by Julian Spivey 10. Beach Day Andrew Dismukes is always so good as the “guy who just wants to be noticed but pretends to be put off” character. One of the best examples of this from season 49 came in the season opener hosted by Pete Davidson when he plays a guy who’s been buried by his friends in the sand at the beach up to his head for a photo op and something tragic happens before the photo can take place. His insistence that the photo happens before everybody leaves is Dismukes at his best. 9. Giant Horse When Timothee Chalamet made his hosting debut on ‘SNL’ in 2020 and appeared in the Tiny Horse musical sketch about a boy and his beloved miniature (as in toy-sized) horse it made me laugh so hard I nearly passed out. So, when he returned to host this season deep down I hoped for a sequel but didn’t expect it. You don’t often get sketch sequels from hosts of the shows. The show was pretty clever in that when the sequel sketch began it wasn’t clear what it was going to be as we were thrust into the middle of a science fiction battle, whose villain’s biggest killing machine happens to be a Giant Horse, the Tiny Horse from before who’s turned to the dark side. It’s a ridiculously wild concept that doesn’t quite live up to the original, the sequels seldom do, but Chalamet crooning about a tiny horse is wacky enough to crack me up every time. 8. Immigrant Dad Talk Show Marcello Hernandez has been one of the standouts among the featured players on the ‘SNL’ cast over the last couple of seasons and he’s at his best when playing up his Hispanic heritage and background, especially when he does the speaking so fast he becomes intelligible – both in English and Spanish – thing he does so well. The idea for him to pair with host Ramy Youssef, a Muslim comedian, as a couple of immigrant dads who hold a talk show in a backyard about how much they love their daughters and are disappointed in their sons, was perfect. The best part is when they invite their white American neighbor over as a guest and are so confused by his admiration of his son, especially when the father and son kiss on the lips. I hope this becomes a recurring bit for Hernandez with any future hosts of ethnic backgrounds. 7. Little Orphan Cassidy Rarely do freshmen cast members of ‘SNL’ have breakout sketches as big as Chloe Troast’s Little Orphan Cassidy in the third episode of season 49 hosted by Timothee Chalamet. The sketch sees Troast as Cassidy, an orphan who can’t find a home who pines to Mr. Moon, Chalamet’s face as the man in the moon, to be wanted and loved. Troast breaks into song, something we’re going to see a lot from here based on her first season of the show, and when we find out she’s actually 27 years old the crowd loses it. Chalamet’s responses as Mr. Moon the more and more weird stuff we find out about Cassidy are terrific, as well. 6. Jumanji When Kristen Wiig returned to host the show for her fifth time since leaving as a cast member this season she appeared in what has to be one of her all-time greatest sketches (though I never was the biggest fan of her characters when she was on the cast) as a woman scared of being “Jumanji’d” during a game night with her friends. It’s the most absurd sketch ideas I’ve found myself enjoying the most in this current era of ‘SNL.’ Wiig’s exasperated fear of being sucked into a board game world mixed with the annoyance of the rest of the group of friends, particularly the one played by Andrew Dismukes, makes for a wildly creative and funny sketch. 5. Close Encounter I never expected to see Colleen Rafferty again after the character was taken to space by alien abduction in Kate McKinnon’s final episode as a ‘SNL’ cast member two years ago. It seemed to be the perfect finale for Colleen and the Close Encounter sketches that highlighted McKinnon’s ‘SNL’ Hall of Famer tenure. McKinnon even returned to host the show for the first time in season 49 and the character didn’t appear. So, it was a pleasant surprise when host Ryan Gosling’s episode opened with a Close Encounter sketch. Gosling was the host when the sketch debuted in 2015 and also appeared again in the recurring sketch in 2017. He seems to be a favorite of McKinnon’s Colleen to mess with and you can tell Gosling gets a kick out of it too. Anytime this wacky sketch involving Colleen’s wacky and weird alien encounters appears I’m going to love it. It’s truly one of the rare recurring sketches that loses little the more times they do it. 4. I'm Just Pete One of the biggest pop culture phenomena of the summer of 2023 was the “Barbie” movie so even though season 49 of ‘SNL’ premiered months later you had the feeling the show would work something “Barbie” into its premiere – I just didn’t realize it would be this good. One of the highlights of the film was Ryan Gosling as Ken singing the song “I’m Just Ken.” When ‘SNL’ turned the song into “I’m Just Pete” for former cast member Pete Davidson returning to host the season premiere it was one of the best examples of the show parodying pop culture. 3. Lake Beach Each year for the last two decades now ‘SNL’ has released some incredibly funny songs and this year had no shortage of them, but my absolute favorite from this season was “Lake Beach” during the episode hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze – likely because I enjoy country music, making fun of modern pop-influenced country music and have always lived in the South. James Austin Johnson and Andrew Dismukes have proven to be quite the tandem when paired together on the show, both seeming to really gel when the ideas are at their wildest. Johnson, Dismukes and Bargatze play a trio of country singers paying homage to the Lake Beach party life and if you’ve ever lived in the South and have been around redneck types you will recognize nearly every damn thing in this song as being potentially a bit too on the nose. 2. Beavis & Butt-Head Sometimes it’s the way out in left field ideas that make for the funniest sketches on ‘SNL’ these days, especially when all those involved know it’s way out there to the point where they struggle to contain their composure on the live show. When Ryan Gosling hosted late in season 49, such a moment occurred in a sketch where Kenan Thompson is playing a professor being interviewed by Heidi Gardner’s anchor about artificial intelligence and a couple of people in the audience catch his attention for looking stunningly like the animated TV characters Beavis and Butt-Head. It’s a funny idea, especially as Gosling as Beavis and Mikey Day as Butt-Head play the town hall guests as clueless to the fact that they resemble these characters. But the sketch truly becomes an instant classic when Gardner turns to face Day as Butt-Head and has one of the greatest breaks in the history of ‘SNL,’ especially as a cast member who rarely seems to break on air. 1. Washington's Dream Nate Bargatze might be the funniest stand-up comedian in the business today but when it was announced he would host a season 49 episode of ‘SNL’ I was a bit concerned that his lack of acting might hurt him when it came to sketch comedy. At times throughout his episode, it was a bit jarring but I think that aspect, mixed with his style of making the mundanities of life hilarious truly helped the best sketch of the season fly. Co-head writer Streeter Seidell and cast member Mikey Day had been trying to get their George Washington pep talk sketch on the show for some time but it never quite fit the week’s host. But the humor of the sketch, which pokes fun at how many things differ in America from the rest of the world, really fits Bargatze's style. Bargatze plays Washington during the Revolutionary War giving a pep talk to dejected soldiers, played by Day, James Auston Johnson, Bowen Yang and Kenan Thompson. The sketch received a lot of “best sketch in years” treatment from the media in the days following it. What was your favorite sketch of Season 49?
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