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Last week, SNL struggled to make good use of Paul Mescal’s endearing, infectious charm. It wasn’t the worst episode of the season, but it was bottom-tier, to say the least. With former cast member Chris Rock in the saddle last night, I wasn’t sure how the episode would go. I mean, let’s face it, Chris Rock wasn’t the greatest player when he was on the show from 1990 through 1993 (Nat X and Onski remain all-time characters, though)—but Rock’s style of comedy has always been bigger than SNL’s. He’s come back to host a few times, most recently during the doomed, COVID-affected 46th season in 2020. But, former cast members coming back usually means that we’re going to get a serviceable episode, if only because those comedians at least comprehend the style, tone and pacing of an SNL show.

While Tambourine is one of the greatest modern stand-up specials, I have always been weary of Rock’s trips to Studio 8H. He and the material don’t always gel, and I hate to be skeptical of one of our sharpest living comedians. But not everyone who’s funny is meant to stand on that stage—just ask Bill Burr, who delivered the worst episode of the season a month ago.

But Rock was truly terrific last night, playing all of his characters straight and landing every swing. I am usually more in favor of hosts who are willing to go the extra mile to push a sketch over the line, but Rock’s ability to make a bit sing just by executing it flawlessly worked just as well as, say, Ariana Grande playing a castrato. He never takes the light off of the current cast members, a sharp parallel to his own days as a repertory player—only, in this case, it benefits the entire show. None of it was flashy, and the lack of pageantry really let the material breathe. Last night’s SNL hit its groove and never lulled, but how great was it, really?

Well, as a wise cue card says…

“Live from New York…”

Sarah Sherman steps into an impression of Nancy Grace, joining a lineage with Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler and Abby Elliott, and she does a mighty fine job at it—her drawl pronunciation of “murderer” was so Southern that the subtitles thought she was saying “more raw,” and she pronounces “country” and “crunchy.” “Crime Stories” puts its focus on, of course, Luigi Mangione’s arrest, and we get a couple of smart jokes (“I hope BDE stands for ‘behavior dat’s evil’”), an incredible punchline about Grace’s fixation on the on JonBenet Ramsey (“You used me!!”) and—because the show is a YouTube exclusive and Grace is hyper-aware of interruptive ads—an interruption by a screaming, jacked-up Marcello Hernandez yell-lying about shedding belly fat by “only eating hamburgers.”

Kenan Thompson makes a quick appearance as Donnell Davis, a McDonald’s customer (with “Type-10 diabetes”) who was only present on the day of the crime because it’s where he goes when he “pretends to be at work” so his wife doesn’t find out. “Can you believe people are attracted to this sexy slayer?” Grace asks Donnell. “I mean, you could look at him and tell he had hoes,” he replies. “Women love bad boys.” Emil Wakim stops by as “a guy who happens to look like Luigi Mangione,” hasn’t paid for a meal in Brooklyn in days and is struggling with balancing a mirage of horny DMs and getting “tackled by bounty hunters.” This was the best cold open of the season so far, sold by the well-done, Sarah Sherman-ification of Nancy Grace.

“You look mahvelous!”

At an office Secret Santa gift exchange, Chris Rock is given a portrait of himself as a Simpsons character by Mikey Day. “So, I’m like, in the show now?” Rock asks. “Well, no, I just made it using an app called ‘Simpsonsify.’” He says it’s the best gift he’s ever gotten in his life, and then Heidi Gardner (who plays a wheelchair-bound character named Susan Wheels) opens her gift. It’s a jump rope from Andrew Dismukes, who “panicked” when buying it. “I like it, I’m just not sure I can use it for another seven months,” Gardner says, in one of the more subtly funny jokes from last night. “Uh, question,” Rock interrupts. “What would my job be in Springfield?” “Maybe you’re the medical director at a teaching hospital like you are in real life,” Chloe Fineman responds. “Wrong!” Rock declares. Susan suggests that, maybe, he works for Mr. Burns, to which Rock says he’s a dance teacher at Bart’s school. “Bart likes me because I see something in him,” he says.

The sketch goes into a spiral as Rock imagines a fake episode of The Simpsons that gets darker (“So it’s funny to drink all day and strangle your son and hit your wife?”) and darker (“I go see Marge and I can tell somebody kicked her ass”) with every added detail (“Chief Wiggum is too stupid and fat, I take matters into my own hands”). The floor for a sketch like this is pretty reachable, but Rock and the crew really hit the ceiling with it. Part of what makes Rock the perfect anchor is that he’s a good storyteller in his stand-up—and that’s the kind of finesse he brings to “Simpsons Christmas Gift.” I love the imagined premise of Rock’s Simpsons character being a defender of domestic violence victims who ends up sleeping with Marge, but I also want to give a shoutout to Wakim gifting Sherman marijuana nipple pasties he mistook for Earth Day stickers and Chloe Fineman’s excellent delivery of “Tampons! I’ve been meaning to try these. Now I won’t have to keep buying new pants.”

“Yipee! Jerry Rubin died last week.”

Of course, Weekend Update opened with one woman’s very loud scream and some commentary on Luigi Mangione’s arrest—continuing the “delicate, sensitive debate over who will play this guy in the Netflix miniseries.” In a relatively light political news week, it was nice seeing Colin Jost and Michael Che get to lean in on one thing for a moment (“Who looks at Yelp reviews for McDonald’s?”), even if this was a particularly rough outing for Che (he dropped some more anti-woman material that fell on unimpressed ears, fumbles his Amazon/immigration joke, didn’t really land any significant punches when discussing Matt Gaetz’s upcoming OAN talk show and joked that Trump got Ruth Bader Ginsburg pregnant). Jost claps back at TIME naming Trump “Person of the Year” and, when talking about RJK Jr.’s petition to revoke polo vaccine approval, says it “ain’t Christmas without some Tiny Tims.”

Che roasts the 205th anniversary of Alabama’s statehood by saying “if you want to know what life was like in Alabama 205 years ago, go to Mississippi,” and Jost says that the movie Emilia Perez was what ChatGPT came up with when he asked it to make his “grandpa’s head explode.” Elsewhere, the guys riff on Michelob Ultra’s surprising tap popularity, Krispy Kreme’s online ordering system getting hacked because its cyber security system “had a few holes,” teenage porn literacy being taught in schools and whale meat being auctioned off at $650 a pound in Japan despite Jost scraping it off of his yacht propeller for free.

Andrew Dismukes shows up as a bald man to talk about the United Kingdom’s recent decision to categorize calling someone “bald” as a form of harassment. I’ve been really impressed by Dismukes’s character work this season, even if this appearance feels like a leftover from that one Bill Burr

sketch last month. Dismukes doesn’t see “hair or color,” declaring that, in his eyes, everyone is “bald and Black.” Him putting his turtleneck collar over his face to show off just how much he looks like a deodorant stick was priceless, and him interrupting the monologue to apply a handful of lotion to his dome (because it gets “chapped”) got an LOL out of me. There’s a fun “does the carpet match the drapes” bit (“The carpet is gross!”), along with a gag where Dismukes shines his head with a rag. I love how Dismukes and Marcello have been going toe-to-toe for the “leading man” role on SNL this season.

Jane Wickline returns to perform another song! I was critical of her last Update song, but I’ve since come around to it. Her commentary on Sabrina Carpenter’s new Netflix Christmas special is fun and catchy. I’m not sure if SNL is hoping that Wickline and her keyboard become as synonymous on Update as Adam Sandler and his guitar were 30 years ago, but I’m in favor of it. Performing “as” Sabrina, Wickline sings about rumors of pop stars being gay, lamenting that nobody makes up those rumors about her, despite her on-screen make-out sesh with Jenna Ortega in the “Taste” music video—dragging Taylor Swift and Harry Styles’s queerbaiting through the mud. The “Why am I the only straight pop star taken at their word?” refrain was great. I have to say, Wickline’s musicality is a fun reprieve from the more conventional parts of SNL—and, when the show is doing well, her work is elevated even more.

“Who’s the barber here?”

We had one recurring character last night: Mark (Rock) and Charlie (Thompson) are forced to apologize for his behavior at an office holiday party. Thompson has played Charlie on multiple occasions, but not since 2019 when Scarlett Johansson was hosting, and it’s one of those characters that is a cake-walk for a pro like Thompson. His “sweet but naughty” old guy schtick is never a letdown, even if Rock’s straight-laced, apologetic Mark isn’t always able to keep up. The “classic Charlie-isms” are fun (“Girl, you got more junk than a yard sale”; “I’d call you and your husband ‘knick-knack’ and ‘paddywhack’ because you’re giving this dog a bone”) and, of course, Sherman nearly breaks (I would, too, to be fair). The office doesn’t want to see a door guy like Charlie get fired, instead wanting him to take Mark’s job (as the VP of Sales). At the same time, Charlie is taking a swig from a flash and declares that he’s got to “stay wet.” It was a good sketch, and watching Thompson and Rock go back-and-forth with each other was something I’d been waiting on all night, but the running joke (two opposites getting fired for the same offense) felt like a well that didn’t necessarily need returned to, though I have to appreciate SNL digging deep into vault when bringing old Kenan characters this season.

“In a word? Chaos.”

Rock plays a surgeon who’s just removed a gallbladder. All things are going well, and the patient’s vitals are stable—he just needs to apply some sutures and the surgery team can wrap up the procedure. Wakim enters the frame, revealing that the patient’s medical chart says that it was his appendix that needed to be removed, not his gallbladder. This is because the pre-op nurse Leslie (Sherman) marked the wrong organ for removal. The patient’s blood pressure is dropping quickly, but Leslie is “feeling really anxious” about her mistake and asks for a hug. The other surgeons (Nwodim, Bowen Yang) are resentful, but Rock comes to her aid, sort of: “You’re just jealous because Leslie is the hottest girl in North America.” An x-ray reveals and AirPod lodged in the patient’s abdomen, which was accidentally left there by Leslie, whose freak-out sounds like a “Victorian ghost.”

The patient stirs awake and it’s Adam Sandler wearing a Hawaiian shirt! I love the Sandman, and I was sad to see him not included in New York Magazine’s recent SNL 50 cover shoot. He’s not just making a cameo because he and Rock are besties, but he and Sherman go way back, too (Sarah has opened for him on tour, and she’s also in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah). Sandler’s wound starts shooting out blood all Monty Python style, but he says that he’s not mad because “every workplace needs a Leslie,” even though he’d totally punch her in the face if she was a guy. There’s a little malfunction with the props, but it’s pretty funny watching Sherman struggle to cover her entire face in the Sandman’s blood. He can’t keep a straight face and neither can Sherman or Rock. When Sandler says “not sure what your role in this skit is, but so happy you’re getting air-time, good luck” to Wadim, it got a pretty big chuckle out of me. He’s spraying Rock and saying it’ll stop if he just opens his mouth, and, I can’t lie, seeing these two go the distance in a sketch together was pretty great. It doesn’t hurt that the premise was air-tight, too.

“You are weak like H.R. Pickens!”

It’s the holiday season and the local mall is switching things up: families can now choose between two Santas, one who is white and one who is Black. “Oh…cool!” a very nervous Mikey Day tells the elf (Rock). The elf asks what Day’s preference is, to which he says “the regular one” and Rock’s response (“Regular, as opposed to extra crispy?”) really moves the joke over the mark, until he pressures Day into just outright saying “the white one.” Another couple (Ashley Padilla, Dismukes) are much more immediately interrogative, asking the elf about the necessity of having two santas. “It cuts the wait time in half,” Rock explains. “Aren’t you happy there’s two Santas?” Cue the uncomfortableness, heightened by Dismukes’s response: “Much more convenient. Thanks for doing this to us.” Sherman shows up again, this time playing the straight character and nearly breaking. Chloe Fineman plays a snappy, performative liberal mom who makes it a point to choose the Black Santa—or, as she calls him, “Blanta”—and then says she would even pick a “queer female Santa” if that was an option. Cue the queer female Santa (Jane Wickline) and Fineman doubling down on wanting to have her daughter take a picture with Black Santa. Black Santa goes on a break and all the families clap, until Rock reveals the replacement: Arab Santa (Wakim).

There’s a lot of sharp writing in this sketch, like “One Santa has been busy all day and the other Santa is so free he’s on a Zoom meeting,” whether Grandma is going to put the Christmas picture in the garage or on the fridge and “We just remembered we’re Jewish.” But the point—that most families would prefer a white Santa—feels a bit too forced at some junctures. However, this is one of the few times that SNL has effectively mocked political correctness this season. Points for that, even if I wasn’t totally wowed from beginning to end.

“If you have a $50 bill, we can give you 50 singles.”

One of my favorite John Carpenter movies is Christine, so “Grandpa’s Magic Car” immediately piqued my interest—and it delivered. Benny (Day) has a grandpa who recently died and, while cleaning out his garage with a few neighbors (Rock, Dismukes, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker, Fineman), he discovers a 1950s car named Kirby. Like Christine, it’s a magic car—but it’s also racist (the car opens its doors so everyone can get in it, but quickly closes them before Rock, Nwodim and Walker can enter; “Benny, what year did you say this car was from again?” “1958.”) and sexist (when Fineman gets out, Kirby smacks her butt with one of its doors and plays Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”)! “I didn’t know my grandfather that well,” Benny insists. “I remember you saying he was the greatest guy you’d ever met,” Rock rebuttals. Kirby messes around with the radio until he’s switching between stations and the songs collide to say “white power,” but once Benny starts saying he’ll take it to the junkyard, the car switches its tune and becomes more welcoming—offering to drive the group of friends to a party when an Uber is running late. As Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” starts playing, Rock cuts in: “You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Cut to a shot of the garage completely engulfed in flames. “Ain’t no way I was getting in that car,” he says, before a Lyft logo pops up.

Elsewhere, a corporate holiday party gets delivered like a monster truck rally commercial and it’s fun! 60 employees and seven interns are all “going hard in the same place they were working in 15 MINUTES AGO!” I won’t say that this sketch moved the needle for me much, but I love that James Austin Johnson plays the guy who brings his kids to the function and “immediately regrets it,” and that Ashley Padilla plays a “cute girl from accounting” who has a “fat, quiet boyfriend.” It’s a cool way of satirizing office stereotypes, and the whole thing comes to a brilliant head when Rock’s work wife (Sherman) and real wife (Nwodim) collide with each other. This was a good concept that, in a really great episode, managed to stay pretty well afloat.

“Your very precious lunch hour…”

A Michael Longfellow appearance! His air-time has dipped a bit recently, but here’s to hoping he can get back into a groove by January. Nwodim is waiting for her blind date to show up, until Rock comes over from the bar and propositions her. She thinks he’s her actual date, and he goes along with it, though she’s a bit weary of him. “This place is so stuffy,” he tells her, “why don’t you and I go have sex in my car?” “Why don’t we just get something to eat and get to know each other?” Rock steals a plate of steak from a nearby patron (Wakim) and Nwodim asks him if he wants to have kids. “To do what?” he replies. He’s wearing a wedding ring but says his wife is dead, taking a page out of Sandler’s Just Go With It script, and Nwodim buys it. She wants him to ask her some ice-breaker questions, so Rock pulls a familiar one out of the back: “Would you like to have sex in my car?” He’s persistent, even offering to “pull up right to the door” and disclosing that he has heated seats.

Henry (Marcello Hernandez) shows up and the real date begins, but Nwodim is unable to think about anything but Rock’s proposition. He appears by the window and she concedes: “Okay, what the hell, pull the car around!” This segues into my favorite punchline of the night: “Actually, it’s more of a pedicab, if that’s okay?” This was a nonsensical 10-to-1 and I loved every second of it. The pedicab payoff was one of the better, more absurd and surprising resolutions in a sketch this season.

Not Ready For Primetime Power Rankings

1. Sarah Sherman

Sarah easily takes this week’s top spot, commanding both the cold open and the gallbladder surgery sketches. In an interview last year, Sherman told me that she was relishing her “straight man” characters, and she’s really been shining in those roles this year. I’m happy that she’s become a mainstay in every episode, even if she’s not the leading woman in every skit.

2. Kenan Thompson

Kenan enters the power rankings for the first time this season, thanks to his great turns in the cold open and in “Sexual Harassment Charlie.” He’s one of the best for a reason, and he elevated both of the main sketches he was in last night.

3. Ego Nwodim

It was a toss-up for me between Ego and Andrew Dismukes, but I’m giving it to Ego simply because she was great in last night’s 10-to-1. Ego can really command a sketch, and that’s what she’s been doing all season. She wasn’t the most heavily featured player last night, but she made every on-screen second worth it.

Goodnights

“Sometimes, drug dealers get shot.” —Chris Rock, on the death of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson.

SNL will return next week, as former cast member Martin Short returns to Studio H8 to host the Christmas episode with musical guest Hozier. And that’s the way it is! Goodnight.