{"id":296917,"date":"2025-10-12T09:18:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296917\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:18:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:18:26","slug":"snl-recap-amy-poehler-hosts-and-returns-to-weekend-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/296917\/","title":{"rendered":"‘SNL’ recap: Amy Poehler hosts and returns to ‘Weekend Update’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After last week\u2019s worrisome Season 51 debut with Bad Bunny<\/a>, it seemed like a 50\/50 chance on whether the second episode of the season with guest host and beloved \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d alum Amy Poehler would turn things around. Would the writing feel sharper and less obvious in the hands of a veteran sketch performer?<\/p>\n

Poehler, host of the popular podcast \u201cGood Hang<\/a>,\u201d made all the right moves and may have even overextended herself, appearing in almost every sketch, including the cold open and \u201cWeekend Update\u201d for a joke-off. You could (and should) give Poehler lots of credit for her boundless energy, which lifted weaker sketches, like one about a menopausal mom who goes goth<\/a> and one where Poehler and Bowen Yang are the composers of the \u201cSeverance\u201d opening theme<\/a> (the joke is that their theme songs always start with a \u201cFresh Prince of Bel-Air\u201d-like rap as their first draft).<\/p>\n

But Poehler also benefited from much stronger sketch premises compared to last week\u2019s, from a beautifully performed sketch about a TV psychic, Miss Lycus<\/a>, who rushes everyone because she has a hard out at 7 p.m., to a spot-on parody of Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Hunting Wives,\u201d<\/a> with a guest appearance from Poehler\u2019s \u201cParks & Recreation\u201d co-star Aubrey Plaza. The writing afforded Poehler with big, broad characters, like a CEO giving birth during a meeting with her employees<\/a>, the matriarch in a family of jerks called The Rudemans<\/a> and an elderly lawyer who interrupts a TV commercial to one-up other lawyers on the basis of having the most experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poehler also got a little help from some long-time friends and alums, including Tina Fey, appearing as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the cold open, and Seth Meyers, returning to the \u201cWeekend Update\u201d desk with Poehler and Fey.<\/p>\n

Maybe podcasting has allowed Poehler to store some stage energy to burst-fire on \u201cSNL\u201d; she put in a great performance for a solid episode overall.<\/p>\n

Musical guests Role Model performed \u201cSally, When The Wine Runs Out,<\/a>\u201d with a surprise appearance from Charli XCX as Sally, and \u201cSome Protector<\/a>.\u201d Before the close, \u201cSNL\u201d memorialized Diane Keaton, whose death was announced Saturday<\/a>, in a title card. She never hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d but was portrayed on the show multiple times.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The cold open this week parodied Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi\u2019s contentious meeting this week with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a>. Poehler appeared as Bondi and responded to questions from Democratic senators with a series of withering insults she described as \u201croast-style burns I have on this piece of paper.\u201d After mocking them and avoiding questions about the indictment of James Comey and the Jeffrey Epstein files, Bondi makes way for Noem (Fey, returning to \u201cSNL\u201d cold open politics), who joins in the mocking, telling one senator, \u201cThat makes me laugh more than the end of \u2018Old Yeller.\u2019 \u201d After being reminded that a dog gets shot at the end of that film, she responds, \u201cDogs don\u2019t just get shot. Heroes shoot them.\u201d While the first half of the cold open was shaky, with insults that weren\u2019t landing despite Poehler\u2019s forceful delivery, Fey\u2019s appearance livened things up and ended strong with a call-and-response between Fey and Poehler that made fun of ICE recruitment ads. \u201cDo you take supplements that you bought at a gas station?\u201d Noem asked, \u201cbuckle up and slap on some Oakleys, big boy, and welcome to ICE!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Poehler\u2019s monologue was sweet, wistful and self-deprecating. \u201cI found my first love here,\u201d she said, \u201cbeing famous.\u201d She went on to describe her life now, saying, \u201cI am a podcaster. If that\u2019s not a recession indicator, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d She also pointed out that this episode marked the actual 50-year anniversary of \u201cSNL,\u201d which first aired on Oct. 11, 1975. \u201cJust like (host) George Carlin, I am extremely high,\u201d she said. Poehler poked fun at AI actors who\u2019ve been in the news<\/a> and might want to take her job. \u201cYou\u2019ll never be able to write a joke, and I am willing to do full frontal, but nobody\u2019s asked me, OK?\u201d she concluded defiantly.<\/p>\n

Best sketch of the night: The thigh squeezes are bigger in Texas, too \"\" <\/p>\n

It may be a little late to the party (the show came out in July), but this mock trailer for Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Hunting Wives\u201d hits all the right notes with Poehler as frequently topless Margo and Chloe Fineman as Sophie (Malin Ackerman and Brittany Snow, respectively, on the series). The trailer promises that as the women get hornier and drunker, thighs will be squeezed and guns will be drawn. Aubrey Plaza appears as a new wife from California and soon she\u2019s being caressed by all the other women in the cast as they make mimosas. A few great lines from this one: \u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018Call Me By Your Name\u2019 for women who shop at Bass Pro Shop,\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t watch it on a plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also good: Don\u2019t settle for just 100 years of legal experience \"\" <\/p>\n

Pohler\u2019s character in the Psychic Talk Show sketch<\/a> was very funny, but the sketch about one-upping lawyers edges it out only because it goes to some extremely weird and dumb places for much longer than needed and incorporates what looked like the entire cast. What starts as a basic personal injury lawyer commercial explaining how the firm has 50 years of combined experience ends up including long-living turtles, Sarah Sherman as a vampire attorney named Dracu-Law, and an ageless tree, Yggdrasil (Yang), who once represented Zeus.<\/p>\n

\u2018Weekend Update\u2019 winner: Someday, that 13-pound baby is going to watch this \"\" <\/p>\n

On a packed \u201cWeekend Update,\u201d Sherman debuted over-caffeinated Long Islander Rhonda LaCenzo<\/a>, who rails against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. And Marcello Hern\u00e1ndez and Jane Wickline returned as a seemingly mismatched couple<\/a> discussing their Halloween plans. But it was an epic joke-off featuring past \u201cUpdate\u201d anchors Poehler, Fey and Meyers facing off against current ones Colin Jost and Michael Che to make fun of the birth of a nearly 13-pound baby born in Tennessee. \u201cIt was so big that he slapped the doctor on his ass!\u201d Poehler began. Some of the better jokes: \u201cThe woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon.\u201d \u201cDid she give birth or did it drive out?\u201d \u201cThe baby\u2019s name is AHHHHH!\u201d Poehler rounded out the contest by declaring, \u201cThe record was for loosest vagina and the previous held\u2026 by me!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After last week\u2019s worrisome Season 51 debut with Bad Bunny, it seemed like a 50\/50 chance on whether…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":296918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[151506,91055,11329,1582,276,141157,11660,151505,151507,2961,26822,224,5337,38612,151504,81626,1933,1015,69822,11459],"class_list":{"0":"post-296917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-amy-poehler-host","9":"tag-birth","10":"tag-bondi","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-cold-open","14":"tag-fun","15":"tag-guest-host","16":"tag-joke","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-last-week","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-meeting","22":"tag-poehler","23":"tag-sketch","24":"tag-snl","25":"tag-tina-fey","26":"tag-weekend-update","27":"tag-woman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}