Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | November 17, 2025
When Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s running mate back in 2008, I, a very hip, cool, conservatory student, made a joke I assure you no one else made: “I bet Lorne Michaels wishes Tina Fey hadn’t left.” You see, it was a very funny (and original) joke because Fey had left Saturday Night Live about two years before the announcement, and ole Tina bore a striking resemblance to the Alaskan Governor.
However, my joke to no one had not been as original as 18-year-old me assumed. It’s more likely that Michaels made the joke himself, as Fey would appear on the show as Palin within weeks. This was not unheard of at the time. People like Dan Aykroyd and Dana Carvey had already made a habit of returning to play politicians. But Fey’s appearance felt like more of a cultural moment, likely because many people were thinking what I was thinking, and SNL capitalized on that.
I guess that Michaels kept chasing that high. While Fey went on to analyze whether she may have made Palin more palatable in an episode of 30 Rock, Lorne would make a huge deal out of Alec Baldwin playing the current president and continue to attempt to relight that fire as well. Celebrity guests, including returning alumni, playing politicians, is the norm now, and that’s no fun. I’d much rather see them reprise some of their more popular characters.
That’s what we got on this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which, as Dustin pointed out, was a blast across the board. Glen Powell’s whole jock-like theater kid vibe is a pretty perfect fit for the show. One of the biggest highlights was seeing him and Chloe Fineman share the screen with someone who was also making hilarious jokes in 2008: Will Forte as MacGruber.
The setup is pretty simple. MacGruber is ready to save the day, his partners, and an unredacted copy of the Epstein list. He’s all about it until he takes a quick glance at the list, sees something he doesn’t like, and decides instead to destroy the list. It keeps escalating from there until he finally admits that he is on the list. It’s simple, effective, and Forte annihilates.
One of my favorite things about this sketch is that Forte was not hosting. Regardless, it felt like it would be a regular sketch had he still been a cast member. The point of the sketch was not “Will Forte returns,” it was “Wouldn’t it be funny if MacGruber was on the Epstein list?” That’s the pitch, and thank Zod that Forte was available to do it.
Forte shines, of course. He’s got this character in his bones at this point. But it’s also written with that classic MacGruber escalation and just keeps getting funnier. By the third time he does the theme song, he’s singing about how only God can judge him. It all culminates in a deez nutz joke. It’s perfect, and that’s because Forte brings seasoned vet energy. He’s not being brought back to fill a slot created by a new political main character; he’s MacGruber, dagnabbit, and the man excels in that role.
That’s another aspect that helps this succeed and makes the political cameos feel a bit cheaper. There’s nothing inherently stiff about this, like there can be with someone who’s forced to walk in, wait for applause to end, and then read lines off of cue cards that they maybe haven’t seen until that moment. Plenty of people have managed to avoid that awkwardness, but it’s a feature, not a bug, for better and for worse.
I also want to throw some love toward Fineman and Powell. Being the straight man in a sketch is never easy, but it’s an incredibly useful skill, and they both have it. They go from genuinely excited/fearing for their lives, to reacting to MacGruber’s floundering. They escalate right along with him and help keep the sketch moving. They don’t get steamrolled or try to do too much. Everyone is just on the same page and firing on all the correct cylinders.
This is how I want to see SNL alumni return. Not as the eighteenth person to play Joe Biden. If you’ve got an idea for one of their characters that would work for a current story, and they’re available, have at it. It’s funnier, it’s cleaner, and, look, it’s probably a lot easier. It doesn’t need to happen often, but if the idea is there, you’d better get to it before it exp— BOOM! MacGruber!
