The best ‘SNL’ sketches from Season 50

Have you been able to get “Domingo” out of your head?
The 50th season of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” may not be its best, but it has delivered some sketches worth rewatching. Or in the case of one particularly catchy parody of the song of the summer, you may have watched it a few hundred times on TikTok.
It’s been a big season for “SNL,” with a pivotal presidential election to make us laugh and Chappell Roan to make us swoon. But even as celebrity guests swoop in to play politicians, it’s the simpler, cast-and-host-going-silly-and-crazy sketches that really stand out this season.
Here are the five best sketches of the bunch, so far.
Nate Bargatze is a fun, unassuming comedian who sometimes feels like an odd choice for the bold and brash comedy style of “SNL.” But his second hosting gig in as many years proved that the quiet guy can make for some really good jokes. Most sketches in the Oct. 5 episode were above average for the season, but I’m partial to this bit, with Bargatze as Josh, a dude on vacation in Florida who wins tickets to popular Univision game show “Sábado Gigante” without realizing what he’d gotten himself into. Between cast member Marcello Hernandez’s volume 12-level impression of host Don Francisco to the sheer range of Bargatze’s perplexed facial expressions, it’s hard not to be tickled by the mostly-Spanish language sketch, which needs no translation.
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Technically not a sketch, this Weekend Update desk piece in the Oct. 19 episode, from new cast member Emil Wakim, is one of those exciting debuts that make you think maybe this particular newbie might be going places (I remember feeling that way when Pete Davidson first rolled up to the Update desk). Wakim’s charming delivery of a personal monologue about his parents, his culture and the election was hilarious and potentially star-making.
Sometimes a sketch doesn’t have to be laugh-out-loud funny. While there are plenty of humorous chuckles to be had in this bit from the Oct. 12 episode about a group of bridesmaids at a wedding singing a much-too-revealing ditty about the bachelorette party and a man named Domingo (Hernandez), it’s more popular than the laughs it generates would suggest. But its breakout status makes sense when you see the perfectly executed the parody of Sabrina Carpenter hit “Espresso,” the modern wedding aesthetic (oh, those velvet bridesmaid dresses) and host Ariana Grande pretending to be a bad singer. Its viral status was enough to bring it back in the Charli XCX-hosted Nov. 16 episode, this time with Domingo as a baby daddy and Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go” as the song. It’s not a knee slapper, but it still slaps.
The “SNL” cast is full of talented comedians equipped with a few celebrity impressions up their sleeves, and Chloe Fineman’s Jennifer Coolidge is one of the best. But in this Coolidge-themed sketch from the Oct. 12 episode, Fineman’s impression is one-upped by Grande, who nails Coolidge’s exact vocal tics flawlessly (perhaps this shouldn’t be a surprise given Grande’s penchant for musical impressions). When Dana Carvey (in the studio to play President Biden in cold-open sketches) joins the fun as a third Coolidge, things go off the rails, but it’s delightful seeing the cast and host just be silly and have fun. And it’s still funny while they do.
Comedy is about a lot of things, such as timing and personality and taste. It’s also about knowing whom to make the butt of the joke, and this new iteration of the “What’s That Name” sketch in the John Mulaney-hosted Nov. 2 episode (but first seen over a decade ago) challenges a haughty white liberal dude to put his money where his preachy tweets are. From the surprise appearance of Senator Tim Kaine to the reveal that Sarah Sherman was playing “The Handmaid’s Tale” writer Margaret Atwood, every beat of this sketch is blistering and on point.