‘I don’t even want pizza anymore!’: Jon Hamm returns to ‘SNL’ for long-awaited 4th time
The ‘Mad Men’ star wasn’t the only throwback this episode, with many of the show’s previous Trump characters returning for ‘The White POTUS.’
For the second episode in a row, we got an SNL host who is determined to be the star of the episode. Like Jack Black last week, fellow four-timer Jon Hamm isn’t content to be a background player in his episode.
Despite not hosting since October 2010, the former Mad Men star (a show that Hamm insists is better than Succession) dived right back into the the qualities that made him a fan favorite as he rattled off three quick hosting gigs in just two years. Hamm is a natural. You can’t tell he’s reading the cue cards. He’s not afraid to make himself look dumb. He can play suave. He can play stupid.
There’s a reason SNL fans have been wondering when Hamm would host again. (Hamm himself even asked Lorne Michaels that question when he made a cameo for Kristen Wiig’s Five-Timers Club sketch last season.)
If anything, I wish we had gotten more adventurous writing in this episode to pair with Hamm. As SNL Network pointed out, Hamm’s 2008 episode gave us iconic sketches like Will Forte’s “Trick-or-Treat” and the Mad Men/Two A-Holes crossover. While the latest Hamm hosting gig started out strong, it lost some steam after Weekend Update before recovering with “Icebreaker” to close things out.
Will we see Hamm return to collect his Five-Timers jacket soon? Or will fans have to wait until Season 65 in 2040 for that to happen? (I’m sure there’ll be a Mad Men revival series to promote by then.) As for the rest of this season, we’re getting Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson as the host for her second time on May 3 after the show takes a two-week break. Who’ll host the final two episodes of Season 50 after that? Does Pedro Pascal return to some early promotion for The Fantastic Four: First Steps?
🍪🧠 Wanna add Snackology or Brain Slop to your subscription? Update your email preferences on your account page.
COLD OPEN
Trump Easter 2025 Cold Open
Another episode of SNL, another cold open with James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump. I said this last week, and I’ll go back to it again this week … Johnson is unrivaled when it comes to his Trump portrayal, but is this really what people want when they sit down to watch SNL on Saturday night or whenever they pull up sketches on YouTube?
Johnson’s Trump is too real. It’s too good. And the things he’s joking about — the collapse of the global economy, for example — are too crushing.
- “Possibly never to return just like Jesus”: Our money is probably gone, and so is Emil Wakim’s shot at playing Jesus. Johnson’s Trump poked fun at the fact that the freshman cast member would’ve been a more historically accurate Jesus, but the role instead went to Mikey Day.
- “Yeah, I can”: If Kenan Thompson wants to walk out of a sketch, he’s earned that right.
THE MONOLOGUE
Hamm kept things simple for his fourth monologue. He mostly made jokes about the many cameos — allegedly fourteen! — he’s made despite not hosting the show in fifteen years.
