TThe second episode of the historical comedy show’s 50th season felt like something of a comeback on multiple levels. Popular stand-up Nate Bargatze has returned to hosting duties almost exactly a year ago after his well-received hosting debut. Meanwhile, musical guest Coldplay returned for their eighth performance. On the sketch front, there were several innovations of previous components; one from last week. And towards the last quarter of the show, the surprise return of an SNL favorite.

Following last week’s grand debuts from Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden, Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, the star-studded cameo crew, anchored by Maya Rudolph’s pitch-perfect turn as Kamala Harris, reunited to create the most recent vice presidential debate to be spoofed. Looking for a slick way to incorporate this election season’s eclectic cast of characters, the sketch flew between Rudolph’s Harris and Samberg’s Emhof as Walz took on J.D. Vance (sharply played by Bowen Yang) on ​​TV, with the cordiality between Walz and Vance had a romantic effect. here.

Samberg did what he does best by grafting his crazy boy persona onto his caricature of Emhoff, while Rudolph served as the glue that sticks everything together. This includes the nods to Walz’s dirty mishaps from last week (including his “I’m friends with school shooters” line), which are limited to Rudolph spitting out her red wine. “I should have picked Josh,” she said, with Samberg’s Emhoff assuming she was referring to possible Vice President Josh Shapiro. No, she was actually referring to the wine brand.

Carvey draws a link to the sketch show’s political history, then wanders into the room as President Biden, armed with the president’s vocal tic and non-sequiturs (“Guess what… and by the way!”) and finally a vanilla ice cream cone. cone. And yes, it does eventually trickle down to Rudolph’s Harris. The end result was an opening slapstick, relevant, cartoonish and bitingly satirical.

Bargatze is one of the modern powerhouses of stand-up comedy. Last year he broke the attendance record at Bridgestone Arena in his native Nashville, Tennessee. So if you’re not sure who he is, it may say more about the fragmented culture of the profession than it does about his personal impact on mainstream culture. Anyway, Bargatze delivered a monologue focused on securing a Door Dash, which at times was like hearing your friend’s simple repetition of an otherwise normal Door Dash order. It was endearing and unspectacular, which was probably the whole point.

The history of Saturday Night Live has a lot of nonsense about mainstream sports like football and baseball, while golf seems to be underrepresented with a few exceptions. The premise for this filmed short is about a golfer who can’t seem to stop killing animals while on the course; with each accidental killing, the consequences mount (including veterans turning their backs and a Nike representative, played by Michael Longfellow, plastering their logo on his hat in an attempt to distance the brand). It’s another sophomoric outing that wouldn’t have been out of place as a Looney Tunes cartoon, not that that’s a bad thing.

One of the most critically acclaimed sketches in recent memory occurred the last time Bargatze presented in the form of Washington’s Dream, in which America’s titular father muses on his foolish goals for the new country, with the sketch essentially doubling as commentary on the nonsensical cultural phrasing we take for granted. He’s back here in a sketch that follows the same beats and finds more commentary, including how the meat of cows and pigs is called beef and pork, while chicken is just, well, chicken. Once again, it’s the lyrics that shine here, as both the first and now this second Washington’s Dream could have felt right at home as a witty Shouts and Murmurs piece in The New Yorker.

Before the season started, cast member Marcello Hernández was brought in as a breakout star (including a Variety cover for their Power of Young Hollywood issue). Here, Hernández plays host during a parody of Univision’s long-running Sabado Gigante, where an American (Bargatze, of course) appears as a confused guest. It all went back to one of the most memorable game show sketches in the show’s history, when Chris Farley played a hapless contestant on a Japanese game show in 1994. The ’90s are really making a comeback.

The game, or premise, of this unique sketch is based on whether you should carry a corpse down from the top of a water slide or simply push it down, inspired by a longstanding stand-up routine by cast member Longfellow. As he went back and forth with Bargatze playing a different version of his laid-back self, the inherent strangeness of it made you wonder why it wasn’t aired later in the show. There’s nothing Coldplay can’t solve as the band performs their schmaltzy All My Love.

Coming off their offshoot Peacock project New York After Dark, Colin Jost and Michael Che are back in their comfort zone behind the Update desk by cutting through the aforementioned VP debate and the latest news in the Trump world, including the appearance of the former president with Elon Musk during his meeting in Pennsylvania. Notably, the jokes have turned inward, with Jost’s next time we see Trump and Musk singing together being when they both host SNL in December, a nod to the show’s tendency to occasionally stir up controversy when it comes to their hosting choices, with both Musk and Trump having both hosted in recent memory.

Meanwhile, it was Jane Wickline’s time to star in her second episode as a cast member after being recruited after taking on the under-the-radar TikTok sketch comedy series called Stapleview after gaining a following on the platform. Tonight, she made her Update debut representing Gen Z with a charming song about partying with lines like “I’m the plus one of someone who left.” It was a little stressful seeing her walk out with her keyboard on a tightrope, but in the end it looked like she had pulled it off.

Here, a family has a serious conversation about the patriarch’s dementia, while Heidi Gardner tries to devour a huge hamburger to win a trip to Disney World. The laughs here came from Gardner’s messy eating (which made cast member Yang break out). Still, it felt like a new draft seasoned by the past; this one perhaps borrows some inspiration from Debbie Downer from 2004; maybe they even nodded to it, since the sketch is set in Disney World.

For a surprise return from The Lonely Island (Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and presumably an off-camera Jorma Taccone), you’d think this would have provoked a bigger fanfare rather than being the penultimate sketch of the evening. Perhaps the late airtime stems from the raunchy subject matter, which devolves into a bevy of glory hole jokes (“Hear us out…”). Either way, the whole affair makes you long for the days when these aired regularly. Meanwhile, Coldplay takes to the stage again for We Pray, complete with support from Palestinian Chilean singer Elyanna and Argentina’s Tina and a barefoot Martin.

Maybe they put this in the classic “10 vs. 1 sketch” as it’s known, and had to cut some lines, because the simple premise, focusing on a coach and the price of jerseys, came and went in a flash, with scattered smiles to show for it. .

Overall, there didn’t seem to be a second breakdown for this second episode. While Bargatze played a version of himself in every sketch, what else do you expect from a stand-up comedian who isn’t an actor? Veterans and new cast members both found opportunities to shine, which can be a rarity due to the nature of the show. We’ll have to see what happens next week when Ariana Grande comes to Studio 8H in support of her upcoming turn in the Wicked movie.