Best, Worst Moments from Charli XCX's 'SNL'

by Julian Spivey

Charli XCX, one of the biggest pop stars of 2024, played double duty on “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, November 16, for the show’s seventh episode of its milestone 50th season.

Typically, musicians serving double duty on the show don’t excite me, as they’re not as well experienced in the acting and comedy aspect as I’d like from a host of a sketch comedy show. But Charli XCX seemed capable of holding her own with the ‘SNL’ cast on Saturday. The show wasn’t great – but that’s all in the writing – but she was charming and game for anything.

Here are the highlights and lowlights from the episode: 

Photo: NBC

Best:
The single funniest moment of this week’s ‘SNL’ was Sarah Sherman on Weekend Update as Peanut the Squirrel’s Widow. It’s the perfect Update character for the wacky Sherman, who always gets laughs playing against Update anchor Colin Jost. Her impression of a squirrel crossing the road and seeing a car is among the heaviest I’ve laughed at the show so far this season. 

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Worst:
I understand that ‘SNL’ is trying to get into the mindset as to how the country has once again elected Donald Trump as President and, while doing it it’s sufficiently showing the Trump Bros as the imbeciles they are, but it’s also something many of us simply do not want to see right now. Case in point, the Banger Boyz podcast, poking fun at the Nelk Boys (who I, thankfully, had never heard of before Trump recently appeared on their podcast). We see this type of person too often in the real world, and I really don’t want to spend part of my ‘SNL’ experience with them. 

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Best:
I enjoyed some of Colin Jost’s pokes at President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet choices, particularly that of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General in which he said: “On Wednesday, Trump nominated Matt Gaetz for Attorney General and Gaetz said the same thing he does when he sees a teenage girl, ‘I’ll do it!’” and “Gaetz, who was created when Frankenstein raped Dracula, was chosen for Attorney General after Trump remembered that his original pick was found dead in a jail cell (picture of Jeffrey Epstein on screen).” 

Worst:
‘SNL’ stumbled into a viral hit during the Ariana Grande-hosted episode with the “Domingo” sketch featuring bridesmaids singing about a bachelorette trip to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” telling the story about how the bride-to-be cheated on her fiancé with the suave Domingo. The sketch wasn’t all that great, but it blew up on TikTok, and when something gets that much traction, you know ‘SNL’ will beat it into the ground. And, four weeks later, they’ve done so again with the bride being pregnant and not knowing who’s baby it is set to the music off Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go.”  I’m sure we’ll be seeing this crew again. 

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Best:
Viewers were shocked earlier this season when a new Digital Short featuring The Lonely Island boys led by Andy Samberg appeared on the show. While the Sushi Glory Hole song was certainly more shocking and delighted fans of the show, I think the second Digital Short this season, which aired this weekend, was better. Samberg and Charli XCX teamed up for “Here I Go,” a humorous song about a couple who will call the cops on anybody who gets near their property, from Girl Scouts to dogs being walked.