‘Saturday Night Live’ recap: Paul Mescal hosts, Dana Carvey’s Church Lady returns

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Hiyo Conehead nation — welcome back to Saturday Night Live in Review — we have started our December stretch of season 50. First up: Gladiator II’s Paul Mescal, who was so magnetic in both Normal People and Aftersun

Gladiator II is a Ridley Scott movie. I am joined today by former SNL cast member Jeff Richards, who was on the show back when Josh Hartnett came to host, promoting Scott’s Black Hawk Down. He notes the Attack of the Clones sketch which cast him and Hartnett as members of N*Sync: “I remember that one because of all the choreography, which I’d never really had before except maybe in elementary school.”

Shaboozey is tonight’s musical guest. Let’s go! An iconic Dana Carvey character awaits.

Shaboozey, Paul Mescal, and Chloe Fineman on ‘SNL’.

Rosalind O’Connor/NBC


Cold Open

“Let’s go!” someone in the audience hollers, as we open to the familiar Church Chat logo and Phil Hartman’s soothing intro narration. Dana Carvey’s iconic character jokes about Sabrina Carpenter and how Jesus Christ was the best carpenter. 

The classic “Satan!” echo fails to land with the crowd — you see Carvey waiting for a bigger reaction. One issue could be Sarah Sherman’s Matt Gaetz. That bit of Trump news is old hat by now, and Sherman’s casting and emasculating appearance is so unnecessary at this point. Usually I enjoy Sherman’s brand of live-sketch work, but this gets a huge thumbs down. 

David Spade appears as the next guest, Hunter Biden. This exchange is better received (it’s way more timely) and “Isn’t that special” gets a nice response. Carvey, of course, has a podcast with Spade, so we are like, four layers deep on SNL lore here. (Here’s a fifth layer: Spade recently knocked an interview I did with Alex Moffat during an episode. Not nice!)

Marcello Hernandez plays Juan Soto — Church Lady takes him to task. “Satan had a good year,” the Church Lady choir coos, name-checking the likes of Diddy.

Church Lady last appeared in season 42 during Weekend Update to talk about the November 2016 presidential election. (Back in season 41, Ted Cruz, played by Taran Killam, and Darrell Hammond’s Trump were Church Lady’s guests FWIW.) I am unclear why we are going to the Church Lady well now. I get Carvey’s Biden was essential earlier this season, but feels like that was the most relevant moment for such a legendary incisive cultural sketch character. But this echoes that they should just call Carvey a cast member.

Monologue

A montage of Mescal crying! As he makes clear, he is game for emotional scenes and nude scenes and nude emotional scenes. “Safe to say, not a ton of comedy on the resume!” he says. He checks off some of the stereotypes about being Irish. This reminds me of something off late night — he’s doing well until Marcello Hernandez shows up in short shorts. Why did they interrupt him with this? 

Mescal regains form and ends well — he feels lucky to be here! This was charming, didn’t need Hernandez though.

“Thanksgiving”

Parents (Wakim, Gardner) are welcoming their college-aged son (Mescal) home for dinner when they request he take off his hat at the dining room table. A surprise: He recently got his ear pierced with some friends. They overreact, with references to Ben Shapiro, Metallica and going to work naked. Mescal accuses them of homophobia; they think he’s being an “edgelord.” 

Gardner delivers a tour-de-force here, drop-kicking Nana out of the window. She mutilates her own ear to make a point. This is histrionic and fun and has a nice ending with Michael Longfellow. This is good! Watch it.

“Gladiator II: A Musical”

Wicked and Moana 2 have been huge successes — even more than Gladiator II. So filmmakers have added an extra 50 minutes of song! Mikey Day gets to spoof Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap style; Mescal goes full 8 Mile. Speaking of Gladiator, Jeff Richards is a fan of Joaquin Phoenix, the bad guy from the original, as well as Denzel Washington, who chews the scenery in the sequel. He recommends folks check out former SNLer Dean Edwards’ Instagram for his spot-on Denzel impression. Indeed, Dean Edwards’ Denzel is hilarious and dead-on, Kenan Thompson’s impression here less so.

I enjoyed James Austin Johnson’s Christian character. This is clever! Watch it.



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