Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 19, 2025
Cold Open — They brought Domingo back for the cold open because, for some reason, the Domingo sketch is hugely popular with Gen Z. Women sing off-key to a woman’s husband about her infidelities with Domingo, and Domingo shows up. Same as the three or four times before. It’s fine. Lots of good energy, at least. (Score: 5.5 out of 10)
Sabrina Carpenter Monologue — Sabrina would like to clear up some misconceptions about herself: She’s not just “horny,” she’s also “turned on” and “sexually charged,” and she likes to interact with attractive guys in the audience. I also feel like she may have speed-raced through that monologue. (Score: 5 out of 10)
Boys Podcast — Several of the cast’s women (and Carpenter) play teenage boys hosting a podcast, using Gen Z lingo (fire, lo-key, chopped, cooked) that’s weirdly accurate. Then Trump shows up to talk about Halloween candy, vegetables, and whether he’ll go to Heaven. It sounds almost like a Kyle Mooney sketch but with Trump — and you know how I feel about a Kyle Mooney sketch. Also, one of my daughters’ friends once called me “unc,” and I thought it was a compliment. It’s not. (Watch Here) (Score: 5.5 out of 10)
Grind — It’s a youth-themed episode tonight. Here’s a song about 13-year-olds “grinding” at a school dance that’s much better than it has any right to be. Also weirdly catchy. Now we’re getting somewhere. (Score: 7 out of 10)
Shop TV: Pillow — Sabrina plays a Home Shopping Channel host introducing a pillow that looks like a vagina. There are lots of vagina jokes while the hosts freak out. For no particular reason, this is the Mat sketch of the week. (Score: 7 out of 10)
Girlboss Seminar — This one’s very dumb in the best way. During a girlboss seminar, Sabrina gets tossed through a window by her male dancers, suffers a concussion, and just keeps delivering those (concussed) platitudes. It’s delightfully silly, and Chloe Fineman loses it a little. (Score: 7 out of 10)
Weekend Update — A solid run of political jokes (Santos, racist Republicans, Cuomo, Trump’s neck vagina), and Che and Jost seem to be having fun. Marcello’s The Movie Guy talks about scary movies he’s never seen. Still not funny. (Watch Here) Then new cast member Tommy Brennan basically makes his debut — he’s mostly been a background player — doing what sounds like his stand-up material. It just makes me miss Michael Longfellow. Eh. In a cut for time “Update” segment, James Austin Johnson plays a manosphere health guru who “beelines” to the sunlight, uses a cryogenic chamber, eats rice powder, and drinks iodine. (That’s here.) (Score: 6 out of 10)
Plans Trailer — A horror movie trailer about a couple planning a relaxing night at home, only to realize they made plans with a cousin and her husband and forgot about it. Scary. Relatable. (Score: 8 out of 10)
Appliance Store — Sabrina and newcomer Veronika Slowikowska play women inside a washing machine and dryer, singing jingles for the various settings. I’m impressed with Slowikowska’s ability to sing alongside Sabrina, but less impressed with the sketch. (Watch Here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)
Surprise — Ashley Padilla continues to break out on SNL, and this sketch shows why. When her co-workers hold a surprise party for her, she basically shits herself and then spends the rest of the meeting complaining about what a terrible idea a surprise party was. There are a lot of farts and plenty of cast members cracking up. It is definitely the hardest I’ve laughed this season. (Score: 8 out of 10)
Social Experiment — Martin Herlihy, the Please Don’t Destroy guy turned staff writer, basically does a Please Don’t Destroy pretape where he conducts a social experiment to see how people react to walking into a room full of Frankensteins — and then calls them racist when they walk out. Decent. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)
Verdict — Not a great episode, but it’s the first good episode of the season. The writing staff and new cast members are starting to figure out what works, and I love that Ashley Padilla and Veronika Slowikowska are getting so much screen time (and Jane Wickline may have had her most yet outside of “Update”). It’s actually starting to feel like a SNL revamp.
