Saturday Night Live's 17 best moments from season 47

with a doubly refreshing changing of the guard, as newly hired featured player James Austin Johnson’s Joe Biden elbowed Alec Baldwin’s beyond-tired Donald Trump off of the cold-open stage. And while SNL’s political satire continues to dish some weak sauce, Johnson’s Biden is at least as much of an upgrade as the actual Biden is over Trump. The noted impressionist’s take on the new POTUS is a masterpiece of subtle observation in comparison to the broad caricature we’ve been stuck with (in real life and as an SNL character). Johnson immediately established himself as this cast’s Darrell Hammond, a meticulous craftsman whose Joe Biden is equal parts cantankerous, folksy, and already exasperated at the parade of Republican loonies he’s suddenly tasked with corralling into some semblance of functional governance. [Dennis Perkins]

What starts out as a country-music lament and concludes in an inscrutably dystopic bloodbath? Host Rami Malek and Pete Davidson find out as their pair of downtrodden and broke country crooners unwisely decide to try their luck in America’s favorite South Korean Netflix sensation, . Donning the requisite green tracksuits and watchfully working their way through absurdist life-or-death challenges (do not break that cookie), Malek and Davidson’s contestants sing ruefully about the guards with Playstation symbol masks and that piggy bank in the sky filled with what may or may not be a lot of money. (“I’m confused by the currency,” admits Malek in song.) Hewing closely to the darkly violent plot of the actual, record-breaking Netflix import, the sketch at least concludes with one final, New York sports team-centric twist of the knife. [Dennis Perkins]

With Season 47’s cast swollen to 21 members, here’s to new hire Aristotle Athari for making his mark as the white-maned, incomprehensibly magnetic Angelo. With audience members Cecily Strong (enraptured) and Rami Malek’s co-star Daniel Craig (confused, edging into hostile) supplying single words for him to spin into seductive gibberish, Athari’s Angelo is one of those destined-to-recur SNL characters that new cast members dream of landing. And land Angelo does, as he (joined by Malek’s equally unfathomable and watchful avant garde dance virtuoso, Todd) turns everyday English words like “bicycle” and “banana” into identical, whisper-voiced love ballads containing a word that sounds like “barfabalabas.” There’s a gentle weirdness to Angelo that, along with Athari’s clear gift for letting a joke land, suggests that, like Johnson, he’s here to stay. [Dennis Perkins]

For all of SNL’s cautiously crafted cold opens, the show’s most effective political material can frequently be found when a “Weekend Update” bit gets raw and personal. That’s where , dressing in garish clothes and spinning bow tie as “Goober The Clown Who Had An Abortion When She Was 23.” With the conservative-packed Supreme Court having recently allowed to stand Texas’ draconian anti-abortion law (the one with the bounties), Strong penned a lacerating broadside, delivering the barely veiled story of her own abortion in the guise of a flower-squirting, no-worries clown. Joking that the only way to make the subject of “clown abortion” palatable is to couch it in baggy-pants antics, Strong’s Goober laid out some plain, deeply personal facts (like how one in three women have abortions), and asserting, voice squeaky yet defiant with helium, “I know I wouldn’t be a clown on TV here today if it weren’t for the abortion I had before my 23rd birthday.” [Dennis Perkins]

James Austin Johnson was hired in part because of his viral Donald Trump, an improvisational spot-on vocal impersonation of the former president yoked to a stream-of-consciousness monologue consisting of whatever nonsense Austin imagined is continually rattling around in Trump’s head. With Trump out of the White House and SNL’s steadfast adherence to cue cards, however, there was some question about how and when Johnson’s Donald would appear on the show. Thankfully, Johnson and company struck upon a fitting framework, as Johnson’s Trump made his Season 47 debut in support of Cecily Strong’s ever-stellar Jeanine Pirro, popping into Fox News to ramble away on the topics of the day like some sort of weatherman for crazytown. Johnson’s Trump is as exact as advertised, and his Trump’s discursively narcissistic screed is more comically illuminating than four full years of Alec Baldwin making funny Trump faces. [Dennis Perkins]

As if SNL’s current cast weren’t bursting at the seams already, new writers Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy (who came to the show as the package comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy) have successfully made their pitch as the new in-house video stars. The SNL tradition of letting a couple of writers screw around with a video camera has paid big dividends over recent years (The Lonely Island and Good Neighbor come to mind), and Please Don’t Destroy’s efforts have leapt right into the rotation (with a couple of dress rehearsal near-misses along the way). , Marshall, Higgins, and Herlihy are thrilled when star Pete Davidson wants to work with them, only to gradually realize that the resulting music video, “Three Sad Virgins” (featuring a withering verse from musical guest Taylor Swift), sounds awfully like some spot-on hazing of the new kids. [Dennis Perkins]

Taylor Swift brought along her 10-minute short film and a whole lot of powerfully written musical heartbreak for her performance of the searingly autobiographical “All Too Well.” Starring actors Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien as stand-ins for the younger Swift and the charming but self-involved older actor who broke her heart but kept her glove, Swift’s multimedia showcase was the sort of Saturday Night Live musical highlight destined to go down in best-of lists forever. Giving over 10 full minutes of the show to a single performance is an honor SNL doesn’t just hand out, and singer-songwriter superstar Swift seized the opportunity, belting out a wrenchingly lovely paean to “should have known better,” the majestic sweep of young love and loss playing out onscreen as the film’s changing seasons finally weep along with the older and wiser Swift in the form of an onstage snowfall. [Dennis Perkins]

Saturday Night Live’s long and snowy-white history with cast representation gets taken out for a hilariously chilly walk when host and star and cast member Bowen Yang face off in Yang’s dressing room. Their initial embarrassment at having to even address their positions as Asian performers on Saturday Night Live quickly turns personal, though, as Yang and Liu attempt to out-nonchalant each other concerning their various other “first Asian” accolades. “I just think it’s weird that people keep track of this stuff,” Yang shrugs, as he drops the fact that the state of Michigan just gave him the “Good Job (Asian)” award, and Liu brushes off his title, “Mr. Asian Panera.” As the two continually poke fun at both self-congratulatory corporate tokenism and themselves (for really wanting to win awards like “First Asian Man to Deadpan on Splash Mountain”), Yang and Liu playfully make the case that, for actors, there’s no such thing as a meaningless honor. [Dennis Perkins]

After missing the first seven episodes of Season 47 while filming the Tiger King series and allowing some other cast members a chance, Kate McKinnon returned to Studio 8H in time for the . In the standout holiday sketch, “Lonely Christmas,” McKinnon reminded us what we’d been missing. As the seemingly kindly old widow across from teenager Eilish’s apartment, McKinnon wordlessly responded with feel-good-TV-commercial gratitude to Eilish’s handwritten signs inviting her to Christmas dinner. So far, so heartwarming, at least until McKinnon’s grandmotherly neighbor reveals far too much about her variously bigoted, inappropriate, and possibly murderous life for Eilish’s comfort. (“Can you check?,” McKinnon’s innocent-looking neighbor writes in response to the aghast Eilish not knowing whether there will be any Jews at dinner.) [Dennis Perkins]

A viral moment from the , the prefilm “Meatballs” was a breakout bit for featured player Sarah Sherman. She and Chris Redd play a couple who are chilling after a third date when Sherman makes an uncomfortable admission: She’s covered with small meatball-shaped singing growths. It’s just completely left-field and bizarre, and unlike anything else the show is doing—a bit perplexing when it aired, but it proved to be a grower. [Michael Martin]

The greatest commercial parody SNL did this season, “” addresses the online behemoth’s new grab-and-go convenience stores. Just pick up what you want and walk out the door. Can you imagine a demographic that might have an issue with this setup? The spot brilliantly unpacked the variety of objections and uncomfortable situations Black customers and their allies might find themselves in. Stingingly sharp and the rare commercial sendup that makes a social statement, it’s a natural for any future best-of SNL commercial compilations. [Michael Martin]

A solid premise—during a toast at a wedding reception, a maid of honor makes some uncomfortable revelations about the new couple—is elevated by host Zoe Kravitz’s impressive comic timing and the quality of those reveals. It’s millennial dark humor gone Borscht belt. For example: “You’re like a second sister to me, and not just because we’ve both seen my dad naked.” Also: “She’s been kind of a Bridezilla, and not just because she’s attacked a lot of Japanese people.” [Michael Martin]

SNL’s game-show parodies can feel rote, but “Word Crunch” was the best one of the season. It went to weird and laugh-out-loud places as contestants Zoe Kravitz, Aidy Bryant, and Aristotle Athari try to pick words out of a scrambled grid of letters. Kravitz becomes fixated on picking out the word “momhole,” which naturally appears on every single grid, as host Andrew Dismukes simmers in frustration. It’s basically an extended sight gag, but it worked consistently. [Michael Martin]

The best of Please Don’t Destroy’s digital shorts this season, “New Lizzo Songs” was impressive from premise to editing to production. claims she’s shown up ready to host but with no new tunes, so the pallid trio have to whip up two bangers for her on the spot (or, in a nice surreal touch, Andrew Dismukes will kill her). The team’s failed pitches—premised on anxiety, haircuts, looking like a dad, and ’ opening song—are hilarious, as is the winner: their original sketch idea, “Horny Zookeeper,” which gets a snippet of an impressive, fully realized production. [Michael Martin]

Focus groups are a somewhat shopworn sketch premise, but “Blue Bunny” takes things to utterly committed bizarro places. Here, four people are tasked with tasting new ice-cream flavors and providing reactions. Two of them ( and Heidi Gardner) are dour, life-hardened Western types whose feedback is all overwrought hardscrabble rural poetry that spirals into funnier and funnier places, as they compare mint and peanut butter pie to everything from an encounter with a frontier MILF to a “widower in pain.” The two do exceptional character work and demonstrate some real chemistry (an element that’s in somewhat short supply between sketch performers these days). [Michael Martin]

The week that saw the leak of an apparent draft of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, SNL and Kate McKinnon rose to the cultural moment with her “Weekend Update” spot as Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. McKinnon’s impression nailed the essence of the jurist, who came across in her Senate confirmation hearings as in training. On “Update,” Barrett advised women to “just do your nine” and “plop it”—that is, birth an unwanted child and leave it somewhere for someone to adopt, ideally a lesbian (“until we ban that too”). It’s sharply written and performed stuff. [Michael Martin]

SNL’s backstage glimpses and meta moments can seem more indulgent than funny. That’s not the case with “The Understudy,” in which featured player Chloe Fineman got a much-deserved showcase for her excellent impression work. Here, she expertly imitated nearly every SNL cast member to their faces—check out her Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong. Ultimately, she found her way into host Benedict Cumberbatch’s dressing room in Scarlet Witch drag, where she encountered (who else) Elizabeth Olsen. (“The multiverse is real,” Cumberbatch deadpanned.) Fineman has energy and unique talent to burn; she’s one of the younger cast members in whose hands SNL’s future would be secure. [Michael Martin]