Saturday Night Live: India Navarrette, an escape from obsession, presents a good spooky Halloween episode | Saturday evening live

A Saturday Night Live’s spooky new episode kicks off at a Halloween-themed amusement park, where guests cross paths with puzzling “Halloween guy” David S Pumpkins (Tom Hanks) and his skeleton pals (Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan).

It seems like a copy-and-paste version of previous Pumpkins sketches until Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) jumps on “(pause) SNL sketch again.” He jabs the live audience: “Aww, are you sad you won’t see your third David Pumpkin scene? I’ll save you three minutes; he keeps popping up and confusing people during the ride. The end!”

Trump recognizes Hanks by pointing out what a great ass he has. “That’s something I’ve been doing lately, admiring men’s asses…they call it gay dementia. Dementia, short for ‘da’, men should show me their asses.” Between that, the strange monosyllabic noises he’s making (“Probably the soul is trying to leave the body”) and Tuesday’s midterm elections that are shaping up to be disastrous for Republicans, Trump is losing his mind even more than usual. He provides support in the form of self-sabotaging allies, rapper Nicki Minaj (Saidah Belo-Osagie) and former press secretary Katie Zacharia (Veronika Slowikowska), the latter of whom attempts to sign “Live from New York…” but ends up “sniffing it out,” leading Hanks and his colleagues to take him home.

A much-improved cold open, with Trump’s increasing dementia and looming political reckoning giving it some much-needed narrative shape.

Inde Navarrette makes her debut as a host. The young star assures audiences that she is nothing like her character from the horror film Obsession, even as she begins to slip into that character’s psychopathic speech patterns. She addresses previous host Shane Gillis’ controversial jokes about women, noting that for her next Marvel role, she needs to be in tip-top shape, so “Every morning I put on my little whore outfit and go to the gym.” Moving on, she invites the actors to come on stage and show off their Halloween costumes. Marcello Hernández is a (arguably) sexy TSA agent, Kam Patterson is Elizabeth Holmes (or “the bad lady with the blood”), Jeremy Culhane dons a Wolverine outfit in hopes of being cast alongside Navarrette in the new X-Men movie, and Grace Reiter and Slowikowska are a clockwork bird and an angry Kelly Clarkson, respectively.

The first sketch takes place during a Ghosts of the Queen Mary tour. The tour group is visited by the ghost of a wealthy heiress (Sarah Sherman) from the 1930s who is said to have hidden her diamonds somewhere on board. She reveals the treasure’s hiding place, but is interrupted by the spirits of two annoying and talkative siblings (Hernández, Navarrette). There’s a fine line between intentionally boring and just plain annoying, and this one crosses it almost immediately.

An ad for Delta Airlines introduces something new: Delta Disruptive, “a new section of the plane exclusively for crazy people.” From inconsiderate jerks to outright crazy people – including a guy yelling that the plane is “made in Israel” and a woman pretending the other passengers aren’t real – it’s the perfect solution for domestic flights (especially those traveling to Florida).

The game show Uninterested Woman sees a woman “frankly not interested in three single people, and they compete to respond appropriately.” That woman is Kelly (Belo-Osagie), a married lesbian who just wants to order a bagel at a deli, while the male competitors are an array of assholes, including two white bastards (Navarrette and Jane Wickline) and a sleazy gymbro (Sherman). Ashley Padilla steals the too-short sketch as the exasperated host.

The Inventor’s Wife is the latest short film from Midnight Matinees. Navarrette plays the widow of an eccentric and emotionally distant inventor. Visiting his workshop after his funeral, she discovers his latest invention, a pretty assistant robot named PD 44 designed especially for her. Neither she nor he can understand what his purpose is, but they form a close bond nonetheless. Six years pass before she decides it’s time to start dating again, only to discover, upon bringing her new boyfriend home, that PD 44 actually means Penis Destroyer 44 and that her husband loved her, albeit in a very twisted way. A beautiful, slow-burn story (packed with awesome animation and effects) that pays off in a horrifying way.

Behind the scenes of the popular Mexican telenovela El Corazón No Siente, lead actors Navarrette and Hernández must incorporate a new Sprite drink into their scene as part of a product placement deal. Unfortunately, the sponsors are not happy when the actors’ improvisation leads them to claim that only perverts drink Sprite and attempt to use it to induce an abortion. Navarrette throws himself into this role with aplomb – literally, taking some impressive dives into the set decoration. It’s nice to see the show leaning into its Mexican-American heritage.

On Weekend Update, Colin Jost discusses Trump’s recent obsession with men’s butts, noting that even JD Vance expressed jealousy that his boss didn’t compliment his butt, before asking, “What’s going on? Your party is about to lose the midterm elections; stop playing Smash or Pass with each other!” Michael Che elicits awkward laughs and a few gasps as he reports on Israel’s record voter turnout, noting that it’s “great to see, whether you’re on the right side, the left side, or the genomic side.”

Speaking of the holidays, Update’s first guest is Pennywise the Clown (Ben Marshall). He’s here to discuss Gen Z feel-good parties and send a simple message to kids: “You don’t have to drink to have fun.” » Acting more like a cantankerous youth pastor than a child-killing clown, he went from trapping unsuspecting children in sewers to promoting his new startup: WeAllFloat.AI. The final moments are an intervention by Che following his recent stand-up special (or, according to Pennywise, his final “cry for help”). There’s the kernel of an idea here, but it’s pulled in too many directions.

We are then treated to the return of Moynihan as the update’s favorite drunken uncle. Apparently there to celebrate the Milwaukee Brewers’ first-ever championship victory (“My dream of a beer winning the World Series has come true!”), it doesn’t take long for him to rant about everything under the sun: Mrs. Met (“There’s only one sex!”), Elizabeth Holmes (“I Believe Her”), The Odyssey (“Helen of Troy Was White!”), and much more. As he begins to collapse, he is joined by Brewers star players Christian Yelich (whom Moynihan hilariously mistakes for Pete Davidson) and Brice Turang, as well as team manager Pat Murphy, carrying the World Series trophy in tow. It’s a deserved victory lap for everyone involved.

In Paw Patrol: Special Victims Unit, furry first responders find themselves overwhelmed when they must investigate the brutal murder and mutilation of one of their own. Navarrette stumbles here, almost breaking while delivering his lines. This isn’t a big deal since the newsworthy skit can’t end quickly enough.

A cool professor (Padilla) is enjoying a fun dinner with students when their waiter accidentally drops a tray full of plates right over her head. She tries to act like nothing happened, even though she sits flooded with broken china and food. Eventually, she admits that she is in great pain: “I can smell my blood and I can feel my bones, and at one point I saw the Ninja Turtles come into the room.” Things flow from there and end with a series of farts. Padilla was last season’s MVP by far, but she hasn’t received much standout hardware this season – until now. It’s another showcase of his talents, namely his ability to extract pathetic pathos from the most juvenile slapstick comedy. Also, my goodness, that hit to the head here looks legitimately painful!

Musical guest Gracie Abrams performs her second song of the evening, followed by a clip of the late, great Patrick Stewart from his hosting days in 1994, before the costume encore. Even though Navarrette was noticeably green at times, she was easily the best host of the season so far. Likewise, this is the best SNL has had since returning to the air. One would hope that the series can maintain its momentum, but given that next week there will be streamer hosting, perhaps that’s too much to hope for…