As we mentioned last time when Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live” There is no substitute for a host who gives his all to “SNL.”
He may not have pulled double duty as host and musical guest like Carpenter did, but Miles Teller seemed to fully embrace the challenge of returning to host for a second time (his first). It was in 2022). The “Top Gun 2: Maverick” star, who will soon appear in the film “Eternity”, gave a solid performance, appearing in almost every sketch, including the cold open and two pre-recorded videos.
He first appeared as former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for mayor of New York, outdoors with the help of Ramy Youssef and Shane Gillis as opponents Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.
After that, Teller played a hungover game show contestant. recovering from halloweena hockey player film a public service announcement for the unfortunately named Nashville Predators and the twin Property Brothers in a video sketch on the current renovation of the White House.
Teller was also in a sketch about a television newsroom that he decides to show viewers What are your employees doing in the background?a Netflix promo for a true crime story about husbands who don't know where their wives wentone about a police press conference that take a turn and a closer show about a silly italian restaurant in Nebraska.
Teller handled it all well; He is good with accents and earned many laughs, especially playing two characters at the same time in the “Property Brothers” sketch and as Cuomo outdoors.
Musical guest Brandi Carlile performed “Church and State” and “Human.”
This week's cold open was one of the strongest (or at least funniest) political sketches of the season so far, tackling the New York mayoral race. Hosted by Errol Louis (Kenan Thompson), “the least famous person impersonated on 'SNL,'” the debate sketch portrayed Cuomo (Teller) as a sexual harasser (“Yadda yadda yadda, honk, honk, squeeze, squeeze”) pandering to Jewish voters; Mamdani (Youssef) as a TikTok-flirting, force-smiling candidate who's pretty sure he won't be able to keep his promises; and long-term candidate Sliwa (Gillis) as an “old-fashioned New York nut” with one traumatic story after another to tell. The biggest surprise may have been Gillis, who, like Sliwa, told stories about being hanged by his testicles and assaulted by a Times Square Spider-Man. Where was that energy when Gillis hosted “SNL”? As has been customary in many cold opens, President Trump (James Austin Johnson) interrupts the proceedings to mock the candidates and insert his own commentary. This time, that included singing a song from “Phantom of the Opera” to conclude the sketch.
Teller's monologue was short and simple, recounting how, as a kid who moved around for most of his childhood, “SNL” was a constant. He shared a photo of him and his sisters dressed up as the show's “Night at the Roxbury” characters and then made a list of memories from the show, like drinking his first beer in the audience and falling over after downing a few beers. Teller mentioned that he and his wife They lost their home in Palisades in the Los Angeles fires of January. As such, he made sure to point out the emergency exits to the audience.
Best sketch of the night: an extreme remodeling of the White House
Property brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott (Teller times two) meet their toughest clients yet: Trump and first lady Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman), who need help with the current renovation of the White House to make room for a new ballroom. Melania shared her skeleton and withered tree decorations (“They're for Christmas,” she said), and the couple complained that 55,000 square feet and 132 rooms simply aren't enough space. With a budget of “$350 million to infinity,” the brothers get to work with the help of park rangers and astronauts working during the government shutdown. But when it comes to getting paid for your work, there's a problem. “Aren't you from Canada?” the president asks. Then call ICE.
Also good: no one asked for so much transparency in the news.
On a show called “Newspoint,” the anchor (Fineman) and her guest (Thompson) are trying to have a serious discussion about news, but because the show has opened its entire newsroom to viewers, all the workers in the background draw attention. These include Mikey Day, who awkwardly realizes that the cameras are focused on him before spilling a drink holder, Bowen Yang as a worker who is electrocuted by a photocopier, and Teller, who has erotic manga on his work screen. It's nice to see some physical comedy from Day in particular, and the sketch's sight gags work very well.
'Weekend Update' Winner: George Santos is back, as liar as ever!
Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla (who should be a full cast member at this point instead of a featured player) played a couple. who just kissed but they are trying to discuss the government shutdown. But it was Yang as chronic liar George Santos who stole “Update” (and some gems) after Yang lost the chance on the latest “SNL” episode to play the former Rep., whose prison sentence was commuted by Trump. Santos claimed he had finished the New York Marathon, which had not yet happened, and kept interrupting his chat with “Update” co-host Colin Jost to take calls with prisoners who had a jail window and a phone he brought with him. He purported to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs before revealing that the key to making rice pudding in prison is to preheat the toilet to 350 degrees. Santos ended the segment by revealing the necklace he stole from the Louvre and insisting that he had just won the world series.
