James Austin Johnson back as Donald Trumppredictably shouting that Haitians eat cats and dogs and force them to attend Diddies freak-offs. But that’s what it was SNL‘s decision to tap Bowen Yang as Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, who will likely drive their campaign crazy. Being played by a gay Asian who probably knows his way around an eyeliner should eat those crazies up. And it nicely sets up a future cold open between Gaffigan’s Dog Lover and Yang’s Cat Hater after next week’s VP debate.

Yang, the evening’s MVP alongside Rudolph, was scheduled to play another baby hippo later in the evening. During Weekend Update, Yang put himself in a shiny rubber suit and flapped his little hooves to lament Moo Deng’s travails. Yang played the most famous ten-week-old zoo animal in the world and gave an almost verbatim version of it Chappell Roan‘s monologue about depression and frustration. It was focused without being annoying. My 16-year-old Chappell Roan fan and I rewinded the scene of Yang’s hippo shouting “Snake!” and biting the water jet more than a few times. Hang in there, young stars. You deserve better than whatever version of clams and bananas is being thrown at you in this wild moment of stratospheric attention.

No matter who hosted the premiere, she would always be overshadowed by the crazy headlines of the summer. And so it was with emcee Jean Slimwho cut an elegant and spirited figure throughout the episode, if not a particularly memorable one. Her monologue started with a couple ba stupid tss a la her Hacking character, Deborah Vance – jokes that are classier lines meant to get chuckles over expensive martinis – before quickly switching to a tenderly delivered rendition of Judy Garland’s “I Happen to Like New York.” Speaking of tender, how could we not cheer at the sight of her Hacking co-star (and daughter of original SNL star Laraine Newman) Hannah Einbinder lovingly standing by her side as Smart introducer’s musical guest Jelly rollhis first performance?

No, this was a premiere that had to hit the most absurd and inescapable beats of the past few months: Sabrina Timmerman ‘Espresso’, the Turkish shooter at the Olympic Games, takes out the chimpanzee Chimpanzee crazythe downfall of Diddy, the indictment of New York Mayor Eric Adamsthe disgrace of the lieutenant governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson, Hoda Kotb resignation of the Today show, Trump on Mars, Charli XCX as a cultural opinion leader.

Despite all the pinball surrounding recent events, SNL decided to end with a sketch of frothy goodness. Smart played one of them the real housewives of santa fe while the women took their fight to the cantina at Rancho Mexicano. They took turns criticizing the legitimacy of each other’s egopreneurial efforts. “So now Candles by Brie isn’t a company?!” “Tell me why Hats by Yvonne is not a company?!” “So now for-profit prisons are no longer a business?!” It’s good to laugh.