Welcome to 2025, Conehead nation! There’s so much Saturday Night Live content these days, I can barely keep up. Documentaries, 8H “experiences” and now, oh yes, the return of season 50.

Dave Chappelle hosts the first episode of the new year, in his fourth gig. The previous episodes hosted by the legendary (if increasingly controversial) stand-up were mostly grounded in election reactions; they were November shows. Tonight’s episode also has a political twinge — we are less than 48 hours from the end of Joe Biden’s presidency and the return of Donald Trump to the White House. How will Dave make sense of this?

I am honored to be joined tonight with commentary with former SNL cast member Jerry Minor, who is planning to launch a new podcast with ECamm, Playing to the Back of the Room. On Chappelle, Minor shares: “I’ve always been a big fan… I think he’s great, and he’s usually a really good host.”

Reflecting on the pending Trump 2.0 era in comedy, Minor thinks it will be hard to strike the right tone in terms of political jokes: “Obviously shows like Saturday Night Live will continue to do them. But how does that happen? How do people make fun of him? How mad is he going to get at the way people make fun of him?” He adds: “During the 2000 election, Bush and Gore both came to SNL and did bits. Back then both candidates would probably make an effort to at least make some kind of appearance on the show… Even then we felt like no matter how I felt about either candidate, there was always an effort not to get too close to them, because I knew I was going to have to make fun of them.”

Scroll down and be merry folks. Hopefully our friends at 8H are well-rested and ready to meet the moment.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.‘s free daily newsletter

It’s a special MSNBC Report with Rachel Maddow (Sarah Sherman), who is back on TV for inauguration weekend. Chris Hayes (Andrew Dismukes) is “Woke Sheldon” as part of a group of progressive Avengers for our collective aunts — the group promises to not chase every crazy Trump statement. But sure enough, they cannot resist — every statement from Trump distracts them. Real policy is too boring. 

Meanwhile, Joy Reid (Ego Nwodim) is calling out Chloe Fineman’s Stephanie Ruhle for trying to hook up. And Marcello Hernandez keeps quoting old pop songs, including “The Real Slim Shady.” As Trump himself puts it, the anchors are awful, like Scooby Doo “All Velma”. They cut to James Austin Johnson’s Trump, who introduces the latest member of his cabinet, the pathological liar George Santos (Bowen Yang). Interesting the show thinks of Yang’s Santos as a fan favorite. 

This is an OK media critique as the show starts thinking through its stance on Trump and the new normal. Not brilliant or ambitious in its satire, but solid. 

Chappelle comes out wearing a great-looking suit and smoking a cigarette. He says he’s in a pickle — Lorne Michaels asked him to do the election episode back in November but he declined. He kept pushing it off until deciding it was time to get rid of his old Trump jokes. Now, the L.A. fires have changed things. Is it too soon to joke about celebrities’ homes being destroyed? While he’s tired of being controversial, he gives it a shot. He talks about poor people, West Hollywood, Luigi Mangione, and conspiracy theories. 

He turns back to Trump and the rumors that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. He tosses his cigarette to the ground, lamenting it’s no longer fun being famous. With some understatement, he notes Diddy is in a bit of trouble! Is he ugly, Dave wonders? Or, does he just have snitch energy? The baby oil bit here is a highlight for me. This must be one of the longest monologues of the season. He returns to Trump and the death of Jimmy Carter, and tells a moving story about the former president going to Palestine. He salutes Carter’s courage and leaves a message for Trump — and all of us. “Do better,” he implores. Show decency to people whether they live in the Palisades or Palestine. Moving and classy.

While Minor shared he is not a huge fan of a lot of modern stand-up, Chappelle remains someone he wouldn’t mind working with as far as sketch. Minor has crossed paths with Chappelle in the past noting: “Comedy Central had an award show years and years back, they only did that for three or four years. I was a performer. I think he got an award that year, maybe best stand up.”

This sketch returns from season 49 — Joaquin Antonio (Marcello Hernández) hosts a talk show as an immigrant father who dislikes his son. Chappelle joins him today as “Black Neighbor Richard.” His son lost access to his bedroom door due to a porn addiction. His next guest is Mikey Day, a local guidance counselor. His relationship with his son Conor (Dismukes) is way too affectionate and close — his wife (Fineman) is totally iced out. Kind of cute. 

A family decides to evacuate the fires. The dad (Chappelle) has a secret, he takes a sledgehammer to the wall and reveals half a million dollars in cash, guns, and fake passports hidden in the walls. Things escalate — not sure if the monologue’s length cut the set-up here? More secrets emerge, Chappelle says there’s no time to explain, even mercy killing the dog. Funny resolution. 

Joining Chappelle as musical guest is rapper GloRilla. The multi-platinum-selling artist received two Grammy nominations for her hit “Yeah Glo!” The Memphis/crunk song is from her second mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang which was released last year. Fun energy. 

Huge applause and cheers welcome our favorite anchors. They jump into the inauguration, as well as President Biden’s farewell. Colin Jost lands a brutal joke on Mark Zuckerberg, while Michael Che notes the inauguration is on MLK Jr. Day.

TikTok is getting banned in the U.S. (at least temporarily) — and Michael Longfellow comes on to plead the case for why the app should stay on. He dryly takes on the critiques and how the app has warped his habits. His attention span is shot and misinformation is everywhere. 

Jost introduces a new segment, “Hear Me Out,” tackling a new AI law in California. He does some accent work tonight that confuses and concerns Che.

The original Nosferatu (Sherman) comes out to talk about the new movie. Fans of Sherman’s Letterboxd know she is a huge body horror fan! She knocks the current Nosferatu body — way too jacked! (For fans of SNL vampire humor, check out how John Travolta’s Dracula and his eccentric behavior led to a humorous misunderstanding in the ’90s.) Lots of meme-worthy moments here, I guess. They end tonight with a message to support fire relief in L.A.

Back to the inauguration — when Jerry Minor was in the cast, on the same day George Bush was inaugurated as president, Mena Suvari was the show’s host. As part of “Weekend Update,” Minor did a commentary as Al Sharpton: “I did him a couple of times with Darrell doing Jesse Jackson… that was a lot of fun to do. There’s a lot of references in there that are only from 2000, popular songs that no one would remember now — one of those things that could only be written then.” (He performs OutKast and Limp Bizkit songs.) “I think I wrote it the day before, that Friday because of what was going on that week. That’s the nature of Saturday Night Live. And watching it now, it’s kind of funny – he’s doing Sharpton. But then at that time… it was just a completely different feel.”

Former cast member Victoria Jackson was watching tonight and shares: “Super funny TikTok segment on Update by Michael Longfellow.”   

A man’s girlfriend is missing, and the police want a physical description to sketch what she looks like to be found. When they ask for her weight, he (Devon Walker) pauses – the janitor Dwayne (Kenan Thompson) warns it is a trap. The two men furtively communicate to avoid answering any questions. No Chappelle role, wonder what is up with that. He couldn’t play Dwayne?

Another fun performance! But bad lip-syncing? 

This is a fun, modern format — in a spoof of social media dating shows, women pop balloons on contestants. SNL existing in digital set-ups, not traditional game shows, is smart. These are how people watch these shows, so it should be a stream.

Legendary Chappelle Show pimp Silky Johnson appears, complete with Donnell Rawlings. Wow, Ashy Larry also participates! Fun to see these old characters here — though not as surprising or clever as the House of the Dragon short.

• Thank you Jerry Minor. Keep your eyes peeled for his new podcast, Playing to the Back of the Room, which should be dropping sometime in the next few weeks.
• FYI: Happy MLK holiday, folks. Minor notes that the MLK episode during his season was hosted by Charlie Sheen, who he became somewhat friends with meeting at 8H. (“Very very nice guy…He told me a lot of stuff that I can’t probably can’t repeat!”
• What did you think? Vote here. Lots of tech glitches tonight, right?