‘SNL’ Lampoons Johnny Depp Amber Heard Trial, Plus Baby Yoda and Host Selena Gomez

In a NYT interview published this past week for the upcoming second season of his offshoot sketch series for HBO Max, Saturday Night Live co-head writer Michael Che tried to clarify joking remarks about whether he’d leave the show after this season, only to muddy the waters further. Then SNL’s Lorne Michaels said he’s preparing for a year “of change” to come after next week’s season finale. So. Um. Yeah. Way to set up the penultimate episode of Season 47, guys!

What’s The Deal For The SNL Cold Open For Last Night (05/14/22)?

As this season draws to a close, we’re seeing the writing staff finally breaking their bad habits of trying to do too much or lean too heavily into Biden/Trump, even if they needed Kate McKinnon to misdirect us at first by portraying MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace. Alas, she’s only onscreen for a moment to throw to a completely different topic that plenty of people are obsessed with as an escape from everything else that’s going on in politics and the world, and that’s the televised trial of Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard. Kyle Mooney got to smirk as Depp, while Heidi Gardner and Aidy Bryant objected to each other as the respective lawyers, and Cecily Strong lapped it all up as the presiding judge. But even this is a bit of a misdirect, as the underlying premise for this sketch imagines what it must’ve looked like when the housekeepers and custodians of Depp’s property found Heard’s poop in his bed. Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Melissa Villasenor and Chris Redd get to play around in that setting. Instead of ending it there, or even animating the poop to scream “LIVE FROM NEW YORK…” we’re thrust back into the courtroom for some reason instead to close on a less solid footing.

How Did The SNL Guest Host Selena Gomez Do?

Selena Gomez has performed on SNL before, but this was her hosting debut, and she said she’d asked her Only Murders in the Building co-stars (and SNL vets) Steve Martin and Martin Short for advice, as well as Miley Cyrus. But she also wanted everyone to know she’s single, and ready to mingle?! Ready to manifest love, too, which prompted both Kyle Mooney and James Austin Johnson to profess their eagerness to fill her bill. Sorry, fellas. This is a weird way to find out Kyle is married. But Punkie Johnson might have a shot if the afterparty goes well?

At any rate.

We’re reminded who’s in the studio audience when they all sing along to “I Love You” from Barney & Friends.

Gomez clearly enjoyed her time on the show, which saw her participating in all of the live and pre-taped sketches after the cold open. If only some of these ideas had been fleshed out a bit more, or heightened just a bit more, or something. Because for the most part, they’re forgettable. Or they showed potential but somehow fell short of becoming instant classics.

The “Bratz Dolls” (Selena, Aidy Bryant, Bowen Yang) who come alive for a girl (Sarah Sherman) upset about her parents getting divorced is a prime example of that. A lot of posturing and line-reading that could’ve, would’ve, should’ve gone somewhere instead of standing in place. Although compared to the “Guidance Counselors” sketch near the end of the night, it was downright dazzling. No amount of facial expressions in a billion seconds could’ve saved that from failing out of comedy school.

Much better: A pre-taped parody of Netflix hit Old Enough, but featuring long-term boyfriends. Selena is suffering with a 34-year-old boyfriend played by Mikey Day who struggles to complete his errand out to Sephora and the bodega to pick up makeup and shallots. Along the way, Mikey runs into Kenan, who’s also on his own errand but somehow sounds wise behind his naive tone.

Selena also paired up with Melissa for “A Peek at Pico,” a public-access talk show for Latinas who may or may not be cholas, but definitely aren’t having what their field correspondent Chad (Mikey) wants to tell them from outside. Their banter with a rapper (Chris) followed by their impromptu backup vocals to his rap showed just how much fun they had tapping into these characters.

A sketch in which everyone seemed to be having more fun than the rest of us was “Irish Play,” which played off both this week’s news involving Jesse Williams going nude for a Broadway role (and images from it going viral), as well as ongoing pandemic problems. Kenan warns the audience of a play that not only will they see a penis, but also that it’ll be an understudy’s as everyone in the cast caught COVID, and the understudies had no time to prepare. Which allows everyone to immediately go off the rails, with Cecily and Selena improvising in varying accents, Kenan interrupting to play all the parts, and Bowen bursting in because “it has to be now.” Who let the dogs in? Woof. Woof. Woof.

You could see the writers and performers wanting to be subversive about the very old-fashioned idea of a king (Kenan) offering up his three daughters (Ego, Selena, Kate) to a prince (Mikey) just because he slayed a dragon. And yet, it might’ve all come off too subtly? No ifs, ands, or butts about it.

A pre-tape involving Punkie and Post Malone as devilish intuitions coaxing Selena and Chris to get too furious too fast in acting upon jealous impulses? Nothing subtle about this one.

How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Post Malone?

Post Malone has a new album, “Twelve Carat Toothache,” due out June 3, and just released the second single from the forthcoming LP on Thursday. It’s called “Cooped Up” and features Roddy Rich. So naturally, they both showed up to sing/rap that as the first song of the night.

Malone boasted a full backing group of harmonizing voices plus a couple of drummers for his second song, “Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol.”

And not to be outdone, he also jumped into one pre-tape and one live sketch before the show was over!

Which Sketch Will We Be Sharing: “Inventor Documentary”

Honestly, you kids might prove me completely wrong in the next 24 hours, because as I wrote earlier in this recap, it was difficult to see anything from this episode reach instant classic viral status, except for perhaps one of the Weekend Update bits. As for the rest of the show, though, pulling a Steve Martin cameo where he’s the genius behind some of the most famous gag gifts in history, then learning it’s all thanks to his muse, Miss Dina Beans (Aidy), and her many mishaps. That’s gotta be worth sharing, right?

Who Stopped By Weekend Update?

I’m not sure whom we have to thank or blame for the return of Kyle’s Baby Yoda, but he’s got at least this one additional appearance at the Update desk to continue his beef with Baby Groot.

And then, there’s Sarah Sherman and her “feud” with Colin Jost. After a couple of high-energy offensives against Colin while seated next to him, the third time was somehow even more charming as Sarah opened her bit from the studio audience, then walked us backstage for a tour of her wardrobe hanger, and then into Colin’s “dressing room,” which she had decorated with hilarious Post-It notes, a vision board and an intern cage? Wait, did Colin say that photo Sarah dropped accidentally was supposed to be a nude of her?!? Either way, it sparked pure joy out of Colin, Sarah and the rest of us watching.

What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?

At 12:57 a.m. Eastern, Selena plays a teen inviting her friends over to party while her parents are out of the house, only for everyone to discover the twins on the baby monitor (Bowen and Sarah) are behaving rather oddly. And not just because of their infant mohawks!

Who Was The Episode’s MVP?

This week’s MVP is Sarah Sherman. She adds a vital element of surprise to the otherwise staid proceedings in 30 Rock, demonstrating it in full effect tonight to the point where perhaps if Lorne really commits to this whole “year of change” bit, he should reinvent Weekend Update completely by giving Sherman the whole segment to play with as she wants!

Next week, it’s the season finale with Natasha Lyonne hosting and musical performances by Japanese Breakfast!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.