Best, Worst of Nate Bargatze's Sophomore 'SNL' Outing

by Julian Spivey
The second episode of the milestone 50th season of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” saw stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze return as host less than a year after making his hosting debut on the show.
Bargatze’s SNL debut in season 49 was one of the best-received episodes of the season. It included memorable moments like George Washington’s Dream, which many hailed as the show’s best sketch in years, and the music video Lake Beach.

Bargatze may not have been as funny the second time, but he seemed more comfortable. The cast was clearly having a good time with him, and the show, overall, felt more relaxed than last week’s season premiere.

Here are the best and worst moments from the episode: 
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Photo: NBC

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Best
George Washington has more dreams. It was risky for ‘SNL’ to bring back last season’s best sketch for a sequel as recurring bits, something the show rarely does these days, and they are never as memorable and pleasing as the first time. And while George Washington’s feelings about the duality of many English language words weren’t quite as funny as last year’s take on the differences between England and America, it was still pretty humorous, and Bargatze, a rare host with a recurring sketch, fits the writing of the sketch perfectly with his signature deadpan humor.  

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Worst
If you had told me one of the most disappointing moments of Bargatze’s episode would’ve been his monologue before the show, I would’ve thought you were insane. Bargatze might be the single funniest stand-up comedian of this moment, and his monologue from last year was a highlight of an excellent episode. If there’s one thing Bargatze should knock out of the park on ‘SNL,’ it's his monologue. While Bargatze’s homespun humor revolving around how some words, like ‘oil’ are hard to say for Southerners and the embarrassment of having two Door Dash drivers show up at your house at the same time did provide laughs, it simply wasn’t as good as one what expect from a comedian of Bargatze’s stature. 

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Best
Heidi Gardner has been one of my favorite cast members since her debut season on the show. Her willingness to dive in and go for laughs at any cost is something I’ve always loved about her. And she certainly dove in and dove in hard during Saturday’s Mile High Burger Challenge, where her character must try to eat the largest cheeseburger you’ve ever seen in your life in 10 minutes or less. What ups the ante is that this is happening during a family conversation about what to do with their elderly father, who might have dementia. When Gardner faceplanted full speed into the burger, something that caused nearly everyone in the sketch, but especially Bowen Yang, to break, I couldn’t control my laughter. 

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Worst
There weren’t any eye-rolling-inducing sketches on ‘SNL’ this week, which is hard to do for any sketch comedy show with comedy being so hit or miss. Still, the one that spoke to me the least on Saturday night was the Sabado Gigante sketch featuring Marcello Hernandez as Don Francisco and Bargatze as a pulled-from-the-audience contestant who doesn’t understand a lick of Spanish. Bargatze does really well in these fish-out-of-water bits, but this gave me the fewest laughs of all that appeared on the show this week. 

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Best
The golf tournament pre-tape featuring Bargatze as a professional golfer having the worst of all luck had me in stitches. From the moment he hits the bird on his tee shot, you know this guy isn’t going to have anything go his way. For me, the biggest laugh was the upside-down dead turtle in the pond. The “what can possibly happen next” aspect of the sketch, coupled with Bargatze’s reactions to his horrible luck, made this one of the night’s best moments. 

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Worst
What’s going on with Please Don’t Destroy? The comedy trio of Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy appeared in nearly every season 49 episode and in many shows before that since joining the show as writers and digital video guys in 2021. It is bizarre for them not to appear in the first two episodes of season 50. It occurred to me how odd it was when this weekend’s episode featured a digital short from The Lonely Island crew with Andy Samberg, who’s been hanging around to show to play Doug Emhoff in the cold openings, and Akiva Schaffer as two businessmen rapping about a business idea called “Sushi Glory Hole.” The video/song was fun, don’t get me wrong, and it’s nice to see a Lonely Island bit in the milestone 50th season, but where are my Please Don’t Destroy guys?