‘SNL’ gives us Melissa McCarthy as host for her 6th time, takes us to ‘Cousin Planet’

There have been a few episodes of SNL this season hosted by people who exist in the background of sketches. The show happens to them, with SNL cast members driving the episode.

Melissa McCarthy has never been and is not that kind of SNL host.

When McCarthy hosts SNL, she is the show.

The actress’ sixth time hosting SNL was no different from her previous five times at the helm. While we may have not gotten anything as explosively dominating as McCarthy squirting Hidden Valley Ranch dressing all over herself or abusing athletes as a women’s basketball coach, this episode was still a decent showcase for how she’s established herself as one of the show’s most reliable hosts.

Overall, the episode did feel a bit flat though, with no cast member landing a big moment until the show was almost over with both “Sunday Supper” and “Cousin Planet.” Don’t get me wrong, McCarthy is still one of SNL’s most game hosts — this episode just felt low energy after Glen Powell’s first time hosting the show before Thanksgiving.

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COLD OPEN

Pentagon Press Conference Cold Open

I thought for sure we’d see McCarthy as Sean Spicer during the cold open, especially after SNL gave us another press conference setup. Instead, it was Colin Jost once again as Pete Hegseth.

This feels personal to Jost, doesn’t it? Like at some point, the Weekend Update anchor said, Hey, I want to play Pete Hegseth. I have some thoughts. For a guy who has never been a member of SNL’s actual cast, Jost completely throws himself into his portrayal of Hegseth.

• “I’m a reporter now”: It’s been awhile since we saw Sarah Sherman as Matt Gaetz.
• “We gotta get him to another MRI before he wakes up”: I’m thrilled that SNL went with James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump being an actual character during the cold open instead of popping in and breaking the fourth wall. (That said, this cold open could’ve stood without Johnson as Trump, which is the case with so many recent SNL cold opens.)

THE MONOLOGUE

McCarthy last hosted SNL in May 2017, and it’s been so long that I can’t remember any of her previous monologues. Did she sing? Talk about how much she loved the show as a kid? Answer questions from the audience?

For this weekend’s episode, McCarthy stitched together a few random bits: “Playing” the mouth horn, getting a predictable large amount of fake snow dumped on her, suffering a piano accident thanks to Marcello Hernandez. (We should have a conversation at some point about how Hernandez has pretty much disappeared this season after bringing Domingo back for Sabrina Carpenter’s episode.)