SNL After Party (S50 E18 Air Date 4/12/25) - "Should Meat Cost Less Than Gum?"

Host: Jon Hamm

Musical Guest: Lizzo

It’s hard to believe that Jon Hamm is not a member of the hallowed Five-Timers Club. It’s equally difficult to accept he hasn’t hosted since 2010.

Does this Easter Hamm still belong on our comedy tables?

Let’s find out at the After Party!

Cold Open

This starts as a reenactment of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, in which he knocked over the tables of the money changers.

Mikey Day is Jesus, and Kenan Thompson gets an early laugh as one of his disciples cheering him on.

The sketch freezes and out walks James Austin Johnson as Trump (two weeks in a row!) to talk about tariffs, to compare himself to the Messiah. (“Look at the mess-I-ah made of the economy.”)

He wished everyone a happy Easter and gave a shout out to Passover, but noted he skips over the Kosher section at the grocery store. (“Fish in a jar? I want a Peep!).

He then goes meta, seemingly cracking up several cast members.

It’s a fun opening with a loose vibe.

And no Mike Myers cameo.

Monologue

Jonn Ham returns for his fourth hosting stint on SNL.

His monologue, however, notes his 14 cameos over the years, and gamely includes clips of some that didn’t go over so well.

And then we get our first cameo of the night. Kiernan Culkin (presumably just after closing curtain on the evening’s performance of his current run of a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway).

The monologue is mildly amusing, but there’s not much to it. It is funny when Hamm argues with Culkin that Mad Men was better than Succession.

Even though that is objectively wrong.

Check To Check Business News

In one of the more pointed sketches of the night, Hamm and Ego Nwodim appear as anchors on Check To Check Business News, “Financial news for regular folks living check to check.”

Hamm introduces himself and notes his suit is from Kohl’s.

The news opens with the current state of the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P, but the anchors note that means nothing to their viewers, so they offer up the cost of boxed mac & cheese, candy bars, and big ass boxes of Bisquick.

They note that spending on doctors’ visits has remained steady at zero.

Kenan appears as an expert on international goods. He notes that instead of Perrier, he is now drinking Uncle Bubba tap water from Tennessee, and has moved to Sgt. Crunch cereal.

All the while, a crawl on the screen shows the up and down prices such as “ketchup packets” and “bologna”.

Andrew Dismukes pops in to discuss investing in Funko figures.

While not necessarily a laugh fest, this was a very smart sketch that made a fairly profound point.

Please Don’t Destroy

The boys are back, but not in their usual milieu. This time, the piece is set in a police station as the squad prepares to pull an all-nighter looking for a missing girl.

The captain mentions that they will order pizza, which sets Hamm off on his excitement for a pizza party.

In usual PDD fashion, the sketch builds on itself and heightens the comedy as it goes.

This wasn’t their best bit by any means, but it was well done and funny.

Hamm is really in his element here.

Guess! The Correct! Answer!

Yes, we get a game show. And it’s hosted by Michael Longfellow, so you know its likely to be uncomfortable.

Hamm is a dentist who is on the show and is afraid of saying something that might embarrass him. Day is his son/teammate.

In this Pyramid style game Hamm has to guess what a word is based on the clues given to him, and he immediately makes wildly embarrassing guesses that show him to be racist alcoholic.

It’s done well, but - and here’s a criticism I’ll rarely offer up - it seemed too short.

It didn’t have time to go anywhere. But, indeed, it may not have had anywhere to go.

Still and all, nothing bad about this one. Just seemed like filler.

The White Potus

This was a pre-taped full blown parody of the most recent season of HBO’s White Lotus, but with JAJ’s Trump in the role played by Jason Isaacs. Parker Posey is replaced with Melania (Chloe FIneman).

Hamm plays RFK, Jr. in the Walton Goggins role (opposite Sarah Sherman and some serious dental props).

This is chock full of cameos. Alex Moffat returns as Eric Trump. Scarlett Johannson is Ivanka (the Piper role from Lotus), Beck Bennett pops in as Putin, and musical guest Lizzo makes an appearance.

This was an incredibly well done piece that managed to do a great job of parodying the HBO soap while also mocking current political leaders.

This may be the most complete old school parody we’ve seen in years.

Weekend Update

Three, count ‘em, three guest slots on the news this week, which is fine because the joke content was a little light.

(RFK, Jr. wanting to get rid of fluoride, which is great for veneers for kids; “Cybertruck: What if Kanye were a car; and a bit about land mine detecting rats).

Desk guests included Bowen Yang as a Chinese trade official to talk about the tariffs. (“We’ll survive without your Newman’s Own Salad Dressing.”), Emil Wakim doing standup at the desk, and Sherman as Jost’s accountant who needs to go through Jost’s taxes like he goes through the after party, “line by line”.

This was a middling Update, and none of the pieces really hit, even if they weren’t bad.

New Parents

I don’t know.

Here, a group of friends gather to celebrate a child-free weekend, until Yang and Hamm show up as a gay couple with a new baby.

Everyone is confused, as they did not have the baby the previous evening.

The sketch is really just an excuse to have Yang and Hamm get outraged over questions being asked of them.

The whole thing ends when it is revealed the baby is - for some reason - Lizzo.

Your guess is as good as mine here.

Medication Ad

In a spot on parody of ads for medicines, Hamm advises us that “active fun in slow motion” may well be a sign of herpes. Other signs include cheering in a front row of a folk rock concert in a small place, and hanging out with an absolutely racially balanced group.

Other diseases are shown along with their tell-tale signs.

This was a good, funny commercial parody.

Icebreaker

Dismukes leads a new employee ice breaker session in which people give their name and an interesting fact about themselves. Hamm’s fact is a little too interesting.

Unfortunately, it is really also a single joke bit centered around Hamm’s overshare.

This one iced out the show. But, it was the last sketch of the night, so no harm, no foul.

The Goodbye Wave

Best Sketch: I’m tempted to go with White Potus just for the effort that went into it and the pure cleverness. But I think I have to land on Check To Check Business News for doing such a good job with blasting both politics and the financial media.

Worst Sketch: This is a tough call, but I think I’ll go with New Parents (but you could convince me to change it to Icebreaker). It was just nonsense without earning it. I realize this makes no sense, but there it is and here we are.

Random Notes:

-Did I miss Marcello Hernandez this week? I am not sure he was on the show (other than that T-Mobile ad that runs way too much).

-Lizzo went more pop than I was expecting. But, what do I know about Lizzo’s current moves?

- Sarah Sherman upset White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood, who said her portrayal was “mean and unfunny.” Great, we already have a trade war, now we are going to get into an international beef with British performers.

-During the goodbye waves, Sherman wore a shirt with a woman’s face on it with the word “Why?” under it. This is reportedly a prize won by a bidder at The Night of Too Many Stars, an autism fundraiser. Apparently, that is the winning bidder’s face. At least that is not mean!

It feels like Hamm was underutilized, but honestly i don’t know if that’s true. He didn’t really shine this time out. Which is weird, because he is usually a very reliable presence on the show.

Maybe his power wains if Tina Fey is not around.

This episode suffers from following last week’s Jack Black episode. It’s probably a little better than average, but feels a little meh.

Still, it had some truly inspired pieces, and I definitely hope Hamm gets his shot at donning the Five-Timer jacket.

Grade: C+

As always, we grade SNL episodes in comparison to other SNL episodes. Not TV in general.

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