Saturday Night Live recap: Maya Rudolph is the Mother of Studio 8H
The SNL icon returns for her third hosting gig, with musical-guest duties from Vampire Weekend
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
Along with being the penultimate episode of Saturday Night Live season 49, last night’s edition was also the annual Mother’s Day show, and it was hosted by a mother in every sense of the word: literal parent (“I have four beautiful kids, that I know of”) and spiritual capital-M Mother, Maya Rudolph.
One of the best SNL cast members of this century, Rudolph joins Pete Davidson and Kristen Wiig as show alums who made their return to Studio 8H this season, with Maya pulling hosting duties for the third time in support of her Apple TV+ series Loot. (Vampire Weekend was also in the house as this week’s musical guest, promoting their new album titled Only God Was Above Us; the actress will return the favor by opening for the group this summer as part of her Prince cover band, Princess, with Gretchen Lieberum.)
And if you love Maya Rudolph—impossible not to, really—this was a very Maya Rudolph episode of Saturday Night Live, with musical bits, poop jokes and wacky voices galore. Some of it worked (or werked, in the case of that monologue), some of it less so (British cavemen?), but as with any time Maya Rudolph is onscreen, it’s all worth a watch.
Cold open: Send in the moms
In lieu of a traditional cold open, the cast paraded out their mamas—because it would be Mother’s Day in, like, 21 minutes—to offer heartwarming stories about their kids instead. (“I was excited to see who was going to play Stormy Daniels!” complained Kenan’s mom.)
Though largely more sweet than silly, the matriarchs did manage to get in some good laughs, including Tom Brady jokes from Chloe Fineman’s mom Ellen (“Tom Brady’s marriage finished so quickly, I thought it was your dad!”) and MILF quips from Marcello Hernández’s madre Isabel (“Michael Che gave me flowers! But the note was just a phone number?”). Bowen Yang’s mom Meng ended things off on a heartfelt note—“We are from all over the country, from every side of the political spectrum, but we have one thing in common: we love our children with all our hearts”—that is, before declaring that Brady is her hall pass.
Opening monologue: Mommy dearest
“Mother is mothering in that dress,” this recapper unironically proclaimed when Maya Rudolph came out to introduce Saturday’s episode. So it was only fitting that her entire opening monologue was dedicated to our host’s undisputable “Mother” status, a distinction designated for iconic women of a certain age who can’t help but serve, slay, and so on.
After Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman praised Rudolph for being “a 30 Rock legend” and having her “foot on our neck since Y2K,” the opening monologue quickly turned into a Renaissance-style ball, with Maya as a catsuit-wearing pop queen and Kenan Thompson as an ever-supportive Law Roach-ian figure named Mr. Infinity Decor. (“Ladies and gentlemen, gays and theys, I give you Mother of the House of Rockefeller!”) There were multiple Madonna references, nonsensical parody lyrics (“Martha Stewart gave good hurr, Mary Catherine Galla-gurr”), sassy fan-clacking—truly, the stuff of dreams.
The best returning character: Exasperated Beyoncé
With the number of times that Rudolph has parodied Hot Ones (First We Feast’s “hot questions and even hotter wings” celebrity interview series), you might be surprised to find that the comedienne hasn’t actually appeared as herself opposite wingman Sean Evans. Her take as Molly Wells from Loot’s first season was instantly iconic, but Rudolph first spoofed the spicy web series as Beyoncé during SNL season 46.
Now fully Cowboy Carter-ed, her Queen Bey is back to take on the Last Dab yet again because “this is the only thing I have attempted that I did not slay, and that bothered both me and my husband.” Despite being from Texas (woo!), the heat starts getting to Yoncé (“Beyoncé about to do something very human”), so much so that she tasks her trusty assistant Derafael (Kenan Thompson) to shoot her $6,000 cocoa butter lotion directly into her mouth. It’s rare to see Kenan as close to breaking as he gets here, but Maya Rudolph playing a near-defecation musical icon will do that to you.
The best prop of the night: That nightmare neck
The Please Don’t Destroy fellas are back, this time actively trying to hide their Instagram explore pages from their girlfriends (Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman) while out at dinner. Why? Because they’re all oddly obsessed with a woman named Uneesa Confidence (Rudolph), a blue-eyeshadowed, breast-swinging “online girlfriend for young men with self-esteem issues.”
Ben Marshall swallows his phone rather than admit to his missus all of his Uneesa-related digital habits, resulting in some excellently gross prosthetic work by the SNL makeup team. It’s made even more gnarly when the waiter (Marcello Hernández) has to dial 911 through Marshall’s squared-off neck.
The most relatable sketch of the night:
You either are the kid who wanted to leave every sleepover, or you’re the parent now forced to pick up that little shithead from every sleepover. Keeping with the humorous-but-heartwarming vibes of the evening, this pre-tape was as much an ode to the unconditional love of parenthood as it was a vehicle for the dumbest reasons retrieving your kiddo early from an overnight. The best of the bunch? “It’s her father, he has…become gay?” and “Cicadas!”
The missed poop opportunity of the night:
Maya Rudolph and poop are a comedic match made in heaven—just look at that famous shitting-in-the-street scene from Bridesmaids for proof. Which makes it all the more disappointing that there wasn’t more of a punchline to this Lauren Bacall-esque coffee commercial parody—in which a legendary actress (Rudolph) gets a real below-the-belt jolt while filming an ad for a coffee company—than just cheap fart jokes.
Stray observations
- Outside of “Weekend Update,” there was surprisingly little politics throughout this week’s episode, which meant no reprisal of Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris.
- Speaking of “Update,” there’s been a whole host of very hyper-specific cameos at the desk this season, from Kristi Noem’s other dog to the New York City earthquake to Flaco the Owl’s widow. This week, we got RFK’s brain worm via Sarah Sherman, a surrealist appearance that saw the parasite sultrily croon Marilyn-style to the Kennedy man.
- We only have one more episode of Saturday Night Live this season, folks—next week’s finale will see Presumed Innocent star Jake Gyllenhaal return as host, with Sabrina Carpenter making her debut as musical guest—but if you want even more Studio 8H content, the SNL team has been padding out its YouTube page with behind-the-scenes content like this recent “Saturday Night with Cue Cards” featurette, highlighting the fan-favorite Wally Feresten.
53 Comments
I have a performer crush on Heidi Gardner – not only because she’s pretty but because she does pissed off in a way I completely relate to. I liked her bit on weekend update but am curious why she and her mom weren’t in the cold open.
I remember when her mom appeared on a mother’s day ep. Waaaay back in her first season. She looked just like all like the crazy lady characters that Heidi portrays rolled up onto one.
I’d argue that Heidi might be one of the most underrated performers on the show. He’s great at those wackadoo Weekend Update characters, and kills it when she needs to be the straight man.
Reading old snl comments is a trip. Things that got me into this show (non American here) like Maya Rudolph or Fred Armisen are actually found unbearable by others? Maya is a walking GIF. I don’t like her series (a feel good story about a billionaire? with sitcom tropes and private jets??? sorry I cannot switch my brain off) but she is really someone who can brighten a screen. that’s all I had to say without having watched the episode 😀
Pretty sure that was just rumors, a hearsay? Maya Rudolph is close friend with Kristen Wiig, and Fred Armisen seems really well loved by everyone, especially by fellow SNL performers of his generation, such as Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, John Mulaney, Jason Sudeikis. The fact he keep popping up on his ex-SNL alumni other projects prove the rumors baseless.
Fred Armisen is not well loved by his exes
At least one of them has her thetans to blame though.
I don’t understand why he insists on dating women. That’s probably the problem.
Touche’
Ding ding ding.
Not really an Armison fan, but Portlandia was genius.
Loren Michael’s produced both Portlandia and Documentary Now! with Fred Armisen for instance.
Fred actually had a ton of stuff going on back in the day about him being extremely abusive to women. Funny how that just disappeared but he made whatever people claim Louis CK did look like an angel in comparison.
Extremely abusive? Or simply being bad boyfriend with passive aggressive attitude? Even in Jezebel article I never come to conclusion he is physically or mentally abusive. He striking me as bad boyfriend, that’s all. How is that put him being worse than serial streaking Louis CK?
It helps when you and people you know have been around both men. There is always a narrative to be pushed. Everyone knew about Lou and laughed at it until suddenly they didn’t. Not defending it but Fred has pretty much driven people to the point of suicide before. *ALLEGEDLY* of course.
She’s great.Loot is a terrible show. I hate it
Just seeing the 30sec trailer for that show, my brain reacted with a Hard Nope.
smart
I’ve heard Armisen can be an asshole but never heard Rudolph was
I did actually watch sketch comedy last night. Tubi has The Whitest Kids U’Know. RIP Trevor Moore.
I hope you enjoyed it as the creator intended: with a gallon of PCP.
Trevor died?! How
Let’s move forward with the Weekend Update malaise guys. We get it Che tries to gross everyone out, Jost is super racist, and we have grotesque characters! Although this time the characters were pretty funny so whatever. I am just saying, you guys can act natural again and not be forced into unpleasant roles.
Sarah Sherman with Colin Jost is never not funny.
The show has always made a punching bag out of Jost, but Sarah has turned it into an artform.
Hot Ones bit was confusing, no idea what or why that was.Our local station has been having technical issues during snl for the past couple weeks. Half sketches cut off. Nine minute commercial breaks. Only saw 30 seconds off the pick me up sketch.
The hot ones sketch doesn’t make much sense. Maya isn’t really impersonating Beyoncé, her being Beyoncé really isn’t relevant, and the joke is just that they eat hot wings?
That’s what the Hot Ones show actually is. Celebrities eating increasingly more spicy wings while answering questions. It’s very meme-able, due to the celebs reactions to the wings. Beyonce seems like the kind of celebrity who would never do it, because it would make her lose her composure. That’s the whole joke.
I am aware of Hot Ones and my opinion remains.
It’s existence is obviously a reaction to the way society devalues women, but I think the whole “Yasss Queen,” “GirlBoss,” “Mother” thing actually diminishes women rather then elevating them. That said, Maya Rudolph was hilarious as always, despite some iffy writing. Great to see Vampire Weekend back and continuing to push their artistic boundaries.
I’m not cool or young, so is “Mother” a sex thing like calling dudes “Daddy”?
I fucking hope not, lol
I’m also neither cool nor young so someone check my work but my understanding is that it’s similar to “queen.”
“Mothers” are the heads of drag houses, gathering and guiding young queens into “families” for protection and support. I assume the idea is they’re crediting her in part for the prominent queer turn the show has taken in the last 10 years or so.
No, that’s “mommy.”
You’ll find a lot of embarrassments calling women, even people younger than them, “mommy” on reddit so yes probably.
“Girl Boss” definitely does. The others I don’t mind, but I haven’t had much time to think on “Mother” as last night was my first time hearing it in that context, but as a mother myself I don’t think I see anything insulting about the label “mother.”
The Sleepover sketch made me smile the most, not just because I might have called my mom to get me from a couple of places as a kid.While both Rudolph and Kenan were great in the roles there, also wanted to give a small shout-out to Mikey Day selling his role just right as well.
No offense to Vampire Weekend, but I’d have loved that Prince cover band to have been the musical guest.
Why, they didn’t cater to her enough?
?? What does this mean? I actually thought they were very restrained in their use of her.
I’d give this one a C. I liked the Mother opening monologue, but things went down quickly from there. Nothing was bad, but everything was just mildly amusing. Never been a fan of Rudolph’s Beyonce though so Hot Ones was a bit of a rough watch.
Also, what is up with Che on WU lately? He’s always stepped on lines with cringy jokes but the last couple of weeks, he’s been especially bad. Before you’d get one of those jokes, but it would have a bit of a pop. The last two weeks though especially it seems like he’s just going for the laziest joke their is and doesn’t even seem like he cares. He gets halfway thru the delivery and just gives up like he’s ready to quit the show right then.
You noticed too! Exactly, for the last few shows he keeps bailing on his own jokes in the middle of the punchline, on EVERY joke. He’s lost confidence in his material or something. The weird thing is that the audience laughs anyways but he acts like he bombed. It’s very weird. Hope he gets it together over the summer hiatus.
I think he thinks it’s funny to pretend they’re bad.
“He’s always stepped on lines with cringy jokes but the last couple of weeks, he’s been especially bad.”I thought this week’s jokes went over fine. I think just last week he got laughs making fun of his own jokes for being bad and he’s trying to force that to happen again tonight even though the jokes stood fine on their own.
For as funny as Jost and Che are, I long ago got tired of the little asides after virtually EVERY SINGLE JOKE. Your material is funny, the commentary on it is completely unnecessary.
This is another review that seems to have been written about an entirely different show. I don’t think I even chuckled, but some of the WU jokes were good. For folks who haven’t paid that much attention to Maya Rudolph, it was just surreal to see all the kowtowing going on. She’s been funny, but she didn’t make me laugh last night. PDD was pretty clever – I snorted. So, my least favorite ep of this season. However, James Austin Johnson has been proving his worth since they hired him for his Trump impersonation. He’s a good actor and impressionist, and while not LOL funny, is always a strong contributor in the sketches he’s in. Also, Sarah Sherman is cute as a button. I was wondering how they’d use her stand-up persona, but she’s proven really great in adopting characterizations. SHE’s turned out to be a pretty good actress. Anyway, last night they should’ve just re-aired the Travis Kelce ep. C-
I like Maya in general but there does seem to be this consensus that any long-running female cast member is automatically all-time great status amongst AV Club reviewers. Maya, McKinnon, Wiig, Cecily… They’re all fine, sometimes excellent, often quite annoying but none of them were ever close to being the best cast member of their era. However, somehow, they have all achieved infallible legend status on here no matter who is reviewing the show.
I love Maya, but the show was a bit ‘hit & miss’ for me (which is nothing unusual). Enjoyed it overall, but I was hoping to see some of her pals from SNL’s past on the show, too. (btw, add Kate McKinnon to the former cast members that have hosted this year)
nonsensical parody lyrics (“Martha Stewart gave good hurr, Mary Catherine Galla-gurr”These aren’t nonsensical lyrics they were a shoutout to female characters from SNL. I remember hearing Baba Wawa, Gilly, Sweeney Sisters and of course the Schwetty Balls girls
i have never really found Maya Rudolph funny until this episode. I mean, I enjoyed her in The Good Place and Bridesmaids, but I did not like SNL back when she was on it. I thought she did a really fantastic job and the writing for this and her timing was excellent throughout, I think the show is better than it has been in some time.I remember somebody responded to the “SNL people aren’t hot” by saying “do you know that there are thousands of people whose sexual preference is literally ‘SNL cast member’?” I don’t know if Lorne got everybody makeovers because of that mean comment but everybody was looking real good this week (marrymesarahsherman)
Not a single solid laugh in the entire episode.