The Pop-Tarts Limited-Edition Team Sprinkles vs Team Swirls Tailgate Pack, my books of the year, Bowen Yang on SNL and a bunch of new Oreo products. / Snackology, Popculturology, NBC
Hello! Welcome to the Dec. 27, 2025, edition of the Saturday Wrap. Here’s everything you might of missed from The Omnicosm.
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Team Sprinkles or Team Swirls? For the Pop-Tarts Bowl, we get to pick the, um, winner.
I love — love — the Pop-Tarts Bowl. I don’t watch college football. I don’t watch bowl games. But I will gobble up any and all news about this one specific bowl game that happens to be sponsored by Pop-Tarts.
The upcoming Pop-Tarts Bowl will be played on Dec. 27. The bowl game itself is between Georgia Tech and BYU. More importantly, though, we’re going to see two teams of Pop-Tarts mascots pitted against each other ... with the winners getting eaten.
“The countdown is on for the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl, dubbed The People’s National Championship! Culminating in the biggest sacrifice ever, two teams of Edible Mascots — Team Sprinkles and Team Swirls — will compete to achieve the ultimate pastry dream of being eaten by this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl Champions,” Pop-Tarts notes in the announcement of this year’s mascot competition. “To celebrate, Pop-Tartsis hosting a fan vote on game day to help decide which team will be sacrificed and debuting a limited-edition flavor box featuring each of the Edible Mascot flavors.”
Yes, if you’re one of the Edible Mascots, it is your dream to be “eaten by this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl Champions.” It’s a tradition, after all.
Muffins! Cakesters! Thins! Minis! This wave of Oreos has it all
I love an Oreo cookie. By extension, Snackology loves an Oreo cookie. I’ve been reviewing Oreos since I launched this newsletter, with the Oreo/Coca-Cola crossover anchoring some of my earliest coverage.
It’s only fitting that I close out 2025 with an Oreo extravaganza. A cornucopia of new and returning Oreo options. A plethora of Oreo offerings.
While I should be focusing on baking (and eating) Christmas cookies, I’ve instead chosen to tear into the wave of Oreo products that are hitting shelves this month: Oreo Muffins, Oreo Cakesters Confetti Cake, Oreo Thins Chocolate Ganache, Oreo Minis Chocolate Creme and Oreo Cookie Dough cookies.
There’s something for everyone in this new wave. Muffins! Cakesters! Thins! Minis! A returning favorite! Let’s take a journey through the wonders of this new wave before I seriously need to focus on getting some Christmas cookies going.
‘This is my last shift’: Bowen Yang says farewell to ‘SNL’ as Ariana Grande hosts
The Bowen Yang era of SNL has come to a close.
When the news broke on Friday that Yang was going to depart SNL after this episode, it was both surprising — the show had already seen big names like Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim removed from the SNL roster before this season started — but it also made total sense. It was only a few seasons ago when Cecily Strong retired from SNL after the Austin Butler-hosted Christmas episode.
I’d love to know if Yang always knew he was going to call it a career after the Christmas episode or if the fact that Ariana Grande was hosting made it the perfect moment to say goodbye.
Yang and Grande’s stories are intertwined beyond just being costars in the two Wicked movies. When Grande hosted SNL last season, that night was Yang’s 100th episode in the cast. And now, with her by his side on multiple moments this episode — the monologue, in sketches and during goodnights — Yang closed out his time as an SNL cast member.
Talking Bowen Yang, Ariana Grande and Ashley Padilla with the ‘Not Ready for Primetime SNL Podcast’
Mike Ryan and Ryan McGee were kind enough to invite onto today’s episode of their Not Ready for Primetime SNL Podcast to discuss Ariana Grande hosting what turns out was Bowen Yang’s final episode. No surprise that we also talked about Ashley Padilla.
At the start of 2024, I downloaded the Goodreads app and set a goal of reading 30 books for that year.
I made it through 11 books.
In 2025, I decided that this was going to be the year when I put down my phone at night, didn’t scroll social media and read a book instead. This led to a year of rekindling my old habit of devouring books. When this special edition of Popculturology hits your inboxes, I will have read 94 books this year.
At one point, I thought I could hit 100. Which would’ve been cool, right? I assume Goodreads would’ve sent someone to my house to congratulate me. But once the holidays started to kick into gear around Thanksgiving, I let go of that goal. The love of reading for pleasure that I had once again found in 2025 was supposed to be fun. I wasn’t going to force myself to rush through books, cram them in or pick shorter reads just to hit 100.
The Omnicosm founder. Popculturology, Deep SNL Thoughts and Snackology writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
Bill Kuchman
Bill Kuchman
Bill Kuchman
Bill Kuchman
