Sabrina Carpenter does it all

Fucking eagle eye Saturday Night Live Observer, the news that Sabrina Carpenter will be pulling double duty as host and musical guest this season comes as no surprise. Although last night’s episode was Carpenter’s first appearance as host, the singer appeared with more or less Jon Hamm-level frequency throughout. SNL Universe for the past year. Most notably, she appeared in the sequel to the insanely viral “Domingo” sketch (the original, starring fellow trio Ariana Grande, used Carpenter’s smash hit Espresso) alongside Pedro Pascal for SNL50th anniversary special. Well, sure, there were a million and one cameos during that SNL50Carpenter was already there He sings a duet with Paul Simonso we won’t count that.

But then she did some work with Marcelo Hernandez (as Domingo) at her concert in Los Angeles! And here she was, randomly appearing as a short queen in Quinta Bronson’s monologue last May! And there’s Kyle Mooney She appears in her own Christmas special on Netflix! And then Jane Wicklin did a Weekend Update Desk segment about said Netflix special! This all means that Carpenter has been preparing for this gig for at least a year, so perhaps it’s no surprise that she made incredibly good of herself on Saturday.

It would be easy to call Carpenter a natural, but it’s important to remember that she’s a Disney kid in every sense of the word, and I mean that as a compliment. star Girl meets world At the age of 14, Carpenter received the kind of harsh comedy acting training reserved for Disney’s group of hard-working child actors. Her charisma and confidence on stage were on full display in this powerful episode, along with her precise sense of timing and truly unexpected line readings. Put this girl in a Goldie Hawn-style rom-com now!

Clearly, the show’s writers and producers were confident in Carpenter’s abilities as an actress as well, because she was in Every single drawing Night – including Cold openwhich was only part of the ever-expanding Domingo Law. This is notable for several reasons. Typically, a cold open covers some sort of political and/or topical event going on (which is certainly not what this was), and unless the host is old, the host will not appear naturally. The drawing itself was… serviceable! Domingo, as a character and drawing alter ego, has diminishing returns for this reviewer, but Carpenter’s off-kilter reading of the word “together” at the top of the drawing was an interesting moment.

Evening monologue It was short and sweet, perhaps due to the overtime college football game cutting into the show’s runtime. Immediately, Carpenter addressed the Nothingburger scandal surrounding the release of her latest album, moving to reveal that Bowen Yang was of course “helping her with her hair” on the controversial cover of Man’s best friend. The biggest part of the monologue was that everything Carpenter does is horny, but you wouldn’t know that from her action in last night’s episode. In fact, the show was at its best when it allowed the singer to showcase her comedic chops outside of it Sexy baby Stage character.

Here are the highlights:

This sketch, which opens the night after Carpenter’s monologue, sees Carpenter, Chloe Fineman, Jane Wicklin, and Veronica Slowikowska playing a group of teenage boys who host a podcast called “Snack Homiez.” What I find particularly impressive about this sketch is that it could have easily veered into Gen Z hospital territory, but the characters are so well observed and, as many online commenters have pointed out, eerily accurate, that they avoid the decline of that infamous sketch. This is not far from how tweens and teens actually talk in 2025! The Snack Homiez’s back-and-forth, soothing in its stupidity, reminded me of that duet between Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant from 2021. The sketch is fully realized when James Austin Johnson joins as his oblivious Trump signature, and there are too many excellent lines here to list, but “Am I going to go to heaven, talking?” It was a winner for me. It’s occurred to me that I actually prefer Trump Johnson when he’s placed in unexpected and nonsensical places like this, rather than, say, alongside Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth.

Although Bowen Yang unfortunately missed last night’s episode (he was busy Acceptance is an honor of the Academy Museum in Los Angeles) fortunately had time to pre-record this short digital film with Carpenter about the joys of middle school dancing. “Grind Song” sounds like a late-2000s throwback to the Lonely Island’s best viral chart hits (see: “Like A Boss” or “I Just Had Sex”). I think the key is that the song is well crafted and catchy! The sketch is also full of fun little character moments, like Kenan Thompson’s long-suffering director taking the bridge. I can see the link to this song having a second life on TikTok “Big boys.”

Carpenter shines here as the crazy (and, to be fair, probably concussed) Quinlisha, a seminar leader on how to be a boss girl. In the same vein as the previous drawings “Men’s Confidence Seminar” “Girlboss Seminar” is mostly a showcase for its central character to say crazy things, and Carpenter gets the job done very well. “Girl, there’s a special place in hell for women,” Quinlesha preaches after backup dancers launch her out of a window. “But when you’re in the car of success, the only thing Susan B does is Anthony I On my period! This sketch had some technical errors, such as the sound briefly cutting out at the top and Kenan Thompson throwing a missed model offstage, but this only added to the overall sense of comedic chaos and horror.

“Plans” is a digital sketch that covers well-inhabited territory — Ben Marshall and Carpenter play a couple who forget their plans to hang out with an annoying family member over the weekend — but is elevated by hyper-specific personal details. Filmed like a horror movie, the sketch includes creepy outtakes of the annoying family member in question, played by Sarah Sherman, who really likes to run marathons, as well as her husband (Mickey Day), aka “the guy who always shows me YouTube videos.” It’s a universally relatable plot premise and a strong example of Carpenter’s commitment to the part this episode – throwing in the “they don’t believe it” line is a definite highlight.

I have to say that I’m not usually the type of person who likes fart jokes, but the “surprise” really caught me. Ashley Padilla stars in this movie as a woman who can’t stop farting in front of her co-workers. This 10-to-1 sketch was done entirely by Padilla, who looks like she’s really in pain when she farts. It’s uncomfortable – almost disturbing – to watch, and ultimately very funny. Several cast members seem to break out here, including Ben Marshall and Chloe Fineman, which is a good sign of a well-written and executed sketch. It’s important to note that the version of the sketch that the show posted on YouTube is actually from a rehearsal of the episode, and not from the live sketch that aired last night. Padilla messes up a line in this version, but the drawing is somehow better for him.

• “My grandmother always says that short people will be tall in heaven.”

• At the end of the episode, Martin Herlihy (officially a writer, not a cast member) He starred in a short digital film Tonally, it sounded a lot like a Please Don’t Destroy sketch. I’m not sure what to do with this, but the short story was fun!

• “You know what should be stuck in your head? Our wedding anniversary. It’s today.” “Once I was deceived, I chose to forget.”

• I love the staging of each of Carpenter’s musicals.

• Weekend Update is back with a batch of strong, if predictable, jokes about George Santos and Trump’s TIME cover. But my favorite part of this segment has nothing to do with either of the popular themes. It was instead Colin Jost’s reaction To a report of a shorter fall foliage season: “Wow, I think I’ll kill myself then!”

• New cast member Tommy Brennan made it Updated for the first time last night with the ever-present introductory line: “I look like a guy who was really good at football before the merger.”

• We missed Heidi and Ego terribly, especially in an episode that felt very much like a girls’ night out.