‘SNL’ Recap: Jason Momoa, in his second stint as host, loves life

Talent helps, sure, but when it comes to hosting “Saturday Night Live,” enthusiasm also goes a long way. In his second time hosting “SNL,” Jason Momoa proved charming once again with that “I’m having a good time” style that he seems to display on and off screen. His ease and extreme comfort in the spotlight may not have made the work more precise in delivering lines in neat sketches, but it didn’t really matter.

This week’s sketches made good use of Momoa’s sex symbol status and physique, and if there was a wrong line or ill-timed moment here and there, it was quickly overlooked by Momoa, whether he was playing club goalkeeper with a marked wandering Cuban accent, a drunk pilot in the middle of a Hudson News Thanksgiving parade at Newark Airport, or a fiancé left for dead and that he has returned from being lost at sea.

Even a sketch that seemed a little late to the zeitgeist, like the filmed song about seemingly depressed men who are Really thinking about the Roman Empire. (we were talking about this two months ago) was well served by Momoa’s brio. The last sketch of the night was a good example; to taxi driver (Momoa) receives bad news on a call from a doctor, while a passenger (Kenan Thompson) just wants to avoid the conversation. Momoa delved into the silliest jokes even when they didn’t work and she never lost her cool even after the sketch overstayed its welcome. Imperturbability is a great skill to have as a host and it’s hard to imagine Momoa becoming agitated on live television.

Elsewhere, the guys from Please Don’t Destroy (they have a new movie about peacock) are trying to order ramen while dealing with the breakup from John Higgins. With a good pace, it was a step forward compared to the last ones. And this week’s musical guest, Tate McRae, sang in the Roman Empire sketch and performed “Penny pincher” and “Grave.”

This week’s cold open reintroduced Mikey Day as President Joe Biden and it’s hard to tell if the impression is working. It’s still early in the season, but the jokes about the president’s age and changes and Day’s breathy performance feel repetitive. In this sketch, Biden talks about his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Biden refers to as “Roman Numeral Eleven,” but is upstaged by panda Tian Tian (Bowen Yang), a former member of the National Zoo, who answers questions. questions from President Blanco. House Press Corporation. Tian Tian talks about visiting the United States and being “attractively asexual.” “How do I express this panda?” Tian Tian asked, before discussing why he is uniquely qualified to unify the world by virtue of being black, white and Chinese at the same time.

In his monologueMomoa promoted his upcoming sequel, “Aquaman and the lost kingdom” and shared that he wanted to be a marine biologist when he was a kid, but it wasn’t really possible in Iowa. He returned to his native Hawaii, took up surfing, and ended up on “Baywatch,” which he called “The B-word.” . He then he spoke of Mananalu, the Momoa water company began to fight against the use of single-use plastic bottles. He said the name means “Suck it, Dasani.” The very brief monologue included Momoa saying how much he loves life; Given the way she hugged cast members and jumped toward the show’s closing curtain, that’s easy to believe.

Best sketch of the night: The past resurfaces in ‘Old-Timey Movie’

“SNL” is hit or miss in sketches that rely on a visual effect or camera trick as a premise, but this one, featuring old footage of “The Wizard of Oz” author L. Frank Baum (Michael Longfellow), on a street in New York. it airs on PBS, it works. The trick is that because frame rates were lower when the footage was filmed in the early 1900s, it seems like everyone is moving too fast, mouthing words at lightning speed and walking in rapid motions. Momoa and Day play two men who notice the camera and fool around. It’s a very silly physical comedy, but it’s very funny and well executed.

Also good: Charna Lee Diamond, a tennis player you’ve never heard of

You either like the strange, dark Sarah Sherman sketches that often air toward the end of an “SNL” episode, or you greatly dislike them. This, a filmed piece that seems too carefully crafted to be released so late, is about a little-known tennis player named Charna Lee Diamond, who, like Billie Jean King, challenges a man to a battle of the sexes. The 1969 match ends disastrously with some violent scenes between testimonies from sports commentators and Diamond’s tennis opponent (Momoa). A nice touch: “SNL” veteran Chris Parnell narrates the piece.

‘Weekend Update’ Winner: George Santos Still Can’t Stop Lying

Until the end of this season, “Update” has featured just one cast member sketch per episode, but this week it offered three, including one in Suspended NBA player Draymond Green (Devon Walker) and another about the backup guest. musical duo Remember Lizards (James Austin Johnson and Andrew Dismukes). But the best was Yang as Representative George Santos, a public figure whose real-life deceptions are hard to beat as comedy. This week, Santos faces possible expulsion from Congress (“Well, then, girl expel Me!”) and pretends to be on a call, where he agrees to be in “Lady Marmalade 2.” Santos also claims to have invented being gay, in addition to “Cups” by Anna Kendrick routine. One thing is certain about Santos: we will miss Yang’s insight into him when he is gone.