Courtesy of NBC.
Last year, Nate Bargatze hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time. The move wasn’t too surprising on paper, as he’s one of the biggest working comedians working today. But he also didn’t have much exposure as far as TV went, outside of stand-up specials and late-night spots.
Still, Bargatze managed to crush it with one of the best episodes of last season. So it should be little surprise that the comedian would be invited back, almost exactly a year later. Between the momentum from his last episode, this being the show’s 50th anniversary, and being in the midst of a tense political season, it was easy to assume that there would be lots of eyes on this one.
The show definitely delivered. After a start last week that was just okay - there were definitely some highlights - this week saw the show firing on all cylinders. We can easily see this one going onto become a season highlight, and make Bargatze a recurring host, not unlike John Mulaney.
Recapping Nate Bargatze's Return To "Saturday Night Live"
Things started off pretty strong with the cold open. The cold open showed Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and her husband Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watching the VP debate from this week. Political cold opens have been a staple for 50 years now, with varying success rates. This one, however, managed to hit all the points head on. As we see the debate between JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan), Harris and Emhoff remain confused by how the two rivals are somehow managing to be “vibing,” with Gaffigan’s Walz impression being a highlight. The cherry on top was the return of Joe Biden (Dana Carvey) to join them for the last few moments. This is an example of how a political cold open should look. It needs to feel familiar, but not an exact copycat of the real one.
As expected, Bargatze did a stand-up monologue. It was a pretty good few minutes. After a bit of a rocky start - there wasn’t much introduction as he kicked things off instead by launching right into his act - he nailed the big finish with a bit about double Door Dashing, and how he hired two drivers at the same time. This was a strong closure that gives new viewers the perfect insight into who Bargatze is as a stand-up.
Then came the return of a fan favorite. Last year, Bargatze did Washington’s Dream, which became an instant classic. This was a bizarre deconstruction of units of measurement with a funny twist. This time, they decided to take a closer look at the English language, and finds Washington pitching bizarre concepts for double words. If Bargatze returns for a third time, it’s a pretty safe bet that there will be more where this came from.
Next up was a filmed piece that showed Bargatze at a golfing tournament, and somehow he kept managing to hit birds, bald eagles, turtles, and a cute chipmunk. A very funny premise, that had lots of Happy Gilmore vibes. After that was Sabado Gigante, a parody of a popular Mexican game show, hosted by Marcello Hernandez. Bargatze, as you can expect, played a tourist who didn’t speak any Spanish. Still, he managed to somehow do alright amidst the bizarre backdrop of this particular game show.
Perhaps another one of our favorite sketches of the night was a simple premise that showed off just how far one joke can go. It featured Bargatze and Michael Longfellow as EMTs who have to figure out a way to bring a dead body down from the top of a water slide. While debating carrying him down 255 stairs, Bargatze tricks the attendant working there into suggesting that they let the dead body go down the slide. “He made it all this way, he must have really wanted to go down,” he argued.
Surprisingly, the next sketch after Weekend Update also dealt with darker subject matter. We see a family gathered at a burger restaurant to discuss a family member who has dementia and they need to figure out what to do next. One of the people there “accidentally” ordered the Mile High Burger challenge, where they have 10 minutes to complete the challenge to win a trip to Hawaii. So as they’re discussing this very serious subject matter, you have Heidi Gardner literally covering her face in burger juices. The dichotomy of those two things makes the sketch work on premise alone.
Next up was a fantastic surprise: a new song from The Lonely Island. We haven’t seen a new Digital Short from the trio debut on the show since Andy Samberg hosted in 2016. This short saw Samberg and Akiva Schaffer pitching a strange concept: Sushi Glory Hole. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. We’ll be doing a deeper dive on this particular video on Monday.
In the final sketch of the night, Andrew Dismukes plays a coach trying to inspire the team before a big game. Meanwhile, Bargatze is far more interested in being reimbursed for buying jerseys. The man has priorities, after all!
All in all, this was a show that remained as good out of the gate as it did by the time it wrapped up. It set the bar for the episodes that follow this weekend pretty high. We’d love to see Nate come back!
