Ariana Grande Hosted A Mighty Musical Saturday Night Live And Pretty Much Crushed It

With everything that's going on in Ariana Grande's career, from her chart-topping singing career to starring in the massive movie musical "Wicked," it can be easy to forget that she got her start as an adorkable theater kid who found success on Nickelodeon. But having Grande host "Saturday Night Live" for a second time, after her debut pulling double duty as host and musical guest back in 2016, was the perfect reminder that she's a versatile performer who not only has unbelievable singing pipes, but she also has quite an impressive array of impressions — including some that don't require her to sing at all. 

While Ariana Grande's second time hosting "SNL" wasn't quite as good as Nate Bargatze's second time hosting last weekend, this was still an extremely solid episode that featured even more musical sketches than her first stint on the show. Plus, while the musical sketches were probably the better parts of the show, including her monologue above, the bits where Grande wasn't singing were also mostly enjoyable. In fact, a couple of them brought in some of the special guest stars who have been popping in for appearances during the timely and relevant political cold opens, including one delivering a rather surprising impersonation. 

So without further ado, let's dig into the highs and lows of Ariana Grande's season 50 episode of "Saturday Night Live."

My Best Friend's House – With a fancy new opening title card touting a "Saturday Night Live Midnight Matinee," this pre-taped sketched was packed with superb production quality and a beautiful long lead into a darkly funny twist. Ariana Grande innocently sings about loving the experience of staying at her best friend's house, because there's just something about it that feels like a different kind of home — especially when it comes to those unique smells that define it. From the puppets in the book shelf, pillows, and even the window shades, to the magical swirls of the scent of dinner, it's a wonderful scene.

Then it all comes crashing down spectacularly when it's revealed that Ariana's best friend's father was a notorious criminal known as the Crossword Killer. What follows is a hilariously twisted reframing of everything we've just seen, revealing what the father of this wonderful-smelling house has been up to the entire time. You can hear how well it pays off with the crowd's reaction upon the initial reveal, but it gets better and better as it goes on, from the stains revealed on the couch with a blacklight to the musical shaker being full of human teeth. Man, what a great sketch.

Charades with Mom – If you had forgotten about Ariana Grande's theater kid energy, this sketch will certainly remind you. Maybe the most impressive thing about Grande, other than her outstanding voice, is how precise she is when it comes to line readings. Even when she briefly flubs a line in this sketch, she manages to recover quickly and with such clear enunciation so as not to lose the line. Furthermore, she has moments of such rapid fire, melodramatic dialogue, that you can't help but appreciate how good she is at doing this. When you think about it, "SNL" is just like a Broadway show that's merely broadcast to millions around the world. With all her concert and stage experience, Grande has all the skills she needs, including more than satisfactory comedic presence and timing. The escalation of the charades conflict between Ariana as a competitive mother and Bowen Yang as her son's new boyfriend is delightfully absurd, and the result is a great live sketch.

Castrati – Just the sight of Ariana Grande as a tiny boy from the Italian renaissance period is enough to earn a big laugh. That massive bowl cut with on her tiny frame is inherently funny, but the sketch around it makes it even better. Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph get in on the fun as the parents of this young boy, whom they've turned into a beautifully high-pitched singer with the magic of, how you say, castration. Listening to Grande deliver a traumatized, high-pitched singing voice is rather amusing, but even funnier are the close-up cuts to her forever-terrified face. James Austin Johnson and Kenan Thompson add even more as they react to the unsettling revelations, and this one even manages to have a solid ending too.

Maybelline - If you thought Ariana Grande was only good at musical impressions, think again. Here, Grande goes toe-to-toe with Chloe Fineman's fantastic impersonation of "White Lotus" and "Legally Blonde" co-star Jennifer Coolidge, and she proves that she's really got the goods. Grande and Fineman even make each other break slightly as they fumble with the mirroring in the sketch, which is very clearly taking cues from Jimmy Fallon's famous Mick Jagger sketch from so many years ago. But the real treat is the surprise addition of a third Jennifer Coolidge played by Dana Carvey. While Carvey isn't as good as Grande or Fineman, it's moreso the effort and the sight that makes the gag land firmly. Part of me wonders if they really wanted to do this with Coolidge, who was meant to host last year before the Writers Guild of America strikes resulted in the last episodes of season 49 being canceled.

As for the less remarkable sketches, a Celine Dion sports ad for UFC featured an impressive impression of the singer by Ariana Grande, but the sketch overall wasn't a home run. Hotel Detective was a fine "Twilight Zone" riff but felt like it was missing something. But if there was one sketch that felt like a bit of a dud, it was the Bridesmaids Speech. It was a rather clumsy use of Sabrina Carpenter's hit song "Espresso," and while that's kind of the point of the sketch, with Ariana Grande even dumbing down her incredible voice to seem like a normal bridesmaid singing with friends of the bride, it never quite felt like it fell into a good rhythm. The timing was frequently off, especially when it came to cutting to the right camera on several occasions, and it made everything feel stilted. 

Meanwhile, this was the worst cold open we've had so far this season, even though it wasn't downright terrible. While I appreciated the fact that they tried to shake things up with a "Family Feud" framework, the actual content and punchlines felt rather forced. Though, Kenan Thompson is always great as Steve Harvey, this just didn't work well for this moment in political satire. But there was one other missing ingredient, and we'll get to that a bit later. 

Weekend Update has been pretty damn good out of the gate this season, with Michael Che and Colin Jost delivering fantastic punchlines taken straight from the headlines. The best moments have come from Michael Che delivering some edgier jokes and repeatedly saying "it's the '90s" when prompted with some groans from the audience or head-shaking from Colin Jost, not to mention their continued playfulness with each other. The fruit fly joke and the atomic bomb punchlines were particularly biting. But there was another fun bit at the desk this week, regardless of what audiences across the pond seem to think.

One of the guests at the desk with a pairing of Liam and Noel Gallagher, the brothers better known as the beloved British band Oasis. If you check out the Twitter post featuring this appearance at the Weekend Update desk, you'll see a lot of humorless Oasis fans (many from foggy London town and the surrounding area better known as England) whining about the lack of accuracy in Liam and Noel's accents. 

While you'd think the home of Monty Python and "The Office" could maybe pick up on the intention of comedy, they clearly don't understand that the poor accents are part of the gag. James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman aren't trying to genuinely impersonate Oasis, they're playing up the bad accents and childishness of the band and turning them into bickering children. Why do you think the first things they commend as legends are cartoon characters? What would the point be of doing impeccably precise impersonations of Liam and Noel Gallagher while you're having them poke, prod, and tickle each other? The comedy comes from the silly portrayal of the duo. Sorry that folks in England didn't get this. Thankfully, we declared independence in 1776, so we really don't have to worry about that. 

Oh, and Ego Nwodim's frazzled, under-rested, and delirious Amazon employee was rather fun too.

Before we wrap this up, I just wanted to lament one missing ingredient from the political cold open this week. While the writers and cast are having fun with Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, and Jim Gaffigan consistently popping up as Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, and Tim Walz, this week offered an opportunity to bring back another special guest, but it didn't happen.

On Donald Trump's side of "Family Feud," he's joined by Mikey Day as Donald Trump Jr. and Bowen Yang as J.D. Vance. There's also a funny bit where Melania Trump was supposed to be there, but she's missing from her husband's side, just as she has been for a couple of years now (if not more). But this would have been a great chance to bring Alex Moffat back as Eric Trump. Whenever Mikey Day and Alex Moffat appeared at the Weekend Update desk as the magnificently stupid Trump brothers, it was magic. They also frequently appeared in proper sketches, and having them reunited would have been a real treat. Perhaps that's part of the reason it felt like this sketch was missing something. 

Anyway, we're hoping "SNL" can keep this momentum heading into their fourth consecutive episode of season 50. Michael Keaton will be hosting, and he hasn't been on the show since 2015, so it should be a lot of fun. Be sure to come back after the episode airs for our recap and review, and if you want to hear more about "SNL," you can check out "The Ten to One Podcast," available wherever you get your podcasts.