Regina King, Impeachment & Gorilla Glue

Regina King has long been one of the most accomplished and impressive actresses on-screen, and this week she finally brought all of that talent to “Saturday Night Live,” and it showed.

A master of the craft, Regina is effortless at being funny and serious, which brings a level of gravitas and depth to even the silliest of performances. On top of that, she got to play off of some of the strongest and funniest women “SNL” has ever had.

To say Kate McKinnon is happy to have Aidy Bryant back is a huge understatement. Aidy and Cecily Strong are back in studio for this latest batch of episodes, and their presence has helped ground the show even further.

These three women are the backbone of the current show — Kenan Thompson is an institution — and they proved why again this week, carrying several sketches and always standing out even when they weren’t in the lead.

Regina, however, owned every scene she was in as if she’d been the star of this ensemble for years and years. Honestly, we expected no less. And her clear joy at hosting paired beautifully with the joy of the ladies back together to create a high energy and happiness that sustained itself throughout the episode.

The show did have to slide back into a political cold open this week to address the second impeachment of Donald Trump, but the whole sketch was stolen by Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant giggling together as Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, respectively, so even that couldn’t bring down the energy.

As usual, we’re ranking all the sketches from worst to first, including the Monologue, Cold Open, “Weekend Update” and any sketches that were cut for time but made their way online. We’ll skip the musical guests, because they’re not usually funny — unless Ashlee Simpson shows up. We wrap up with a look at the cast-member who had the strongest week.

With the second impeachment trial of former President Trump wrapping up on Saturday, the gang was quick to respond in a sketch that was really just about getting everyone in makeup for some of their favorite political figures (one last time?), including Kate McKinnon’s Lindsey Graham, Aidy Bryant’s Ted Cruz and Beck Bennett’s Mitch McConnell.

We did get a few shots of actual impeachment, with Pete Davidson intentionally(?) mispronouncing the names of women of color and an “SNL” version of that bizarre Democrat “fight” video Trump’s defense played. We’re not sure if this video was better or worse, but it was probably about as good for the case. Was this funny? It had its moments, but again, we feel it was more about the cast having fun with these impressions they’ve been perfecting so long.

A group of gal pals get together to celebrate Aidy Bryant’s birthday, and they all had the same idea. Everyone loves those cute wall signs that tease you about drinking wine (perhaps a bit too much), right? Well, what happens when those signs start taking a different tone?

Honestly, we weren’t sure how long they could drag this one on, as Aidy’s character got more and more disturbed and perturbed, but Cecily Strong had an adorable “Awwwww!” for every single one of them, keeping us moving forward. It did drag on a little long, but Aidy’s exasperation was charming to the last, with the other ladies really enjoying piling on.

Was this entire sketch a statement on network censors? The penis content is okay, but we can’t possibly have a whole sketch talking about … elbows. Framed around a school presentation, AIdy Bryant, Regina King and Kate McKinnon talked extensively about their experiences in what was strangely like an “Elbow Monologues” segment. And yet, nothing they said was shocking or awful. This was, however, the last sketch of the night, too, so did “SNL” have to fight for it? Or are they just mocking American squeamishness about vaginas, when there has been penis talk and jokes for decades now with very little pushback?

Right off the bat, Regina King pointed out that her interest in “SNL” effectively began and ended with Eddie Murphy and that white people’s familiarity with her career begins with “Watchmen” and ends with this monologue. But did she lie? She’s such a great actress, she sold her nerves enough that it played hilariously off of Kenan Thompson as her hype-man. He got so into it, he was cracking both of them up. It was a great energy to start the show.

Nobody plays awkward sad sack like Kyle Mooney, and without Leslie Jones to trumpet a weird relationship with, he’s instead leaned on how he does not fit in with the rest of the cast. And it’s always both strange and very (oddly) funny. This time around, he was running around spanking people, planned an elaborate Valentine’s party and even channeled the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan story against Regina King. It was all so in character with his persona over seven-plus years that it played perfectly — and a little cringey.

We kind of have to agree with Colin Jost. Sure, the impeachment trial was important, and some of the footage of rioters attacking Capitol police and close calls for Mike Pence and Mitt Romney are scary, but we, too, would like to spend about an hour and talk about Ted Cruz’s new haircut. What is that?

QAnon member Stephanie Green (Kate McKinnon) came out in full witch garb, but that wasn’t even the strangest thing about her. Actually, we’re not entirely sure she’s a member of QAnon, because she was pretty fixated on the theory that the evil cabal eats babies … and she kind of wants in on it! There were a lot of twists and turns on this one, with Kate an absolute delight at every one of them. She really embodies these characters, ridiculous as they are.

The boys then tackled a few other topics, including Colin’s terrible suggestion to boost ratings in the wake of Morgan Wallen’s sales boosts after saying the n-word, Michael’s reveal of just what the heck Popeyes new fish sandwich is made of and “Star Wars” taking a moral stand against anti-Semmitism after they introduced us to Watto. They then poked fun at the Aunt Jemima name change to Pearl Milling Company, and we had no idea!

Lauren Holt got a marquee spot on “Update” as relationship expert Mackenzie Taylor-Joy and hers was a whirlwind segment of emotion and turmoil. Lauren did a really solid job of navigating a pretty tumultuous experience between texts as she shared great things for couples to do on Valentine’s Day. It was a solid turn and her best overall appearance yet.

Riding high off of his seventh Super Bowl win, Beck Bennett dropped by as drunk Tom Brady, still celebrating. Beck plays drunk well, taking us through the highs and lows of inebriation as Tom celebrates all that’s good in his life and then wonders what he has to do to get people to like him. Winning another Vince Lombardi trophy didn’t do it, nor another Super Bowl? Another one? Why don’t they like him? Unexpectedly introspective, Beck still managed to stick the landing.

She wants a cringey white dude in his early 40s, because he’ll worship her, and Regina King went all in getting all wound up over truly awful awkwardness from Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat and Mikey Day. Each had their own way of inducing the cringe, but only one could turn her into a puddle — while Cecily Strong was a desert and Ego Nwodim had an even worse reaction. Regina sold this sketch by her performance almost entirely by herself, though the guys did a good job of ratcheting up the ick factor — with her loving every moment of it.

Let’s face it, not everyone responds to the same types of motivation. Peloton is all about motivation, pushing their users and getting them to believe in themselves. But what about those people who do better with negative motivation? What if they need their instructor to belittle them and make them feel worthless to really get their heart rate up? Enter Pelotaunt!

Consistently funnier than we thought it would be, who knew we could get so much enjoyment out of watching one cast-member berate another one while cycling on a bike. Probably our favorite was Bowen Yang’s disinterested approach to get Melissa Villaseñor moving. Honestly, we’re not sure this shouldn’t be a real product!

What could have been a typical sketch about a celebrity making obnoxious demands was instead one of the most playful and silly sketches we’ve seen in a long time. It was still about that, but with a delightful twist that never went dark even as things went wrong on top of wrong. Instead, it never got cynical or even angry in a way that was both refreshing and delightful. Regina King was clearly having a ball bringing all the sexy, while Bowen Yang and everyone around her brought layers and layers of incompetence.

This was so random and so stupid that it was also incredibly catchy and ultimately pretty damned funny. We’re going to credit Pete Davidson with this one, as it had his fingerprints all over it. Who knew that getting high off of weed gummy bears could send you on such a weird journey.

Also, Melissa Villaseñor has a pretty great Marge Simpson impression. What does that have to do with anyone? Apparently everything. We’re still not sure we’ve come down from this high yet, but we definitely enjoyed the ride.

“Gorilla Glue GIrl” is probably just happy to have the product off of her head after all these weeks, but now she’s achieved “SNL”-level fame, inspiring a sketch about lawyers whose whole job is suing the company that’s always been pretty clear about this product. It’s not their fault Americans are getting — what’s the word?

We thought the best part of this fake ad would be all the incredible hairstyles and incredibly dumb things these “victims” did to themselves using products clearly labeled not for that use. But then Kenan Thompson and Regina King took it to the next level by actually anticipating the case itself, and we were gone. Then they had one more twist in the offing and it got even better. We’re already ready for a follow-up!

Once again, no one was having more fun than Aidy Bryant, though Kate McKinnon might be a close second. Friends and castmates for nearly a decade now, it’s clear that these ladies feed off one another and really are the best of friends. That joyous energy carried through the night and elevated every appearance they shared together.

But ultimately, Aidy gave her everything across six different sketches, even making the most out of being an inept hairstylist in a very small role. Elsewhere, she laughed it up with Kate as Ted Cruz, got trippy with Pete as a gummy bear and went all in talking about her “elbow” to a bunch of kids.

She even got the “fixer” role in Kyle’s cut-for-time sketch, bashing Regina on the knee, but it was her exasperation and uncertainty as the recipient of a dozen too many “inspirational quote” signs that really took it over the top. No one plays that better than Aidy, and on a night of non-stop greatness, it was her little reactions here that proved what a master she is of short-form comedy.

“Saturday Night Live” returns next week with host Regé-Jean Page and musical guest Bad Bunny.