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Popculturology • Deep SNL Thoughts

Lady Gaga sings, dances and summons the angry gods of Friendly’s

The ‘SNL’ writers turned in some off-the-wall sketches this episode, making up for last week’s Shane Gillis dud.

Bill Kuchman

Bill Kuchman

— 7 min read
Lady Gaga sings, dances and summons the angry gods of Friendly’s
Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Lady Gaga, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Andrew Dismukes and Sarah Sherman during an episode of SNL. / NBC

As Shane Gillis’ dismal episode unfolded last week, I had a hunch that SNL’s writers had made the decision to not waste anything good on his hosting gig. I’m pretty sure I was right.

Lady Gaga returned to host SNL for the second time last night, and no one will ever be able to accuse the show’s writing staff of not putting a bizarre amount of effort into her episode. While Gillis’ episode gave us sketches about him having a drinking problem or being a shitty dad, Lady Gaga’s episode included wild concepts like a Friendly’s restaurant that developed into Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, two lovers racing to the airport on rideable luggage and a bunch of ladies who really, really love little red glasses.

It’s been over a decade since Lady Gaga hosted in 2013 (she returned as musical guest in 2016). I don’t have much of a memory of her last hosting gig, but she easily proved that she belonged on that Studio 8H stage with this visit. As she promised, she sang and danced. She looked like a natural hosting the show, effortlessly being present with the cast members while reading the cue cards. (Honestly, the whiplash from SNL50 to Gillis to Lady Gaga is ridiculous.)

It was a weird episode, but weird in the way that makes SNL fun.

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COLD OPEN

Trump, Musk and Rubio Meeting Cold Open

For the second weekend in a row, SNL kicked the show off with a White House meeting. Mike Myers was back as Elon Musk, joining James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump and Marcello Hernandez’s Marco Rubio.

Are these cold opens good? Eh, not really. But I’m not exactly sure how else SNL would start an episode these days. Austin is the best Trump impressionist the show’s ever had, but his version of Trump doesn’t seem to have kept up with how Trump has evolved over the past few years.

  • “Comedy!” The glitch thing that Myers does as Musk is odd, right? I definitely don’t need the Mac startup sound effect. Also, SNL50 is in the past. Let a cast member play Musk.
  • Full circle: One of the things I learned from Susan Morrison’s Lorne biography is that Myers allegedly “borrowed” Dr. Evil’s pinkie finger gesture from Dana Carvey’s impression of Lorne Michaels. Now Myers is doing that bit on SNL itself.

THE MONOLOGUE

Lady Gaga kept her monologue short, offering a few jokes about Joker: Folie à Deux (including the promise to not make Joker 3) and reminding us that “I’m an actor now!”

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