SNL

This is just a Sam Elliot impersonation. snl-benedict-cumberbatch-melissa-villasenor-blue-bunny-featured Image via NBC.

So this little poking at him, whether intentional or not, is hilarious if you know the recent controversy between Elliot and The Power of the Dog which got Cumberbatch a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. When Heidi Gardner matches him with an almost just as wild nature, the two are lost in a battle of trying to describe what the ice cream tastes like to them in the most elaborate way. When asked what it tasted like to him, he goes on this long-winded rant about his feelings that is poetic and well-thought-out when the reality is that those in charge just wanted a simple response about how the ice cream tasted.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — “Benedict Cumberbatch, Arcade Fire” Episode 1824 — Pictured: Host Benedict Cumberbatch during the monologue on Saturday, May 7, ...

Wade Cold Open” was that it actually had a perspective and was laser-focused on it: It wasn’t just a cavalcade of political “impressions” with no end in sight. In a strong episode though, “Chain Gang” was simply the least strong sketch. Pointing out just how ridiculous it was to cite 13th century English treatises within a 2022 context, this cold open had a sharpness that is typically lacking in this part of “SNL.” (Truly, the way the opening voiceover said “over a thousand years ago” was more biting than just about every political cold open this season.) Kind of like Strong splashing Colin Jost on Weekend Update when she’s doing her Jeanine Pirro impression, the crashing into Day’s trays (and then big bowl of soup), as predictable as it was, always worked — and Day’s performance was a large part of it. According to the sketch, it was sketchy enough for Cumberbatch’s character to admit he was a massive snitch. (It was also a sequel sketch to “Birthday Gifts” from the Regina King-hosted episode from last year.) Aidy Bryant’s increasing confusion and frustration throughout the sketch was great to watch — and the live audience clearly loved it — but things also worked as well as they did because of the straight man, nonplussed reactions from Cumberbatch, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, and Andrew Dismukes, who continues to make his comedic mark this season. At multiple times during “Chuck E. Cheese,” it seemed like the man was either going to spin the audience right round like a record or get down on his knees and pray. He unfortunately did neither, but both he and Bowen Yang — as well as their cast of features, including Aristotle Athari in his small blip of screen time for the week — provided. That choice was a good sign for the episode, actually, as there was no need to worry if he’d be warmed up by the end of the monologue; he was already warmed up to start the show. In his case, it was Cumberbatch and Heidi Gardner’s gruff Western characters, full of hurt and — very specific — childhood memories. Cumberbatch’s first time hosting provided the memorable “Why Is Benedict Cumberbatch Hot?” sketch, showing just how game he is when it comes to poking fun at his — let’s say, distinct — physical appearance. Wade draft — while also being the Mother’s Day episode, which meant this episode also had plenty of material to work with.

The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star also poked fun at Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live ...

During the SNL episode, Arcade Fire served as the evening's musical guest. Wade decision was decided upon on Jan. 22, 1973, and the T-shirts were worn in support of women's rights following the recent leaked Supreme Court decision draft that threatens to overturn the landmark case. To close out his hosting gig, Cumberbatch appeared onstage with musical guest Arcade Fire and various SNL cast members.

'Saturday Night Live,' hosted by Benedict Cumberbatch, took on Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito's leaked argument.

“Just do your 9 and plop it.” Life is a breeze, do your 9, do your time, what’s the big fuss about carrying a child to term that you know you can’t parent. “Give it to the stork and the stork will give it to a lesbian…Just do your 9 and dump.” Who has time for petty discussions about class in America when there are plenty of good mailboxes to stuff newborns into on the way to church? “To a woman’s right to choose for ever and ever and ever, Amen.” In a scathing rebuke of news that the Supreme Court is prepared to overturn Roe v. “I was nominated for an Oscar for that! Wade, and Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked argument citing archaic text, SNL took it back to that “moment of profound moral clarity from the 13th century.” Host Benedict Cumberbatch, still improbably handsome in his mushroom top monk’s wig, marvels at the need to protect the faetus on a fiefdom-by-fiefdom basis across England. “That way if your concubine needs one you can just send her off to get one in Olde York City.” On the nagging idea that exceptions perhaps ought to be made for pregnancies from rape or incest, James Austin Johnson’s monk whined, “But those are the only types of sex!” Enter Kate McKinnon: Not an ogre, rest assured, just a woman in her 30s!, she growled at the men in charge through gnashing Scottish brogue.

Benedict Cumberbatch, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, and Cecily Strong appear on '. The sketch underscored the monumental gap between then and now. ( ...

But last night, SNL dismantled the regressive tale Alito established with his opinion and crafted a sharp-edged rebuttal of its own. “We found the haircut; we know the sun is the moon when it’s happy; and we trust the Catholic Church with all our money and our children.” Cecily Strong deepened the debate between the three men, playing a townsperson who disputed their reasoning. Following the Texas state legislature’s September 2021 vote to ban all abortions after six weeks, she appeared in a similarly memorable “Weekend Update.” Playing “Goober the Clown who had an abortion when she was 23,” Strong artfully skewered the complicated conditions that engender silence and shame after an abortion. But last night’s open delivered a focused barrage of punch lines about how men in the Middle Ages understood the world and viewed women, and questioned why that period’s principles should serve as the legal precedent for our contemporary age. Last night’s Saturday Night Live exploded Alito’s notion of tradition by venturing back to the medieval period and delivering a searing rejoinder. “Or the law where if you hunt deer in the forest, they cut off your genitals?” Dismukes added.

'Saturday Night Live' has a sketch that every parent of a teen will want to watch, with Cecily Strong chastising Chloe Fineman for underage drinking.

Even host Benedict Cumberbatch gets in on the fun as a buttoned-down dad, who in his younger long-haired days was every bit a hell-raiser. The message flashed at the end of the sketch: "You may not have been a perfect person, but you're the perfect mom." Meanwhile, each time she makes that claim, we get a flashback of a teenage Strong making dubious decisions such as being throwing-up drunk at a party to "Tubthumping," having sex in the back of cars and getting high on drugs.