During the run-up to the 2024 US Election, comedian Stephen Colbert had joked that since Kamala Harris was shopping for a male white running mate, she might as well pick Glenn Powell, arguing that the tagline could have been: Yes, we Glen. It certainly couldn’t have been worse than Tim Walz. For a while Glen Powell has been auditioning to be America’s next favourite leading man, probably a position that he is jousting with another Maverick co-star and SNL host Miles Teller and his SNL debut showed just why.Its host wasn’t just smooth, it was swagger wrapped in sincerity: a monologue that poked fun at his own myth-making, sketches that leaned into his charm and physical comedy, and a surprise UPS driver cameo that turned into the night’s most disarming moment. By the end of the episode, Powell had pulled off something rare for SNL — making a heavily engineered show feel genuinely fun.
Monologue: childhood clips, Top Gun jokes, and the UPS callback
Powell opened with an easy, confident monologue anchored by a classic “your mom” joke and a quick plug for his new film The Running Man. He dipped into his childhood acting reel, flashing a commercial from when he was ten and joking that it was his original audition for Top Gun. For a moment he leaned fully into show-off mode, which the audience loved.He joked about how most people still remembered him first from his blink-and-miss appearance in Spy Kids (2003), and he wasn’t wrong.
A few days earlier, Powell had gone viral for recreating Christopher Walken’s “Weapon of Choice” dance. He carried that same energy here: loose swagger, light physical comedy and a deliberately botched flip that saw him wheeled away in a mock neck brace. It was goofy and charming.Then came the emotional punchline. Powell said he had been supposed to host SNL four years ago during the Top Gun: Maverick run. The call came while he was with his family during the “Christmas episode”, and they celebrated by taking a selfie with their UPS driver. Covid delayed and eventually killed that episode. But the UPS driver lived on in family lore.Tonight, Powell flew him to New York and brought him on stage. The hug, the applause, the wholesomeness — all of it landed perfectly.
Cold open: The dog that hasn’t barked
SNL went straight for the week’s most radioactive story: Trump’s appearance in the newly released Epstein emails. James Austin Johnson’s Trump arrived in full damage-control mode, insisting he was “hiding almost nothing”. Karoline Leavitt did her best deadpan spin, saying “no weird information was revealed”.The sketch closed with Trump pardoning a turkey who “by complete coincidence” is a convicted sex criminal. Not subtle, but effective.
Uncanny valley vibes
The AI sketch took aim at digital nostalgia tools that animate old photos. What began as a sweet moment — a smiling, waving dad — quickly morphed into disturbing, uncanny facial movements. It echoed the real discomfort around apps like 2wai, which recently went viral for all the wrong reasons.Sometimes photos don’t need motion or magic. They need stillness.
Almost Hollywood: ‘Norwegian Movie’
“Norwegian Movie” leaned hard into Scandinavian stereotypes. Mikey Day played an American director guiding two Norwegian actors, Powell and Chloe Fineman, through a Bergman-style drama. The exaggerated accents and quirky hairstyles felt old-fashioned, but the cast’s full-tilt commitment gave the sketch some lift.James Austin Johnson’s Stellan Skarsgård impression was a standout.
The bachelor party
A showcase for Marcello Hernández’s Sebastian Maniscalco impression, and he dove in completely. Powell played the groom introducing him to the group, and the room oscillated between confusion and near-breaks, which added to the fun.Chloe Fineman’s Jennifer Coolidge cameo arrived as the final twist, delivered via an unexpected “stripper”.
The slay division
This sketch went for pure, joyful silliness. A military base run like a runway ballroom. Powell, Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman led the “Slay Division” with fierce bobs, sharper insults and unapologetic attitude. Leslie Bibb played their commanding officer with deadpan authority.The rival “Bang Battalion” brought the high-school-mean-girls energy. Whether it nudged military culture or simply embraced chaos, it worked.
What even is the 6–7 meme? Weekend Update goes dark
Weekend Update leaned heavily into the Epstein email revelations. Jost and Che went darker than usual, firing jokes about SNAP cuts, ICE raiding Home Depot, the shutdown ending after 43 days and a doctored BBC clip implying Trump was “going down on Bill Clinton”.Epstein’s email handle, “jeevacation@gmail.com”, gave Jost one of the night’s biggest laughs when he compared it to Jeffrey Dahmer using “dinnertimejeff”. Even a stray jab about Jost being related to Hitler found its mark.
‘Classic’ haircut
One of the night’s simplest sketches and one of its best. Ashley Padilla arrived late to Friendsgiving, proudly sporting a haircut from a celebrity stylist. It was a hilariously disastrous high-fashion cut that no real person could wear.Padilla played the denial and heartbreak beautifully. The cast gave polite horror, while the waiter was blunt. The final joke — that the waiter shared the same stylist — landed perfectly.
Miss who?
“I Miss My Ex’s Dad” was a polished musical parody built on a wonderfully dumb premise. Ben Marshall and Tommy Brennan sang a country ballad not about missing their exes but their exes’ dads. Powell appeared as the dream father figure, and Kenan Thompson played Gary, “the dad they never had”.The final twist, where the dad sings that he misses them too, added a strangely sweet layer.
Making Louvre: ‘Taken: Airport’
“Taken: Airport” imagined what happens after the action-movie rescue ends and everyone tries to behave normally again. Powell played Bryan, the hero dad, with easy confidence. Andrew Dismukes played Dennis, the insecure stepdad trying to match him.Powell’s Bryan slipped back into rescue mode so aggressively he “stole” his ex-wife again, while Dennis blamed jet lag.
Olivia Dean’s performances
Olivia Dean’s performances of “Man I Need” and “Let Alone the One You Love” offered calm in the middle of a chaotic episode. Her warm, controlled vocals and gentle stage presence gave the show a quiet emotional reset. She sang with sincerity, without ever tipping into excess.
MacGruber’s style of dodging pedophile allegations
“MacGruber II” brought back Will Forte’s unhinged hero, now spiralling as he tried to rewrite the Epstein list while a live bomb ticked away. Powell and Chloe Fineman played horrified partners.The sketch delivered peak MacGruber: panic, shouting, terrible timing and a bomb that never gets defused because he’s too busy trying to hide his own name. Taping the Epstein documents to the bomb just before it explodes was exactly the kind of deranged punchline the character thrives on.
