Jon Hamm, Trump’s White Potus, Check-to-Check Tariffs

President Trump’s White House got The White Lotus treatment in a very bizarre parody sketch that brought back Trump family favorites like Alex Moffat and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Beck Bennett’s Vladimir Putin. It also got a pretty strong backlash from Aimee Lou Wood over their parody spoof of her natural teeth!

Even Kieran Culkin dropped in — to harass the host and maybe debate which was better: Mad Men or Succession.

Mostly, though, this one rode high on the personality of its host, much as last week’s show did. Smarmy and daft, handsome but clueless, Hamm brought all of his comedic charm to wring big laughs out of pharmaceutical ads, parenthood, the economy and even a missing little girl.

Trump and his tariffs dominated the show, with even musical guest Lizzo sporting a “Tariffied” t-shirt during her first performance. James Austin Johnson’s impression was brought out twice as everything from Weekend Update to a business news channel parody looked at the impact of the president’s ever-changing economic policies on everyday Americans.

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.

The drama was surreal on this one as James Austin Johnson’s President Trump was joined by his family and administration players like Pam Bondi and Marco Rubio for this White Lotus parody. Jon Hamm was crazy as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while Sarah Sherman’s Aimee Lou Wood was savage with those teeth (and she was not amused, as you can read about here)! Reprising their roles from past casts as Trump family members were Alex Moffat and Scarlett Johansson as Eric and Ivanka Trump, respectively. Beck Bennett even came back with his shirtless Vladimir Putin for this extremely weird take on the White House, through the lens of HBO’s most viral show. Very weird … a little funny.

It’s a travesty that it’s been 15 years since Jon Hamm hosted this show, despite all those cameo appearances, as he is one of the naturally funniest people in Hollywood. Nevertheless, he finally makes his fourth appearance only to get hit with a Kieran Culkin cameo, leading to a tense exchange that talks about Hamm’s infamous gray sweatpants pics and sees him claim Mad Men is better than Succession. His self-deprecating arrogance throughout brought some laughs, as when he claimed Lorne Micheals was always driving into a tunnel when they talked about how cameos are in many ways even better than hosting. Maybe, but we’re still glad to see him hosting.

Finally, speaking to the rest of us, this cable news parody addresses the reality that the stock market and “t-bill selloffs” and whatever else they’re talking about just doesn’t mean anything to the average American — who isn’t even making an average income anymore. From laughing about student loan debt (“never gonna get it”) to changing the ticker to cover price fluctuations in things like ramen and rent, Ego Nwodim and Jon Hamm represented the real impact of the current economy. This one was almost too real to be funny — but it was still funny.

A much-needed lesson in communication as we learn we probably shouldn’t ask people anything about anything after a gay couple shows up at their friends’ house with a brand new baby, and no explanation of where said baby coming from — even though their pals just saw them last night and they definitely did not have a baby. It went way beyond that, of course, with Bowen Yang and Jon Hamm, as the gay couple, blasting their friends for daring to ask virtually any questions, for misgendering their baby, and basically getting offended at everything that came out of their friends’ mouths. It’s dangerous to engage in conversation out there, folks. Be careful!

A blisteringly accurate mocking of those obnoxious pharmaceutical ads, focusing on the dangerous symptom seen in all of them of participating in various activities in slow motion. Jon Hamm was the perfect spokesman for this new herpes product, taking us through the various slomo experiences that could mean you’re suffering from herpes — and how to tell who in a group of friends partying in slow motion is afflicted. The real ads are ridiculous, frustratingly pervasive, and offensively generic and repetitive. There is zero creative thought put behind them by an industry worth billions, so here’s your wakeup call that we want you to just stop it already.

Trump tariffs were all over the opening segment, with Colin Jost and Michael Che calling out Trump’s “BE COOL” message, while skipping the advice for investors to buy before he announced his 90-day pause. They did touch on tech CEOs being surprised by the tariffs, and Elon Musk purportedly speaking to Trump against them.. From journalists with preferred pronouns being ignored and students being encouraged to rat out teachers who discuss anything DEI, the real concern, obviously, is all those chickens having to turn to OnlyFans!

Bowen Yang’s Chinese trade minister Chen Biao also referenced Ego Nwodim’s viral “s–t” moment from last week’s show after he broke down the Chinese response to Trump’s waffling tariff policies, and J.D. Vance. After the Vice President, who titled his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, called Chinese people “peasants,” Chen revealed his inevitable memoir cover. He also mocked the state of the U.S before declaring that maybe America and Communist China are becoming “twins.” Not as funny as past appearances, but this certainly continued the episode’s harsh trend of slamming the deplorable state of the U.S. economy.

A short segment nevertheless had a savage takedown of the Tesla Cybertruck and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers racial casting, but we’re still laughing at Che’s LeBron James Ken doll joke that he ultimately decided, “Imma cut that for air” — you know, on a live show! Then, after Emil Wakim’s segment below, they returned to cover important animal content like rat landmine detectors and a 100-year-old pregnant tortoise, because her boyfriend “pulled out too slow,” as well as clinical depression and death subway humor for a feel-good moment.

Emil Wakim came out to deliver some straight-forward standup material about being a consumer in capitalist America. He laments that as much as he likes to think he has a good life, there’s “no way it’s cruelty free.” Then, he goes into a lengthy discussion about food deliveries, where you “open the door for [the delivery person] an amount that is just racist.” “Somehow we’ve all convinced ourselves that none of us would have ever owned slaves,” Emil declared, making the statement that all of us are complicit in the state of America, even if we tip the person at the coffee show … “occasionally.”

We could have Sarah Sherman drop by every week to rip on Jost. This time, she does it as his tax accountant, but it’s just a cover to tear into him as a narcissistic, sexual predator. We didn’t expect the destruction of the Update set on her SNL bingo this week, but Sarah definitely delivered on that front, all to deliver her most savage punchline against Jost yet!

“Not a huge fan of the title myself,” Michael Longfellow said at the top of this latest game show parody, but not to worry — that wouldn’t last. The conceit of the sketch was an anxiety that certainly didn’t exist a generation or two ago as Jon Hamm’s contestant feared he might ruin his good life by going viral. “Not much to gain and a whole lot to lose,” he said before the game even began. In the social media era where everyone is watching all the time and any moment can go viral worldwide, it’s a real fear. But not everyone would instantly make sure it happens in quite the way he did with the worst possible answers to fairly simple concepts. Let’s just say, it went about as badly as it could for his character, which was certainly good for laughs.

Ashley Padilla was the MVP of this one as a woman so rattled by the “fun fact” Jon Hamm shared in this getting-to-know-you game as new employees that hers was that she was a woman. She never quite recovered from Jon’s being that his mom killed his dad naked on TV. That one ridiculous statement derailed the whole game, delivering great escalating laughs as the group learned more and more before an inevitable — but still funny — final few moments. This was a  very simple premise beautifully executed into ridiculousness.

A repeat of an earlier Cold Open where James Austin Johnson’s Trump spoke in front of a frozen scene forcing the cast to stand behind him. This time, he compared himself to the Messiah himself (“because of the mess I, uh, made of the economy). As always in these bits, while the political commentary was funny, even better was when he started burning his fellow castmates, frozen behind him. He called out Emil Wakim, saying the newcomer pleaded Jesus would have looked more like him, before they went with the blue-eyed white guy, Mikey Day. He burned Sarah Sherman for freezing with her mouth open. And Ego got a callback to her Miss Eggy routine on last week’s show. As for Kenan, he apparently took advantage of his tenure to tap out early in what was yet another very strong opening — it’s amazing how effective James can be just talking directly to us as Trump.

Taking advantage of Jon Hamm’s prowess as an actor who can play serious for laughs, PDD set up a missing girl case in a police station for the sole purpose of him acting childishly excited about getting pizza for the all-nighter — and then upset when he feels picked on. The ridiculousness escalated from there as the debate expands to cover the merits, or demerits, of Hawaiian pizza, and the missing girl’s mother shows up. This was almost Naked Gun-level police parody we could easily watch a whole movie or series based on.

Who would have thought when she started on the show firmly in her Sarah Squirm personal that Sarah Sherman would emerge as one of the most reliable and versatile performers on this show. She’s every bit the anchor in ensemble sketches that Mikey Day has been for years, and Andrew Dismukes has emerged.

All three helped hold this episode together with solid performances throughout, while newcomer Ashley Padilla continues to make a mark for herself with her solid performance work in character, seemingly earning more and more screen time with every passing week. Emil Wakim had a strong standup set this week, but Jane Wickline is still struggling to find herself in this ensemble.

As we look ahead to the future of SNL, we have to give credit and props to Sarah, who gets our picks this week and who we see as a leader in this cast in the years to come as she slides into a more and more central role — without entirely losing her edge, as see when she tore into Colin Jost yet again on Weekend Update. And we’d still love to see her as an Update anchor, too!

Saturday Night Live returns May 3 with host Quinta Brunson and musical guest Benson Boone.