Ashley Padilla’s political portrayals, ‘Endgame Encore’ picks at the bones, and PB+J comes to breakfast

Hello! Welcome to the Oct. 3, 2026, edition of the Saturday Wrap. Here’s everything you might have missed from The Omnicosm.

Forget Trump. These Ashley Padilla SNL political characters are the ones you need to know.

When it comes to a political cold open, SNL has lost its way.

We’re a long way from the era of Will Ferrell’s take on George W. Bush pulling off the trick of being both funny and a character you want to see at the beginning of each episode.

Whether it was Alec Baldwin screaming his way through the first Donald Trump presidency, James Austin Johnson putting a inappropriately fun spin on the horrors of the second Trump presidency or all the celebrity cameos that have hijacked the show over the past decade, a political cold open is now more likely to earn groans than laughs from viewers.

But there’s been one bright spot among SNL’s political work since Trump took office again: Ashley Padilla. (Read more)

Jalen Brunson hosts a basketball-centric SNL opener

SNL is back!

The show’s summer break is over, and we’ve officially shifted to Season 52. It was a quiet offseason for SNL. Chloe Fineman left the show. Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline got promoted to the show’s main cast. And Lorne Michaels added Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter.

I feel like we build these season premieres up in our heads. It’s the first episode of a new season, so it should mean something. The first episode of a season should make a mark, right? (Read more)

‘My mom said it’s too horny’: Ashley Padilla tells Dakota Johnson she’s never seen SNL

Huh. This is interesting. Dakota Johnson hosts SNL for her third time this weekend, and instead of the normal Wednesday promo featuring the upcoming host and a few SNL cast members doing something quirky around Studio 8H, we got what are basically the rapid-fire promos that SNL releases at the end of the week. (Read more)

Thanks to Reese’s Puffs PB+J, peanut butter and jelly isn’t just for lunch

There are few more iconic lunch duos than peanut butter and jelly. (Not now, ham and cheese.) What if that duo made the jump to breakfast?

That’s the goal with Reese’s Puffs PB+J, a limited-edition spin on Reese’s Puffs cereal. (Read more)

Does the beer-flavored energy drink live up to the buzz?

I love energy drinks. And I love beer. (Like, in a cool dad way. You know, IPAs and such.) But do I want an energy drink that tastes like a beer?

That’s the quandary posed by C4 All Hopped Up. (Read more)

Snack Chat: I need the Lunchables Pizza Grill

If you’re eating a Lunchables Pizza, do you eat it cold or do you warm it up?

I’m old enough to remember when Lunchables Pizza debuted. When I think of Lunchables, I picture either the Ham & Cheddar variety or the Turkey & American variety. (Or maybe both. Sometimes you need two Lunchables to really feed your hunger.) But the pizza variety was something different.

Cold cheese and cold sauce? And you just bring them to like a field trip that way? (Read more)

Xochitl Halloween Tortilla Chips are xo spooky and xo tasty

This isn’t the first year that we’ve gotten Xochitl Halloween Tortilla Chips. The brand, known for its “thin and crispy” tortilla chips, has released orange and black chips in the past, but this is the first Halloween release since the brand switched to “100% pure avocado oil” and unveiled its fantastic new visual style. (Read more)

Naughty or nice, Pebbles has your holiday cereal wishlist covered

While we wait for Ryan Gosling to get his Flintstones movie off the bedrock, these characters exist as cereal mascots. Barney and Fred anchor the standard Pebbles flavors, while we get Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles on seasonal flavors like Naughty List Cocoa Pebbles with Marshmallows and Nice List Fruity Pebbles with Marshmallows. (Read more)

Enjoy the new Trolli Gummi Pop Electric flavor. Just don’t ask any questions.

This is my second time trying Trolli Gummi Pops. Snackology brought you a review of the Very Berry flavor back in the spring. I didn’t understand how Trolli Gummi Pops work then. And I don’t understand how they work now. The science that makes this frozen treat both frozen and wobbly at the same time escapes me. (Read more)

Food Finds: Snickers that taste like banana, Cheetos with heat, and Liquid Death Energy

It was at this Walgreens where I finally tracked down the elusive Snickers Banana Nut Bread. I was thrilled to have found them, and I picked up two candy bars for my Snackology review. (Also, hi, Josh Allen.) I wish they had lived up to my excitement. (Read more)

Avengers: Endgame Encore turns an ending into an ellipsis

I saw Avengers: Endgame in theaters on Saturday night. 

No, I didn’t somehow pull off a time heist of my own and go back to 2019. Marvel Studios released Avengers: Endgame Encore this weekend, putting the Infinity Saga capstone back into theaters with a twist.

Depending on where you see Endgame Encore, the film now ends with up to four bits of additional footage in service of setting up Avengers: Doomsday. (Read more)

• It’s 2026, and Avengers: Endgame is back on top of the box office: Popculturology was on a hiatus when Avengers: Endgame started its box office run with a then-record $357.1 million opening weekend, so it’s fun to wind up having a chance to write about the film in 2026 thanks to the release of Avengers: Endgame Encore. (Read more)

Star Wars: Episode X has a director. But does it have a purpose?

I have mixed feelings over the news that Disney is on the verge of returning to the Skywalker Saga, selecting Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Jon Watts to direct Episode X.The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth episode in the multigenerational series at the heart of Star Wars, was heralded as the triumphant conclusion to the Skywalker Saga. 

George Lucas launched Star Wars with the original trilogy, before jumping back in time to tell the story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader with the prequel trilogy. After Lucas sold his company to Disney, J.J. Abrams kicked off the sequel trilogy with The Force Awakens ... and then bitterly returned to the franchise to undo the bold choices made by Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. (Read more)

The Omnicosm is written and produced by Bill Kuchman.
Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.

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