Tom Hanks. ✔️ Paul Rudd. ✔️ Jimmy Fallon. ✔️ Tina Fey. ✔️Alec Baldwin. ✔️ Scarlett Johansson. ✔️ Kristen Wiig. ✔️ John Mulaney. ✔️ Melissa McCarthy. ✔️ Emma Stone. ✔️

All turned out for Martin Short‘s induction to the SNL Five-Timer’s Club!

According to Short, Steve Martin “would’ve been here tonight, but he had a conflict with me not wanting him to be here.” Hilarious.

It’s always fun when someone gets into the club, and this cold open was no exception. Wiig felt more reserved than usual, despite some out-there lines, but many returned triumphantly (especially Mulaney after his successful hosting session a few weeks prior).

I loved the secret handshake “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you’re great, you’re great!”

Beyond the cold open, we got to see Rudd, McCarthy, and Wiig in sketches (plus a cameo from Johansson during the joke swap Weekend Update).

The sketches that worked

• “Parking Lot Altercation” killed me. And just when it started to slow down, we got that McCarthy explosion. J’adore.
• Short didn’t get too much airtime during “Christmas Airport Parade,” but it’s the perfect vehicle for one-liners and is fun every year.
• I generally liked “Peanuts Christmas,” especially Short and Bowen Yang‘s dynamic.

The ones that didn’t

• “An Act of Kindness” wasn’t the worst sketch I’ve seen, but it dragged a bit and for the most part didn’t land.
• “Sábado Gigante Christmas Special.” Look, I don’t know if any reiterations will beat the magic of the first one (featuring Nate Bargatze), but Rudd had the perfect rom-com dumb-struck vibe for it, too. The issue was they basically copy/pasted from Bargatze’s… we need some new element introduced if we want these to stick around (and I do want them to stick around).

The musical guest

I’ve never been a die-hard Hozier fan, but this was a perfectly respectable performance. 3/5, totally fine.

Special shoutout…

…for the annual Weekend Update joke swap. Not the best one I’ve seen, because the first few are so hard to top, but I had a goofy grin the whole dang time.

Final thoughts

Despite hosting, Martin Short wasn’t around much. At the same time, the crazy slate of guest stars from the cold open weren’t around much, either…

Still, this was a solid holiday episode and a lot of fun to watch pre-Christmas!

My rating: 3.5/5