Lady Gaga Makes Every Sketch Feel Like a 10-to-1 On a Strange, Refreshingly Out-There SNL

It’s been a busy week for Lady Gaga. On Friday, the pop trailblazer released her seventh studio album, Mayhem, and now she’s the third SNL host to pull double duty this season, joining Charli xcx and Timothée Chalamet. Last night marked Gaga’s second time in such a circumstance, after hosting the show way back in 2013 during Season 39. Gaga is among the finest entertainers of this century, reinventing avant-pop in the late 2000s and then, in the 2010s, beginning an acting run that included an Oscar nomination for A Star is Born, a major role in American Horror Story: Hotel and turns in House of Gucci and Joker: Folie à Deux. Needless to say, she’s a once-in-a-generation talent across the board, someone unafraid of risk or outlandishness.

The idea of her hosting Saturday Night Live is, to me, always super enticing. I consider Gaga to be a kind of star who will always go an extra length to serve whatever material is in front of her. SNL has needed that, considering its lack of bite this season, but having Gaga at the helm screams with potential. She and Sarah Sherman are a match made in weirdo heaven. And, given how sharp Ariana Grande was earlier this year, this iteration of the show has proven that it knows how to properly utilize a singer-turned-host. Of course, you don’t want to go overboard and make SNL a song-and-dance program. But having Gaga in the house opens up the opportunity to really turn an otherwise routine show layout into a bonafide variety special.

Last night, SNL gave its viewers a lot of material to sit with. Gaga’s opening monologue (which featured a great joke about her 2013 performance with R. Kelly, which has aged worse than milk) ended before 11:45 PM—a rarity—after a brisk cold open. That meant we got six pre-Update sketches, and none of them overstayed their welcome. In a season that’s been full of odd pacing decisions and good sketches cut for no damn reason, the ample amount of content Gaga and the cast gave us was rewarding. From the looks of it, everyone had a blast coming up with content for this week’s show. Juxtapose that with how lifeless SNL was last week when Shane Gillis hosted, and it feels like you’re watching two completely different shows. Plus, three things in this life are guarantees: death, taxes and Marcello Hernandez being the show’s male lead when a pop star is hosting/performing. Lady Gaga should host all the time, even if she doesn’t have a new record or Razzies win to promote alongside it.

How did last night’s episode fare? Well, as a wise cue card says…

“Live from New York…”

I think we’re reaching Alec Baldwin levels of Trump exhaustion on SNL. James Austin Johnson’s Trump impression still clears Baldwin’s, but all he does during cold opens is talk. Of course, in real life, a major part of Trump’s absurdity is via what comes out of his mouth, but there’s nothing cutting or gutsy about JAJ’s take on the president. Remember when Chevy Chase used to do pratfalls as Gerald Ford? A lot of what Trump says on Truth Social or in speeches feel so comedically senseless that not even the best SNL writers could replicate it. I think there’s a big opening for physical comedy in these Trump bits, yet the writers never want to take the leap. Yawn. I don’t want to sound like a crank—or, even worse, my father—but I wish this show would revamp the playbook and go out on a limb once in a while.

Last night’s cold open, just like most of this season’s cold opens, had no juice—just three men laboring through an attempt to make an already bleak reality feel laughable, but laughable in a non-existential crisis kind of way. Trump riffs on transgender mice, not wanting to own the Panama Canal anymore and then does an inner-monologue. The goal of the sketch is to “broker a truce” between Rubio and Elon Musk, but it’s nowhere near as memorable as the explosive White House meeting that inspired it. JAJ’s stream-of-consciousness rambling is great, as always, but running stale by now. Mike Myers, who debuted his Musk impression last week, returned and managed to make the DOGE head even less interesting than he already is. Like I said last week, Myers has Musk’s mannerisms down to a T, but the accent is laughably bad.

And, likely knowing that his performance is colored by the unavoidable Dr. Evil-isms, Myers throws his loyal fans a bone and shouts out the infamously moronic villain in an inner-monologue of his own. Just like his Wayne’s World co-lead Dana Carvey did with Biden earlier this season, it’s clear that Myers is gonna stick around for a couple of episodes. Here’s to hoping the writers give him decent material next time. It also should be noted that Marcello Hernandez’s Marco Rubio impression is woefully boring. Even when the character is second-fiddle in a sketch like this one, he doesn’t pull enough star-power out of it—which is a shame, considering how electric his Don Francisco impression is. Last night’s cold open was arguably the worst of the season, if only because it was so uninspired.

“You look mahvelous!”

Dan Bulla, you son of a bitch, you’ve done it again! In last night’s “Midnight Matinee,” we got a short about a high school weightlifting competition happening at the same time a referendum for a new roof is being voted on. The whole sketch is ridiculous, be it the very-obviously-non-muscular students lifting 250- and 500-pound weights, or the fact that the story’s titular hero, Pip, is a mouse who can barely lift cheese-covered barbells. Just as Bulla did with Ariana Grande when she hosted in the fall, the writer/musician makes good use of Lady Gaga’s singing, as she conjures the stardom of “Tiny Horse” while rhapsodizing to Pip and inspiring him to train hard for the upcoming event.

It’s all good fun, and JAJ’s straight-laced teacher character is refreshingly dry. There’s even a moment where, after Brad (Hernandez) lifts 500 pounds, Sarah Sherman stands up and yells, “That’s my high school boyfriend!” It’s very Walk Hard-coded. Of course, Marcello plays the bully and targets Pip. But, after Pip fails to lift a two-ounce barbell, the roof falls on the rest of his classmates and, as school officials try to lift it up, they realize that it’s two ounces too heavy for them. In comes Pip to save the day, and Brad tries apologizing for his mistakes. It’s too late, though, and Pip can’t hold on any longer. The roof debris crushes Brad into a bloody pulp. It didn’t awe in the same way that “Farewell, Mr. Bunting” did eight years ago, but “Pip” captures that classic SNL shock value.

“Yipee! Jerry Rubin died last week.”

The news-and-jokes portion of Weekend Update sucked last week, plain and simple. The segment was saved only by its character bits, as Colin Jost and Michael Che couldn’t buy a head-turner. Unfortunately, this week’s Update was pretty bad all the way through, save for a refreshing, top-notch performance from Mikey Day (we’ll get to that in a minute). Daylight Saving Time is this weekend, and Jost says we’ll set our clocks ahead “ideally four years.” He takes a jab at Trump’s tariff plan and those “moose-humping hockey slut” Canadians who’ve taken advantage of America for far too long—especially on this very show, Jost muses, where Mike Myers has stolen the role of Elon Musk from a cast member. Che compares Trump’s early impact on the American government to Bin Laden’s impact on airport security.

Linda McMahon, the longtime president and CEO of WWE (who is also currently a co-defendent in an ongoing lawsuit filed by five men who claim they were sexually abused by an employee while working for the company as minors in the 1980s), was confirmed as the Secretary of Education this week, and Jost tries to make a 69 joke about test scores rising by using screenshots of Glenn Jacobs (aka Kane) tomb-stoning her. Other hot-button moments include Musk’s recent cabinet meeting wardrobe and a SpaceX rocket exploding after takeoff. Mention of Donald Trump Jr. running for president in 2028 gets some groans, and Che’s joke about Honey Smacks is a crowd-pleaser. The woolly mammoth is trying to be revived with a “woolly mouse,” thanks to a mouse getting drunk and having sex with an elephant. There’s research about men with stronger sperm living longer, to which Jost cracks, “Dick Van Dyke busts rockets!” Some good punchlines in another so-so Update—which has been Che and Jost’s routine this season.

Kenan Thompson shows up to the desk to play Kendrick Perkins, and it’s just a similarly coded version of his other NBA-adjacent characters, like Charles Barkley and LaVar Ball. I’m not one to say no to Kenan just coming on the segment and talking nonsense, but the drama of the Luka Doncic trade has passed and this character sketch felt out-of-touch for a current events space like Update.

But Mikey Day is a prize-winner here, appearing as Lord Gaga, Lady Gaga’s husband. There are a lot of Gaga-themed puns, and it’s great seeing Day get some face time in a season where his presence has been sorely missed. He’s really great at anchoring a sketch, but his Lord Gaga bit serves as a great reminder that he’s one of the better character guys this decade. And, who am I to turn down a good old fashioned diss against the oft-vanilla Colin Jost? The way cast members keep finding new ways to make fun of his marriage to Scarlett Johansson remains a crowd-pleaser, even in the less-obvious moments.

“In a word? Chaos.”

Who let SNL run a 10-to-1 sketch right after Gaga’s monologue? Somehow, a truly kooky concept made it not just to the live show, but to the beginning of it! I applaud the gall, and I think “A Long Goodbye” was actually quite funny once it really got into the groove. When Gaga backs up her rideable suitcase, it felt obvious that we might get a bit that leans heavily on the physical comedy of motorized luggage—something akin to Will Ferrell’s shtick in the “Jeffrey’s” sketch in Season 26. But alas, “A Long Goodbye” became so much more than that, as Alicia (Gaga) leaves for culinary school in France and her boyfriend Jeremy (Hernandez) tells her to have a “delicious life” but regrets letting her go. Cut to Gaga riding her luggage on a highway, accompanied by a biker gang of luggage riders called the Sons of Samsonite. Jeremy isn’t too far behind, eventually catching her at the airport. This might be the only Season 50 sketch with an entire character arc, and it works! I love the recurring “Go around!” gag, and I especially loved that we got to see Hernandez and Gaga driving the luggage around Studio 8H, even backstage.

The absolute absurdity of the Friendly’s sketch deserves a shoutout, too. It wasn’t my absolute favorite bit of the night, but copious amounts of blood falling out of Sarah Sherman’s mouth will never get old. I also love the idea of putting a Lovecraftian spin on lying about somebody’s birthday for a free dessert at a restaurant. This sketch was perfect for a personality like Gaga, whose oft-gothic presentations on-stage really helped color her into a compelling force alongside the SNL cast. She goes for it in all facets of her career; it’s great watching that no-fucks-given confidence rub off on the not-ready-for-primetime players.

“You are weak like H.R. Pickens!”

I don’t think there was a bad sketch last night, but if I have to give something a nod for “worst sketch of the night,” I’ll give it to “Little Red Glasses.” Let me be clear, I had fun with this sketch, as Gaga gets to achieve her greatest final form as a middle-age Italian New Yorker in bold lettering. Sherman, Gaga and Nwodim lead this bit, a riff on a certain demographic of women who love wearing red glasses, including the mom from Bob’s Burgers. The running joke is also a nod to “Big Dumb Hat,” and the sketch features the best line of the night: “I was ahead of the curve on gay marriage and that’s where it stopped!” If I’m picking nits here, I guess “Little Red Glasses” ran too long for a sketch airing so close to 1 AM. I don’t have many other complaints about it though; it was fun hearing the women of SNL take aim at very niche things like Asian-coded dress-up clothes and reading The Kite Runner in full while sitting on the toilet.

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

Aside from the “Midnight Matinee,” we got a L’Oréal spoof about a new, innovative mascara—one that runs easily, thanks to it being a mix of low-quality mascara and printer ink. I’ve always been a fan of the pre-recorded sketches where all the women in the cast get a moment to shine on-screen, if only for a few moments. And, in a season like this one, where the women have been carrying the show week-to-week, them getting this spot was really earned. Gaga adds a great dimension to the sketch, too, delivering the powerful line, “Be a total mess.” Being an attention seeker has never been so easy.

“It’s always something.”

There were a couple of pre-update gems last night that really served the momentum well, like “Wonderful Tonight,” a bit clearly written by Bowen Yang where he and Gaga sing the titular Eric Clapton song, where there’s a weird, mysterious tone floating throughout. It’s obvious that the show wanted to try out some of their more absurd material in this episode, and I quite liked how far it stretched its legs out before Update. Gaga and Yang, a rich couple on their first date, sing and dance in the middle of a restaurant and trade great lines with each other, whether it’s about being bad in bed, writing Substack posts, smoking PCP at a child’s birthday party, getting wasted in Times Square or doing the “fast disclaimers” at the end of medicine commercials. The two of them have great chemistry, and it’s good to see an odd little sketch work so effortlessly. Also, props to this great joke: “I recently came into some money… there were no tissues nearby.”

Elsewhere, Gaga and Heidi Gardner run a funeral home and keep trying to convince a grieving daughter (Ego Nwodim) to make the theme of her father’s service an homage to the Roaring Twenties. It’s an alternate solution to the typical celebration of life that most people choose when honoring their deceased loved ones, and I love how into it Nwodim and Andrew Dismukes get especially, as a couple clearly divided on the Roaring Twenties of it all (Dismukes wants to dress up like Gatsby, Nwodim wants no part of it). Gardner pulls off some good physical comedy, and she and Gaga even break a little at one point. When the duo re-appear wearing flappers, it puts the whole bit over the top. It’s not a sketch that’ll get remembered at the end of the season, but it was a pleasant, inoffensive, cheeky entry in a strong episode.

“Your very precious lunch hour…”

In an episode filled with 10-to-1 sketches, I’m happy that the actual 10-to-1 sketch was great. I think SNL can be hit or miss with their Gen Z material, but “No More Slay” really had a great push. The concept is Gaga and Bowen Yang singing and pleading with their friends to stop using words like “slay” and “flex” and “queening out” and “sus.” Protesting irony and the commodification of internet language at a brunch is a good angle, and I can’t believe we got Andrew Dismukes saying “These free mimosas are blowing slay chunks and vomiting into the mother bag” on live television. We did, in fact, get a nod to the “reheating your nachos” phrase that’s been attributed to Lady Gaga and her song “Abracadabra,” so “No More Slay” checks all the boxes for me. And you could make a sketch like this for every generation, only upping the ante on how relevant and excellent it was. It’s fascinating how, even if you take away the cold open and 75% of Weekend Update, this is still the best episode of the season so far.

Not Ready For Primetime Power Rankings

1. Marcello Hernandez
Marcello gets the top spot by default, since he dominated the pre-Update air-time. And he took full advantage of the spotlight, bringing his wow-factor to “A Long Goodbye” and “Midnight Matinee” especially.

2. Ego Nwodim
A great showing from Ego last night, as she was great in “Funeral Home” and “Little Red Glasses.” At this point, she’s a regular in the power rankings.

3. Bowen Yang
Sarah Sherman was great last night, and so was Heidi Gardner, but it was Bowen Yang’s week to shine, and his turns in “Wonderful Tonight” and “No More Slay” were fantastic.

Goodnights

Lady Gaga’s performances of “Abracadabra” and “Killah” were terrific. Mayhem is so good.

Even as he becomes less and less needed on the show, Mikey Day continues to prove that he’s a slam-dunk ballast amongst the cast. His “Lord Gaga” bit is the best thing he’s done all season.

I haven’t said it in a while, but it’s high-time we get Jost and Che off of Update. The torch needs to be passed, before all relevancy is gone for good.

A three-minute monologue! It might not work when stand-ups host the show, but a breezy intro from Gaga gave more air-time to really good sketches. I’d love to see this template used again.

SNL is off for a few weeks, so we’ll catch you down the road once the show returns. And that’s the way it is! Goodnight.

Matt Mitchell is Paste’s music editor, reporting from their home in Northeast Ohio.