Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Seth Meyers Weekend Update Reunion

What we got was a night of massive ensemble pieces, with Amy taking a commanding comedic lead in almost all of them. But it gave us multiple chances to enjoy the season’s five newcomers, and it gave Jane Wickline her first sketch appearance of the season, as well as her second, third, fourth, and fifth! And she wasn’t the only one with a very busy night.

On top of that Amy brought a murderer’s row of her famous friends — and SNL alums — to help out, including a Weekend Update “Joke-Off” that saw her crash the segment with both of her co-hosts, Tina Fey and Seth Meyers, to take on Colin Jost and Michael Che. Fey also dropped in for the Cold Open as Kristi Noem, while Poehler’s Parks & Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza crashed a disturbingly erotic The Hunting Wives parody trailer.

As usual, we’re ranking all the sketches from worst to first, including the Monologue, Cold Open, “Weekend Update” and any sketches that were cut for time but made their way online. We’ll skip the musical guests, because they’re not usually funny — unless Ashlee Simpson shows up. We wrap up with a look at the cast-member who had the strongest week.

Loved the premise, but Andrew Dismukes was way too sober in his portrayal — and we know he can play drunk to very funny effect. This was a massive missed opportunity with a sketch idea that had a ton of comedic potential. One jab at his wife, portrayed by Ashley Padilla, and a brief encounter with Kam Patterson didn’t do anything to sell why this was funny, nor did the cop ending. Did they try a version with him belligerent and drunken acting and somebody put the kibosh on it or was this always the planned approach? What a disappointment.

This character was clearly designed with the mentality of a possibly recurring skit, even though SNL doesn’t do that as much and Amy is just the host. It still carries all those sensibilities, with a simple shtick that can be repeated. That said, it’s pretty thin, so hopefully this is all we get. Jane Wickline had her delayed season debut here, though, so it was nice to see her and several other cast members get their moment. The whole skit was a bit chaotic, which kind of felt like the point, and the catchphrase wasn’t as strong as the writers probably hoped, but it was a fun kind of nonsense.

James Austin Johnson was wasted as the chairman of this piece, pivoting from one nonsensical answer to another without commentary — missing many comedic chances. Honestly, each interaction with a Senator by Amy Poehler’s Pam Bondi was so disconnected from the others, it was almost like watching a slide show rather than a cohesive comedy piece. Things did improve with a nearly unrecognizable Tina Fey dropping in with a surprise cameo as Kristi Noem, who said she hadn’t laughed so hard since the end of Old Yeller — yes, when the dog gets shot — but even her appearance didn’t make this as funny as it should have been. SNL is missing the mark on its political opens so far this season.

An over-the-top ridiculous sendup of The Hunting Wives that leans into any lesbian undertones and makes it the whole show. This sketch revealed just how limited the female cast is right now, with only five women in the cast … and still Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska were skipped for a surprise cameo by a very confused Aubrey Plaza, reuniting with her Parks & Recreation co-star. As cute as her appearance was, setting up a fun final moment, it’s a role that Jane should have been able to play just as effectively. It has to be frustrating for her seeing Ashley all over sketches while she’s barely showing up anywhere, as both are in their second year. Yes, Ashley is much stronger as a sketch performer, but you kept her on the show, so give her a chance!

Amy Poehler is proof that charisma and personality can go a long way because she completely botched her “full frontal” joke toward the end of this monologue and managed to make it the funniest and most charming moment. It also came while making a dig at A.I., joking that artificial actors like Tilly Norwood can’t write jokes, so that felt especially appropriate. Poehler marked that this show came exactly 50 years after the series premiere of SNL, which seems like a bigger milestone to toss away with one joke about how great it is to turn 50 because you don’t care anymore and “that’s what’s so great about SNL, she’s obviously stopped caring.” Still, Amy did what she was supposed to do here, which was be funny and relax us into a good mood .She got to burn herself, the newcomers to the cast, when she trotted them out and then kicked them off just as quickly, and set the stage for what should be an easy night of comedy.

Colin Jost and Michael Che were surprised to be talking about Trump brokering a peace deal in Gaza … until Jost reminded us that Biden did this, too, as recently as May 2024, as we saw how well that worked out. Brokering it and having both sides honor it are two very different things. They also talked about RFK Jr., creating a link between circumcised boys and autism, with Jost quipping that he “looks like he’s made out of foreskins.”

Sarah Sherman’s portrayal of a New Yorker worried about frontrunner mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani mostly made us miss Heidi Gardner, as she would have killed in this role. Heidi and Ego Nwodim had Update guest roles down pat, while Sarah is still a bit frantic and shaky at times. Don’t get us wrong, this was a funny character and she handled it well, but she wasn’t quite owning the scene the way her predecessors did. Even the recurring “coffee, Che?” bit fell flat as there was no follow-through every time he’d call out its high alcohol content, while her aside about some joke she wanted Jost to do went unexplained and unanswered, as well. The whole piece lacked a bit of cohesiveness.

A light second segment for jokes was highlighted by Jost failing to get a good audience response out of almost any of his jokes, while Che got Jost brutally with his AI Sora video of Jost in the Trump-Epstein video, with Jost quipping that he’s so happy that this is just now out there. 

Jane Wickline’s most successful character returned to the Update desk alongside Marcello Hernandez as Alyssa and Grant, the couple you can’t believe are together, talked about what they liked about Halloween. We hate to say this because we want her to get more opportunities, but Alyssa lost a bit of her punch as a character by having almost as much to say as Marcello. The whole point is he’s a nonstop talking loudmouth and she’s this quiet mousy girl with a surprising kinky side. It was there, but not as strong as in previous appearances.

Then, a third bit had Jost joking about his parents fleeing Germany toward the end of WWII before comparing the 13-pound Tennessee baby to the Kool-Aid Man, which triggered Amy to slide in and get completely flustered by the audience cheers, as she’s “been here all night.” The 13-pound baby triggered a Weekend Update Joke-Off that brought back not only Poehler and Tina Fey, but Seth Meyers, as well, for a five-anchor extravaganza with more punchlines than Jimmy Falllon could have thrown a pencil at — if he’d bothered to show up!

From moody instrumentals to hip-hop intros that tell the whole premise of the show, which makes the better TV show theme song? That’s kind of what this sketch was exploring, with Bowen Yang and Amy Poehler as two composers who’ve gone both directions on the same show … meaning we got a hip-hop (wrong) plot breakdown for Severance and The Gilded Age. The Juilliard student questions about the tracks were fun, but we appreciated the addition of Bowen’s character being inexplicably infuriated by all of Jane Wickline’s questions and comments. These are the kinds of touches that add depth and help make a sketch more memorable.

If anything, this sketch felt a little too rushed as so much of its different elements worked, it could have allowed them to breathe a bit more. Ben Marshall’s doula was quite a visual feast, as was his interactions with Sarah Sherman as Amy Poehler’s pregnant manager’s co-worker. She continues to be a bright spot, even though she has a tendency to fight smiles a lot in her character work. The idea of Amy being so pregnant takes us back to her “I’m No Angel” bar sketch where she really was nine months pregnant, but this went a different direction, with her giving birth in a kiddie pool during a meeting. All of the zaniness was increasingly surreal, but we were here for it. Sometimes crazy just works.

A great twist on the unruly teen by having it Amy Poehler’s mom character who’s fallen into a dark chapter as she goes through the change. What if a mid-life crisis was the same as a teen crisis? Jeremy Culhane and Chloe Fineman did a great job of slotting into the parental role, while James Austin Johnson was funny as their milquetoast dad just going along with everything happening with a shrug and a grin. One of the night’s stronger pieces, it’s odd it was held back so close to the end of the show.

Somebody watched those injury law commercials where the lawyers touted their combined years of legal experience and then they were off to the races, with competing legal firms arguing over who had more combined experience, eventually including tortoises and even Sarah Sherman’s delightfully daffy Dracu-Law. This was just escalating insanity, but we found ourselves smiling and enjoying the ride from start to finish … and we’ll probably have nightmares about Amy Poehler’s jacked, hairy forearms for months. Maybe we should try to get compensation for that?

It feels like it’s been a while since we got a new comedic family with a quirk on SNL and we definitely dig the potential of The Rudemans. This feels like a throwback to the Affectionate Family or even the Baby Bird Family or Dysfunctionally Angry Family sketches and it was just as funny. Amy Poehler, Bowen Yang, and Sarah Sherman were perfectly in sync with their rude reactions to everything Ashley Padilla’s boyfriend, Andrew Dismukes, said. Sarah’s bonus pratfall was totally telegraphed, and still worked because of the attitudes. And Mikey Day was a fun addition as Ashley’s brother, sliding in and out of the scene. Even the inevitable crack at the end of the encounter set up a great and unexpected twist ending that worked really well.

After a week that saw small ensemble pieces, tonight’s episode was filled with large group pieces, meaning everyone got multiple chances to shine. The cast members with the least appearances still had three each, while the newcomers were seeing up to five, six or even seven appearances. They may not have been leading roles, but they’re definitely getting a sense of how fast-moving this ship can be with quick changes and character transitions.

With the episode so dominated by Amy’s comedic sensibilities, and some of her famous friends, she understandably got a lot of the strongest breakthrough moments, leaving much of the cast to react to what she was doing. Sarah Sherman continues to shine in her opportunities, though her Update appearance wasn’t as strong as we’d hoped.

And Jane Wickline, who had zero appearances last week, more than made up for it with five this week, though we’d argue she’s still trying to find her way and her voice. Her Update appearance alongside Marcello continues to be her strongest character work, but we see potential for her dry, acerbic approach with a little more confidence.

Even our usual stars took a backseat this week, which is why we’re going to take the chance to actually honor the night’s biggest star for how much she’s come into her own in such a short time on this show. The huge losses of Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner are a little easier to take because Ashley Padilla has stepped up so quickly as a strong sketch performer.

She does little things in her sketch work that add humanity to what could be surface-level caricatures, and she’s able to shift swiftly from one role to another. Ashley had us impressed last season, in her very first year on the show. The fact she’s becoming a key player in just her second is incredibly rare for anyone ever on the show and a testament to her talent.

Saturday Night Live returns next week with host and musical guest Sabrina Carpenter.