Kristen Wiig Hosts One of the Season's Best 'SNL's' (with Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, Ryan Gosling)

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 7, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 7, 2024 |

Cold Open — A fairly amusing cold open in which Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith are asked to discuss the NCAA Men’s Championship, but they don’t know anything about the men’s game or even care because Caitlin Clark and the women’s championship are so much more interesting. Plus, Heidi Gardner does one hell of a Kim Mulkey and her “resting QAnon face.” (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Kristen Wiig Monologue — It’s Wiig’s 5th time hosting, which is insane because, by my head math, she’s only been off the show for three years. They bring out the big-gun cameos for Wiig: Paul Rudd, Jon Hamm, Matt Damon, Martin Short, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Paula Pell, and even Ryan Gosling. Amazing! But I bet she’d have traded them all for just one Steve Martin. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Jumanji — Harry brings his new girlfriend, Nina, over to his friends’ house for game night, but she won’t play. It turns out she’s afraid not of board games but of getting Jumanjiid. There’s a good 90-second stretch here about the specifics of being Jumanjiid that is absolutely hysterical. Bravo! (Score: 7 out of 10)

Pilates — A movie trailer for a horror movie called Pilates. “It’s not what you think. It’s so hard, but also so boring.” Amusing. Kaia Gerber making a cameo for some reason. (Score: 7 out of 10)

Tootie — Here, Jon Hamm makes an appearance in a skit about a new secretary, Tootie, who is not as good as she thinks she is. This skit is mostly chaos, and Jon Hamm trying not to break. It is hysterical. (Score: 8 out of 10)

Jerry’s Retirement Party — A bunch of people — including most of tonight’s cameos — give speeches for Jerry’s retirement party, and some of them are OK (Paul Rudd), some are great (Matt Damon, “star of The Legend of Bagger Vance”), and some are downright fantastic (Kristen Wiig, Will Forte). It’s a must-watch. I don’t know whether this is the Mat skit of the night or Tootie. They’re both great. (Score: 7 out of 10)

Weekend Update — It says something that Jost and Che are great tonight, but the show has been so good, I’m anxious to get back to the skits. I take that back: Wiig shows up as Aunt Linda to give her takes on this season’s movies. Bravo. She hated Barbie, Oppenheimer, and The Bear, but she loved Paw Patrol. Marcello Hernandez is also fantastic as the NYC Earthquake, but I can’t embed everything tonight (watch here). (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Go Carts — The streak of great skits ends tonight with one about two parents at a go-cart track who warn their kids that they have something bad to tell them. But not until after the go-carts. (Watch here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

La Maison Du Bang! — A look back at a 70s’ French dance show. Not great. But it’s worth noting that, despite all the celebrity cameos tonight, the show still managed to feature almost every cast member at least once … except Micahel Longfellow. What the hell? There has been a serious lack of Longfellow lately. (Watch Here) (Score: 2 out of 10)