Melissa McCarthy Hosts a Middling Episode of Saturday Night Live
Melissa McCarthy hosted Saturday Night Live for the sixth time in an episode characterized by its middling quality and limited laughs. The cold open satirized Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth, portrayed by Colin Jost, via a C-SPAN-style coverage featuring questions about Venezuela and a war-on-drugs/regime-change angle. Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, appeared in the sketch, initially asleep off to the side before expressing support for Hegseth with a joke about a bus-related rebuke.
Weekend Update included a sunburn gag by Lance (Ben Marshall) and a recurring appearance by Sarah Sherman as a Virginia raccoon trashing the desk. A sketch featuring a group of southern homemakers engaging in risqué truth-or-dare in a kitchen was met with awkward and flat reactions. Andrew Dismukes hosted a "Sunday supper" sketch ending with him fleeing the scene, noted for its Tim Robinson-like tone and execution.
A lo-fi holiday music video by Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska introduced "Cousin Planet," which is governed by two laws, including a flexible first law. The episode concluded with a Yonkers local-news spotlight on a decorated Christmas Village built by a sassy couple portrayed by McCarthy and Bowen Yang, which included a sexual innuendo about Rudolph; however, the finale was considered flat.
Overall, while funny in parts with a sharp cold open, this was not one of McCarthy’s strongest SNL outings. The Christmas-tinged tone persisted throughout the show, and viewers can expect more big-name guests in the remaining two holiday episodes.
