The Last of Us star made his first appearance hosting the long-running sketch show.

It’s Saturday, and it’s 11:30, it’s time to party with tonight’sSaturday Night Liverecap!

I’m your excellent host,SNL in Review.

In today’s landscape, TV and streaming leads the zeitgeist above all, so here we are.

Still, hats off on the coordination.

I am joined today by formerSNLcast member, Jeff Richards, whose Deep Fake podcastrecently spoofed Jordan Peterson.

He goes back to doingBuffyin the 90s and theLaw & Ordercircuit.

So seeing this culmination, him hostingSNLa quarter century later, is pretty cool."

Fun game too."

Alright, let’s dive in.

Cold Open

Chloe Finemanis Katy Tur on MSNBC.

The long national nightmare is over: “We got the ballon.”

She mocks the conservative response, before welcoming a General (Kenan Thompson) to applause.

Oh boy, lots of easy jokes about the Seattle Space Needle and deflating.

He notes the Chinese doesn’t need to spy via balloon; they have TikTok.

Bowen Yangplays the balloon, floating in the water.

I am Joe’s Osama!"

Turns out he lovesYellowstoneAKASuccessionbut outside.

Add this to Yang’s growing repertoire playing iconic inanimate objects, a la theIcebergfromTitanic.

This is current and somewhat fun, I guess.

Monologue

Pascal appears onstage in a defiantly purple shirt.

(And stunts.)

And who doesn’t love baby Yoda that little dude knows how to party."

Pascal discusses fleeing Chile as an infant; his cousins still give out his phone number.

Questions aboutAll About EveandMASHfollow, easy stuff.

Then he brings up Netflix the contestants are stumped.

No one knows anything about modern pop culture, it’s all so disposable.

No one is seeing current movies, and even popular streaming shows aren’t well-known to the experts.

“Where did all the big popular movies go?”

whimpers Pascal’s contestant, Robert.

He can’t name three movies from the past five years.

HBO Mario Kart trailer

The Last of Usis a hit.

Another video game adaptation, a serious dystopian take on Mario.

Pascal is really funny as a reimagined Mario.

Yoshi is complex… and bisexual.

Waking up

“Who is everybody?”

wonders Pascal, waking up from a coma.

Charlie was hit by a Party City bus in Arkansas.

His wife and friends are with him, but something is different.

“Let’s put a pin in that,” he mumbles with a goofy tongued accent.

He has an “LA mushmouth” voice, and has a completely different personality.

The old Charlie was a man’s man.

Slowly though, his family comes around to this new man before them.

Do not access inappropriate content online, do not bully on social media.

But the biggest role?

Stop making fancam tributes to him!

His foot is always on their necks!

They love him down.

Lots of Gen Z terminology.

“Eat up no crumbs left.”

These TikTok videos dedicated to him are soundtracked bySZA’s “Big Boy” it’s cuffing season!

Mr. Ben is distraught over the attention.

Lots of Bowen Yang so far this episode!

The audience eats this up they even go nuts when Ms. Jenny (Sarah Paulson) shows up.

Turns out these students are traumatized by COVID-19, making them permanently online.

Wing Pit commercial

So many wings overwhelm a room of eager football fans.

So many options like the chicken carnage platter.

Solid commercial parody, but not really worth the click.

Smooth camera work here, folks.

Jeff Richards quips: “Was it really ALL yellow?

And if so, don’t you think you should see a doctor?

This is one of those bands I think people think other people like.

In 2023, it blows me away they’re still performing SNL.”

Weekend Update

More jokes about the balloon.

George Santos smackdowns also continue.

Thursday was Groundhog Day.

“Time is an illusion!”

he says, taking a hit.

“We live in a simulation!”

Not sure this entirely works but Longfellow’s confident, deadpan style sells it.

Indeed, they rap.

Good character work from JAJ here, and funny spoof of British rap.

Instead of gun noises, they make tiny knife sounds: “Shshs.”

“I’m allergic to dairy.”

A few curious throwbacks in this Update Jost saying jokes seemingly written by Che.

Brittany brought some vegan sliders, which Pascal immediately discards, offended.

“She doesn’t like money,” scoffs mom, hearing about Brittany’s fine art major.

Mom is hostile, especially after finding out she got her son on ADD medication.

Her mood only changed when Fineman offers to say grace.

Hernandez continues to land decent sketches reflecting his sensibility.

I am always a fan of slice-of-life sketches like this too.

Italian waiters

Pascal welcomes a table of women at his restaurant.

They are all bellissima except Sarah Sherman is “smart.”

It’s almost like an inversion of that this time, they are repulsed by the main woman.

(SomePepper Boythrowback vibes too, which is cool I guess.

Watch those instead though.)

(Matter of fact, Lohan should host again!)

This is Coldplay’s seventh time performing on 8H.

They first came on the show way back in 2001!

Lisa from Temecula

A birthday toast to Shana (Punkie Johnson)!

Her baby sister Lisa (Ego Nwodim) is in town to celebrate.

Paul (Pascal) wants “that butt” as Lisa orders an extra extra extra well done steak.

(This is the way I like it too Lisa!

“Cook my meat!”

Bowen Yang and Pascal crack up a lot.

Not quite a modern Debbie Downer classic, but Ego is so funny here.

Final thoughts

Thank you to Jeff Richards!

It reminds me why SNL does political impressions.

It always gets eyeballs."

Check out Jeff’s podcast.

I had fun, even if some familiar callbacks.