January 30 will forever be a highlight forJohn Krasinskias it marks the day he made hisSaturday Night Livehosting debut. Krasinski was originally supposed to host his first-everSNLshow all the way back in March 2020. This date was tied to the original release date forA Quiet Place Part II, which he wrote and directed. But, therelease date delay ofA Quiet Place Part IIjust a few weeks before Krasinski was set to host led to hisSNLcommitments gets pushed as well. Finally,The Officealum had the chance to tread theSNLboards at 30 Rock this past Saturday. Welearned Krasinski was hostingearlier in the week, as is typical ofSNL. We also learned Saturday’s musical guest would beMachine Gun Kellyand that the next two scheduled hosts will beRegina KingandDan Levy, in that order.
As for the actual January 30 show, there was a lot of material available for the cast and Krasinski to cover. The attempted coup in Washington, D.C., the GameStop stock boom, the Subway tuna scandal, the inauguration, and Georgia going blue after electingReverend Raphael WarnockandJon Ossofto the U.S. Senate were among the biggest topics that became punchlines. Krasinski seemed down to do a variety of sketches and happily jumped into tons of different characters. He was also happy to work in plenty of jokes about his time as Jim onThe Office,including one that involved kissingPete Davidsonwhich we have no time to unpack; justwatch for yourself.
Not all of the sketches were winners (I’m looking at you, “Subway Pitch”), but when the right material came along, Krasinski absolutely won me over. Here are my picks for Krasinski’s best sketches of the night.
Opening Credits Songs
When it comes to jokes about Kransinki’s role onThe Office, I’m going to choose his work in “Opening Credits Songs” every single time. This pre-recorded sketch is structured like aNow That’s What I Call Musiccommercial featuring previews of the various tracks. Those tracks are remixed opening credits songs sung by characters from each show. So, forThe Mandalorian, we’ve got Baby Yoda (Kyle Mooney) rapping; forThe Crown, we seeKate McKinnon-as-Gillian-Anderson-as-Margaret-Thatcher doing an overly breathy and brief song; forBridgerton,Cecily Strongtransforms into Julie Andrews to perform a swooning, operatic song. And, naturally, Krasinski appears to sing his own original take onThe Office’s iconic theme song, complete with his own lyrics and his own, uh, unique singing voice.
Ratatouille
It was only a matter of time before the R-rated joke we’ve been making for years about a keyRatatouilleplot point got turned into a full-length sketch. As you can see in the above clip image for this sketch, the big joke of “Ratatouille” is that a man (Krasinski) reveals that he is so good at sex thanks to the rat (Mooney) that is hidden by a ridiculous top hat and controls him by pulling different tufts of hair. Things get awkward quickly because this guy discloses his secret trick to the woman (Chloe Fineman) that he’s just slept with. I’m not sure what’s funnier: Krasinski performing through a sketch with a rat toy fused to the wig he’s wearing or the camera cutting to close-ups of Mooney doing all kinds of shenanigans but honestly?Sold.
SNLregulars McKinnon andMikey Dayare the true stars of “Twins,” but gosh darn it, Krasinski is really holding it down here. The premise of “Twins” is this: Krasinski plays a financial pundit who appears on an MSNBC segment. One of the show’s hosts (Strong) notices a deeply disturbing painting behind Krasinski and points it out, which gives Krasinski the opportunity to say it is art made by one of his twins. This leads to Krasinski whipping out an equally horrifying sculpture made by the other twin, which he seems very proud to put on display. Then, suddenly, his twins (McKinnon and Day) magically appear in the frame and it just gets freakier and freakier. As the madness increases over the course of the sketch, Krasinski holds it down as the straight man with marvelous results.
Pandemic Game Night
In “Pandemic Game Night,” a group of couples gets together for what should be a casual night of gaming and light conversation. The group’s plans veer wildly off course when round after round of FBI agents come to the door to arrest various members of their group for a number of heinous crimes.Beck Bennett’s character is revealed to have stormed the Capitol building,AidyBryant’s character admits to being a heinous racist, andJohn Krasinski’s suburban schmuck character is also arrested and he opts to take the Capitol podium he stole with him. It was perhaps the least groan-inducing way last night’sSNLepisode could comment on the absolutely surreal events from earlier in the month and every person involved in the sketch helped sell the heck out of it.
Saturday Night Liveairs on NBC on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT. The next episode airs Saturday, February 6, and is hosted by Regina King with musical guest Phoebe Bridgers. you’re able to catch up onSNLSeason 46 thanks to Hulu and Peacock. For more, see our picks for thebest sketches from Timothée Chalamet’s July 04, 2025 show.
