SNL After Party (S51 E4 Air Date 11/1/25) - "I Was Wondering Why I Was Dressed as a Corn”
Host: Miles Teller
Musical Guest: Brandi Carlisle
A Halloween episode of SNL! Will this bring us back to the Halcyon days of David S. Pumpkins or the Vincent Price Halloween Specials? Alas, those days seem to be a ghost of Halloween past.
But, can host Miles Teller at least provide some treats in a season that has been mainly cruel tricks?
Let’s find out at this week’s After Party!
Cold Open
In a precursor to what will - happily - be a Kenan Thompson heavy show, SNL’s longest tenured player portrays Errol Louis, of New York 1 TV as he moderates the mayoral candidate debate. Kenan notes he is “now officially the least famous person to be impersonated by SNL. But trust me, it’s uncanny.”
In this NYC centric and cameo-laden sketch, host Miles Teller is Andrew Cuomo, while comedians Ramy Youssef shows up as Zohran Mamdani and fried cast member Shane Gillis pops in as Guardian Angels founder and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.
Mandani points out that in order to get past concerns of a Muslim candidate, he will be “smiling in a way that physically hurts my face” after each answer and Sliwa makes ever increasing exaggerations about ways he’s been brutalized in New York.
It’s a perfectly fine sketch until James Austin Johnson - SURPRISE - interrupts the proceedings as Trump. Look, JAJ’s Trump is brilliant and is usually very funny, but this device is getting tiresome, particularly when there’s an entire other Trump sketch late in the show. The debate would have been fine on its own without this. Sometimes you should just follow the advice of the Beatles, and let it be.
Monologue
Teller was apparently on to promote the film, Eternity. Have I ever heard of this movie? No, no I have not. Did he mention it in the monologue? I don’t believe so.
Teller’s monologue was fairly meh. He showed a picture of him and his siblings in “Night at the Roxbury” costumes when they were kids, and discussed losing his house in the Pacific Palisades fire.
There wasn’t much to this, but it didn’t last long, so no harm done.
Hungover Halloween Game Show:
Kenan plays game show host Gay FoPay (I know, ridiculous) for this show that features contestants who are hungover after Halloween.
Teller, Veronika Slowikowska and Ben Marshall are the contestants feeling the pain from the night before. Teller “Clawed the Castle”, which involves drinking 14 White Claws then going to White Castle, Slowikowska is a sexy cat (“I’m sure it started that way”), and Marshall is a vampire who relieved himself on an ATM.
The contestants vie for a Pedialyte and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. The sketch is entertaining with some funny lines and security camera footage.
While this does not sing as a classic Halloween sketch, it is solid and funny, and as a bonus it give Slowikowska and Marshall a chance to show their chops.
Plus, I always support Kenan in a character with an idiotic name.
White House Makeover:
The Property Brothers (Teller pulling double duty) tackle the East Wing renovation of the White House in this pre-taped bit. The brothers meet up with Trump (JAJ, natch) and Melania (Chloe Fineman) in a piece mocking the White House demolition for the Trump ballroom. Trump asks which of the brothers is “married to the “New Girl” and which is gay?”
Trump points out that his decor makes him happy. “It’s important to be happy these days. Really dark stuff happening in the world. Some of it me.”
Melania gives a tour of some decorations of barren trees and skeletons, and one of the brothers compliments her Halloween decorations. She replies, “Those are for Christmas.”
Trump also says he wants to add an MMA ring on the White House lawns so “we can do bum fights again.”
The whole bit ends with Trump refusing to pay the Brothers and having ICE arrest them as they are from Canada.
The sketch overall is well done and has some very funny moments. Teller fighting with himself is a nice cherry on top.
Hockey PSA:
Three hockey players (Teller, Marshall and Tommy Brennan) cut a PSA. The joke is that Teller is a player for the Nashville Predators, so all his lines are problematic as he talks about being a Predator in the community. There are various iterations of this joke in a sketch that really goes nowhere and ends with an abrupt ending.
This is the definition of a sketch that has one arguably funny joke, but no idea what to do with it.
Missing Wives Docuseries:
This is a pre-taped commercial for a Netflix series about men whose wives went missing. The joke, however, is that either the women repeatedly told them where they were going or they were just temporarily indisposed. It’s a very funny sketch mocking mens’ helplessness and inattentiveness, and it is well executed in mocking the dramatic tone of the typical Netflix series. The writing is funny and the performances are great in this piece.
Newsroom:
Kenan and Fineman are on a newscast that just moved to an open newsroom concept. This change seems to have caught the newsroom staff off guard. Mikey Day has a series of pratfalls and a spectacular coffee spill. Teller yells at his co-workers for reporting him to HR and then proceeds to turn on his computer with an inappropriate Manga picture. Kam Patterson treats the show as an opportunity to promote himself, and Jane Wickline has trouble with a printer that fires paper out at a rapid pace, and which ultimately electrocutes Bowen Yang.
It’s a quality slapstick sketch that is entertaining and well choreographed.
Weekend Update:
The fake news (not with an open newsroom) kicks off with Jost mocking the way Trump gives Halloween candy to kids by placing it on their heads. He says it’s indicative of his entire presidency in that “It’s a violation of norms that no one has ever conceived of.”
Che opens by noting SNAP benefits are expiring, but noting that the government “still provides needy families with food through the second amendment,” providing the first well deserved groan of the night.
He had some others, including a joke about Kid Rock being asked to stop using the “R” word. He adds, however, “But he can….” and a piece about a golden lab who went viral on the internet for being caught on video stealing items around the house. Che noted that a black lab who did the same thing did not have as a positive an outcome. A dumb joke making a strong point.
Bowen Yang returned to the desk as George Santos who declares that he won the New York Marathon (which was not actually run until the next day). At another point, Colin asks him to stop touching him under the table. Santos reveals he was only stealing Jost’s wallet, which is open to pictures of all the female SNL cast members. Jost shouts “Give me back my angels!” No one delivers jokes about himself better than Jost, particularly in his ability to show he is very much in on it.
Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla visited the desk as a couple who just hooked up talking about the government shutdown. While both turned in great performances, the bit just wasn’t particularly funny. It felt kind of like a slog. But, again, I can’t emphasize enough, that acting-wise these two crushed it.
Murder Press Conference:
A press conference about a serial killer morphs into a reporter (Dismukes) explaining the premise of his proposed comic book, Gar-Girl. (“Half gargoyle, half girl, all justice”).
It’s funny enough for a bit, but they clearly had absolutely no idea how to end the thing. Nonetheless, nice twist on the usual press conference sketch anyway.
Italian Restaurant Date:
The amorous waiter trope is one that SNL seems to forget it has mined repeatedly. Dana Carvey and Rob Schneider did it in 1991 with Kirstie Alley. Carvey and Adam Sandler offered diners pepper in that same era. Walton Goggins had the honors last season (May of this year), and now Teller and Marcello Hernandez take their turn as they serve Dismukes and Chloe FIneman.
This is absolutely nothing new. The waiters lavish attention on Fineman while neglecting and insulting (and hurling salad at) Dismukes.
Kenan is Chef Mario who comes out to yell at Dismukes for not enjoying the experience. When Dismukes says he assumed Mario would be Italian, Kenan replies, “If we’re sharing thoughts, you look like an old boy.”
The whole sketch then had a startlingly abrupt ending. Again, here’s a one concept sketch that really had nowhere to go.
Did Kenan do a good impression of Errol Louis? You be the judge.
This episode was a marked improvement for the season. Although there were a couple of clunkers, the overall sketch quality was strong. Maybe reports of SNL’s demise are, as usual, exaggerated.
Grade: B.
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