The latest episode ofSaturday Night LivesawRegina King, beloved actor and the director ofOne Night in Miami, make her hosting debut with musical guestNathaniel Rateliff. King was one of the many stellarSNLhosts lined up for the month of February, following on the heels of great showings fromJohn KrasinskiandDan Levy. While the quality of King’s episode was generally solid, serviceable, and enjoyable, there are two sketches that stand out as the clear winners of the night.
One of the strongest sketches from King’s episode was “The Negotiator,” which already feels like a riff on all of the recent promotions forQueen Latifah’s CBS update ofThe Equalizer. In the sketch, King plays a hostage negotiator who arrives on the scene of a tense situation. Before she gets to work, King’s character reveals she ate all of the weed gummies her partner (Bowen Yang) had marked as evidence. The audience knows what’s about to happen before King’s character does, which makes the rest of the sketch a hoot to watch. For three minutes, as the weed gummies begin to take hold, we descend into a musical sketch reminiscent of the kinds of comedy songsSNLalumAdam Sandlerused to perform on the show. Visions of human-sized teddy bear gummies (Pete DavidsonandAidy Bryant) materialize, as does a demonic Marge Simpson (Melissa Villaseñor) and a grown-up incarnation of the sun fromTeletubbies, all the while distracting the negotiator from doing her job. It’s a trippy delight that lets King be just as goofy as theSNLcast members she’s performing alongside.
The other truly great sketch of the night was “Birthday Gifts,” which is five minutes of comedy that will have you crying with laughter after two minutes. The premise of the sketch revolves around a middle-aged woman getting different kinds of chintzy wooden signs from her friends for her birthday. The signs start out cute but quickly focus on a particular hobby that leaves the woman at a total loss for words. As the signs get weirder and more specific, the sketch just gets better and better.
Check out King in two of the best sketches of the night, “The Negotiator” and “Birthday Gifts.” New episodes ofSaturday Night Liveair on Saturday on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT. For more, find outwho’s hosting the next episodeofSaturday Night Live.
