Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 7, 2025
Cold Open — I think Colin Jost probably loves playing Pete Hegseth at a press conference. He gets really into it. He’s good at it, too. Also, there are a couple of shots of Trump sleeping. The parody don’t fall far from the tree. Also, Sarah Sherman’s Matt Gaetz really creeps me out. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)
Melissa McCarthy Monologue — It’s McCarthy’s sixth time hosting. She pulls out the mouth horn and physical comedy as only Melissa McCarthy can. She’s very good at this. (Score: 7 out of 10)
Free Sample — A grocery store employee gives a free sample of cheese to a desperate, lonely woman with dogs that bark at people of color, and she basically confuses it for a marriage proposal. Good stuff. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)
A Helping Hand — Playing on that same theme, in a pretape, a 12-year-old boy helps an older lady (played by McCarthy) shovel her sidewalk, and she repays him … many, many times over in very inappropriate ways. Here’s your Mat sketch of the week. (Score: 7 out of 10)
UPS Delivery Driver — Here, McCarthy plays a UPS delivery driver who took out a lot of anger on one particular house in very physical ways. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)
Weekend Update — Colin and Che are having a great time now lambasting the administration. The early-season timidness is gone. The second set of non-political jokes isn’t as great, alas. Meanwhile, a sunburned Ben Marshall does a segment as Lance, a redhead who just returned from vacation, who can cook a TV dinner with his skin (watch here), and Sarah Sherman plays a drunk raccoon. As usual, it’s mostly an excuse for Sherman to make fun of Jost.
Truth or Dare — A group of wine-drinking wives play Truth or Dare, and all the dares are increasingly, uh, sexual in nature. (Score: 5 out of 10) (Watch Here)
Sunday Supper — Again with a similar theme of overreacting, Andrew Dismukes plays a character at a dinner party who proposes a regular Sunday Supper, and when everyone else declines, he loses it. (Score: 4 out of 10) (Watch Here)
Cousin Planet — Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska make a very Gen Z music video about what cousins do when they’re not around. I don’t love it, but I like the swing. (Score: 4.5 out of 10)
Christopher and Guillaume — Bowen Yang and Melissa McCarthy play a couple with a Christmas village in Yonkers with a lot of very Yonkers-like Christmas decorations. The show kind of fizzled post-Update. (Score: 2.5 out of 10) (Watch Here)
Verdict — Decent episode, although Melissa McCarthy can only carry it for so long, and the overreaction theme got kind of played out by the end.
