“Another sad hot guy” is how Martin Herlihy describes Paul Mescal’s probable next film role in the latest Please Don’t Destroy sketch. Judging by Mescal’s track record, it seems pretty much inevitable. From his breakout role in the Sally Rooney adaptation Normal People to his devastating, Oscar-nominated work in Aftersun, and even Gladiator II, Mescal’s specialty is playing smokeshows who are Going Through It. Seldom has someone who looks carved out of oak so often seemed in dire need of a medical-grade hug.
Thankfully, Saturday Night Live has always offered the opportunity for dramatic actors to spread their wings and touch the sky. In his hosting debut, Mescal seemed as eager to soar as any of his typecast predecessors. And I do mean flying-on-a-broomstick-belting-out-the-“Defying-Gravity”-riff level soaring.
During a playful monologue, Mescal brought uninitiated viewers up to speed on everything they needed to know about the rising star. He’s a sartorially adventurous Irish guy, prone to playing frequently tearful characters. (“I’m really not known for comedy,” the host says, in perhaps the year’s greatest understatement.) With that intro out of the way, Mescal is freed up to show viewers a lot of stuff they haven’t seen him do yet. Over the course of the night, he seethes with jealousy, simmers with rage, acts a fool, and partakes in some singing and dancing. (Twice!)
Some serious thespians in the past have used the SNL stage as a misguided launchpad to show off their quiet command of commedia dell’arte or whatever. That isn’t the case here. Though Mescal delivers whatever’s asked of him at any given moment, he never seems bent on proving himself a natural sketch performer. Instead, he cedes the spotlight in several sketches and comes across as someone whose main venue for comedy is telling stories over beers at the pub.
But Mescal isn’t the only one who got to branch out last night. For the first time, all three of this season’s new cast members — Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline — were prominently featured in the same episode. Previously, SNL seemed to dole out the trio in tiny background roles, with only one getting a chance to pop per week. For whatever reason, Mescal’s show found all three either anchoring a sketch or at least getting a big, memorable showcase in one — and they each made the most of their moment. It finally feels like we’re getting to know them.
Here are the highlights from the episode:
Church Chat 2024 Cold Open
Can a single joke elevate an otherwise decent, nostalgia-fueled sketch into hilarity? Apparently so. Dana Carvey — an SNL houseguest this season, thanks to his eerily accurate Joe Biden impression — brought back his Church Lady character for the first time since 2016. (So long ago, Darrell Hammond was still playing Trump at the time.) Now as aged as the Church Lady was perhaps originally intended to be, Carvey hits the familiar beats of patronizing each Church Chat guest and calling things satanic until arriving at an incredible moment with Hunter Biden. (Played by David Spade in another throwback cameo.) Hunter slyly compares himself to Jesus, prompting the Church Lady to shoot back, “Last time I checked, Jesus wasn’t walking around in a robe with no underwear and hanging out with prostitutes.” With perfect timing, Hunter reminds her this is exactly what Jesus did. The joke rightly gets an applause break from the studio audience — and makes everything else about the overlong cold open worth it.
Gladiator II Trailer
Paul Mescal is slashin’ throats and hittin’ notes in a digital short that imagines a musical version of Gladiator II. (Did we know he can sing? I don’t think we did.) It’s an impressively staged and choreographed production with legit-sounding lyrics — both in the usual Broadway style and full Lin-Manuel Miranda mode. (“I’m the mad emperor with the bad temper-er, bangin’ eunuchs and tunics, January to December-er.”) This is the kind of sketch that makes one marvel at what the SNL team can accomplish in a single week.
Italian Restaurant Commercial
Even though all the new cast members get some much-needed airtime this episode, Ashley Padilla makes the biggest meal out of hers. Here, she plays a local theater actor sharing her first televised ad with Mescal’s seasoned commercial star. In a moment of inspiration, she throws a pasta pun into the ad for an Italian restaurant, and the director (Mikey Day) loves it. Mescal, however, does not. Several comedic games are now set in motion: Padilla’s goofy pasta puns, each delivered with mischievous goofball energy; Mescal’s rising hostility toward his costar; the difference in how his own pasta puns are received on set. (“What’s happening, buddy? Is there someone we can call?”) Padilla seems every bit as much at home in a lead sketch role as her character does in her commercial.
Brilliant Lawyer
What makes this sketch click is the supreme confidence Andrew Dismukes lends his lawyer character as he embarks upon the most idiotic gambit in legal history. Well, that and the stone faces of the 20 men he hires to wear identically ridiculous outfits in an effort to camouflage his client within the courtroom. It’s a shame this episode didn’t air before Halloween; otherwise, we might have seen gangs of 21 dudes in lime-green suits, Devo hats, and beards roving the streets.
Spotify Wrapped
Never trust anyone who’s a little too excited to reveal their Spotify Wrapped. That’s one takeaway from this sketch, in which Mescal is aghast that his friends have never heard of the esoteric multimedia force who dominates his Spotify Wrapped. However, the primary reason this sketch exists is to introduce the artist Satoshi Gutman, “the anti-instrumentalist sound guru of Dundalk, Maryland.” Bowen Yang clearly had fun with the creation of this character, who looks like a partially cornrowed blonde Jedi whose deep-tissue massage treatment would go crazy, and addresses his fans as “my bastards.” Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Dundalk’s finest.
Cut for Time
• If it seemed like an odd note during the Church Lady sketch when Carvey told Spade’s Hunter Biden, unprompted, “At least you haven’t been doing a podcast,” it should. That shoehorned line was a nod to the SNL-themed podcast the pair do together.
• The out-of-date slang in the Earring sketch — “Let’s go to a rave, pimp” — was pitch perfect, even if the sketch as a whole felt like it could have been more cohesive.
• The paternal way Mescal falls in love with the Please Don’t Destroy boys is a fresh twist on the way crushes in these sketches have gone in the past.
• And the award for Most Fun Had During a Weekend Update Joke This Season goes to both Colin Jost and Michael Che for the squirting cucumber joke.
• Marcello Hernández comes extremely close to cracking up during his shared desk piece with Heidi Gardner when Gardner says of musical guest Shaboozey, “I’m gonna show him my Shapoozey.”
• James Austin Johnson does an incredible Bob Dylan in the movie premiere sketch, and Mescal sounds exactly like Bono, but it also must be said that “Jess, Logan, Dean” is indeed the proper ranking of Rory’s boyfriends on Gilmore Girls.
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