Hi all — welcome to the SNL in Review recap extravaganza. The show has returned and tonight is hosted by Miles Teller. It’s his second time. Fans will remember he kicked off season 48.
I am joined this evening by former Saturday Night Live cast member Aristotle Athari, who has a new movie out. The French Italian is streaming now on Apple and Amazon. “I had a blast making it,” says Athari. “Honestly, I don’t know how we got through it because we were cracking up the entire time, mostly thanks to Ruby [McCollister] and Cat [Cohen]. I’m still shocked they managed to edit together a full movie with how many takes we ruined laughing.”
Teller’s second SNL gig is in advance of his new romantic comedy/fantasy film, Eternity, hitting theaters on Nov. 26. Last time he hosted, he was riding the wild success of Top Gun: Maverick.
Brandi Carlile is also back making her fourth SNL appearance.
There are on-the-ground reports about relatively short standby lines outside of 30 Rock for this one — let’s hope that does not suggest there will be a low-energy audience tonight!
Cold Open
It’s Spectrum NY1, the region’s “number five news station.” It’s the final and fictional NYC mayoral debate. Brought to you by… bike lanes!
It’s two viable candidates and one classic New York nut. Teller portrays the disgraced Andrew Cuomo. In a bit of stunt casting, Ramy Youssef plays Zohran Mamdani, while Shane Gillis plays Curtis Sliwa. No applause for Shane, curiously. And no cast members present in this sketch besides Kenan Thompson, who notes he is playing the least famous person ever impersonated on the show. Kenan shames Mamdani for his TikTokkery and being a nerd and Youssef calls out the candidate relying on white guilt driving his support.
James Austin Johnson’s Trump takes over with a soliloquy that ends with a number out of Phantom of the Opera. Inspired!
Cuomo was previously played by Pete Davidson on the show. Kam Patterson replaces Devon Walker as Mayor Eric Adams.
Monologue
Teller dances out onto the stage and talks about how he used to dress as SNL characters like the Night at the Roxbury guys growing up. He moved around a lot as a kid — and movingly describes why 8H feels like home to him. It’s pretty breezy, but Teller is charming and funny. He also opens up about losing his home in the Pacific Palisades fire in January.
“A lot has happened since the last time that I hosted,” says Teller. “A few months ago, my wife and I lost our house in the Palisades fire. But don’t worry, seriously do not worry, we’re doing great. That experience has made me incredibly grateful to have so many places that I can call home… but based on what happened to the last place that I called home, I just want to say there’s fire exits located there, there, there…”
“Teller’s always had strong comedic instincts,” notes Athari. “You can see the timing behind his eyes.”
“Hungover Halloween Game Show”
Gay Fopay (Thompson) welcomes us back to a game show about being extremely hungover. (Big Kenan episode so far!) Teller, Ben Marshall, and Veronika Slowikowska are the miserable contestants who must guess what they did the night before. If they answer incorrectly, a wicked punishment awaits.
“White House Makeover”
The twins are renovating the East Wing of the White House. We get our second appearance of Johnson’s Trump — brilliant, depressing stuff. Teller is really funny as Drew and Jonathan Scott. Watch this! I loved it.
Chloe Fineman takes over as Melania here, following Paris Hilton way back in 2005 (pre first lady duties!) and more famously by Cecily Strong from 2015 to 2019.
FYI —the Property Brothers made a surprise appearance during the first show of 2023 in season 48 as judges during the Miss Universe sketch alongside Tony Hawk.
“Hockey PSA”
Players from the Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers are reading promos for their charity work. The Kings and Rangers players make playful puns in their scripts about being kings and rangers in their community. Teller plays the Predator and, well, he has an issue saying he works in hospitals making sick kids feel touched. And visiting Thailand, so hopefully he can “rub off on some kids” so they become Predators too.
Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes are great as the vain directors.
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“Missing Wives Docuseries”
Three men have lost their wive — and their story is told in Netflix’s Gone Without a Trace.
This is a gentle premise about silly, clueless husbands — the wives weren’t really gone. They had plans, or in the case of Sarah Sherman’s wife, went to the bathroom.
“Newsroom”
Daphne Dodd (Fineman) and economist P.L. Henry (Thompson) are discussing world news in a renovated studio. Mikey Day walks by in the background of the new set and crashes into the wall. We observe the embarrassing background activities of the workers in contrast with the serious topics being discussed — inflation, etc. “Put up a wall, stat!”
Brandi Carlile performs “Church & State”
This is a fiery, political song — almost has a Neil Young vibe, to me. In fact, Carlile conceived the song last November, on the day of the election. She’s called it carnal and “a primal cry for self-preservation in a way, and not just for me, for everybody.”
Carlile made her musical guest debut during the Halloween-themed show during season 47, hosted by Jason Sudeikis. She performed “Broken Horses” and “Right on Time.” Athari shares, “That was one of my favorite performances, I remember it well.”
Weekend Update
Colin Jost talks about the White House Halloween and how genuinely weird Trump is.
Michael Che posted a moving message on his Instagram earlier today — an out-of-character note about his history with SNAP and the insanity around denying benefits to people during the government shutdown. Here, he makes a blistering joke about the Second Amendment.
This weekend is the New York Marathon… and George Santos is here to discuss it! Yes, it’s the return of Bowen Yang‘s impression of the pathological liar disgraced congressman, recently pardoned by Trump. “Give me back my angels!” shouts Jost, after Santos steals his wallet revealing he has pictures of all the female cast members in his wallet. Santos reveals he recently robbed the jewels from the Louvre. “Diddy, miss you too, roomie.” (In a nice touch, Santos holds up a hat of the Dodgers — who literally just won the World Series moments ago!)
The government shutdown has entered day 32. Two people who just hooked up (Padilla, Dismukes) come on to discuss it. They can’t help but interrupt what they are talking about to gaze into one another’s eyes. It’s still the meet cute. They recount hooking up in Colin’s dressing room. Great stuff, and nice to see the two of them reunited so soon after the NHL promo sketch.
Murder Press Briefing
The Steak Knife slasher is on the loose. The police department is having a press conference, but the lead detective (Teller) can’t comment on the details of the case.
Dismukes is funny as one of the journalists, Dave Allen, he’s the author of Gar-Girl, a rejected graphic novel. Slowly, he takes over the conference: “Dave Allen, voice of a generation.” Again, Padilla has a big moment. Good stuff!
Brandi Carlile performs “Human”
“Human” was co-produced by Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon. Another strong one.
Carlile only last appeared on SNL in April, when she performed alongside Elton John to promote their collaborative album Who Believes in Angels?.
“Italian Restaurant Date”
We’re in the best Italian restaurant in Nebraska. Oh God, pasta puns. Two waiters played by Teller and Marcello Hernandez are broad cartoons, like modern ancestors of the Pepper Boy sketch. Or rather the overly affectionate staff from the Il Cantore sketch back in 1991. Mostly a mess though Miles is game.
Final thoughts
Good episode! What’d you think? Vote!
- Thank you to Aristotle Athari! Go stream The French Italian! I asked him if the experience at 8H prepared him for projects like this. Athari says yes, though he has only realized it “in hindsight. I’ll be on a set and suddenly catch myself using something I learned at SNL without even thinking about it. The lessons keep popping up in real time. Like, one of the biggest things the show taught me was how to write every single day whether I want to or not. That habit has stuck with me and it’s been huge especially while working on this new feature I’m writing with Dan Curry from The Eric André Show called Good Night Baby. That adaptability has been huge for me.”
- Check out this story I did on the history of late-night TV horror hosts, and their link to SNL‘s rise! I enjoyed doing it for Halloween. Spooky content!
