Saturday Night Live Recap: Will Ferrell Can’t Save The Finale

Saturday Night Live
Will Ferrell
Season 51 Episode 20
Editor’s Rating ★★
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Well, you win some, you lose some. At times I’ve actually been pretty impressed with Saturday Night Live season 51, which has handled the cast turnover well. Yes, the cast still desperately needs a Black woman or two (it’s the first time the cast doesn’t have a Black female comedian in years, as noted by Delaina Dixon), but we’ve got a solid roster right now.Not all are stars yet, and even some of the more talented players get overexposed, but these people can generally play the roles required of them. The quality of an episode often depends less on the individual players’ strengths and weaknesses (or the strengths and weaknesses of the host) and more on the writing.

This is Will Ferrell’s sixth time hosting and technically his first since 2019, though his appearance in the 50th anniversary special is still fresh in my mind. And despite a few minor stumbles, he’s still a fun presence to have around. I even appreciate the lack of fan service in repeating old Ferrell classics. You always want to relax while watching an SNL finale, safe in the hands of a reliably funny and confident host, so Ferrell makes sense. Ditto Paul McCartney — his voice obviously isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still nice to see the guy perform. And his distinct energy always adds to a sketch whenever he makes a cameo appearance.

That said … not even McCartney could save the mechanic sketch, a real clunker that never went anywhere interesting. The basic premise is that most people have no idea what mechanics are talking about while explaining a car issue, which is true, and that mechanics often quote you a huge price for something you can’t even understand, which is also true. But the mechanics played by Ferrell, McCartney, and Marcello Hernández are basically just speaking in gibberish (or Spanish in Marcello’s case, which feels a little off), and there’s not much else to it. McCartney’s British take on the car terminology is kind of amusing, but that’s about it.

Most of the night’s sketches had that “going nowhere” quality to them. Following the monologue, the show begins in earnest with Mikey Day playing a man who wakes up from gall bladder surgery, only to learn that the doctor accidentally removed his penis. Ferrell does fine at portraying the doctor’s blasé attitude toward such a life-altering error, but things never evolve from there; he just starts calling the patient’s wife a bitch. The Nudemans closer is equally boring: Andrew Dismukes plays a guy meeting his girlfriend’s family, and they all appear normal from the front but expose themselves whenever they turn around. This one feels like a million other SNL skits, and it offers pretty much nothing beyond the initial joke. I’d say I feel bad for Ferrell getting some of this material, but who am I kidding? He’s used to this.

Here are the highlights: 

Cold Open

It’s not a great sign when the political cold open shows up in the highlights, but this one had its moments. Ferrell’s take on Jeffrey Epstein isn’t so much an impression (after all, most viewers probably aren’t familiar with Epstein’s actual voice and affect) as a vehicle for Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come-style prophecies about where Trump’s Cabinet members will end up in the future. 

It’s a good premise, and Jost’s Pete Hegseth selling “hard water” called Poland Sprung is kind of funny. I’m not sure the sketch totally capitalizes on its potential, though, by limiting itself to the “six months from now” timeline. And it repeats itself a bit by giving Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and Kash Patel roughly similar prophecies shilling products. 

Monologue

Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and McCartney’s backing band, shows up pretending to be Ferrell. (From the back, I thought he was The Karate Kid/Cobra Kai’s John Kreese.) This leads to a few amusing moments with Ferrell and McCartney taking him to task, though my favorite bit is probably Ferrell simply listing McCartney’s endless great tunes. Not sure there’s much more to say about that.

Bobbin’s Sacrifice

A Return of the King parody in 2026? Sure. It’s actually a pretty funny idea: What if one of the hobbits volunteered to sacrifice his life to defeat the Orcs, only to happily turn on the other heroes and save himself? Ferrell’s earnest hobbit performance (along with the triumphant melody of his song) contrasts with the dark material, making for a higher laugh ratio than probably anywhere else in the show. There are no real twists here after the initial triumphant “I have to switch sides!”, but the increasingly over-the-top betrayals are great. It’s like Bobbin always wanted to side with the Orcs.

Cast List 2

The original “Cast List” was cut for time from Ferrell’s 2019 episode before blowing up, and the sequel is another decent send-up of theater kids. Mr. Koenig (Ferrell), the cruel drama teacher, is the star of this sketch, forcing his overinvested students to hang on his every word as he delays revealing the Grease cast list.

But I’m always most tickled by the kids’ over-the-top reactions. This time, I actually connected most to Jane Wickline (rare), who plays a senior desperately hoping not to play a tree yet again. A little uncomfortably meta considering the types of roles Wickline gets on SNL, but her reactions are very funny, especially the hysterical “no, no” while swaying with the branches for the teaching assistant (the other returning character from the first time).

Weekend Update

Not the best Update of the season, but this provided a lot of the highlights in a low-on-laughs episode. We get the return of Mr. On Blast, a bit that should wear out its welcome pretty quickly — and probably already has for many viewers. Personally, I enjoyed this one well enough, but there’s definitely a ceiling to my enjoyment. But the increasingly elaborate dance routines worked for me, as did the “devout” running joke. 

The jokes were just much more consistent here for me than in any of the actual sketches in this episode. Being risqué isn’t inherently hilarious, but sometimes it just works, as in the case of Michael Che’s blunt “If that peacock could talk, I bet it’d say, ‘Bill Cosby raped me!’” (The NBC of it all is what makes it feel a bit daring.) I’m also a sucker for a well-written Stevie Wonder joke, and the edited graphic of Stevie holding a handful of rocks described to him as diamonds fits the bill. 

Then, yes, there’s the joke swap. It’s not the best one, but I respect the attempts to go harder and harder every season, even when both Jost and especially Che have already gone pretty far. Jost pledging his season salary to Dr. Umar is good, and Che’s joke about grape juice making his boyfriend rock-hard (accompanied by a photo of a child sipping juice) made me gasp. The Michael Jackson stuff is pretty good, too, if obvious. And then we end on that barber bit, during which Jost seemed fully ready to get his head shaved. I respect his commitment to the swap, and Che stopping him from going through with it is actually kind of a wholesome way to end the segment. 

Cut for Time

• “My approval rating is in the 30s.” “The 30s? Gross. Call me when it hits 17.” 

• “This time, I’m going to leave you hanging.”

• It’s always nice to see Molly Shannon show up, so that was a good surprise. 

• “Please try to separate the art from the artist and remember that Ye can make awful music and still be right about Hitler.”