Sabrina Carpenter & Domingo, Trump on Pre-Teen Podcast

Considering her close ties to the recurring sketch, it’s no surprise that Marcello Hernández’s Domingo returned, with Sabrina Carpenter again taking the lead “singer” position to reveal what a terrible wife Kelsey (Chloe Fineman) is to Andrew Dismukes’ Matt.

The “Manchild” singer proved her versatility and acting chops over and over again, taking on the role of both a 12-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl, as well as an office worker, an inadvertently x-rated entrepreneur, and even a washing machine. Talk about versatility!

It was a big night for new cast member Veronika Slowikowska, who got to showcase her own singing chops — good and bad — while fellow newcomer Tommy Brennan hit the Weekend Update newsdesk for a comedy segment that basically introduced audiences to who he is and what he’s all about.

As usual, we’re ranking all the sketches from worst to first, including the Monologue, Cold Open, “Weekend Update” and any sketches that were cut for time but made their way online. We’ll skip the musical guests, because they’re not usually funny — unless Ashlee Simpson shows up. We wrap up with a look at the cast-member who had the strongest week.

Kind of a rushed monologue — was the late start a factor? — as Sabrina Carpenter rushed a bit through all of her bits, really neutering what could have been a fun audience interaction segment. We did laugh a bit at the expansion of her album cover to include Bowen Yang and Martin Short at the SNL 50th anniversary show last season, while her descriptions of herself beyond an over-sexed young artist brought a few chuckles. But what this lacked in big laughs it made up for in just how relaxed and comfortable Sabrina is in this role. She’s a veteran at this point and someone who’s as comfortable talking and being silly as she is singing and dancing, which hopefully bodes well for the show.

An inevitable recurrence, though we didn’t expect it for the Cold Open, the return of Domingo after the cast exits meant that Kelsey’s (Chloe Fineman) entourage was going to have to go through a change. Outside of Sabrina Carpenter — who took over for Ariana Grande in the SNL 50th special — and Sarah Sherman, the singing disasterpiece was performed by Ashley Padilla and Veronika Slowikowska, who were a little intense in their deliveries, but otherwise perfectly fine. The overall piece has kind of run its course, but it’s still fun to see Andrew Dismukes’ growing dismay over the girls’ lyrics, as well as the daft return of Marcello Hernández’s Domingo himself, obliviously joyful and awful as a human being … though nothing compared to Kelsey herself. We mean, this is her gift for Matt’s birthday?!

Without Please Don’t Destroy together on the show anymore, Martin Herlihy went solo for a strange, experimental pre-taped video sketch about exploring racism by having people dress up as Frankenstein’s monster in a movie theater. We’d love to know if any of the captured reactions were real. The absurdist nature of the video continued with some fun and unexpected moments along the way, but the piece didn’t quite stick the landing.

In the market for a new washer and dryer? How about Sabrina Carpenter and Veronika Slowikowska? Veronika’s big night continued with another musical showcase as she played the dryer to Sabrina’s washer in this very odd sketch where they were both adorable and charming and didn’t seem to know much about actually getting clothes clean. Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes added some fun (weird) details about their married couple characters that added depth, but the appliance ladies definitely stole the sketch, with Veronika even handling a costume malfunction with class. It was more strange than funny, but it was definitely entertaining.

This audience was not fired up, which is pretty wild as it was a lively episode up to this point. Colin Jost and Michael Che didn’t even get their usual applause and cheers after introducing themselves, and the tepid response continued through the segment. At least they had some solid jokes that they enjoyed, as with Che’s response about Trump bombing drug boats, everything to do with George Santos, the naked bike ride ICE protest — some jokes write themselves — and why Trump is sending $40 billion to Argentina. It’s called planning ahead!

Marcello Hernández brings back the Movie Guy to talk about all the Halloween movies he hasn’t seen and then make extremely dated jokes about Shrek and Family Guy. It’s such an odd character and segment, but the humor seems to be in how unfunny he is … which is a choice. While Marcello is his usually charming self, the schtick that he hasn’t seen these movies isn’t really working for us as a recurring bit anymore. We’re going to need a bit more.

Props to Jost for committing to the bit when he expressed his feelings about the shorter, more muted fall foliage season this year, while Che’s new title for Prince Andrew was met with the kinds of audience groans you know he lives for. Apparently, Movie Guy woke this audience up a bit as they were a lot more animated as the boys talked about a gorilla breaking glass, a pig liver’s final destination, and Kim’s new pubic hair thong … and who could use it.

New cast member Tommy Brennan got the chance to show off a bit of his standup style and personality in a very successful first outing on the Weekend Update desk with a bit about his Minnesota upbringing as a young Catholic boy in a family of eight. His interplay with Jost was kind of sweet and his material had the perfect edge to it. Sure, we saw that final joke coming a mile away, but we still laughed. This was exactly what he needed to do as a new face in the cast trying to make his mark. Now we understand him a little better as a person and a performer.

In a cut-for-time bit that nevertheless made its way online, James Austin Johnson got a rare Update appearance as a “manosphere” biohacker nutjob to set the record straight on health misinformation by spewing way more misinformation than possible. As outrageous as both his claims about his health, losses and gains were, they were nothing compared to the ridiculous regiment he claims. Through it all, James was brilliantly obtuse, ignoring real questions and concerns from Che and pitching total bulls–t in a way that perfectly matches the real vultures who prey on vulnerable people with narratives not too dissimilar to this parody.

The potential was there, but Sabrina Carpenter’s seminar leader could have shown a little more overt signs of injury, as her dancer did at the end. Props to Sarah Sherman for keeping it together when Kenan Thompson had to ad-lib throwing a body through the window while Chloe Fineman absolutely could not. The ending was cute enough, bringing all the zaniness together, but it would have been more effective to be more “obviously” problematic throughout only to leave us all wondering what was real and what was concussion.

We’re not gonna lie, we thought a lot more was going on than just gas with the way Ashley Padilla milked her first surprise in this sketch. It was perhaps a bit longer than necessary considering where the sketch went from there — we found ourselves wondering if the cue cards were missing and she couldn’t remember her lines before it started moving again. After that, it was all pretty funny, with Ashley carrying the sketch on her reactions to everything alone. Once again, she proves herself a fantastic sketch performer, so we suppose we’ll stop being surprised by it. It’s clear the writers are relying on her already like a veteran, so props to her for that. The ending twists this time were tweaked just enough to still work, so props to the writers for that, too.

Bowen Yang was absent in person, but present enough to channel his inner 13-year-old for this sketch about middle school kids dancing and discovering — with a lot of confusion — their sexuality. Probably the best part of this was when the special effects, flashy camera angles and flashing lights vanished to show just how weird and awkward this whole era of life is with that overhead shot of the “kids” grinding on one another with no clue what they’re doing or why at a school gymnasium dance. Bowen’s sexual awakening as a gay man was a funny moment, as was Ben Marshall struggling to understand his own body and Jane Wickline’s reaction to a declaration of love. Ah, 13 … does anyone actually remember it fondly?

As soon as we saw ShopTV and Mikey Day, partnered with Ashley Padilla now, we had an idea where this was going, but the visual of the pillow designed by Sabrina Carpenter’s innocent Virgina was still a bit of a surprise. Let’s just say they didn’t hold anything back with this one, setting up plenty of awkward interactions and even more uncomfortable phone calls. Sabrina was great in being so sweetly oblivious to just how x-rated her pillow design was in all of its formats, playing well off of the hosts. Honestly, there was a missed opportunity to tie in James Austin Johnson’s Christian Halloween designer character, but they still found their laughs.

This was so ridiculous, both recognizable and totally alien. We couldn’t possibly speak to how accurate the slang of 12- and 13-year-old boys would be, but the awkward deliveries by Veronikia Slowikowska, Jane Wickline, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chloe Fineman certainly felt on point. We loved the focus on snacks, and even the random inclusion of James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump. His rambling was almost as nonsensical as their “fire,” “chopped,” “bet” commentary. This is the kind of sketch we could see recur successfully, imagining a girl getting them all out of sorts in a future installment. This was also one of Jane’s strongest sketch moments yet; she excels at socially awkward and that’s what pre-teens are all about.

This Blumhouse parody trailer nails it, both the existential horror of a cozy night in being ruined by months-old plans, and the tone of a typical horror trailer. It felt right seeing Ben Marshall in a pre-taped segment after the loss of Please Don’t Destroy and he was perfect opposite Sabrina Carpenter as the hapless couple doomed to spending time with Covid-denying marathon runner Sarah Sherman and her YouTube-video-sharing husband, Mikey Day. Everyone was so committed, and at the same time this speaks such truth to modern culture. Like who even wants to … anything anymore?

Last week, with Amy Poehler dominating a night of ensemble pieces, we sung the praises of Ashley Padilla, and as you’ve already read, we’ve been doing it again. She continues to be an anchor for the show, once again appearing in the most sketches. Newcomer Veronika Slowikowska also had a big night, with a lot of appearances and showing a lot of potential as a sketch performer.

This week saw more stable performances from Kenan Thompson and Mikey Day, while James Austin Johnson perfectly fills in the weirdo role when he’s not being tasked with Donald Trump. This week’s inevitable Trump appearance felt fresh, and that’s a lot to do with the ladies of the cast killing it as pre-teen boys in their podcast sketch.

And that brings us to a cast member who’s been under-utilized of late but continues to do fantastic character work every time we see her. Marcello may have had a more dynamic night, but his recurring characters just weren’t as entertaining to us. Meanwhile, Chloe Fineman has proven she’s great in a more straight role — a la Marcello’s Domingo — or when she’s immersed in character, like the podcast sketch.

Chloe’s consistency as a performer is why the show could handle the loss of its veteran female performers this season, along with Sarah having grown into a great sketch performer herself — after a very shaky start. With Ashley and Veronika stepping up in a big way, the ladies side may be thin, but they’re strong. We give Chloe a lot of credit for that as the veteran female cast member holding that anchor position.

Saturday Night Live returns November 1 with host Miles Teller and musical guest Brandi Carlile. The next two weeks bring hosts Nikki Glaser and Glen Powell wit musical guests sombr and Olivia Dean, respectively.