SNL After Party (S51 E2 Air Date 10/11/25) - "Anyways, Yeah”
Host: Amy Poehler
Musical Guest: Role Model
If I were an adherent of Marie Kondo’s teachings, I would probably give up on SNL this season. For lo, it is not sparking joy. Maybe the show is in a funk, or maybe it’s me. Who can say. But, for better or for worse, I am not a Kondite, so I’m sticking with the gang at 30 Rock.
If nothing else, I like hanging out at the After Party. And, hey at least Amy Poehler and some old friends are here this week. Join me for a drink, won’t you?
Cold open:
Right off the bat, host Amy Poehler makes an appearance as Attorney General Pam Bondi testifying before Congress. Her opening line of “What’s up, nerds?” cheered me up, because it reminded me of old school Amy. There were some good lines such as Bondi referring to her last name by saying, “I spell it with an i, because I ain’t going to answer any questions.” And, when asked about the Epstein files she said, “I’m not going to even dignify that question with a lie.”
But something seemed off. The energy was oddly flat, and the jokes weren’t landing.
Fortunately, Poehler got some nostalgic backup when her former Weekend Update co-host Tina Fey appeared as Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. When asked a question by one legislator, Noem derisively said,
“That makes me laugh more than the end of Old Yeller.” Poehler and Fey then did an impromptu ad for ICE agents that was well executed and showed that the two still have amazing comedic chemistry. So, by the end, the cold open was redeemed.
Monologue
Poehler waxes poetic about her days as a cast member on SNL (2001-2008). “I found my first love here…being famous,” Poehler quipped. She noted that the episode was the actual 50th anniversary of the first SNL, which was hosted by George Carlin “And just like George Carlin, I am extremely high,” she quipped. She also noted that SNL is like many of us after reaching 50, in that “She’s obviously stopped caring.”
Poehler brought out the new cast members and did the obligatory dismissal of them, but this set a trend. The new cast members, while doing little notable this week, did get airtime.
All that said, the show is off to a middling start.
The Rudemans:
Goodness, speaking of nostalgia. This was a sketch that felt like one of those one-joke recurring sketches that have haunted SNL’s history, but this one definitely felt like it was from the 90’s-00’s.
In this sketch, Ashley Padilla brings Andrew Dismukes home to meet her family. (Bowen Yang and Poehler as the parents, Sarah Sherman as the grandmother, and Mikey Day as her brother).
The whole premise is that the family seems really cold and rude. That’s it. At least until Sherman drops a giant bowl of queso while falling onto a table.
This sketch was tedious and the weirdness towards the end felt forced.
Non Alcoholic Beer:
In this taped ad, Dismukes (who is really getting a lot of airtime!) extols the virtues of non-non alcoholic beer. That double negative is “what our lawyers call the skeleton key.” It’s a funny enough bit, with some good lines. It’s a perfectly serviceable fake ad.
Psychic Talk Show:
Poehler is Miss Lycus, a psychic who is rude, blunt and has a hard out at 7, so she gives very terse answers. She claims everyone is dead, and when one audience member asks about their grandfather, Poehler says “He says hi from Hell, does that make sense to you.”
This is a fun sketch, and it gives lots of new cast members some air-time. This one works reasonably well.
The Hunting Wives, Season 2:
In this taped ad for a rushed season 2 of the Netflix series, Chloe Fineman, Poehler, Sherman, and Padilla have a good time camping it up in the “straight but lesbian horny Republican murder drama.”
They are joined by Poehler’s Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza in the pitch for the show that’s reviewed a “It’s like Call me by My Name for women who shop at Bass Pro Shop” and which is hailed as the show that has “healed our nation.”
This is funny and absurd, and gives the episode a spark of energy. Just don’t watch it on a plane.
Work Birth:
Poehler is a hard-charging manager who is past her delivery date, but refuses to slow down. Newbie Tommy Brennan, along with Sherman and Padilla go through a pitch while things getting increasingly more uncomfortable. Poehler ends up running the meeting from an inflatable birthing pool in the office, as she is coached Zacharia, the doula she found on Facebook marketplace (and played by semi-new face Ben Marshall). Mikey Day then appears as her husband who joins her int he pool, and Kenan wanders in to phone in a line as a UPS driver. Finally, the whole thing ends with Poehler giving birth to a fully grown Bowen Yang.
I don’t know, man.
Weekend Update
The fake news had the usual hit to miss ratio with the audience. Che and Jost discussed the Middle East cease fire and troops being deployed to Chicago. (“Only Trump can Freaky Friday Chicago and the Middle East.”)
They mocked a Trump silver dollar, revealing the back featured the President with Harriet Tubman in a headlock and “Fight! Fight! Fight!” above.
The biggest laugh (other than the desk) for me came when Che showed an AI video he made of Colin dancing beside Trump and Daniel Epstein (followed with a “Ha, Ha! You suck!).
The desk guest slots were full to overflowing this week. Sherman was a nervous Long Island woman concerned about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Sherman is always great with an unhinged character, but this one was a tad NYC-centric. Hernandez and Jane Wickline brought back their couple that shouldn’t be together. This is a thankless role for Wickline, and it’s unclear why this is a repeat bit. We get it, he’s enthusiastic and she doesn’t say much (although, I will admit that her line that she is going to Halloween as Sylvia Plath because “it’s the one day a year you can dress as a slut” made me laugh).
The highlight of Update came following a joke after a joke about a Tennessee woman giving birth to a 13-pound baby. After Jost’s punchline comparing the baby to the Kool-Aid Man, Poehler popped in along with Fey and Seth Meyers for a joke-off on the topic. The bit was fun, high energy, and hilarious. Some of the punchlines included, “once the baby was out the woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon.” And, “A woman in Tennessee gave birth to a 13-pound baby because it’s Tennessee and the baby is also pregnant.” Ouch!
Experienced Lawyers:
Sometime you have to admire the artistry of the writers for crafting a sketch that could be used to teach an aspect of comedy writing. In this case, the core concept is “heightening.”
The sketch starts as a standard attorney commercial with Dismukes and James Austin Johnson discussing their years of experience and some words from their happy clients. Then Poehler busts through the wall as attorney Lachlan Mulchburger describing his 75 years of legal experience and noting “I’m old and jacked as hell!”
Mulchburger is followed by The Drabble Sisters, three octogenarian attorneys. Then we get clones, a vampire lawyer, and finally Yang as Yggdrasil the Evertree, whose client testimonial comes from Zeus (Thompson).
It’s ridiculous, absurd, and brilliantly constructed.
Emo Mom:
This one feels like a sketch that would have been at home in a high school sketch show. Poehler is a mom going through an emo phase. It hits the beats you’d expect, and misses the mark on laughs. Unlike Poehler who threw her phone and squarely hit a prop window smashing it. So that’s something!
Life is pain, indeed. (Fun fact, this is the same slot that had Hernandez as an emo teen last week).
Theme Song Masterclass:
Poehler and Yang address students at Julliard about theme song composition. They reveal their first drafts of themes for shows like Severance and The Gilded Age, which made no sense.
Yang has fun threatening to beat the students. Otherwise, this one was just kinda meh.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch
My inclination was to give this to the Weekend Update joke-off, but I decided that the rest of Update wasn’t strong enough to support this decision. So, for technical skill, I’m going with Experienced Lawyers.
Worst Sketch
The Rudemans. Please don’t let this become a thing.
Random Notes
This week’s musical guest, Role Model, also brought in a cameo guest with Charli XCX, for some reason.
All the new cast members got a little screen time. Ben Marshall fared best as the Facebook marketplace doula.
There was an in memoriam bumper card for Diane Keaton. The actress never appeared on the show, but she had been portrayed by different cast members over the years.
Bringing in SNL royalty like Poehler does raise the stakes, or at least the expectations. The show was smart to reel in Tina Fey as well, as Pohler and Fey always work well off each other. But, something just felt off with the show. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but it just didn’t have the energy one might expect with Poehler coming home. Maybe it’s the growing pains of trying to find the new cohort of performers something to do. Maybe it’s the buzz wearing off after the 50th season blasts. Or maybe I’m just getting old and tired. Or some combination of all of the above.
I had hoped for more, but am glad for the shot of nostalgia I did get.
Episode Grade: C
As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general. If you want to support our content, consider subscribing on Substack
