“Saturday Night Live” returned to the air for the latest episode in its 50th season on Saturday, Mar. 29, with “Anora” star Mikey Madison serving as host and country star Morgan Wallen as musical guest. This was Madison’s first time hosting SNL and Wallen’s second appearance on the show.
In the cold open, Mikey Madison joins Ego Nwodim and Sarah Sherman as high school girls gossiping in a Signal group chat. Suddenly, Jennabell and her friends are joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Andrew Dismukes). He continues their chatty cadence, sharing and speaking in emojis as he shares national secrets. He invites Vice President JD Vance (Bowen Yang), who continues the inappropriate conversation via Greenland.
Mikey Madison notes in her monologue that she has a relaxed vibe in real life. Yet, in the movies, she’s been set on fire twice and experienced several violent ends. She talks about her background as a “horse girl,” which is a nerd but with long hair, showing a cute picture from Halloween growing up. There’s also a moment where she asks the audience to guess who in a lineup is her twin brother: “If you guessed the one who looks like Ron Weasley on testosterone, you win.”
The first few sketches included a sequel to a sketch from November where a commercial acting teacher (Marcello Hernández) gives some unconventional acting tips to students in his class and a sketch where people go through the realities of standing in line for popular food that Joe Jonas makes a cameo in.
A no-nonsense judge ( Nwodim) cautions prospective jurors that work will not be an excuse for getting out of serving. She meets a number of kooky participants, including Emil Wakim as Luigi Mangione and Chloe Fineman’s pedestrian Parker Posey in “White Lotus”. Hernández scream sings while wearing a shiny blue jumpsuit as Benson Boone.
During college spring break, a couple (Fineman and Hernández) have a meaningful heart-to-heart about marriage and growing up while antics including vomiting and other goofy altercations happen in the background. Morgan Wallen then performs “I’m the Problem”. In January, this was released as the fourth single from Wallen’s fourth studio album of the same title.
On Weekend Update, Devon Walker comes out to describe his intense TikTok-influenced 3 a.m. wake-up regime. A brief “Hear Me Out” segment is next, where Jost tackles Paddington: “Hear me out, Paddington’s a toxic bitch. He’s an illegal immigrant freeloading off a nice, gullible white family.” Joann of Joanne Fabrics (Ashley Padilla) comes out to comment on the chain’s various bona fides. Jost mentions Michael’s, which triggers Joann. “Know what ruined us? Feminism,” she says, sniffing glue.
In the next sketch, Dismukes is a Godfather-type gangster, full of regrets. He’s out with his two sons (James Austin Johnson and Hernández), when he gets lit up in a sea of bullets. Lying there dying, he laments he will not see his grandkids grow up. Another regret? He never got to try stand-up comedy. Morgan Wallen then performs “Just in Case”. The recently released single is a heartfelt song about clinging to the hope of rekindling a past relationship that didn’t work out.
Midwife Barry (Yang) returns with a new haircut. Barry is bitter Mikey Madison’s OB-GYN does not remember her; they met during a Hilary Duff concert at the Today show in 2007. The next sketch is a Please Don’t Destroy short, where the guys are excited to meet Mikey, who they hear is very down to earth and open to brainstorming ideas. She walks in dressed as Squidward from “Spongebob Squarepants”. She confesses she wants a serious live-action, serious rendition of Spongebob. They are reluctant but flash forward three years, and she gets her wish.
Mikey Madison brings out people she is currently dating in the next sketch. Jeremy Hinge (Michael Longfellow) walks out to discover he’s the only contestant. Under bright lights, he doesn’t want to define their relationship. An animated short video follows, where it’s 1620 and two explorers (Yang and Longfellow) are planning the development of Manhattan.
