10. Weekend Update Characters

Weekend Update characters are frequently among the funniest recurring characters on “Saturday Night Live” and are often a good way to make cast members into stars and for the newer cast members to get their faces out there on the show for the first time. Season 48 saw a handful of terrific Weekend Update moments including classics, a potential new classic and fresh faces finding their way.
​
Here were my favorite W.U. characters of season 48 …
​
Drunk Uncle on Why He Hates Halloween
One of my all-time favorite recurring W.U. characters in the history of ‘SNL’ was Bobby Moynihan’s irascible, offensive Drunk Uncle that I’m sure can remind everyone of one of their family members. During his time on the show, Moynihan portrayed this character 13 times and every time left me in stitches, so I was beyond thrilled to see the return of the character on the Halloween episode hosted by rapper Jack Harlow with Moynihan around the studio to make multiple cameos throughout the episode. Drunk Uncle tells W.U. anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che the many reasons why he hates Halloween, including the holiday being socialist. Among the highlights: “Not my Mario” and “Yeah, I was there on January 6.”  

Cathy Anne’s Farewell
Cecily Strong was easily one of the greatest cast members of the show’s modern era and had a few recurring characters on Weekend Update that stood out over the years with the drug-addled, crazy lady next door character of Cathy Anne. Cathy Anne is essentially the female version of Drunk Uncle – boy, how great would it have been if they had coupled those two together for a sketch? Cathy Anne’s final appearance came in Strong’s final ‘SNL’ episode of 2022, hosted by Austin Butler. Cathy Anne is going off to prison for numerous crimes like meth, crack and “a couple of Sonic attacks.” I particularly enjoy the joke about Cathy Anne and Colin Jost doing Weekend Update together, referring to the one season Strong co-hosted W.U.
​
Co-Worker Who’s Extremely Busy Doing Seemingly Nothing
Heidi Gardner has become adept at bringing incredibly thought-out, hilariously memorable characters to Weekend Update. Some of her instant classics include Angel (Every Boxer’s Girlfriend from Every Movie About Boxing Ever), Bailey Gismert (a teen film critic) and Baskin Johns (a Goop employee constantly worried Gwyneth Paltrow will fire her). In the penultimate episode of season 48, Gardner debuted another lack a second character with “Co-Worker Who’s Extremely Busy Doing Seemingly Nothing,” which I’m sure most American workers, especially those with office jobs, will see in at least one of their co-workers.

Marcello Hernandez on MLB Playoffs
Marcello Hernandez, one of the few Latino cast members in ‘SNL’ history, came out of the gates on fire in his freshman season on the show with a W.U. appearance talking about his love for baseball’s postseason and his love of Latino baseball players – who really do play the game with more flair than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Hernandez changes accents with ease and really has the feel for Latin baseball down pat.

Michelangelo’s David Defends Art
Michael Longfellow, another of the promising new faces on ‘SNL,’ had a few memorable W.U. moments during his freshman season, but the funniest came toward the end of the season when he did a bit about a Florida teacher who was forced to resign after showing a photo of Michelangelo’s David sculpture in an art class as the David sculpture, which required what seems like it would’ve had to have been a good amount of time in makeup. The show really gets the look down. Longfellow’s wry, sarcastic sense of humor fits the bit perfectly. 

9. Waking Up
​
Pedro Pascal was certainly the M.V.P. of ‘SNL’ hosts in season 48 and the episode he hosted was likely the season’s best overall. The fact that this is Pascal’s third sketch in the top 10 from the season pretty much proves that. In “Waking Up,” Pascal portrays a man named Charlie who’s waking up from being in a long coma with his wife (Heidi Gardner) and his friends (Kenan Thompson and Sarah Sherman) surrounding his hospital bed. The only issue is Charlie doesn’t remember any of these people and he’s now speaking in sort of a California Valley-vibe mixed with mush-mouth. The voice used by Pascal leads the entire cast featured in the sketch breaking from time to time, which usually intensifies the hilarity of a sketch. 

8. Return of David S. Pumpkins 
​
I never really thought we’d see David S. Pumpkins, the Tom Hanks ‘SNL’ phenomenon from 2016 (wow, really?), again. And even though sometimes the sequel can weaken the impact of a character altogether I enjoyed the return of David S. Pumpkins during the 2022 Halloween episode hosted by rapper Jack Harlow. Now, at the time of the episode airing, I’m not sure I was quite as high on it as I actually am now – I certainly wouldn’t have pegged it to be on this list – but upon a recent rewatch it’s funny stuff even if nothing could ever live up the original – which is an all-timer. The set-up for David S. Pumpkin’s return is a group of friends (Harlow, Ego Nwodim and Andrew Dismukes) going on a haunted elevator ride featuring memorable horror film characters like Pennywise, Michael Myers and Freddy Kreuger with David S. Pumpkins frequently appearing, much to the dismay and confusion of Dismukes’s character, which honestly was the part that cracked me up the most. If you can get past the horrid acting by Harlow you might enjoy this quite a bit.  

7. A Christmas Carol

Steve Martin and Martin Short are almost attached at the hip these days with their long-running comedy tour and two seasons thus far on the popular and critically-acclaimed Hulu comedy “Only Murders in the Building.” Each had hosted ‘SNL’ multiple times (Martin more than a dozen times) but hadn’t co-hosted (something that is a rare feat in general for the show) until this past season. It was a dream hosting combo for many but the episode, despite being of the season’s best overall, may have been a bit underwhelming. The best sketch of the episode was the pre-taped A Christmas Carol parody that macabrely sees Short’s Scrooge maiming orphans rather violently by innocently attempting to throw coins down to them from a window above. It’s horror-comedy at its best but might be a bit squeamish for some as it’s certainly one of the bloodiest ‘SNL’ bits of all time (is it the first decapitation in show history?) Sarah Sherman as the orphan having their eyes poked out by flying coins is a true highlight as only she could seemingly pull off. 

6. Jake From State Farm
​
Some of the best ‘SNL’ moments from season 48 seemed to be simple things turned into almost horror movie-type things – and these next couple of sketches certainly were the season’s best at that. The idea to take the “Jake from State Farm” State Farm Insurance commercials and turn Jake into a man trying to steal your wife and family is genius and host Michael B. Jordan plays Jake from State Farm worming his way into Mikey Day’s house brilliantly. 

5. HBO’s Mario Kart

Despite the fact that “The Super Mario Bros. Movies” wound up making more than $1.3 billion at the box office, there was controversy over the choice of Chris Pratt to voice Mario in the movie. Around this same time, the talk of the TV world was HBO’s “The Last of Us,” which finally turned a video game series into prestige television. This was the inspiration for a gritty, dramatic take on “Mario Kart,” one of the absolute best pre-tapes of the season. The HBO version of “Mario Kart” sees host Pedro Pascal (the star of “The Last of Us”) attempting to save Princess Peach (Chloe Fineman) from the villainous Bowser (Kenan Thompson) on the treacherous Rainbow Road with the help of his pals Luigi (Mikey Day), Toad (Marcello Hernandez) and Yoshi (Bowen Yang). The sketch perfectly has the world of both Mario Kart and gritty HBO dramas down pat and led many to wish Pascal had actually been Mario instead of Pratt. 

4. New Cast Advice

Most of the new cast members of ‘SNL’ had standout performances in season 48 (Devon Walker really didn’t), but the best of them all was without a doubt Molly Kearney’s standout “New Cast Advice” pre-taped film in the season’s second episode hosted by Brendan Gleeson. The film sees the four new cast members of the show (Kearney, Walker, Marcello Hernandez and Michael Longfellow) talking about their first episode of the show the week before and how great the whole process has been, meanwhile Kearney has been tasked with assassinating Russian leader Vladimir Putin by ‘SNL’ producer (and, I guess, CIA operative) Lorne Michaels. Kearney’s recitation of the experience is comedy brilliance. 

3. Traffic Altercation
​
Quinta Brunson has been one of television’s biggest standouts over the last two years thanks to ABC’s wonderful sitcom “Abbott Elementary,” which she not only stars in but created. Her hosting debut on ‘SNL’ this spring was one of my most anticipated hosting gigs of season 48 and while it was sort of an up-and-down episode altogether, the sketch “Traffic Altercation” stood out as one of the year’s best. It’s a simple premise: road rage resulting in two drivers (Brunson and Mikey Day) yelling and gesturing at each other during a traffic jam. But the way Brunson and Day go about yelling back-and-forth and the outrageous hand gestures by the two made it one of the biggest laugh-out-loud moments of the season. Look out for Chloe Fineman, playing Day’s daughter, almost stealing the whole sketch with her “you suck” gesture. 

2. Deer
On paper this one being this high is honestly surprising to me – but then again I’ve always enjoyed absurdity and this one is quite absurd. The whole premise of the sketch is a housewarming party in which the partygoers are admiring the local nature of a deer grazing in a field outside the window and an older gentleman (Kenan Thompson) not being able to see the deer and feels like the rest of the guests, including his daughter played by that week’s host and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion, are playing a cruel joke on him. Thompson as a cranky old coot is always going to be hilarious, but when the deer pops up inside of the home and Thompson hits the fuzzy prop deer with a backward punch was a true season highlight for me. 

1. Lisa from Temecula

Every now and then you’ll get a ‘SNL’ moment that you know immediately is going to live on in the show’s lore forever and this season’s moment that feels most likely to be that was Lisa from Temecula, the ridiculous comedy stylings of Ego Nwodim and a cast that absolutely can’t keep from breaking throughout it all. Lisa from Temecula became the modern-day version of Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer and the fact that it was the evening’s final sketch was wild – though the show no longer seems to be saving its worst for last as it so often did in the past. Lisa (Nwodim) is joining her sister Shayna (Punkie Johnson) at a dinner with a group of friends (Pedro Pascal, Molly Kearney and Bowen Yang) and is very particular about her meat. I’ve been occasionally repeating “COOK MY MEAT!” ever since this sketch aired in early February. But it’s the forcefulness of Nwodim cutting the steak and violently shaking the table that really makes everyone involved lose it. This could easily be Nwodim’s most iconic moment of her time on the show, which for some reason seems underrated by many. They even brought Lisa from Temecula back later in the season, in what turned into the season finale (due to the WGA Writer’s Strike) hosted by Ana de Armas, but it wasn’t quite as magical the second time around … how could it possibly be? 

Deadloch – Amazon Prime Video – Friday, June 2
I saw “Deadloch,” which will be premiering on Amazon Prime Video tomorrow (Friday, June 2), referred to as an Australian comedy “Broadchurch.” That was enough for me. The series is created and written by Australian comedy duo Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, whom I’m unfamiliar with, features an outsider detective coming to the town of Deadloch, Tasmania to investigate the death of a local man as preparations are being made for the town’s Winter Feastival. 

Based on a True Story – Peacock – Thursday, June 8
Peacock has been on a bit of a run this year with originals like “Poker Face” and “Mrs. Davis,” and the latest comedy-thriller from the streamer has a big lead in Kaley Cuoco anchoring it. The series, created and written by Craig Rosenberg, sees a real estate agent, a plumber and a former tennis star seize an opportunity to profit off America’s obsession with true crime. The series will co-star Chris Messina and Natalia Dyer. All eight episodes will drop on Thursday, June 8.  

The Crowded Room – AppleTV+ - Friday, June 9
AppleTV+’s latest miniseries “The Crowded Room,” comes from Akiva Goldsman and is inspired by the 1981 non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes. The psychological thriller has a big-name cast including Tom Holland, Amanda Seyfried and Emmy Rossum and follows a man, played by Holland, after his arrest for an involvement in a New York City shooting in 1979, as he tells his life story through a series of interviews with an interrogator, played by Seyfried. The first three episodes of the series will drop on Friday, June 9 with the final seven airing weekly after that. 

The Bear Season 2 – Hulu – Thursday, June 22
Hulu’s “The Bear” (an FX production) was my favorite television series of 2022, so it automatically becomes my most anticipated show for 2023. The second season, which premieres Thursday, June 22, will pick up the series as something of a rebirth from the first season, which ended with Chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) closing down the family restaurant in hopes of building something bigger and better after coming into a windfall. The first season was damn near perfect, so with the anticipation of the second season also comes the anxiousness of whether or not showrunner Christopher Storer can continue without messing things up.  

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concert – Paramount+ - Wednesday, June 28
There’s no group in rock music like Bruce Springsteen and his “heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary” E Street Band. And for the first time, a wide audience will get to see one of the band’s most legendary live shows – the 1979 No Nukes Concert, which comes to Paramount+ for its streaming debut (it was originally released in 2021) on Wednesday, June 28. The band’s “Live in New York City” from 2001 will also come to the streamer, but it’s been widely available over the years and likely seen by all E Street fans multiple times.