Veteran actor Colman Domingo and Brazilian singer Anitta were in Studio 8H tonight for the 17th episode of Saturday Night Live’s Season 51. In this recap, I run-down the show, sketch-by-sketch, and musical number-by musical number.
Cold Open
James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump in the Oval Office with Ashley Padilla as press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump goes over a Tweet he wants sent out regarding the Strait of Hormuz. He then calls Tiger Woods (Kenan Thompson) to discuss the Masters. Shortly after, Melania (Chloe Fineman) calls Trump to talk about the Epstein files and other controversial topics. Lastly, we see Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth, taking a call from Trump. JAJ and Jost deliver the Live From New York line in tandem.
The cold open takes place in several parts of Studio 8H to accommodate split screens.
Monologue: Colman Domingo
It was all about the vibe during the monologue, as Domingo set the music and lighting to create a cool vibe as he discussed his goals for hosting the show. He did a brief interaction with some audience members, and that went fine. Overall, a good monologue. Far better to see Domingo flashing some dance moves than try to deliver a jokey monologue.
NY1 News
In the opening sketch, JAJ hosts NY1 News in NYC. Padilla is a reporter on the street, interviewing Domingo as “D’Artagnian Marangue,” a robbery victim more concerned with the fashion choices made by the thief than the crime itself. “Be on the lookout for a mess,” Marangue says.
Right out of the shoot, Domingo goes for it with this character, and it was fantastic. He committed to the material, and it’s wonderful to see a professional actor handle cue cards and deliver an amazing performance in Studio 8H with precision.
We get several great lines, including “Follow that trail of parmesan,” and “I hope the cops do to him what he should have done to those jeans he was wearing: CUFF ‘EM!”
Also appearing in the sketch: Marcello Hernandez, Mikey Day, Jane Wickline, and Fineman.
Pretape: Uneek Kutz
Domingo, Thompson, and Kam Patterson as barbers/therapists at Uneek Kutz, a black barber shop that delivers no-nonsense advice to male customers with life problems.
“Black Barbershops: Get Your Mental Health Lined Up.”
Artemis II Video to Earth
Domingo is one of the astronauts in Artemis II recording a message back to Earth during the mission on Day 9.
The video message is constantly interrupted by the nonsense antics of his fellow astronauts. The highlight is when the astronauts draw Harry Potter glasses and a scar on astronaut Sarah Sherman, who is sleeping and floating through the cabin of the spaceship.
Hernandez, Day, and Sherman appear as the rest of the crew.
PBS Knowledge Hour
Domingo hosting a PBS show called Knowledge Hour where he tries to amaze the viewers with visual tricks and science facts. He reminded me quite a bit of Dan Aykroyd in the way he delivered his lines in a focused, but unrushed and deadpan way. Sometimes the best way to be funny is to not try too hard.
“What if I told you the fire is my niece?”
“What if I told you a girl I knew in college was hot?”
“What if I told you that painting is an ordained minister?”
This is the type of bizarre, twisting, unusual sketch that SNL usually avoids these days in exchange of celebrity-driven, lowbrow crap. This sketch worked very well because the writing was good, and Domingo (again) was fantastic in this character.
“What if I told you?” is as good a catch phrase as anything SNL has put on screen all season. It was a great hook, and the sketch was quirky and unpredictable. One of the best of the season.
Several cast members perform in the sketch: Andrew Dismukes, Jeremy Culhane, Thompson, Patterson, Fineman, Ben Marshall, and others.
Music by Anitta
I’m a sucker for international music and choreography. Which is why I loved Anitta’s first number, Choka Choka. Everything was satisfying: the song, the beat, the dancing, the lighting, and the gorgeous Anitta, who proves you can be 30-something, talented, and also be a sex symbol.
Weekend Update
Typical jokes from Michael Che and Jost. The best were from Che, who continues to attack everyone and anyone, including Kamala Harris and Tiger Woods.
Kam Patterson and Marcello Hernandez appeared as “Two Kids from the Back of the School Bus” to discuss inflation. Hernandez did most of the lifting. Patterson is still underwhelming in character or sketch work. Someone needs to tell him he has to slow down and enunciate: it’s basically impossible to understand what he’s saying. Which probably wouldn’t make it funny anyway.
We got a new Update character named Lindt Greer, a sex educator performed by Wickline. It was sort of a 21st century Emily Litella, but instead of “Nevermind,” the cathphrase was “Just do whatever.” I’d like to see Jane bring this character back again. Greer could be an educator on any subject, as needed.
This was a long Weekend Update: 16 minutes.
Grandpa’s Very Pimpy Funeral
Padilla as a woman whose father is the deceased at a funeral. Culhane and Hernandez are the children who lost their grandfather.
Several sketchy characters move through the sketch as guests at the funeral, revealing a seedy side to Grampa: Thompson as a flirtatious pimp; Sherman and Veronika Slowikowska as sex workers; Day as a drug addict; Domingo as a streetwise pimp; JAJ as an eccentric pimp; Wickline as a pregnant women with a tattoo of grampa on her belly; and Jost as a purple-velvet-clad pimp.
Not a particularly inspiring or unique theme for a sketch, but it worked well to allow several cast members to have a moment as over-the-top characters.
Anitta Musical Performance No. 2
We got Anitta solo on stage in an elegant dress with a beautiful floral backdrop. A second top-notch performance and arrangement. In a season with better-than-average musical guests for the most part, Anitta is one of the best.
The 10-to-1 Sketch
Colman Domingo still had a one more superb and refined performance up his sleeve, as a professor at a stuffy all-boys school committed to breaking the rules.
Dismukes, Culhane, Hernandez, Marshall, Patterson, and Tommy Brennan as the students who are reluctant to be non-conformists. Kenan Thompson is the custodian who enthusiastically joins in the non-conformity.
“Why can you divide two numbers, but you can’t unite two numbers?”
“You can! It’s called addition!”
Beastomorphs
The episode ended with a short pretape called “Beastomorphs” featuring Sherman, Slowikowska, Brennan, and Hernandez. The host appears as the evil nemesis. Basically a vehicle to deliver about three dozen fart jokes.
Episode Grade: B
Practice does indeed make perfect. After 16 episodes, many of them mediocre, SNL’s writers seem to be getting into a groove. This was a professional show: meaning the performances were on-point and served good material. As opposed to the Ryan Gosling, where it felt like we were watching an amateur improv group, tonight, the cast (practically the entire cast got beefy parts on screen) was on its game.
Colman Domingo was the sharpest first-time host SNL has seen in several seasons. I thought Glen Powell and Alexander Skarsgård were good first-time hosts earlier this season, but Domingo threw it down tonight. Here’s a guy who could have been a cast member, he’s that great in sketch work.
The sketch work and comedy gets a B-, on the strength of better writing than we’ve seen in Season 51 in many weeks. Anitta deserves an A, which lifts the overall grade to B for episode 17.
