SNL Recap: Colman Domingo Hosts And Melania Trump Plans Her Speech

Colman Domingo hosts a brand-new, but underwhelming, Saturday Night Live episode this week.

Saturday Night Live started the year off strong with a consistent string of incredible episodes back-to-back for months. Unfortunately, the most recent chapter fell short of its predecessors. However, there were still some standout performances. Check out the hits and misses of SNL this week.

SNL Cold Open Trolls Melania Trump

In the latest cold open, James Austin Johnson reprises his role as President Donald Trump. He is seen attempting to craft his recent social media post about Iran. The sketch then pivots to a series of phone calls to public figures, including Tiger Woods (Kenan Thompson). Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) also makes a phone call to the president to discuss her press conference addressing Jeffrey Epstein.

SNL’s Fashion Students Witness A Crime

Wesley Welch (Johnson) is hosting a live broadcast discussing some breaking news. There was reportedly a bank robbery that occurred near the studio earlier in the day. He then transitions to field coverage, where a reporter (Ashley Padilla) is live on the scene, describing the ongoing investigation. D’Artagnan Meringue (Domingo) plays a college professor at a local fashion institute. He is interviewed alongside his students. Their hilariously shallow and catty responses to Padilla’s questions about the suspect make this segment one of the standouts of the night.

Those were unfortunately the only major highlights of this week’s Saturday Night Live. While not all the segments were terrible, they failed to meet expectations. Here are a few of this week’s flops.

Weekend Update Grows Stale Once More

Weekend Update, while not the worst it’s been, has gone back to being stale and repeating the same jokes about the same people. However, Colin Jost’s making up a completely fake Trump social media post and telling the audience how it was funny that they believed it as real did get some good laughs.

SNL’s Parody Of Animorphs Degrades Itself

In a parody of Animorphs, the sketch opens with a group of kids transforming into animals and transitioning back into their human forms after defeating some aliens. However, Lizzie, played by Sarah Sherman, is left stuck mid-transformation, frozen in a half-human, half-frog state. The bit quickly shifts into exaggerated gross-out humor, as her character struggles to complete the change while punctuating the moment with farts and burps, canceling out the positive aspects of the sketch.

Saturday Night Live airs new episodes on Saturdays at 11:30 PM ET and 8:30 PM PT on NBC.