Matt Damon takes his 30 Rock gig seriously (in a fun way).
Photo: Caro Scarimbolo/NBC
It’s a little surprising that this is only Matt Damon’s third time hosting Saturday Night Live. As a serious actor, he’s always down to commit. As a comedy actor, he’s underrated. He first hosted in the early aughts, and then again during the 2018 Christmas episode, which gave us the now-classic Weezer sketch. Based on his past stints — and also his being a fan of the show growing up — being at 30 Rock is a job he takes seriously. There was no doubt he’d perform well, but the question for me was what we’d cover tonight. Boston? The Odyssey trailer that’s upsetting some purists? A Ben Affleck appearance? Slotting him into a Domingo sketch, Nate Bargatze–style?
Only one of those came to fruition. But the show did put him to work immediately; he was a strong presence throughout the episode, starting with the cold open, where he reprised his role as Brett Kavanaugh. In it, he’s joined by fellow alleged alcoholics Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) and Kash Patel (Aziz Ansari), catching up at a bar. A lot of funny lines, and I appreciated the change in setting and the show’s desire to give James Austin Johnson a bit of a break every once in a while. Damon’s monologue was appropriately Mother’s Day–oriented with a recorded Cameo-style Mother’s Day message that pokes fun at the fact that the movie he’s on the show to promote isn’t out for weeks. It was brief, which was fine by me. Damon’s funny and charming, so why not get the show rolling?
He accomplished a lot in a short time. His two more physical characters were delightful to watch: a navy admiral addicted to spit takes and a substitute teacher subjecting his students to painful dancing. Even though the latter sketch was a little long and one-note, his energy throughout was impressive and made it worth watching. Writing-wise, I really liked every sketch this episode, which doesn’t happen a ton. Even though Damon’s other characters were more limited in scope (see: husband, husband but playing himself, a guy from Boston, etc), his joke delivery was often excellent. The last sketch, where he plays a philandering auctioneer, made me greedy about wanting to see him play more out-of-the-box characters like that. What would an episode where he’s playing freakier characters look like? I hope he hosts again soon and we can find out.
As far as the rest of the cast, I missed seeing Ashley Padilla in the live sketches this week, and Ben Marshall also seemed to take more of a back seat this episode. But it does feel like there’s more stability to the cast overall, especially considering the season started with a slew of departures as well as a mid-season exit from Bowen Yang. There’s the star turn for Padilla, sure, but even in her absence (minus the pretapes), it feels like cast members are holding it down, and featured players — especially Veronika Slowikowska and Jeremy Culhane — are coming into their own. Because of that, I would rank this as one of my favorite episodes this season. Even the weaker sketches, like the substitute-teacher one and the Mother’s Day movie, were still enjoyable to watch and laden with strong jokes.
Here are the highlights:
A spit take will never not work on me. Matt Damon plays a Navy admiral in a submarine who’s getting updates from his team on a terrifying creature in the murky waters. Every time one of his crewmembers (Mikey Day) shares new information, the admiral spits his drink in his face. We know the spits are coming, but we never know exactly when, which keeps it surprising. The line, “Can I get some of that runny, lumpy yogurt that I like?” really tickles me. Damon is masterful here. His spit takes are so precise and forceful, and he’s really hosing Day down. I don’t blame Day for breaking when Damon is spooning globs of yogurt like it is his last day on earth.
When is Damon more likely to break out a Boston accent than as part of a group of guys who keep getting their asses kicked? Three friends at a barbecue (Damon, Marcello Hernández, and Kenan Thompson) talk about sticking it to people who think they’re “tough guys,” only to reveal that each time, they’ve badly lost the fight. The harrowing details of each one’s stories about getting beat up are funny on their own, and what makes it better is how the guys readily buy into each tale like it’s relatable. One of my favorites: “This guy, he blows me up like I’m a friggin’ balloon.” “That’s a unique punishment.” Hernández dips into Sebastian Maniscalco’s impression territory, but I don’t mind it. And shout-out to the adorably menacing child at the end doing a “quarter check.”
In this commercial parody, a couple (Damon and Padilla) learn about a new cat litter that changes colors when it’s been pissed on. But their litter box keeps turning up blue spots, and the narrator (James Austin Johnson) eventually tells them that blue means it’s human urine. Padilla and Damon’s characters are driven to near madness over the blue spots, with Damon’s husband character accusing their son, a delightfully ashamed Andrew Dismukes. The tension between the couple, contrasted with their joint antagonism toward the devious narrator, is hilarious. If the narrator started the chaos, at least he also ends it: “My bad. Blue can also mean dog.”
The monologue jokes are largely unmemorable this week (save for the parrot with the BBL, which made me laugh out loud, even if the studio audience kind of hated it). But the guests at the desk bump it into the highlights. Jeremy Culhane’s Tucker Carlson on the Met Gala is my favorite segment. His cadence is so spot-on, and his high-pitched “Huh!” always kills me.
Jane Wickline also debuts a new song, which straddles a defense of being chronically late and an outright defiance of the idea of being on time. Lyrics like, “40 minutes late and I picked vanilla / There was a huge line, and I paid with a check” really paint a picture. And Wickline’s quietly pissed-off delivery really makes me laugh.
Mikey Day and Marcello Hernández also stop by as kamikaze dolphins, which I appreciate as someone whose favorite genre of comedy is animals doing something they shouldn’t be doing. What can I say? I’m simple. The dolphin costumes and bucket of fish make for fun physical humor, like Hernández hitting Colin Jost with a fish.
The last sketch of the night is a real feat. Two auctioneers in a crumbling marriage, played by Damon and Sarah Sherman, squabble about Damon’s character’s whereabouts, Sherman’s character’s drinking, and other issues in their marriage. And, yes, they’re talking like auctioneers, running through numbers and names with such speed that it’s a small miracle one of them doesn’t really mess up or break. Their quartet of sons joins in at the end, along with the neighbor (Johnson), which is a nice touch that keeps the bit from getting old.
• Damon’s quivering delivery of the phrase “male loneliness” in the cold open really got me.
• Marcello’s mom looks incredible?
• “He’s rolling away, and I go, ‘Is that all you got?’ Big, big mistake on my part.”
• The audience really turned out for Noah Kahan. Don’t know anything about that man, but he seems nice and did well!
• I like the Marco Rubio/Marco Polo gag during “Weekend Update.”
• “To world peace!” “Should be any day now.”
• I also really liked the “Mom Movie Trailer” pretape. It had the potential to be a little monotonous, but Padilla took it to the next level. She’s so good at playing moms, and I think it’s the earnest specificity? Like when her daughter, played by Veronika Slowikowska, announces she’s having twins, Padilla blurts “TWO!” with such unadulterated joy, it’s both funny and charming because it feels realistic.
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