When she appeared for the primary time on “Saturday Night Live” a 12 months in the past, “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson gave certainly one of final 12 months’s greatest internet hosting performances, bringing nice comedian timing and characters to the present.
It was no fluke. Returning to the present for her second outing, Brunson proved simply as adept at bringing her comedic sensibilities to an episode that featured an total robust lineup of recent sketches. There was just one retread and even that one, a reprise of the standout “Traffic Altercation,” was price revisiting.
It’s fascinating to match Brunson’s just-as-excellent second shot to 2 different comics who hosted in Season 49 and Season 50: Nate Bargatze and Shane Gillis. Whereas Bartgatze’s return was good, it didn’t fairly attain the peaks of the primary look. And Gillis, inexplicably referred to as again into service after a not-great debut as host, was a lot worse the second time round.
However Brunson didn’t lose a step since final 12 months; she was humorous taking part in a time-traveling Harriet Tubman who, together with Kenan Thompson as Frederick Douglass, didn’t need to return to the previous in a “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” parody; went daffy as certainly one of a number of unhealthy workers at a management summit; performed a mannequin in an advert for Without end 31’s unhappy, outsized clothes; and certainly one of “Two B— vs. a Gorilla” (the opposite was Ego Nwodim), about trash-talking ladies going through off with a gorilla on the zoo.
If that wasn’t sufficient, she performed a joke-spouting old-time boxer, Jerry “Jackrabbit” Tulane, who stops being so humorous after getting crushed up a number of occasions within the ring, and one half of a feisty and unexpectedly horny “OnlySeniors” couple in an insurance coverage advert.
Bruson scored time and again and even sang within the monologue; she ought to have an open invitation to return subsequent season.
Musical visitor Benson Boone backflipped earlier than performing, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” and didn’t do a backflip earlier than performing “Mystical Magical.” He briefly appeared on Weekend Replace as an Applebee’s waiter, referencing his hit music “Beautiful Things,” which Boone didn’t carry out.
Brunson started her monologue with jokes concerning the time she labored for a cellphone intercourse line (“By the end of my first week, I had only made $1.38.”) earlier than touchdown on the subject of her music and dance quantity: her top. The 4-foot-11 actress mentioned, “They tried to cast me as a kid on ‘Abbott Elementary’ and I wrote that!” Eschewing a microphone that was too excessive, she sang concerning the nice issues about being small, corresponding to being an inexpensive date with wine. She was quickly joined by one other diminutive star: pop singer Sabrina Carpenter, who in contrast notes along with her, asking, “When you read short stories, do they feel like novels?” Former NBA star Dwyane Wade towered over the women, however insisted he’s nonetheless brief in comparison with different basketball gamers at 6-foot-4. “I just really want to be in the song,” he mentioned.
Greatest sketch of the evening: Don’t ask your dad and mom too many questions on ‘OnlySeniors’ 
Brunson and Thompson play aged dad and mom whose youngsters (Nwodim and Devon Walker) discover out they’ve acquired life insurance coverage via a service that requires them to have intercourse and spend a number of time bare for on-line followers. “We set up our camera and do stuff to each other. And watch the money just start pouring in,” they’re advised. Once they’re not interacting with their “Filthy little chat babies,” they’re spending time with their also-naked neighbors and (checks notes) sitting on truffles? In these unsure financial occasions, it’s a enterprise mannequin that appears very viable.
Additionally good: Now you now the traffic-altercation signal language for Iraq 
Mikey Day and Brunson confronted off once more in separate automobiles (however didn’t appear to acknowledge one another from final time) to battle with a sequence of hand gestures and facial expressions over unhealthy parking on a ferry. Day’s character can’t forgive the opposite driver for parking too shut, saying he wants greater than half an inch, which invitations a devastating response from the girl within the different automobile. Day’s daughter Quinn (Chloe Fineman) participates with over-the-line sexual gestures, prompting Brunson’s character to make gestures for a gardening software as she tells him who he raised. Positive, it’s a repeat, however once more it’s executed completely on each ends, with the one disappointing observe being an look by Colin Jost, who’s attempting to promote the real-life ferry he purchased with Pete Davidson. It’s not that Jost is unhealthy, it’s simply that it couldn’t probably stay as much as Mellssa McCarthy’s look after they did a model of this sketch with Martin Quick.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: And now a phrase from Michael Longfellow 
Sarah Sherman and Bowen Yang performed sexy barflys at Applebee’s who’re unhappy about chain eating places closing down. Nevertheless it was Michael Longfellow’s declaration of not getting a Actual ID that gained “Update” this week. Longfellow mentioned, “You already gave me an ID. If it’s fake, you fix it. The Pope is dead, let me mourn.” It didn’t fairly observe, however Longfellow went on to joke about his mild work schedule of 12 hours per week at “SNL” (“I’m just not in that much stuff this season.”) earlier than making up guidelines for air journey together with, “If the TSA touches your crotch, they have to keep going until you climax.” It’s true, Longfellow has been a light-weight presence this season, however in segments like this, it’s clear he’s acquired an ideal command of his supply. Will probably be good if he’s again for Season 51 and will get extra display time to indicate off his abilities.
