Amy Poehler / Role Model - October 11, 2025

Before I begin, I want to thank you all for the support I received with my first review. I was pleased to see all of your comments; it makes me really excited to continue with these, so thank you all.

Some corrections: As it turns out Huntrix and Benicio del Toro were the cameos I couldn't recognize last night. Also, I missed Tommy, Jeremy, and Cam in the Inventing Spanish sketch in the cast countdown. Guess I'm not used to noticing them in sketches.

(PRE-SHOW THOUGHTS)

Amy Poehler is hosting. This may be a turn-around from last week's show, considering how great Amy Poehler is as a comedian. She's one of my favorite female cast members of all time, after all. But I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

Also, it's the 50th anniversary tonight of SNL's premiere. I expect a brief mention of it in the monologue and nothing more. They already had the anniversary special last winter so I don't expect them to do anything else to celebrate it. 

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(COLD OPEN) Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing

Highlights:

• Amy was funny as Pam Bondi, although didn't Ashley play her in the "White Potus" sketch last year? Shame they took the role away from her.
• It was good seeing Jeremy and Tommy get supporting roles in this sketch, especially after Tommy was given the shaft last week.
• Andrew was great as Senator John Kennedy. He has a skill to make me laugh in his impressions, even if they aren't very accurate.
• I'm glad we're finally getting a cold open without Trump for the first time in forever.
• The writing overall wasn't anything special, but it was alright. Some good lines here and there, and the performances were all great.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• Not surprised to see Tina Fey make an appearance, even if I didn't recognize her at first.

(MONOLOGUE) Amy Poehler

Highlights:

• Nice to see talk of SNL's fiftieth anniversary.

Lowlights:

• Pretty lame jokes, even if Amy elevated them.

Additional Notes:

• None.

(SKETCH) The Family Called the Rudemans

Highlights:

• I always love characters with their own title sequence.

Lowlights:

• Kind of a lame premise to base a sketch on, especially lead-off sketch of the night. Man, between the Jeopardy sketch in the season premiere and this sketch, this season seems to love thin-ass premises to open the show with.

Additional Notes:

• None.

(COMMERCIAL) Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer

Highlights:

• Short and sweet.
• Love seeing Andrew in this type of role.
• Kam cracked me up with his "That smells like gasoline" line.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• Felt like a sister sketch to Coupla Beers from the Shane Gillis episode last year.

(NEXT WEEK) October 18 - Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina's pretty funny for a musician, but I fear this will be catered to the young TikTok audience, knowing Sabrina's fan base.

(SKETCH) The Fast Psychic

Highlights:

• A funny little bit of escalation. A good way to get most of the cast featured.
• The corrections part was really funny.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• Jane makes her first appearance of the season in this sketch. Ben also has his first live speaking role. His little scene cracked me up.

(COMMERCIAL) The Hunting Wives

Highlights:

• Aubrey Plaza! I guess her appearance in this pre-tape is to make up for the fact that she can't be in studio tonight.

Lowlights:

• Meh, this didn't really work for me. Just not my type of humour. Maybe if I understood the source material a little bit better I'd like it more.

Additional Notes:

• Figures they'd use Tommy and Kam in the young teenager roles.

(SKETCH) Pregnant Boss

Highlights:

• This was pretty odd, but I got some laugh out of it.
• Ben cracked me up once again with his role in this sketch. Seems like he'll make a greater cast member than I thought.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• Man, Ashley has been all over this episode. I'm certainly not complaining, especially after how little she was featured in the season premiere.

(MUSICAL PERFORMANCE) Role Model

No comment.

(WEEKEND UPDATE) Jost & Che, with Rhonda Lacinzo, The Couple You Can't Believe Are Together, Weekend Update Joke-Off

Highlights:

• Colin getting inserted into the video of Trump and Epstein was hilarious.
• The Weekend Update joke off makes its return! This was a ton of fun and it was great seeing Tina Fey and Seth Meyers back at the Weekend Update desk.

Lowlights:

• The commentaries tonight didn't work for me tonight.
• Sarah's piece was the sort of thing we've seen from her a million times before. I run a little bit hot and cold on Sarah. When she's doing her trademark absurdist brand of humour, I like her a lot more than this type of role.
• Grant and Alyssa are two of the more popular recurring characters of the past few years, but I don't know if I really need to see them back after the first time. It's probably the best use of Jane Wickline.
• Hearing Sarah talk about Mamdani reminds me that we won't be seeing Emil Wakim play Mamdami like most people predicted.

Additional Notes:

• None.

(SKETCH) Competing Lawyers

Highlights:

• Another good way to get the whole cast involved tonight (besides Colin and Michael).
• A good premise and pretty funny execution. Totally unhinged.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• I wonder if Kam playing a stereotypically gay role will rub some fans the wrong way, given that he came under fire when he was hired for gay jokes in his stand-up that offended some people. I personally don't mind it, but I can see people having a problem with it.
• Seeing Chloe side by side with Ashley and Veronika makes me wonder why she's still on the show. What can she do that they can't also do?

(MUSICAL PERFORMANCE)

No comment.

(SKETCH) Mid-Life Crisis

Highlights:

• A very Amy Poehler premise. I appreciated it for what it was even if it wasn't anything special.

Lowlights:

• None.

Additional Notes:

• Cool seeing Amy's emo friends played by three of the featured players. Their utilization tonight in general is far better than it was last week, even if none of them are getting starring roles.

(SKETCH) Music Composers

Highlights:

• None.

Lowlights:

• Despite some laughs here and there, I felt this was kind of repetitive. A miss.

Additional Notes:

• None.

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(CONCLUSION)

A decent show, and it turned out to be a rebound from the season premiere last week with Bad Bunny. Amy Poehler was a solid host as expected, and this episode showcased a good deal of oddball premises that I liked. There were a couple of mis-steps, and nothing really stood out to me as amazing, but I can't complain too much. We're definitely starting to head in the right direction with this episode.

Overall Highlights:

• Amy's hosting performance.
• Non-Non Alcoholic Beer.
• The Weekend Update joke-off.
• Competing Lawyers.
• The focus on newer members of the cast.

Overall Lowlights:

• The Family Called the Rudemans.
• The Hunting Wives.
• The two Weekend Update commentaries (Rhonda Lacinzo and The Couple You Can't Believe Are Together).
• Music Composers.

Funniest Moment:

• The increased insanity in the Competing Lawyers sketch culminating in Bowen as Yggdrasil the Evertree, attorney at law.

Best Lines:

• Tina Fey as Kristi Noem: "That makes me laugh more than the ending of Old Yeller."
• Ashley Padilla, seeing Andrew Dismukes drinking non-non-alchohlic beer: "Eric, you're sober!"
  Andrew Dismukes: "And you've gained a few. Looks like we're two things!"
• Kam Patterson: "So my father recently passed away..."
  Amy Poehler as the fast psychic: "Honey, he's dead."
  Kam Patterson: "Oh, thank you."
• Michael Che, refering the woman who gave birth to a 13-pound baby: "Here's a fun fact, the second the baby popped out, the woman zipped around the room like a deflated balloon."
• Tina Fey: "A woman in Tennessee gave birth to a 13-pound baby, because it's Tennessee and the baby was also pregnant."
• Amy Poehler as Lachlan Mulchburger: "I'm Lachlan Mulchburger and with 75 years of legal experience just by myself, I make Billson and Lieberman look like slick newborn baaabiieeees."

CAST MEMBER COUNTDOWN

CHE: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)

DAY: 4 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, The Family Called the Rudemans, Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers)

DISMUKES: 4 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, The Family Called the Rudemans, Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer, Competing Lawyers)

FINEMAN: 3 sketches (The Hunting Wives, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis)

HERNANDEZ: 3 sketches (The Fast Psychic, Weekend Update, Competing Lawyers)

JOHNSON: 5 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, The Fast Psychic, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis, Music Composers)

JOST: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)

SHERMAN: 6 sketches (The Family Called the Rudemans, The Fast Psychic, The Hunting Wives, Pregnant Boss, Weekend Update, Competing Lawyers)

THOMPSON: 3 sketches (Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers, ,Music Composers)

YANG: 5 sketches (The Family Called the Rudemans, The Fast Psychic, Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers, Music Composers)

BRENNAN: 6 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, Monologue, The Hunting Wives, Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers, Music Composers)

CULHANE: 5 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, Monologue, The Fast Psychic, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis)

MARSHALL: 7 sketches (Monologue, Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer, The Fast Psychic, Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis, Music Composers)

PADILLA: 8 sketches (Pam Bondi Congressional Hearing, The Family Called the Rudemans, Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer, The Fast Psychic, The Hunting Wives, Pregnant Boss, Competing Lawyers, Music Composers)

PATTERSON: 6 sketches (Monologue, Non-Non-Alcoholic Beer, The Fast Psychic, The Hunting Wives, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis)

SLOWIKOWSKA: 3 sketches (Monologue, The Fast Psychic, Competing Lawyers)

WICKLINE: 5 sketches (The Fast Psychic, Weekend Update, Competing Lawyers, Mid-Life Crisis, Music Composers)

The stars of tonight were Ashley, James, and Sarah. Great to see. I especially loved seeing Ashley all over the show after her lack of airtime in the season premiere. This is all the more touching, considering how her mentor Diane Keaton passed away earlier today. And through it all, she managed to put on a great performance. Also great to see James used as a Phil Hartman-esque anchor throughout the episode, pretty much exactly the type of role I want him in. But overall, everyone in the cast got a fair share of airtime, especially the newer cast members. Seems they featured everyone prominently who I missed last week, and the people who I think are a tad overexposed (Chloe, Mikey, Marcello, Kenan) were kept to a minimum.

Thanks to all of you for reading this review. Sorry it got posted up so late, I was busy for most of the day. Until next week, good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.