SNL After Party 11/15/25 - S51 E6 “Her New Boyfriend Didn’t Like My Story About Meeting Steely Dan”
Host: Glenn Powell
Musical Guest: Olivia Dean
First time host and star of the upcoming Running Man remake takes to stage at Studio 8H. Is he a fireball, or is his performance sub-zero?
Let’s find out at The After Party
Cold Open:
Ashley Padilla is White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt fielding questions from the press, mainly about the Epstein files. At one point she tells a CNN reporter, “You know you suck, right?”
It starts off funny enough, but then of course, James Austin Johnson has to jump in as Trump. And, of course he’s good and has some funny lines. (“If there was something incriminating in the files, why would I cover them up?”)
But, we are well past the point of there being too many of these opens. Why not just stick with a presser about Trump without bringing him in? It could have been funny if, say, Megan Kelley could have come in to defend her bizarre quote this week.
But no. We had to play it safe, and this whole Trump in the cold open bit has become boring. I even fell like me complaining about it is getting boring. So sorry for that.
Monologue
Glen Powell is an affable guy. He showed a bit of a student film, and talked about how he was supposed to have hosted years ago to promote Top Gun: Maverick. But the movie was delayed due to COVID, and Lorne Michaels cancelled him by calling him and saying “Without Top Gun no on will know who the F you are.”
The best part of the story was that when he was getting the news that he was supposed to host back then, a UPS driver showed up at his house while the family was celebrating. They explained why, and took a selfie with the driver. Presumably, the driver assumed Powell was just lying for years. So, Powell flew in the driver for this weeks show, and even brought him on stage. He concluded the monologue by saying, “The Beat things in life don’t happen overnight. And no one knows that better than UPS.” It was cute, and I choose to believe the whole thing was real and not some made up bit.
AI Photos:
An old woman’s (Padilla) grandchildren visit her in a nursing home for Thanksgiving. As a gift, they uploaded her old photos into a service that animates them with AI. The photos of her parents (Powell and Veronika Slowikowska) start out simple and sweet, but then the AI starts to go wonky, creating some hilarious visuals. This is amped up when there’s a picture of Powell with his best friend (Mikey Day), who drops his pants to reveal a Ken doll anatomy. It’s wildly funny and original, and gets the show headed in a great direction.
I Miss My Ex’s Dad:
In this pre-taped music video, Tommy Brennan and Ben Marshall sing a country tune about how much they miss their ex-girlfriend’s dads (Powell and Kenan Thompson). Powell, in particular, adds strong energy as a ponytailed dad who misses his daughter’s ex as well.
It’s a fun, and funny, song with some great bits.
Sebastian Manascalco:
Well, they can’t all be winners.
In this sketch, Powell’s bachelor party is ground to a halt (much like this episode) when his old friend and stand up comic Sebastian Maniscalco (Marcello Hernandez) pops in. Hernandez’s impersonation is okay, I guess, though he really has the comic’s physicality down. Still, this one joke premise is about three minutes too long, and is not saved by Chloe FIneman showing up as Jennifer Coolidge (who was hired as the stripper). Fineman did nail the impersonation The sketch overall though was just meh.
Norwegian Movie:
Day directs a Norwegian film (Scent of a Marriage) starring Powell and Fineman. They are both outstanding in presenting the downbeat character work from such films, but the bit is how enthusiastic they are when the camera’s not rolling. The performances here are well executed. Other cast members include Jane Wicklane as the clapboard operator (I bet there’s a better name for that). And, it may be the funniest thing she’s done on the show so far.
Jeremy Culhane as the son (combined with his odd turn last week in the Pinwheel sketch last week) is making a place for himself as “odd little fellow,” and who knew JAJ had a Stellan Skarsgard up his sleeve?
MacGruber:
Will Forte pops in to revive his MacGruber character for three sketches. Fineman takes on the Kristin Wiig role, with Powell taking on the usual rotating assistant role. This was exciting to see - for a moment. But then, when all three of the Macgruber segments were about our hero being in the Epstein files, it got a little tiresome. Still, I am always happy to see (and lately just hear) Forte in anything.
Bob Army:
I feel there is an excellent chance that Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman teamed up to write this very odd sketch.
The setup is that Andrew Dismukes has to decide whether he will serve in the Slay Division or the Bang battalion. One group has bobbed hair and green uniforms, while the other has bangs and blue fatigues. It’s hard to describe this one, but it has great costumes, vogue dancing, snappy zingers, and JAJ doing a hilarious bit that you should just watch instead of having me inadequately describe it.
This was a weird sketch that is on the line of enchantingly weird and kind just okay, but kudos for doing something original, odd, and clearly fun for the cast and host.
Key note here, Marshall is a giant compared to Slowikowska
Weekend Update:
The jokes this week were sharp and at just the right level of upsetting. We have stuff on the Epstein emails (a notation the Epstein’s email address was “jeevacation@gmail.com”, which Jost noted was the equivalent of Jeffrey Dahmer having the email “DinnertimeJeff@yahoo.com”
Che has some real zingers about the allegations from the emails relating to Trump and Clinton, and says he doesn’t know if the story is true, but that the image is burned into his brain “like that scene from The Shining.” (Complete with disturbing doctored over the shoulder graphic).
Speaking of doctored video, Che introduces a very funny edit of Trump’s January 6 speech. This was one brought the house down.
I could go on, but the jokes this week were uniformly strong, sometimes inappropriate, and delivered with great aplomb.
I haven’t heard the audience react this well to the news in some time.
No desk guests showed up this week, and it seems to have made Update hit stronger. Sometimes those visits can grind Update to a halt.
Just something to consider.
By the way, the final story was a great shot at Jost. He was either genuinely surprised or is a better actor than he appears to be.
In any event, this was a great Update.
Taken: Airport:
Well, here we go. Another impersonation based sketch.
The setup here is that Fineman and Dismukes are at an airport waiting for their daughter to arrive after being rescued from traffickers by Fineman’s ex. It’s Powell playing Liam Neeson’s character from the Taken series (the last movie of that franchise came out nearly a decade ago).
The sketch mainly focuses on Dismukes trying to show he’s as manly as Powell, which, of course, he is not. This is Dismukes’ wheelhouse, but this seemed like a weird path. Not bad. More just kinda puzzling.
Haircut:
In the second hair-based sketch of the night, Padilla meets friends after getting a horrific haircut. There is little to this sketch other than just how bad the haircut is, but good gracious Padilla makes a meal of it. This is another in a series of sketches that arguably are not hilarious, but in which Padilla knocks it out of the park with her character work.
The sketch had no ending, but the scene served its purpose.
The Goodbye Wave:
Best Sketch:
I have a rule that I won’t list Update overall as the best sketch if there’s an arguable contender amon the traditional sketches. I could easily abandon that rule this week, but I won’t. I Photos. This was silly, original, and was a fun take on the issues with AI. I think many of us will be haunted by Mikey Day’s showing in this one.
Worst Sketch: Sebastian Maniscalco. I just didn’t enjoy this. Hernandez was silly and fun in his movements, but this one just failed to connect for me.
Random Notes:
I am not sure they know what to do with Veronika Slowikowska yet. She doesn’t seem to have found a niche yet.
Olivia Dean’s two numbers had a 1960’s torch singer vibe. They were simple performance pieces, which is nice to see from time to time. I’m not sure where I am on her, but I appreciated the simplicity for her style.
Chloe Fineman is really stepping following Heidi Gardner’s departure. Fineman is a talented mimic, but its also good seeing her move into more solid “normal” character roles as well.
I really don’t have much to add, so instead, here’s a clip from the original Running Man movie that contains one of the greatest nonsense lines of all time.
I genuinely liked Powell in this episode. He was committed to the bits and seemed to really be having a good time. He comes across as a likable guy, and he had some really solid comic instincts. I hope he comes back sometime.
This episode was a big improvement over most, if not all, of this season. SNL should be fun, and this episode was for the most part.
Grade: B+
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