Jack Black’s Return to SNL is All Vibes, Breaks, and Singalongs
The A Minecraft Movie star’s first hosting appearance in 20 years was heavy on the musical numbers and candidly self-referential, adding yet another rebound episode to Season 50’s ongoing unevenness.
Saturday Night Live’s 50th season has been full of ups and downs, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well the show has snapped back into decency after its “bad” episodes. After Bill Burr floundered post-election day, Charli XCX put on a one-woman show; Chris Rock saved the show’s Paul Mescal-led dullness; Lady Gaga and Timothée Chalamet wrote the wrongs of Shane Gillis and Dave Chappelle, respectively. Last week, Mikey Madison put on one of the worst first-time host showings in recent memory. But the weekend turned over and Jack Black was quickly thrown into the driver’s seat—and last night’s episode marked the comedian’s first time hosting since 2005, when he stopped by Studio 8H to promote King Kong. This time, came to town to spread the word about his new, not-so-good movie: A Minecraft Movie.
Black is an actor who is objectively funny and has starred in some of the most important comedies of this century, especially Shallow Hal, The Holiday, School of Rock, and Nacho Libre. His previous three turns on SNL were fine, but not incredible—pretty good episodes helmed by a generationally charismatic guy who never auditioned for the show but could easily go joke-for-joke with anyone in the cast. And sure, going two decades without having Black helm the show feels like a misfire on Lorne Michaels’ part, but it’s not like the actor has been taking roles in that many culture-molding titles since 2006. In fact, while looking at his CV, the last flick of his I loved was Bernie in 2011, if we’re not counting his voiceover role in Richard Linklater’s animated masterpiece Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood. He’s been embarrassingly stuck in the IP delusions of Hollywood. But, considering how bad last week’s episode was, I went into last night certain that Black would steer the show in the right direction again. He’s a guy who goes for it.
What can be said about last night’s episode is that, even when the material was weak, Black brought his infamous energy to each set. The bits rarely dipped in intrigue when he was on screen and, refreshingly, he was majorly involved in every sketch. Considering how Madison was as compelling as a background actor last week, watching Black truly tackle his hosting responsibilities to such a full extent was a much-needed change. For all 90 minutes, the vibes were pitched-up and inviting; every cast member got a piece of the cake with Black. It all felt intimate yet high-energy, even though most of the ideas were anything but innovative. And Black, who is canonically known as an actor and musician, got his singalong licks in last night, too—doing a song-and-dance number in his monologue and belting the pipes a few times throughout the show. SNL was formulaic this go around—commonplace when a comedy vet shows up and willingly adapts his schtick to the show’s oft-one-dimensional taste—but felt enjoyable from start to finish. Black came to Manhattan as the antidote for the always-lingering listlessness that too-often plagues this show. So, how did last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live fare?
Well, as a wise cue card says…
“Live from New York…”
It seems that we are on pace for a season of SNL with no great cold opens. James Austin Johnson’s Trump impression is sound but lacks juice. It’s a tall task to make the current president’s on-show antics more outrageous than his real-life ones, but I’ve been really mellowing on JAJ’s work this season. I don’t blame the writers entirely for not being able to outdo the man himself, but I end up leaving these cold opens always wanting something more… dangerous? Alas, this week’s sketch focused on Trump’s recent “historic” tariff plan, which finds our country pitting itself against literally all of our international trade partners. We’re in the era of “MAGDA,” aka “Make American Great Depression Again.” The stock market is the worst it’s been since mid-2020.
Andrew Dismukes showed up as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, bringing out a sign that explains the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the US. Too bad it’s actually a Cheesecake Factory menu. Trump ribbed against his own administration’s really, really confusing presentation, in which the countries are listed in an order that isn’t alphabetical or numerical. The best part of the cold open came when, while Lutnick showed off a cartoon picture of “McDonald’s Island,” Trump said, “Get me to God’s country,” riffing on Morgan Wallen’s abrupt exit during last episode’s goodnights and his subsequent Instagram story. This wasn’t the first time SNL went meta last night, but it was easily an effective act of self-reference.
Mike Myers returned as Elon Musk, coming on stage in a Green Bay cheese hat. He calls Trump’s tariff plan dumb, and the president tells the Tesla leader that his time in the organization is coming to an end. Musk’s time in the US government is over this spring (for now), so it wouldn’t be outrageous to assume that we won’t see much of Myers in the final stretch of the season. This wasn’t the worst cold open of the season, but it’s hard to get behind such weak writing. JAJ used to be able to command an entire sketch as Trump; not even a supporting cast of celeb guest stars has made his impression tolerable this season.
“You look mahvelous!”
I really thought the “One Uppers” sketch was barely three minutes long—that’s how quick and fun the damn bit was. A bunch of college friends are getting together for a meal, and some of them worry that the remaining two friends (Black and Bowen Yang) are going to, you guessed it, one-up each other the entire meal. And they do just that, talking themselves up and shooting quick glances at all six or seven camera angles scattered across the restaurant. Black quit social media, only reads physical books now, and got his sweater thrifting. Yang made his own sweater. The peal call of an eagle scores every blue steel face, as each person at the table tries to flex their good deeds. The faces get more obtuse and distorted; each cut to a new person reveals two or three people breaking behind them. It was infectiously funny and full of momentum, even if Heidi Gardner’s appearance at the end—which reveals that the noisy eagle belongs to her—nearly made the whole sketch die on the vine. But I love a good wink at virtue signaling, and watching the cast members break every time Black made eye-contact with a camera made this one sing well enough.
This was the best Weekend Update of the season so far, even better than the now-formulaic, yearly joke swap. We got another jab at Morgan Wallen’s goodnights exit last week, this time thanks to Jost arguing that money is leaving the stock market faster than the country singer leaves SNL stages. The low-hanging fruit of Matt Gaetz’s reputation with underage girls is in reach for Che, who also joked that China’s economic slowdown is because the country has had to tell their child workers they’ve been laid off. Tariffs are being placed on islands only inhabited by penguins. “Maybe penguins shouldn’t be pushing their gay agenda,” Jost says, as a graphic of the And Tango Makes Three children’s book pops up. I was happy to see Jost and Che spend a decent amount of Update weighing in on politics. Most of these segments have fallen short for me this year because the anchors have leaned far too hard on inconsequential, niche world news happening outside of the current happenings in the US government. But we got four good minutes of material that didn’t sound phoned in.
In another self-referential moment, Jost brings up how Russell Brand, who was recently charged with sexual assault, hosted the show on the same night that Chris Brown was the musical guest. A 1-year-old toddler “has his grandfather’s eyes” because he ate the dead man’s ashes; a WWII codebreaker deciphered Nazi communications after Hitler “accidentally added her to a group chat”; the rate of Black men attending HBCUs is down to 26% because those institutions are lacking their “one key resource”: white girls. Che jokes about I.C.E. vans luring immigrants into their vans on National Burrito Day, while Hooters has filed for bankruptcy because their “business model was a bust.”
Grant (Hernandez) and Alyssa (Jane Wickline) are back as the couple you can’t believe are together, and it’s another home run for the duo. Hernandez’s penchant for being the loud guy in the cast can be hit or miss, but this is the best version of him. For their anniversary, Grant gifted Alyssa a clarinet: “Don’t my baby look like she would go stoopid on a woodwind?” Grant asks. “Guilty,” Wickline meekly responds. Grant and Alyssa do really seem like a perfect, unorthodox couple of the highest unlikeliness. They have “Word Wednesdays” together, which is where Grant learned the word “boundaries.” My personal pick for the show’s best line of the night: “Girl, you make me feel undoubtedly.”
After a streak of underwhelming Update characters, it was refreshing to see Ego Nwodim just show up to the desk as herself. The White House Correspondents’ Association recently announced that its annual dinner will no longer feature a comedian, so Nwodim volunteers herself for the job, promising to joke about the food instead of politics. We get a look into her “Miss Eggie” alter-ego, and it even leads to a great call-and-response moment featuring Nwodim asking, “Men ain’t what?” and the audience yelling “shit” in unison. SNL has already censored the moment on their YouTube upload of the bit, because they are cowards. As the outrageousness of Nwodim’s delivery escalates, she can barely keep it together. Che and Jost certainly don’t hold back in their gut-busted background reactions. Nwodim is such a star. Seeing her stretch out like this last night was a big highlight.
“In a word? Chaos.”
One thing I can say about this season of SNL is that the writers have gone light on the show’s tradition of using a game show template right after the monologue. But Love Match was chosen as last night’s tone-setter, as host Todd (Dismukes) gives contestant Jamie (Chloe Fineman) three mystery bachelors, Allan (JAJ), Dan (Hernandez), and Gene (Black), to question. Gene is dressed in full Indiana Jones garb but denies knowing who—or what—that is, despite holding a whip in his hand. Jamie asks Gene about his biggest fear. Snakes, he tells her. What made this sketch work was watching Black and Dismukes go at it, especially after Gene reveals that “Indiana” was just a nickname for Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr.
“Making Love” had promise, though it never quite failed. Greg (Black) and Francesca (Sarah Sherman) have slipped into their silk pajamas and are ready to take things to the next level. The couple begins to fly, as they sing about making love to each other. The charm fades a bit when Yang shows up for his weekly post-Update appearance, this time serving as the couple’s third.” I thought the back-and-forth singing about the throuple’s mismatched, sometimes uncomfortable power dynamics was fun, though the sketch lost its steam once co-musical guest Brandi Carlile came swinging in, guitar in hand. I am usually pro-SNL going wide on a sketch, but I have to wonder how good this one would have been had it just been Black and Sherman going head-to-head for five minutes.
“You are weak like H.R. Pickens!”
This is the first time a 10-to-1 sketch has been the worst effort of the night. But “Times Square Kiss” stalled from the moment it began. “V-J Day in Times Square” is a legendary photo, a kiss shared between a nurse and a Navy sailor captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt. SNL asks the important follow-up question: Does that nurse (Gardner) have a husband? The answer is yes, and it’s the illustrator (Black) who drew all the racist anti-Japanese propaganda during World War II. And that same illustrator left his wife in the middle of the street so he could go get five hot dogs. The nurse macks on a few other celebrating soldiers and Gardner breaks through each kiss. I’m glad somebody thought this sketch was funny.
“If you have a $50 bill, we can give you 50 singles.”
It took me a second to register that the “Flamin’ Hot Commercial” was not an actual commercial for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. But then that NBC peacock showed up in the bottom left corner of my screen, and I was thrown back into reality. There’s nothing wrong with a two-minute faux commercial that gets in and gets out without offense. Chester Cheetah and Jack Black are advertising a new kind of Preparation H—a cream that is now “flamin’ hot.” It was a middle-of-the-road bit, to be clear, but I enjoyed watching a living room of partiers cringe at the sight of Black—pants around his ankles—spreading bright red, hot pepper-infused hemorrhoid ointment on his bare asshole while a worried Chester looks on from his front-row seat. The whole thing gave a new meaning to “ring of fire.” I couldn’t help but think of Phil Hartman’s Cheeto commercials while watching it.
“Goth Kid on Vacation” was my pick for the worst sketch of the night until the 10-to-1 hit. Watching Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim rhapsodize as a Jamaican reggae band is clever enough on its own, but the joke—middle-class white families coming to the Caribbean island have to deal with their bummer son (Michael Longfellow) dressed in all black—was more of a sly observation than a unique punchline, though the part about him wearing combat boots on the beach was good. Black showed up to do an approximation of My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way singing a parody of “Welcome to the Black Parade,” and it was fine.
“It’s always something.”
“The First Play” fell short for me, though I respect the swing. We’re transported to ancient Greece, where the first ever play is performed in front of an audience. Black, Mikey Day, Dismukes, and Chloe Fineman look on from the front row, taking all of Emil Wakim’s line readings far too seriously. Seeing Black in a blond bowl cut got an immediate LOL reaction from me, but it’s never easy trying to tell two separate stories at the same time in a 5-minute sketch. When Bowen Yang’s character is pretend stabbed, the audience yells murder. The actors break pretense and try explaining that they’re doing a performance. The sketch was sore from the jump, hinging itself on rash, loud, and annoying interjections that not even a high-energy guy like Black could really pull off.
“Bass Lake” should be the new star witness for the “dumb, niche idea milked a minute too long” genre of SNL material. Big Ricky and the Minnows are doing a “potluck jam” on a lake, and they invite anyone and everyone to come up and play Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” with them. Cue a cast of obviously-from-Florida characters in slightly different fonts coming up one by one, each of them with a bass guitar in hand. The stage clutters up, and the medley of bassists start playing The Simpsons theme song instead. The frequency destroys the structural integrity of the pier everyone’s playing on, so it collapses into the water. I had fun with this one, though the writers could have definitely trimmed it down without lightening up on the chaos.
Not Ready For Primetime Power Rankings
1. Ego Nwodim Between her Update bit and turns in “One Uppers” and “Goth Kid on Vacation,” Ego stole the show last night in a big way. In fact, I think her performance as “Miss Eggie” and the audience getting themselves censored will go down as one of the best moments of Season 50 when it’s all said and done.
2. Sarah Sherman Because Black was such a screen-commanding firecracker last night, there wasn’t much room for anyone else to really shine consistently. But, Sarah Squirm made some ripples in “Making Love” and “One Uppers,” grabbing some good laughs just by playing it straight all night.
3. Marcello Hernandez I’ll keep Marcello at #3 because his performance as Grant on Update killed it. He got a good joke in during “Indiana Jones,” too. It was a relatively off-screen night for him this week, but his presence was still felt.
Goodnights
Great to see a title card for the late Val Kilmer, who hosted the show in 2000. Farewell, Iceman.
SNL is back next week with host Jon Hamm and musical guest Lizzo, so we’ll catch you then. And that’s the way it is! Goodnight.
Matt Mitchell is Paste’s music editor, reporting from their home in Northeast Ohio.
