SNL UK After Party 5/16/26 - S1 E8 “The Fat Controller Waddled Off Obesely”
Host: Ncuti Gatwa
Musical Guest: Holly Humberstone
Can Doctor Who save SNL UK from the Daleks of doubt, or will all the comedy of the evening be exterminated in the season finale? Let's find out on this week's SNL UK After Party.
Cold Open
This episode opens once again at Number 10 Downing Street, where a realtor, (Emma Sidi), is showing the property to Wes Streeting. (Jack Shep). Those of us on this side of the Atlantic may not know that Streeting is a Labour Party politician who has his eyes on taking over the Prime Minister's ship from Keir Starmer. In response to a veiled comment from the realtor, Streeting acknowledges that he is gay but adds, "I am gay but not gay in the fun way."
Before you know it, several other would-be PMs pop into the residence, turning the whole sketch into a near homage to the Marx Brothers' crowded stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera.
Eventually Starmer storms in from upstairs, where he has been watching the Eurovision finals, and screams for everyone to leave after musing, “Was I doing a good job? No. Was I trying my best? No.”
This sketch was almost certainly funnier in Britain, where people are more familiar with the politicians, but even so, it is clear that this was a well-executed sketch that played on a familiar SNL cold-open trope of just throwing a lot of politicians into the mix for laughs. Based on audience reactions, it seems like this one did hit the mark.
Monologue
Ncuti Gatwa took to the stage with a lot of energy. He noted that he was SNL UK's first black host, its first gay host, and its first openly Scottish host, noting that this was the last show of the season, so they had to do them all at once.
Gatwa proceeded to do an imitation of a British tech reporter that got a big laugh from the audience. Again, I have no idea who he was imitating, but people seem to enjoy it. He explained that his family was very proud of him when he got the Doctor Who role, saying, "Finally, a doctor in the family!”
In an effort to show off his Shakespearean chops, Gatwa received a skull from prior host Aimee Lou Wood. He then began the "to be or not to be" soliloquy before breaking into a dance.
This was certainly not a gut-buster of a monologue, but Gatwa did prove himself to be energetic, fun, and likable.
Birds of Praise
This pre-taped segment was about a black gospel choir (with the fantastic name, “Birds of Praise”) established so as not to "send the whites into a panic" in trying to reach their audience. We see the choir practice a version of "Come On Eileen." The choir's mission was to help deal with racism, but they reached a bad point recently when people putting black squares on social media almost ruined the choir because "racism ended." Fortunately for the Birds of Praise, racism is back, and so are they. This was a clever and funny sketch that had sharp writing and great execution.
Thomas The Tank Engine
Our narrator, who is doing a quite passable Ringo Starr impersonation, introduces a typical episode of Thomas the Tank Engine as two trains (Gatwa and Ayoade Bamgboye) discuss how down they are. That’s when the station controller, Mr. Toppingham (Al Nash) enters. The trains refer to him as the Fat Controller. Mr. Toppingham takes umbrage with this, but the trains and Ringo Starr unrelentingly, use that sobriquet and insult him. Eventually, the Fat Controller slips and falls on the tracks and either dies or is rendered unconscious. I'm not clear which. The sketch is funnier than this sounds on paper. Nash's anger at the trains and the narrator work well, as do the various sight gags, mainly involving food wrappers. Once again, this episode we have a well-written sketch delivered with solid energy.
Looking Theroux the Mirror
Documentarian Louis Theroux (Larry Dean) is in a motel to meet his next interview subject, which turns out to be himself in a mirror (Nash). Once again, I am not familiar with Theroux, but Dean and Nash appear to capture his mannerisms and cadence quite well. Nash emerges from the mirror and joins Dean as he speaks into another mirror which contains yet another Theroux. The three of them talk in unison at times until they receive a noise complaint inexplicably from the bathroom. When they open the door, there is another Theroux in the mirror, but lo and behold, this one is the actual Justin Theroux.
The quartet of Theroux's continue speaking in unison, and you can tell that the real Theroux is having a lot of fun at his own expense. Makes me want to actually check out one of his interviews. I enjoyed this sketch and suspect I would have liked it even more if I were more familiar (or familiar at all) with the subject of the humor. Is that fair to say?
Mr. Blobby
In what appears to be a documentary about the 1992 closure of half of Britain's coal mines, several interviewees describe the real reason that the mines closed down. Apparently, the minds were filled with bloodthirsty characters named Mr. Blobby. Mr. Blobby is a disturbing character in and of himself. It is an actual character from the children's show Noel's House Party. Presumably this is a British mainstay in the youth programming field.
The humor of the sketch really is the juxtaposition of the children's character with its murderous intent. It doesn't really fire on all cylinders, and I don't think that's just because I am not a person who was raised on Mr. Blobby. This could have just been Grimace, and I still wouldn't have thought it was particularly hilarious. Though being murdered by Grimace would, no doubt, be at least partially funny. Better than being offed by The Hamburger at any rate.
Weekend Update
Lots of British political news here. There’s more talk about Wes Streeting (who is alleged by the anchors as being on the verge of puberty). The phrase the worm has turned, to which Paddy Young says, “I’m calling him a worm because he looks like a worm.”
Paddy and Ania are joined at the desk by Emma Siddi as Jenny Hesselbo, The Woman Who Can’t Be Ignored (who appeared earlier this season). Siddi is fun as she spouts nonsense and occasionally bursts into song. At one point she claims she is in marketing, adding, “Remember the slogan Red Bull gives you wings. I punched the guy.” It’s a funny enough bit, but isn’t it too soon to be rehashing characters at the Update Desk. This Series is only 8 episodes long, for goodness sake.
Also visiting the desk is Nash as a Judge for the finals of Eurovision. He explains the scoring system. While the explanation isn’t particularly funny, Nash pretending there is a satellite delay is good for some laughs.
Finally, Ayoade Bamgboye gives financial tips such as not blaming yourself if you are in debt. You should blame Lilly Allen, and that if you need money you can sell children on Facebook Marketplace. At the end she is joined by Martin Lewis, a British financial journalist, who says you should never sell children on Facebook Marketplace, and should use another service instead.
James Bond
Gatwa is on a movie set as the first Black James Bond. The rub is that he is in green makeup and has on a Shrek head. The film's director (Fouracres) explains that audiences are happy to have a black lead as long as they are painted green, citing such examples as Wicked and Guardians of the Galaxy.
When the director asks Gotwa to deliver his lines like Shrek, Gotwa half-heartedly does so, and the director says, “Do you care about being the first Black Shrek James Bond?”
The sketch degenerates as other cast members show up dressed as characters from Shrek. For example, M is the gingerbread man, Blofeld is Pinocchio and so on.
This was a fun premise (with some serious points) that did get stretched a little thin by the end.
The Curse
Two moms (Gatwa and Shep) dance with their daughters despite a witch having cursed them. The witch's curse apparently caused them to dance until they explode, at which point they become celestial orbs. That's the sketch, and the humor of it is based on the moms doing various dances over the run time of the piece.
This one, well, the less said the better.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: Birds of Pray and Thomas the Tank Engine are both in the running here, but I’m going to go with Thomas because it made me laugh more, and the Ringo imitation was so entertaining, that I am not even sure who was doing it.
Worst Sketch: The Curse. It was aptly named.
Random Notes
This show has developed a weird habit of having cameos from people who were just on it in the past few weeks. Were they not allowed to go home after their hosting stints were done?
I am still enjoying the conceit of the host running from a sketch to introduce the musical guest. This time, I think Gatwa actually waited through another sketch before being “rushed” to introduce Holly Humberstone. I admit I have never heard of her before.
Series two is set to air in September.
This was one of the stronger episodes of the season, and was certainly a a marked improvement over the last few outings. I am glad the show ended its inaugural (can you say inaugural in the UK?) series, and hope the break gives everyone involved a chance to come back refreshed, revitalized and, what, re-funnied.
Grade: B
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
