Welcome back, humble Coneheads. Are Saturday evening live in review: the anniversary season edition. Tonight’s show is hosted by Charli Brat The artist will also remember Bowen Yang’s impression of her from a few episodes ago.

Ask someone to host SNL and performance can be taunting; not every artist is built for it (just ask Bad Bunny or Frank Zappa). I’m joined tonight by former SNLthere’s Patrick Weathers, who was in the season 6 cast when Debbie Harry served dual roles as host and musical guest. He says he can “definitely hear” Harry’s influence in Charli XCX’s music today. (Charli has previously collaborated with Blondie and wrote a song for them Pollinator Weathers was confident Harry could handle it, calling her a “great artist, a great star.” He also knew her personally when she entered 8H, from his days at the Mudd Club; he was friends with one of Blondie’s guitarists, Frank Infante.

Weathers comically sees Donald Trump’s re-election as a perfect opportunity for the show. “This should be their golden year. Look at these characters around him. He has every personality you can imagine – good grief, everything from RFK to Elon Musk. You couldn’t have dreamed of a better situation. Do this and make this their biggest year yet. If they cannot do that, they are doing something wrong.”

Commenting on Kamala Harris’ recent cold-open cameo, Weathers says, “I don’t think they should have done an endorsement. But hey, if I was in Maya Rudolph’s shoes, I definitely would have, because I mean, that’s her livelihood. But I think it was wrong; it’s really foolish for a celebrity to stand up and do that because if you’re an entertainer, and depending on the population and your fan base, why would you want to risk pissing off half of them? And it didn’t do her any good.” Apparently not!

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Opened cold

US President-elect Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) and President Joe Biden (a deeply grinning Dana Carvey) discussed Ukraine and the Middle East on Wednesday during a cordial Oval Office meeting aimed at demonstrating a smooth transition of power, despite deep disagreements over policy. Weathers sees the latest election and recent political moments like this as a sign of what the show should go back to when the cast shows off their great impressions. He notes, “Dana can do anyone. I always thought that man was extremely talented. I’ve met him before, spent some time with him when he first did the show.

Instead of being rude and crazy, Trump is serene – which is scarier. SNL The crew even captured the aggressive extent of the White House fire! “We love the ‘This Is Fine’ dog,” says Trump, recalling how much he hates his job and life in the White House. But he can’t go home to Mar-a-Lago; Elon Musk is here and won’t go away. He’s so cringe. Weathers recalls, “Peter Aykroyd sent me clips of James Austin Johnson the summer before he went on the show and said, ‘I think this guy is really pushing Trump.’” Yes! And RIP Peter Aykroyd.

The crowd loves Johnson’s speech about Trump’s recent appointments. “Giggity giggity,” Sarah Sherman’s Matt Gaetz jokes, clearly aware of the Family guy memes. Wild that Pete Davidson ever played Gaetz. I think the past is prologue SNL country. Weathers added: “The Trumpsters won a lot, and that’s fine. It’s hysterical. But the truth is that Trump is funny, and he’s even funnier when someone else is doing it. That’s rare: it’s hard to parody a parody. That’s why it’s very hard to fool one of those TV preachers you used to have around, like Jimmy Swaggart. The point is that Trump is a (self)parody, but at the same time he is very funny when they do impressions of him, because he can go in any direction at any time. You can take it all kinds of places because it has a tendency to go down rabbit holes.”

Oh good lord – Alec Baldwin is back again. Why are they doing this to us? This time he plays Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has a dead dolphin in his car. JAJ is as meta as Trump – he doesn’t comment on this casting? Instead, he offers Biden a place in his cabinet; that’s how Biden is out of touch these days! The President says it: He’ll do what every broken old man does these days: fight Jake Paul! Referring to last night’s Mike Tyson fight is a nice punch line for this cold open. I liked this, with the exception of Baldwin.

Monologue

The Brat summer singer talks about her origins and love for autotune. Autotune makes everything sound better, even break-ups. She explains what a brat is… and her love for her gay fanbase. She parties a lot.

For some reason, Kyle Mooney shows up here to find out if he’s a brat. I get it ‘SNL Lore’ this season, but this is unnecessary. (His directorial debut J2K coming out in a few weeks, FYI…)

“Domingo”

Chelsea (Chloe Fineman) is having a baby in a few weeks. The artistic and random friends went on a best baby moon. This is a follow-up to a sketch from a few weeks ago, when Ariana Grande and late night show cast members Sarah Sherman, Heidi Gardner, and Ego Nwodim played bridesmaids performing their own version of the Sabrina Carpenter song “Espresso,” but also revealed many to the groom about the group’s bachelor party. After describing the bride’s dance floor encounter with a man named Domingo (Marcello Hernández), they reveal how she took off her ring and went wild. Surprised to see this again.

This time it’s “Hot to Go!” by Chappell Roan. I like that it continues the story from the last sketch, even if the reveals are essentially the same. Poor cuckold Dismukes.

‘Never before seen auditions for Bad‘

Ah yes, this premise. The celebrity impression audition. As I’ve said before, this leads to diminishing returns. The impressions just aren’t that funny.

Bowen Yang, who participates Badplays Annie Leibovitz. This is a big moment for Chloe Fineman’s one-off impressions; she plays so many people here. Dana Carvey dusts off his Al Pacino. You never want to be nostalgic for Kevin Spacey people but show off his top class Walter Matthau or Jack Lemmon trying Star Wars, this is not the case. I can’t believe JAJ can’t destroy this template.

‘Food Network cake challenge’

Another well-known sketch template. Baking contestants feebly create Thanksgiving-themed monstrosities. Eddie Murphy did something similar a few seasons ago, as did Timothée Chalamet and Simu Liu. Skip this.

If you wanted Kyle Mooney to return for a draft, is this what you had in mind? A 10 inch dildo cake?

‘SNL Digital Short’

Andy Samberg calls the police when people mess with his lawn and trash. Including Colin Jost! This is cute, great production value, catchy Lovely Island tune. Nice use of Charli XCX too. Clearly, the show puts her in a stable place.

‘Banger Boyz’

The podcast that goes fast every week! Online Trump brothers get the SNL treatment: They discuss how Marcello gets his balls and then the origin of the pyramids. Donald Trump was recently on the show. He calls one of them secretary of Converse; another is ambassador to Iran. This is nice, I would prefer this kind of Trump commentary when the cold opens.

Top Golf is a sponsor – find out which of your colleagues is an alcoholic – and Male Chimp. Others: Warm Sponges and Pube Whacker. They talk about the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, well done.