of my films, I formed rappers successful roles arsenic good arsenic utilized their music: Fat Nick is successful both, and Miami sensation Robb Bank$, Shaggy's son, is successful Shelter successful Solitude, arsenic good arsenic Tophillfreddo. They are each amazing."

Fallon Hogan's acquisition moving with rappers goes backmost to her Studio 8H days: "MC Hammer was connected SNL when I was connected helium was arsenic astatine easiness and great. I deliberation that rappers are specified fabulous performers that they easy modulation to acting."

That's a large array mounting for tonight's episode. It begins!

Cold unfastened

It's the PBS Newshour with Judy Woodruff (Heidi Gardner), and SNL is taking purpose astatine the atrocious GOP candidates. First, Kenan Thompson is revisiting his Herschel Walker impression. "Go Halloween!" helium says. Mikey Day plays Dr. Oz, who is moving for Senate successful Pennsylvania. (Shout out Bill Hader's aged Dr. Oz sketch.) 

And Cecily Strong is backmost connected the amusement — she's playing Kari Lake. Classic relation for Cecily, though that's the role, isn't it? She's phenomenal, but it's truthful acquainted and ripped from the headlines. This full acold unfastened targets the ridiculous and frankly unsafe stances being espoused successful the existent predetermination cycle, but it lacks an inspired constituent of view. I don't request partisan balance, but a fewer laughs wouldn't hurt. They're brainsick and mediocre — we instrumentality a fewer moderately harmless potshots wrong the aforesaid bushed format the amusement has embraced for years. Lame.

Monologue

"This is… incredible," effuses Harlow. He's had a large year. People comparison him to the goat from Narnia and Justin Timberlake drawn from memory. He takes these insults successful strides.

Harlow (surprisingly) talks a batch present — cracking jokes. He goes into the assemblage and speaks to an assemblage member, Michaela. Pretty level and dreadful. 

"People connected the Internet similar to roast me," helium says. Count maine among them!

Wedding

My antheral Clint has the close idea! The champion antheral (Andrew Dismukes) is dressed similar the Joker astatine a wedding. In his defense, it's Halloween night. Dismukes leans into the Kentucky accent dense — overmuch of the formed is truly comic here, including Sarah Sherman's Gamma Judy. 

Fun premise — uncertainty we needed a Jeff Probst cameo to onshore it, but I emotion the escalation and the energy. Performances are beardown and speedy pacing makes it click.  

Skechers commercialized

A footwear institution is taking a basal against anti-Semitism and specifically Kanye West. Of course, they privation it some ways. It's "insanely satisfying" they got to accidental "no" first. 

Their employees speech done some sides of their mouths — they're flattered and drawn to the "cool" factor. A batch of firm hedging, which tracks. 

Halloween Red Carpet Show

We are unrecorded from the sidewalk! (I privation virtually — who remembers The Rocket Report? Let's clasp the NYC mounting more. Discord service rise!) Cecily Strong is Tina Lefey, the red-carpet host. Wasted achromatic miss who can't find her Uber (Chloe Fineman) is being interviewed until she gets racist. Devon Walker is playing the Chris Rock slap — oregon is that the Chris Redd sucker punch? Pretty comic and relatable. Bowen Yang is simply a subordinate of the Village People who mislaid his friends truthful helium conscionable looks similar a cop.

Harlow is simply a frat bro with a tampon costume — fitting relation for him. He has a beardown Lil Dicky vibe. This is similar a acheronian Brandon mentation of the "Bring It connected Down to Wrappinville" Timberlake character.

Another bully sketch that utilizes Harlow's constricted skills well.

AA confession

Jesse (Harlow) has ne'er shared successful his addiction radical before, but contiguous helium speaks: helium has the cleanable thought for a Pixar movie. "I drank recently," helium slips successful during his agelong spiel astir his treatment. Everyone is spiling their guts retired and, successful a way, helium is too. Great stuff. 

The characters speculate astir which quality Jason Bateman would voice, and inquire whether the gym container quality would beryllium bare "Jim." Funny spoof of Pixar movies. 

The crippled thickens. Cecily Strong's quality busts retired a spot-on parody of the obligatory Pixar Oscar bait song. (She sounds similar Cathy Anne, doesn't she?)

Could this beryllium the adjacent Mulaney sing-along stand-in?

The radical asks: who would play the everyman protagonist's suitcase? The Woody? "Tom H" emerges — it's astonishing that successful 2022 Tom Hanks would cameo successful Jack Harlow's episode. My lordy.

Horror Movie Trailer

This captures the existent anxiousness well-meaning (but yet foolish) liberals and progressives consciousness astir voting for Joe Biden again successful 2024. But if it's not BIden, past who? Beto and Hillary 

They adjacent nail the font these modern fearfulness movies similar Smile and Barbarian utilize. Clever! Compare this to the god-awful acold unfastened — it's similar nighttime and day. I don't hold with the premise, but it's a beauteous comic gut cheque connected wherefore Democratic voters travel implicit themselves. 

Bartenders

Friends bid drinks astatine a trendy restaurant, Casita, for tacos. Bartenders Duke and Earl (Bowen Yang and Harlow) look to determination the cocktails. After immoderate highly amusing, borderline classical sketches, this does not rather clasp up arsenic much. 

First show

Is Chet Hanks friends with Jack Harlow? Why is Tom introducing Jack? (Wait, IS Jack really Chet Hanks? That's the lone explanation…)

We get a snippet from "Lil Secret" earlier helium jumps into "First Class," which heavy samples the 2006 Fergie opus "Glamorous". This was a immense deed earlier this twelvemonth — and I get it. But it's hard not to rotation your eyes astatine Harlow's solipsism oregon the consciousness he's a plant, the mode helium lifts blatantly from Drake. He's similar a placeholder for Mac Miller (RIP), but nary of the evolving endowment oregon philharmonic curiosity. 

Weekend Update

Colin Jost starts disconnected things with jokes astir erstwhile big Elon Musk. This is simply a peculiarly biting conception — jokes astir John Fetterman, Kanye West, and the onslaught connected Paul Pelosi. (There's a comic gag astir Goodwill nary longer accepting Yeezy merchandise.) 

Wow! Another cameo — Drunk Uncle is back! "This is Halloween, Halloween / Marjorie Taylor Greene!" Former formed subordinate Bobby Moynihan precocious released his archetypal children's book, "Not All Sheep Are Boring!" We haven't seen Drunk Uncle successful astir 7 years, truthful this is simply a amusive surprise. I americium conscionable shocked radical stepped up for Jack Harlow of each people. This quality transports maine backmost to a antithetic epoch of SNL — apparently, Drunk Uncle agrees, calling retired Seth [Meyers] astatine 1 point. I judge Jost co-created Drunk Uncle backmost successful the time erstwhile helium was a lowly writer, incidentally. 

Cell Block 666 (The return!)

Several friends spell cheque retired a haunted house. We get to spot Michael Myers and Annabelle. 

Suddenly, the return: David S Pumpkins. Should person seen this coming! Bobby is here, Tom — boom! (Funny — the David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special came retired 5 years agone yesterday.) Great make-up occupation connected Freddy Krueger by the mode kudos there.

This is fundamentally a shot-for-shot remake of the original, truthful evidently diminishing returns. The assemblage loves it though, and the vigor is inactive there. Personally, I was ever a spot impressed the amusement refrained from bringing this 1 back, ignoring the Kevin Roberts retread with Larry David. Why not bring this backmost but power up the premise a small bit? It's been truthful long, they could've been somewhat innovative. It's conscionable condescending to the fans, similar they couldn't grip immoderate playbook changes if this needed to happen. Demand more.

Second show

I deliberation this is the closing way disconnected Come Home the Kids Miss You. He's reflecting connected fame here, but inactive the aforesaid guy. Trite — but astatine slightest an effort to beryllium an existent song. 

The View

Ego Nwodim is playing Whoopi Goldberg, with Sarah Sherman arsenic Joy Behar and a mates members of the b-team. They invited Jack Harlow to the show. He compliments Whoopi quietly, seductively. "No, I americium a dormant pistillate walking," she pushes back. Apparently, that is the gist here, folks. Weak.

Love Sherman's blatantly silly instrumentality connected Behar, and her back-and-forth with Goldberg. 

Final thoughts:

-What a recovery. After a prototypically anemic acold unfastened and monologue, the amusement fired disconnected respective truly sharp, hilarious sketches. Best occurrence of the play truthful far. 

-Well, what did YOU think? Jump in, fto your dependable beryllium heard. Vote oregon die! 

-I volition say, I've heard a batch of feedback regarding the Megan Thee Stallion episode. I person to say, compared to this (which explicitly caters to UMC liberals, millennials, and Gen Z Harlow fans) it's disappointing to spot immoderate parts of the basal can't bent erstwhile the amusement focuses connected a much divers constituency. 

-One critique: it's the Halloween show; I wanted immoderate Sarah Sherman weirdness. The cameos and callbacks overwhelmed that anticipation I conjecture — astatine slightest we got the Dismukes Joker showcase.

-Thank you to Siobhan Fallon Hogan for her comments tonight. Her lad Peter shared with me: "All the artists I've worked with are successful antithetic genres of hip-hop, truthful it's hard to compare. I deliberation Jack Harlow is doing everything close correct present career-wise. He's having amusive with it too. He works with a clump of antithetic types of artists and gets brainsick marque deals. He reminds maine of Lil Yachty's vocation truthful acold successful the concern aspect. Music omniscient he's huffy talented. Right present he's doing his happening pleasing the woman assemblage with his benignant of dependable he's rockin but I'm jacking that 'What's Poppin (Remix)' benignant implicit that stuff."

-One much from Peter: "I emotion moving with hip-hop artists due to the fact that they are already a quality to statesman with and usually a natural. I retrieve Fat Nick compared acting to the aforesaid happening arsenic performing connected stage. Because you are putting connected an enactment then, conscionable successful a antithetic way. My artist, tophillfreddo, agreed with that statement. I besides retrieve Robb Bank$ connected the acceptable of Shelter successful Solitude conscionable going disconnected the information that T-1000 (Robert Patrick) said helium 'killed it'. That was each helium needed to hear. So truly it's the information that these guys already person a large magnitude of assurance and are acceptable for that adjacent measurement successful their career."

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