SNL After Party 12/20/25 - S51 E8 “I’ll Miss You Too, Kenan Thompson”
Host: Ariana Grande
Musical Guest: Cher
Ariana Grande returns to host SNL as she promotes the Wicked sequel that almost certainly needs no promotional help. But will Glinda’s return be overshadowed by the exit of Bowen Yang?
Let’s find out at this week’s After Party
Cold Open:
Look, Im as tired of saying it as I am sure you are of reading it. But, guess what? We have a Trump called opening. How original and exciting!
In this installment, James Austin Johnson trots out the Commander-in-Chief as he gives an address. Yes, there’s some funny writing. Yes, JAJ is great. But, man, I am fatigued with the predictability of this being the cold open week after week after week.
Let’s find something - anything else - we can open the show with every other week at least. I beg of you.
Monologue
Grande is charming. I’ll admit that much. The Wicked For Good star jokes she won’t be bringing back characters she previously played on SNL by noting that “If something is perfect, it doesn’t need a sequel.” She then parodies “All I want for Christmas is You” by singing a song about what to get her cousin Steve’s boyfriend for the holidays.
News broke late this week that last night’s show would be Bowen Yang’s final episode., and when he showed up to join Grande in the song, he got a very long applause break. It was the first indication that tonight would be all about Bowen leaving. Was that a good thing or not? Let’s see,
Elf On The Shelf Support Group:
Andrew Dismukes leads a support group for elves on shelves. All the elves have silly names, high-pitched voices, and have experienced traumatic events. Grande was ripped in half by a cat, Jeremy Culhane was lost in the couch where he went insane, and Mikey Day was posed in improper poses in a fraternity house. Meanwhile, Cam Patterson and Kenan Thompson explode when they think inappropriate thoughts.
It’s a cute enough sketch. It’s cute if not hilarious, and it does outlast its welcome. But, hey, it’s the holidays, so I won’t be too critical of this one.
Home Alone:
I think the setup here was that this was a lost ending to the classic comedy. In this version, Grande is a dead ringer for Macauly Culkin’s Kevin. In this version, he is awakened by his mother (Ashley Padilla) coming home. Soon, the rest of the family returns and set off the traps Kevin forgot to disarm after the apprehension of the Wet Bandits. This turns into a Grand Guignol production of blood, flames and severed limbs.
It’s a funny sketch in the tradition of the bloody Christmas Carol piece a few years ago. So, it’s fun if derivative.
Dancing 101:
Grande and Marcello Hernandez return as the dance instructors who have some dance experience. They get their students to express themselves through dance..
There’s not much to this other than silly dancing. It certainly didn’t warrant a repeat performance.
Random Duet Christmas Spectacular:
Another traditional format returns as we see various unexpected Christmas duets (Bob Dylan and Katie Perry; Bruce Springsteen and Bad Bunny; and a particularly entertaining Kate Bush and Yoko Ono). It’s a reliable format. This one is not overall that great, particularly a wrap up with Andrea Boccellli and Celine Dionne doing an extended song that isn’t , well, funny.
Black Santa:
Mikey Day prosecutes Kenan Thompson who claims to be “Black Santa”. Judge Grande seems to buy his argument (presented through a parody of musical guest, Cher’s, hit “Believe”).
When confronted with the fact that he can’t be Santa because he is a burglar and a pervert, Kenan says “Why can’t I be both?”.
This one flies mainly on the strength of Kenan’s reliable characterization.
Weekend Update:
So, I was expecting two things. The annual joke exchange and a final desk appearance by Yang. I was not disappointed on either count.
Jost acted like the joke exchange wasn’t going to happen, and that Che had said he wasn’t going to write any jokes. But, it turns out Che did write jokes for Jost to read sight unseen. Of course they were funny and of course they were wildly inappropriate. Sadly, only having half the usual jokes was a bit of a disappointment.
For the desk visits, Kam Patterson appears as Che’s twelve-year-old nephew who sounds cute, but who threatens Santa.. It’s kinda just there, but at least it got Patterson some serious air-time.
But, Yang shows up with surprise guest former cast member Aidy Bryant to reunite the trend forecasters. They discuss what is in and out. (Mistletoe is out because there’s already one of those, it’s called . . . marjiuana!”) This is one of those bits that you either love or hate (a theme Yang addresses later). It works for me, and combined with the truncated joke exchange, made for a solid update.
Love Is Blind Reunion:
This is a sketch that could not have seemed better on paper than it did in execution. In this game show parody Grande is paired up with Day who is, in fact, The Grinch. That is the sum of the hilarity of this sketch.
Delta Lounge:
Yang serves eggnog and farewells in his last shift at the airport lounge. This is a sweet goodby for Yang, and he seems to be fighting back tears through most of it. Grande assists as Yang’s wife (I think) by prompting him to reminisce about the nog he’s served over the years.
“Some of it was great. Some of it was rotten. A lot of it got cut,” Yang says.
He adds that he is a lot like egg nog. It’s not for everyone, but the people who like it are his kind of people.
Following a version of Christmas Baby, Yang says he needs to speak to his boss. And, instead of the expected Lorne Michales appearance, Cher entered the scene to sum up Yang’s character’s tenure by saying “Everyone thought you were a little bit too gay . . . but you were perfect for me.”
This was a lovely sendoff for Yang and his reliable quirkiness. I will miss Yang and the wonderful oddness he brought to the show.
The Goodbye Wave:
Best Sketch:
Bowen Yang’s final sketch was sweet, heartfelt and, dare I say it, moving. It may not have been the funniest sketch of the night, but Delta Lounge is the one with the most feels. So, I’m going to go with this one as a fine tribute to Bowen Yang.
Worst Sketch:
The sketch count was low this week, but even so there were a number of possible contenders for this dubious honor. I think I have to go with Love Is Blind Reunion, but you could easily convince me to switch to Dancing 101, or even the cold open on principle.
Random Notes:
The number of post Update sketches was shockingly low. At least two sketches got cut for time (see them below). I’m not going to argue that these cuts were a bad call….
It’s been nearly 40 (!) years since Cher performed as musical guest on SNL. It was woefully apparent that she was li synching her first number, but she appears to have really sung Run Rudolph, Run (with accompaniment by Captain Kirk Douglas of The Roots), and the crowd was pretty darn pleased with this. Cher - at age 79 - can still put on a show.
We had a bumper card for Rob Reiner, who was tragically murdered this week. Reiner was the host of the third episode of the inaugural season for SNL.
Ashley Padilla was ratcheted way back this week.
This was by and large not a great episode. Grande is a good host and player, and the farewell to Bowen Yang was sweet. But, a lot of the material this week was just okay. Even the joke exchange - usually an annual highlight - suffered from being cut short.
Still, this was a nice episode with a perfect exit tone for Yang.
It wasn’t a Christmas miracle, but it didn’t leave us saying “Bah, humbug!”
Grade: B
Here are the cut for time sketches:
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