“Saturday Night Live” recap: Adam Sandler crashes Chris Rock's fourth time as host

Hey there Conehead nation, it’s SNL in Review: the 50th anniversary season recap extravaganza. (Patent pending on name.) This season’s next installment conjures another ghost from Saturday Night Live past — and, in fitting with Dana Carvey and David Spade’s recent cameos — it is someone from the so-called Bad Boy era. Yes, Chris Rock has returned to host, in his fourth stint. Savvy readers of this column will note he hosted the season 46 in-studio premiere. Of course, since then, Rock has had a bit of tumult in his career and personal life. Will that provide fodder for our dear monologue?

Former cast member Siobhan Fallon Hogan first met Rock during her season on the show, and notes he "is an all around great guy — hilarious and was extremely supportive of me and other cast members."

Gracie Abrams is tonight’s musical guest. Scroll down for more!

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Related: Every Saturday Night Live season 50 host and musical guest

Cold Open

Sarah Sherman is Nancy Grace, who is just right for YouTube. I love Sherman’s goofy take on Grace, a different spin from what Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Abby Elliott and Noël Wells previously did with their takes on the conservative host.

Great punchline about Grace’s fixation on Jon Benet — and I laughed hard at the random interruption from Marcello Hernandez. This is a hilarious spoof of Grace, and her "fall from grace" from a respectable TV network. It’s also a commentary on internet culture and the reaction to Luigi Mangione’s arrest. Emil Wakim is great as a Luigi lookalike — it’s been a mixed week for him.

This was a great cold open — please watch! Probably top three for the season, for me. Very funny!

Monologue

Rock compliments Lorne Michaels on 25 great seasons of SNL! Then he disparages Jonah Hill’s looks! He also gets into Luigi Mangione with the biting line: “Sometimes, drug dealers get shot.” Wow.

Diddy, Kamala Harris, Mike Tyson — Rock says it has been a bad year for Black Americans. “Who is he going to fight next, Morgan Freeman?” he asks regarding the YouTuber/boxer Jake Paul, who beat Tyson. Next: he gets into Trump with digs at former presidents like Bill Clinton. His line about Elon Musk and deporting people gets a huge groan. I believe this line about the rocket ship recently caused an issue at a recent gig. Fallon Hogan comments that Rock’s “standup is genius because he is fearless.” Agreed, this was a good set.

Mall Santas

A mall elf (Rock) introduced a challenging game for two parents and their young daughter: which Santa do they want a photo with? Two options: a Black Santa (Devon Walker) and a white one (James Austin Johnson). I get the basic premise here but it seems a bit strained to me — I don’t think taking a photo with a mall Santa, and their ethnicity, matters to most people. But putting upper class white people on edge is the satirical aim here, as is Chloe Fineman’s politically correct mom.

Related: Saturday Night Live recap: Dana Carvey's Church Lady returns in Paul Mescal's hosting debut

Simpsons Christmas Gift

An office Secret Santa gets silly! Mikey Day gets his co-worker (Rock) a fun gift: he puts his picture into an app and turns him into a Simpsons caricature. He gets obsessed, and wants to brainstorm (increasingly dark) ideas around a hypothetical episode involving him. It gets elaborate. I love this plot actually, it’s very season 17.

Rock, I believe, was a plot point during a Simpsons episode once. And of course, Harry Shearer was on SNL!

Grandpa's Magic Car

Mikey Day’s grandfather has died. He goes to his garage, wanting to clean it out with his neighbors. They discover his car from the '50s, Kirby. It is magical! And racist. And not to mention sexist. Inspired by Christine, it even looks like the John Carpenter movie set.

Funny ending. Watch this if you like this description!

Sexual Harassment Charlie

A recurring sketch! Charlie (Kenan Thompson) returns to apologize for his actions at the recent holiday party. We have seen this “sweet, old” naughty character a few times before. As always, it's a sketch about two employees of a company who lose their jobs because of sexual harassment. While it is fun seeing two legendary Black cast members in the same frame playing off each other, I am not sure I needed this one again. Kenan obviously is great.

Gracie Abrams: "That's So True"

This is the first single from the deluxe edition of her second studio album, The Secret of Us — it's been very popular since it came out! It’s catchy and fine, obviously heavily influenced by her collaborator Taylor Swift, who she used to open for. Well within the T-Swift genre, if that makes sense.

FYI re: this musical guest’s family history: back in season 41, J. J. Abrams appeared in the pre-recorded "Star Wars Audition." (And he once introduced The Mos Eisley Five cut short.)

Weekend Update

A female audience member screams when this segment begins. Jost mocks Luigi Mangione for hypocrisy, and jokes about people low-rating the McDonalds he was found in on Yelp for “snitching.” Jost shows his origin story photo as a punchline for at least the third time. Also for the umpteenth time: “It’s the '90s time, guys.” Che laughs about four groaners in a row, looking around sheepishly.

A bald man (Dismukes) comments on a recent U.K. decision that calling someone “bald” is a form of harassment. My first thought: is this the same character universe as the Bill Burr musical? A nice bellowing Dismukes performance, complete with several great visual images as he increasingly rants. “Don’t laugh!” Sorry! I did!

Sabrina Carpenter just released a new Netflix Christmas special. Jane Wickline comes out to sing a song as her. But it is not an impression, or sung in her style. It is about how Carpenter is, seemingly, the only pop star taken at her word, or lacking mystique. Without secrets. This is a clever, catchy refrain.

Jost curses a lot this segment! What is going on.

Related: Saturday Night Live recap: Charli XCX hosts and serves as musical guest

Surgery

A surgeon (Rock) is removing a gall bladder when he realizes the wrong organ was marked for removal. The deeply incompetent Leslie (Sherman) should have checked the appendix — she feels very anxious about her mistakes and wants a hug. The team is understandably mad, but Rock defends her.

Big Sherman episode today! And here’s why: Adam Sandler is the patient. He defends the annoying Leslie as he bleeds out. This turns into Sandler spraying the rest of the medical staff with blood like this is Monty Python. Fun! I think this is Sandler’s first appearance on the show since this pandemic era diddy.

Sherman appeared in Sandler’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, FYI.

Gracie Abrams' second performance

This has an earlyish Avril Lavigne “I’m With You” vibe. It’s even got the snow from her music video!

I mean, it’s fine. This is Taylor Swift’s shade. Abrams opened for Olivia Rodrigo as the supporting act for her tour — I can also see that influence.

Office Christmas party

Monster truck rally commercial style gets applied to the tropes of the corporate holiday party. Fun! I enjoyed Rock grappling with his real wife versus work wife. Not to be confused with the Vanessa Bayer and Kate McKinnon movie with a similar conceit.

Blind Date

Ego Nwodim is waiting for a blind date, when Rock approaches her from the bar and propositions her. He is wearing a wedding ring but claims his wife is dead. Sketchy! This is a downbeat final sketch, character based and subdued — besides his insistence on having sex in his car. I like this strange, offbeat tone even with the last, broad car joke.

Final thoughts

• Out of all the memorable mishaps in Saturday Night Live's history, perhaps none are as infamous as Frank Zappa's gig as both host AND musical guest. I recently joined the amiable hosts of the Not Ready for Prime Time Project, a fantastic podcast that deep dives into the early years of the show. This is an essential listen for fans of SNL history — and nobody does it better than Brad and Gary! Take a listen!

• Thank you to Siobhan Fallon Hogan! She adds that her play is going to go up next September, and will keep us posted on next steps. I have it on good authority she just appeared at UCB's ASSSSCAT show in New York.

• Adam Sandler cameo! Vote, people! Last week’s poll for poor Paul Mescal was a poor showing.

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