Saturday Night Live recap: Maya Rudolph is the Mother of Studio 8H

Along with being the penultimate episode of Saturday Night Live season 49, last night’s edition was also the annual Mother’s Day show, and it was hosted by a mother in every sense of the word: literal parent (“I have four beautiful kids, that I know of”) and spiritual capital-M Mother, Maya Rudolph.

One of the best SNL cast members of this century, Rudolph joins Pete Davidson and Kristen Wiig as show alums who made their return to Studio 8H this season, with Maya pulling hosting duties for the third time in support of her Apple TV+ series Loot. (Vampire Weekend was also in the house as this week’s musical guest, promoting their new album titled Only God Was Above Us; the actress will return the favor by opening for the group this summer as part of her Prince cover band, Princess, with Gretchen Lieberum.)

And if you love Maya Rudolph—impossible not to, really—this was a very Maya Rudolph episode of Saturday Night Live, with musical bits, poop jokes and wacky voices galore. Some of it worked (or werked, in the case of that monologue), some of it less so (British cavemen?), but as with any time Maya Rudolph is onscreen, it’s all worth a watch.

Cold open: Send in the moms

In lieu of a traditional cold open, the cast paraded out their mamas—because it would be Mother’s Day in, like, 21 minutes—to offer heartwarming stories about their kids instead. (“I was excited to see who was going to play Stormy Daniels!” complained Kenan’s mom.)

Though largely more sweet than silly, the matriarchs did manage to get in some good laughs, including Tom Brady jokes from Chloe Fineman’s mom Ellen (“Tom Brady’s marriage finished so quickly, I thought it was your dad!”) and MILF quips from Marcello Hernández’s madre Isabel (“Michael Che gave me flowers! But the note was just a phone number?”). Bowen Yang’s mom Meng ended things off on a heartfelt note—“We are from all over the country, from every side of the political spectrum, but we have one thing in common: we love our children with all our hearts”—that is, before declaring that Brady is her hall pass.

Opening monologue: Mommy dearest

“Mother is mothering in that dress,” this recapper unironically proclaimed when Maya Rudolph came out to introduce Saturday’s episode. So it was only fitting that her entire opening monologue was dedicated to our host’s undisputable “Mother” status, a distinction designated for iconic women of a certain age who can’t help but serve, slay, and so on.

After Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman praised Rudolph for being “a 30 Rock legend” and having her “foot on our neck since Y2K,” the opening monologue quickly turned into a Renaissance-style ball, with Maya as a catsuit-wearing pop queen and Kenan Thompson as an ever-supportive Law Roach-ian figure named Mr. Infinity Decor. (“Ladies and gentlemen, gays and theys, I give you Mother of the House of Rockefeller!”) There were multiple Madonna references, nonsensical parody lyrics (“Martha Stewart gave good hurr, Mary Catherine Galla-gurr”), sassy fan-clacking—truly, the stuff of dreams.

The best returning character: Exasperated Beyoncé

With the number of times that Rudolph has parodied Hot Ones (First We Feast’s “hot questions and even hotter wings” celebrity interview series), you might be surprised to find that the comedienne hasn’t actually appeared as herself opposite wingman Sean Evans. Her take as Molly Wells from Loot’s first season was instantly iconic, but Rudolph first spoofed the spicy web series as Beyoncé during SNL season 46.

Now fully Cowboy Carter-ed, her Queen Bey is back to take on the Last Dab yet again because “this is the only thing I have attempted that I did not slay, and that bothered both me and my husband.” Despite being from Texas (woo!), the heat starts getting to Yoncé (“Beyoncé about to do something very human”), so much so that she tasks her trusty assistant Derafael (Kenan Thompson) to shoot her $6,000 cocoa butter lotion directly into her mouth. It’s rare to see Kenan as close to breaking as he gets here, but Maya Rudolph playing a near-defecation musical icon will do that to you.

The best prop of the night: That nightmare neck

The Please Don’t Destroy fellas are back, this time actively trying to hide their Instagram explore pages from their girlfriends (Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman) while out at dinner. Why? Because they’re all oddly obsessed with a woman named Uneesa Confidence (Rudolph), a blue-eyeshadowed, breast-swinging “online girlfriend for young men with self-esteem issues.”

Ben Marshall swallows his phone rather than admit to his missus all of his Uneesa-related digital habits, resulting in some excellently gross prosthetic work by the SNL makeup team. It’s made even more gnarly when the waiter (Marcello Hernández) has to dial 911 through Marshall’s squared-off neck.

The most relatable sketch of the night:

You either are the kid who wanted to leave every sleepover, or you’re the parent now forced to pick up that little shithead from every sleepover. Keeping with the humorous-but-heartwarming vibes of the evening, this pre-tape was as much an ode to the unconditional love of parenthood as it was a vehicle for the dumbest reasons retrieving your kiddo early from an overnight. The best of the bunch? “It’s her father, he has…become gay?” and “Cicadas!”

The missed poop opportunity of the night:

Maya Rudolph and poop are a comedic match made in heaven—just look at that famous shitting-in-the-street scene from Bridesmaids for proof. Which makes it all the more disappointing that there wasn’t more of a punchline to this Lauren Bacall-esque coffee commercial parody—in which a legendary actress (Rudolph) gets a real below-the-belt jolt while filming an ad for a coffee company—than just cheap fart jokes.

Stray observations

• Outside of “Weekend Update,” there was surprisingly little politics throughout this week’s episode, which meant no reprisal of Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Speaking of “Update,” there’s been a whole host of very hyper-specific cameos at the desk this season, from Kristi Noem’s other dog to the New York City earthquake to Flaco the Owl’s widow. This week, we got RFK’s brain worm via Sarah Sherman, a surrealist appearance that saw the parasite sultrily croon Marilyn-style to the Kennedy man.
• We only have one more episode of Saturday Night Live this season, folks—next week’s finale will see Presumed Innocent star Jake Gyllenhaal return as host, with Sabrina Carpenter making her debut as musical guest—but if you want even more Studio 8H content, the SNL team has been padding out its YouTube page with behind-the-scenes content like this recent “Saturday Night with Cue Cards” featurette, highlighting the fan-favorite Wally Feresten.