Saturday Night Live Recap: Quinta Brunson Does It For The Shorties

Saturday Night Live has always represented a sort of pie-in-the-sky dream for up-and-coming comedians, a mainstream seal of approval that everyone covets on some level. Of course, host Quinta Brunson already achieved her dream in 2021 with Abbott Elementary, the show that launched her to star status; SNL needs Brunson more than she needs SNL at this point. Still, according to her endearing monologue this week, her first hosting gig in 2023 was one of the best nights of her life. That gratitude was apparent throughout her second outing, where she blended in seamlessly with the cast and showed off her sketch-show bona fides for another rock-solid episode.

Much of the monologue was a cute, funny song about Brunson’s stature, utilizing game cameos from Sabrina Carpenter (also short!) and Dwyane Wade (not at all short, yet he “feels seen”). And Brunson kept up the energy through the show that followed, delivering some devastatingly personal compliment sandwiches during a leadership summit and frantically pantomiming elaborate insults while parked on a ferry. The latter sketch, a sequel to the original traffic altercation from Brunson’s first appearance (which got a recent follow-up in the Martin Short episode), may drag on a bit long without many new twists on the formula, but it has its moments, like Mikey Day sniffing imaginary cocaine to indicate that Brunson’s car is over the “line.”

And Brunson paired well with different cast members, like Ego Nwodim, during “Two Bitches vs. a Gorilla,” which makes creative use of a gorilla’s POV as the two women savagely taunt the ape. Kenan Thompson was the other MVP of the episode, leaving space for Brunson to shine but killing it whenever he took the spotlight. The cast was a well-oiled machine this week, for the most part; if you didn’t know Brunson before now, you might actually think she was a regular cast member.

Here are the highlights:

Will & Todd’s Radical Experience

A Bill and Ted riff might feel a little outdated in 2025 (despite the 2020 sequel), but at least this one has a good premise: After experiencing the ’80s, Frederick Douglass (Thompson) and Harriet Tubman (Brunson) refuse to enter to the phone booth time machine, not interested in returning to a time of slavery. Good line deliveries all around from both pairings, including Marcello Hernández referring to the 1800s as the “1-800s” and Andrew Dismukes calling slavery “most heinous.”

OnlySeniors

This pre-taped senior twist on OnlyFans goes in pretty obvious raunchy directions, but it’s funny throughout, with Brunson and Thompson as the virile couple who “do stuff to each other” and Nwodim and Devon Walker as their mortified kids. The remote-controlled vibrator makes for a good gag, but the best part of the segment might be the occasional reassertions of the parents’ authority, leading to quick “sorry, ma’am”s and “yes, sir”s from the kids.

Weekend Update

I don’t always love Colin Jost and Michael Che’s tendency to comment on the audience’s response to a given joke, and this Update featured a lot of talk about locating the line of acceptability. But it’s also nice to see the show get playful with the live format, and at least this season is maintaining some relative edginess, both in basic dark jokes (like Jost’s remark about running over a tiny dog with his lawnmower) or specific references to the Trump administration. Here, that means a joke about J. D. Vance killing the Pope, a joke about RFK Jr. bringing back smallpox, and a timely remark about Homeland Security assessing migrant tattoos for gang signs by “checking to see if the tattoo is on brown skin.”

There’s also room for some welcome weirdness, like Jost’s bizarre obsession with the dolls he won’t get this year thanks to the tariffs (explored in an ironic “Oh hell no!” segment reminiscent of Seth Meyers). Michael Longfellow also made a nice, off-kilter appearance as himself, rejecting the new Real ID requirements and insisting that he’d rather have a “bullet in his penis” than visit the DMV. I enjoyed the meta acknowledgment that he hadn’t been in much this season, an explanation for his unlikely 12-hour work week.

Addicts Anonymous

Thompson stars as a guy who starts not-so-subtly looking for coke by consulting the other attendees at an Addicts Anonymous meeting. Unlike some of the other one-joke skits, this one only gets better the longer it goes, thanks to Thompson’s increasingly transparent inquisitiveness and his insistence on decrying “the demon” that keeps him on the hook. When Brunson, leading the meeting, mentions her own experiences walking the streets, he asks, “Which streets?”

Jerry “Jackrabbit” Tulane

James Austin Johnson always makes for a good deadpan host. Here, he’s on a sports documentary series celebrating Jerry Jackrabbit Tulane (Brunson), a boxer who influenced Muhammad Ali. Brunson nails the role, getting laughs from the contrast between her small size and big talk — especially when that talk gets her knocked out over and over again, rematch after rematch. When the injuries stack up and the character gets delirious, Brunson really starts cooking.

Cut for Time

• As expected, Benson Boone kicked off his first performance with a flip — and it wasn’t the only one of the night. I don’t have much to say about the songs themselves, but Boone did a nice job, and he got to appear as a waiter during Weekend Update.

• The cold open revolved around Trump’s increasingly ridiculous and/or evil executive orders this week, featuring Mikey Day’s creepy “lord of the shadows” Stephen Miller and Marcello’s meek Marco Rubio. Orders include banning interracial relationships in commercials, making Connections easier, outlawing ghosts, and pardoning “Jackie” Rowling. The reference to Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend also allows the episode to get that news out of the way early.

• “They even tried to cast me as a kid on Abbott Elementary, and I wrote that.”

• Ashley Padilla doesn’t get much screen time this week, but she does get this funny moment: “I’d like you to wear shorter things.” “I will.”

• Bowen Yang also reprised his doctor character from last season’s Ryan Gosling episode at the leader summit. Still, Johnson stole that sketch for me with his delivery of “This could be wrong, but sexual threats?”

• “Thankfully, there’s nobody at the bottom of the ocean who could use an airplane — oh, god.” Honestly, I’m with Che on this one. I laughed.

• Lots of dirty jokes this week, like during the appearance of Darlene (Sarah Sherman) and Duke (Bowen Yang), two Applebee’s barflies praising corporate chains. After mentioning the Asian glaze, Darlene says, “And I’m not talking about what he does to me in the handicap stall.” What a duo these two are.

• The Forever 31 ad is also pretty good, peaking with the line, “It’s the style that says, ‘My parents are older now, and I think about that a lot.’” Also appreciated the Jeff Probst shout-outs.

• “You need to evolute.”