SNL After Party 1/31/26 - S51 E12 “I Heard Not One Woo From The Audience”

Host: Alexander Skarsgård

Musical Guest: Cardi B

Can a somber Swedish actor help thaw the recent batch of SNL episodes that have had a chilly reception. Or, does Alexander Skarsgård not have comedy in his true blood? Indeed, will his performance be as scary a Stephen King novel, since his family seems to have the market cornered on villains from the author’s canon?

Let’s find out at this week’s After Party!

Cold Open

Can I tell you how much joy I felt when I saw James Austin Johnson playing an ICE agent at a briefing during this cold open? This meant one important thing: he would not be playing Trump at the top of the show. The curse is lifted, my friends!

This week, Pete Davidson cameoed as Tom Homan, addressing ICE agents in Minneapolis following the removal of Gregory Bovino. Davinson assured the ICE agents in the crowd that Bovino had not been fired for the deaths of civilians or his wearing of clothing that had a bit of a Third Reich flair to it. Davidson noted it was because, "he was filmed doing those things."

When Homan informed the group of agents that their function was to only apprehend and arrest criminals, one of them stated, "This is the first I'm hearing of that."

When Homan asked the group what they thought they were supposed to be doing, another agent states, "Wild’n out?”

Davidson's Homan gets more and more flustered, noting that the Epstein files were only recently released to distract the American people from the occurrences in Minneapolis which had ironically been started in an effort to distract people from the Epstein files.

In an effort to get things back on track, Homan states, "Our purpose is to keep America safe from..." An agent answers, "Don Lemon?”

At one point, Homan becomes so irritated with an agent, he tells him to "drop and give 20." To which the agent replies, “How about three on my knees. Girl style.”

This is a solid and funny cold open. It deals with current events without leaning on Johnson's Trump imitation. It's a welcome change of pace and was very well executed.

Monologue

Skarsgård hits the stage with a lot of positive energy. He notes that this is the 1000th episode of SNL and proceeds to deploy a mini party popper. We know Skarsgård has some comedic chops from his recent appearance in the Apple TV series Murderbot and in the vampire comedy, What We Do in the Shadows. He soon proves himself to be adept with live comedy as well.

Instead of promoting his latest film Pillion, Skarsgård immediately goes into a bit where he wants to shine a light on the band that always sits in the background during the monologues. He says to the audience, "Call me Willy Wonka, because tonight I'm going to let the little people cook." He proceeds to do super brief interviews of band members while talking over them and ultimately grabbing a saxophone and showboating with that. The saxophone is so blatantly dubbed that it is hilarious. Skarsgård makes a meal of this bit, and it is very funny. There are really no jokes per se in the cold open, but Skarsgård's energy carries it through, and we are off to a good start. ed.

Mom Confession

In this family sketch, Skarsgard and Ashley Padilla our parents, whose kids have come over to go to dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday. However, come before they can go, Padilla's character has to make an earth-shaking announcement. Before she can give this announcement, she informs the family that they must not interrupt her while she says what she has to say. Everyone agrees, and then she announces that she has changed her mind about Trump.

She now sees his flaws, or at least sees some issues with his presidency. The whole time comes of the kids fight interrupting her with "I told you so's." This triggers Padilla's character to shout over them and act manically.

At one point, she blurted out, "You think you know everything with your macho-rapping Hamiltons and IUDs." This is one of those sketches that just highlights Padilla's strong comic talent and acting ability. There's not really a whole lot to it, but somehow the whole thing is hilarious.

Skarsgard takes a back seat in this one, but gets in some funny lines about how he's ready to get his “free scoop” at Red Robin for his birthday and notes that Padilla's laptop is old and "she gets a different internet than me."

It is hard to believe at this point that Ashley Padilla is still just a featured player.

Winter Olympics Promo

With the Winter Games starting next week, SNL decided to do an entire sketch essentially built around an old Jerry Seinfeld joke about how the luge is the only event you can win involuntarily.

The pre-tape sketch featured Olympians (Marcelo Hernandez and Chloe Fineman who were eager to compete and show off their abilities. The final Olympian was Jane Wickline, who is a terrified luge competitor.

" I hate the luge, it goes way too fast and it scares me to death," Wickline's character said. Her coach notes that she is a once in a generation shape that makes her perfect for the sport.

This piece is quite funny, and Wickline is very good in it. This is possibly the first non-desk bit where Wickline has actually shown with a substantive part in a sketch.

So, even though this sketch could be charged with blatant theft from Jerry Seinfeld of all people, it may well be the funniest thing Wickline has done thus far.

Scandinavian Movie 2

This is a rehash (or a sequel, to be generous) of a previous sketch with Glenn Powell in a Norwegian movie. This time around, Skarsgård and Chloe Fineman play very serious Swedish actors who between takes are very giggly and keep referring to the blooper reel. This is all very similar to the Powell sketch last year.

What makes this one stand out is that Skarsgård's father, noted Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, appears as the father in the sketch. He is dying and sitting in the bathtub is a white suit. His gravitas combined with the silliness between takes really sells this sketch.

Immigrant Dad Talk Show 3

The Marcelo Hernandez vehicle, the immigrant dad show, returns this week. As usual, it highlights the differences in Latino households with those of different cultures. This time Skarsgard appears as Heike, Hernandez's Scandinavian neighbor. They are joined by Mikey Day as a pure white bread neighbor who is wearing a "melt the ICE t-shirt to impress Hernandez, who says, "Thank you very much, man. That shirt is going to solve everything."

Hernandez informs Skarsgård that he looks like what would happen if a racist guy drew something that he liked. They go on to discuss how differently people from different cultures fight. Skarsgård's character states that when he and his wife fight, "we stay silent. Very intent. Then one day we die."

By contrast, Hernandez states that when he and his wife fight, they scream a lot, and then he asks his wife if they want to have sex to which she usually replies no.

Things get weird and uncomfortable when Day's son, Andrew Dismukes, arrives, and they discuss how Day's wife gets uncomfortable with the affection Day shows to his son. They then proceed to kiss.

Heike responds that this behavior is very different from where he comes from. He notes that one day in a sauna, he and his father's knee caps accidentally touched. He states that his father cautioned him to tell no one of this. Cue Stellan Skarsgård's second appearance of the night. He comes out and rebukes his son for sharing this deep family secret.

Finally comes a musical guest. Cardi B shows up in a cameo as Hernandez's wife to put to rest his bold claims that he runs the household.

This sketch is close to being played out (is this really only its third appearance?), but it worked this time and was genuinely funny throughout the entire piece. It is a smart way to include guest hosts' backgrounds in an amusing way.

Viking Raid

In this pre-taped segment, Skarsgard is a Viking who is a little depressed because the other Vikings don't include him in their various violent activities. But, as James Austin Johnson states (in, what I choose to believe is a very convincing Viking accent). The other Vikings are in fact just jealous of Skarsgård's character. The sketch ends with him being confident enough in himself that he reveals his new hairstyle, which is quite bad corn rows.

The sketch ends with Skarsgård's character chopping off a monk's hands. Go figure. This was funnier in execution than it sounds like on paper.

Weekend Update

This one opens with Colin pointing out that dry January has just ended, and this leads him to immediately take a drink. They then go into the expected news. For example, they show a picture of Bovino to discuss his leaving Minneapolis, and Colin notes that he was "incredible in One Battle After Another,“ referencing Sean Penn’s Lockjaw character.

Che noted that new regulations may require ICE agents to remove their masks, which have been helping keep agents from getting fired at their other jobs, such as hosting Weekend Update. He then showed a picture of Jost in an ICE uniform.

There was a pointed joke about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's controversial comment comparing the situation in Minneapolis to the events portrayed in The Diary of Anne Frank. Che noted that this administration has always ignored the stories told by young girls, while showing a picture of Jeffrey Epstein.

As for the desk bits, Sarah Sherman appeared to do a weather report live from outside the building. She did goofy things like shatter a pigeon because it was so cold and advised that the temperature was just like how Colin likes his women. “It’s 20, but it feels like 15,” she said. She was then joined for a cameo by Jack McBrayer, playing his character of Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock. This, frankly, seemed a little pointless. Nonetheless, the whole Sherman dunking on Colin bit never gets old.

This probably can't be said for the second desk bit, which featured Dismukes and Padilla as the couple who just hooked up. This was mildly funny the first time. Dismukes and Padilla definitely have goofy chemistry, but the jokes were basically the same as the first time around. These two don't need to hook up again, at least not on Weekend Update.

At least it wasn’t a second visit from Mr. On Blast.

Play Date

Okay, bear with me on this. This one should not have been funny. Nothing about it should have worked. And yet...

Skarsgård portrays a young girl named Agnes whose mother has invited other girls over in an effort to help her make friends since they just moved to the area.

As the girls converse, they ask each other what music they like, what TV shows they like, and so on. The girls find out that Agnes has not seen Bluey, and they cannot believe it. After asking her about Bluey several times, Agnes gets angry and yells at them in a deep voice. This escalates when they discuss music and Agnes does not know the latest TikTok trends. At one point, someone asks her a question and Wickline states, "Stop asking her if she knows stuff."

At one point, she gets so angry that she resorts to the tried-and-true SNL trope of throwing an obvious rag doll out a window. Normally, this isn't that funny. But this time it is because of how incredibly silly it is and the fact that it repeats over and over. Each time he throws the rag doll of Sarah Sherman out the window, the bit escalates. At one point, Sherman returns to the room holding a pizza and says, "Hey guys, look, the pizza's here." To which Skarsgard angrily screams, "Eat it in the bushes," before throwing it all out the window.

Like I said, I know this doesn't sound funny, but trust me, it really was.

Tarzan

Skarsgard Tarzan, Sherman Jane.

That's the setup in the sketch in which Tarzan is breaking up with Jane.

He makes comments that the fact that Jane gave up her whole life to be with a naked man raised by gorillas raised some real red flags, and that Jane's accent is not English. "Which part of England Jane from, Long Island?"

Kenan Thompson shows up in the middle of the fight. He is dressed in a terrible leopard suit and is holding a small domestic kitten. He claims to be from Leopard and Son's moving company. This is delivered in the quintessential Kenan Thompson goofball manner. It utterly breaks the fourth wall and is very funny. It is a good contrast to Skarsgard’s excellent deadpan delivery that works well.

This was a decent, if not great sketch. Had it gone on a little longer t might have gotten tedious, but it had the good sense to know where to stop.

Funny Boyfriend

Skarsgard and Sherman are a couple who join other couples on a weekend ski trip. Skarsgard keeps making witty comments while obviously reading from cards in his hand. Turns out that he is simply using cards from Cards Against Humanity to help his conversational skills. At one point, cards simply cascade out of his coat.

At one point he is asked, "Are you reading Cards Against Humanity cards to make people think you're funny?" That's really the sketch. It's also really all there is to that game. It's a way for non-funny people to pretend, for a while, that they are amusing.

Unfortunately, the sketch really was not.

The Goodbye Wave:

Best Sketch:

This episode was full of solid and funny sketches, but Play Date knocked it out of the park with its mixture of outright ridiculousness and over-the-top energy. This one was just pure fun and genuinely made me laugh.

Worst Sketch:

Funny Boyfriend did not live up to its name. Cards Against Humanity is not a fun sketch, and it’s arguably only a fun game at this point if paired with the proper beverages. That said, in most weeks lately this would have been a middle of the road sketch and would not have been up for consideration for the worst designation.

Random Notes:

• 1000 episodes. That’s a little surreal. If you have seen them all only once, you’ve spent over two months of your life watching SNL. Put like that, it’s not really as bad as I thought it would be when I started doing the math.

• Skarsgard introduced both of Cardi B’s sets while wearing a bathrobe. I do not know why. Cardi B brought some really strong energy to the show.

• The cameos were more plentiful than usual, but they really worked this week and did not distract from the show.

• The great Catherine O’Hara got a bumper card. O’Hara was cast on the show in 1981, but quit after a week when she learned SCTV had been renewed.

Skarsgard was a great host. He easily slipped into live sketch comedy and delivered. This was the season’s strongest show, and featured a great mix of sketch styles. And, we were blessed with an absence of a Trump Cold Open. The Groundhog’s Day feeling of something happening over and over stopped just before Groundhog’s Day.

And that’s an ironic blessing.

Grade: A

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