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Highlights: Melissa McCarthy Hosts the Season's Best 'Saturday Night Live'

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | May 13, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Saturday Night Live | May 13, 2017 |


I genuinely want to embed every single sketch in last night’s SNL — the best of the season — because they are all worth watching (except maybe the last two). Unfortunately, that many embeds on one web page will crash browsers, so while I’m being more selective about which videos get the embed slots this week, they’re all worth watching.

In tonight’s cold open, Alec Balwin returns and Michael Che steps out from behind the “Weekend Update” desk to play Lester Holt and basically reproduce their interview earlier this week. After getting Trump to admit to obstruction of justice, Holt giddily says, “Is it over? Did I do it?” before realizing, “No, I didn’t. Nothing matters. Absolutely nothing matters anymore.” It’s funny because it’s true.

They also nailed Paul Ryan (who serves Trump ice cream and eats dog food) to the wall and went after Trump’s penis size, and the way he sits (as though on a toilet). Wow. SNL goes after Trump hard this week. (Watch here) (Score: 8 out of 10)

McCarthy MonologueSNL does a lot of behind the scenes monologues, but this one — where McCarthy gives a random mother a tour backstage — is uniquely sweet. It also features cameos from Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, so you know my feelings on the matter. This is genuinely lovely. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Just Desserts — A game show where McCarthy basically just gets pied and humiliated over and over and over and takes it like a champ, proving once again what an incredibly gifted physical comedian Melissa McCarthy is. This one worked as well as it did only because of McCarthy. At this point, McCarthy is SNL royalty. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Alexa Echo Silver — An Amazon Echo designed specifically for old senile people, and it is absolutely perfect. “Hey Alexa, play some of that ‘black jazz.’” “Playing, er, ‘jazz.’” Fantastic. (Score: 8 out of 10)

Press Conference — As expected, Melissa McCarthy pulls out her Sean Spicer impression on tonight’s SNL for maybe one last time (*sniff*). Sarah Huckabee Sanders covers the press conference for a minute while Spicer hides in the bushes, and Aidy Bryant is actually pretty great, but McCarthy is still the show to watch here.

“Trump is innocent. How do we know? Because he told us so! Period. And then he paid lawyers to agree with him.”

It’s hilarious, and so completely humiliating for Sean Spicer that by the end when he’s basically crying to Trump, I feel a little sorry for the guy, who will be lucky to make it through the weekend after Trump sees this. McCarthy may be the kiss of death for Sean Spicer. It was good knowing ya, Spicey, but it’s time to let an actual cast member take over as press secretary. Watch here. (Score: 8 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Jost and Che have a lot of Trump material to work with this week, and to their credit, they are unusually biting and on point. Meanwhile, Pete Davidson makes a rare appearance to talk about his sobriety and how it is now necessary to masturbate out all of his “bad kids.” Davidson, sadly, kills some of the momentum, but he gets a sobriety pass. Cecily Strong’s “Cathy Anne” puts a ribbon on a much better than usual Update by going after Trump herself. “It takes crazy to recognize crazy.” Word. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Film Society — Kate McKinnon’s terrific Debette Goldry is back, now with McCarthy’s Gaye Fontaine in tow. It’s an unlikely recurring sketch, but I could watch this every week. There have been a lot of funny moments in tonight’s episode, but I probably laughed out loud the most at this one. (Score: 9 out of 10)

Kyle Mooney Joint — Not a fan of Mooney’s pre-taped videos, but this is the sequel to his best one: The one where he and Leslie Jones start dating. Now they’re married, they have a kid, and they’re struggling in their relationship. Kyle can’t deal with Leslie’s fame. Eh. It’s OK. Lorne’s blank expression after Kyle shoots Jost steals the skit. Watch here. (Score: 5 out of 10)

Mom Animal — Painfully accurate. (Watch here). (Score: 6 out of 10)

Lighthouse Pictures — To its credit, it’s maybe the best worst sketch of the night this season, and a perfect 10-1’er. (Watch here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

The Sign Off — The show was so packed tonight, that McCarthy was made an official SNL 5-timer in the sign off, and yes: Steve Martin does show up. A credits sequence with an embed may be a first, too. WATCH HERE.

Also, I don’t typically talk about the musical guests, but HAIM was so, so good last night that they are definitely worth checking out. Watch here.