‘SNL’ Recap: Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Make Surprise Cameos While Host Pete Davidson Tries To Balance The Coldest Of Cold Opens With Barbs About Himself

Pete Davidson had left Saturday Night Live a year and a half ago after eight seasons, but Lorne Michaels tried to have him back as host as early as last May, only to have those plans scuttled by the Writers Guild strike. Davidson’s back to host the Season 49 premiere instead, and so much has happened since…even last Saturday. Which led us to one of the coldest cold openings ever (right up there with Kate McKinnon playing piano and singing Leonard Cohen’s “hallelujah” after the 2016 elections, and Rudy Giuliani standing alongside Michaels and the FDNY for the Season 27 premiere in 2001).

What’s The Deal For The SNL Cold Open For Last Night (10/14/23)?

Lights darkened onstage, Davidson stands or sits alone in close-up to remind us all of what we already have been bombarded with for the past week, whether we watched traditional broadcast media or looked to social media platforms, the horrific images of violence and terror in Israel and Gaza. “I know what you’re thinking: Who better to comment on it than Pete Davidson?” That earns him a chuckle from the live studio audience inside 30 Rock. Of course, this forces him to remind us that Davidson’s father was a New York City firefighter who died on Sept. 11, 2001, when Pete was 7. “So I know something about what that’s like,” he said, adding that the images of dead and crying children: “It took me back to a really horrible horrible place.”

On the bright side, he claimed his mom’s attempts to cheer him inadvertently resulted in her getting him the Eddie Murphy: Delirious comedy special, when she noticed “for the first time, in a long time, I was laughing again.”

“Sometimes comedy is really the only way forward through tragedy,” Davidson said, adding: “Tonight I’m going to do what I’ve always done in the face of tragedy, and that’s try to be funny. Remember I said, try.” So, just like the Season 27 opening in 2001. With thankfully, 100 percent less Giuliani.

How Did The Guest Host Pete Davidson Do?

Davidson pivoted as far away from violence and tragedy as he could in his monologue, but by choosing to watch the violent and tragic Game of Thrones for the first time with his sister, he realized perhaps he picked the absolute worst show to bond with his sister over. Because of all the incest. Which he manages to make even more awkward with a joke questioning whether he should bang his sister?! Davidson’s monologue also noteworthy for his liberal use of the word “pussy” (as he claimed his high school football coach taunted him by calling him that, even though Pete never played on the team), and reframed his comedy origin story into a dark, twisted affair, having sex with a girl who’d never get to see him become famous, but he’d get to see her on TV.

But at least you’re not thinking about the Middle East now, right?

Davidson used a Barbie parody music video, turning “I’m Just Ken” into “I’m Just Pete” to take on all of the barbed arrows we’ve been slinging at him. His talent or lack thereof, his multiple stints in rehab, convincing Colin Jost to buy a Staten Island ferry with him, all of his relationships generating publicity for everything EXCEPT for his comedy. Even ending on a note where he drives a car into Barbie’s dream house.

He’s also the butt of the joke in this piece where he and his co-stars from a Marvel Disney+ series participate in a promotional “Google Autocomplete” segment, where his co-stars all get complimentary prompts, while Davidson’s characters all zero in on a supposed incident where he had explosive diarrhea on a Delta flight.

It’s not all about mocking Pete, though. In a FOX NFL Sunday segment in which all the football panelists compete to prove which of them is the biggest Taylor Swift fan (and which closes with a surprise cameo from Travis Kelce as himself), Pete plays a sideline reporter in a pink cowboy hat with an affectation that can best be described as a tribute to Gilbert Gottfried. In an office sketch, Davidson plays it straight as a lawyer whose firm’s secretary, Trudy (Heidi Gardner), is the scene-stealer who’s not only licking Davidson’s tie but also crashing into her own desk and losing her top.

How Relevant Was The Musical Guest Ice Spice?

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Relevant enough for Taylor Swift to jet cross-country after welcoming Beyonce to the opening of her concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, in Los Angeles on Thursday night, just to introduce Ice Spice’s second song, which happened to be her brand-new single released Friday, “Pretty Girl,” featuring Remy. Ice Spice, who also featured on Swift’s Eras Tour and has her own Dunkin’ Donuts frozen drink named for her (whose TV ad with Ben Affleck even broadcast tonight to areas without a Dunkin), also performed her hit from earlier this year, “In Ha Mood.”

Was There A Please Don’t Destroy Video?

Yes. This week, Davidson visits the fellas (Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy) in their office to find them watching a clip of a baby-faced Davidson at 17 telling jokes at Broadway Comedy Club in NYC. But then we learn that before “please don’t destroy,” they were The Original Princes of Comedy who brought down the house at the Apollo in Harlem, even putting John Mulaney to shame (kudos on that cameo, too). Although we’re all most pleasantly surprised at the surprise entrance of Michael Che…with his mom? Who just wants to meet “Smoke Dog” all grown up?

Who Stopped By Weekend Update?

Two guests at the Update desk, plus Che pulls a surprise on Jost.

First up was Christopher Columbus (Bowen Yang), which reminds us, Columbus Day was just this week, also?!?!? We learn from Columbus that he also discovered jazz (by watching La La Land) as well as discovering Che, at Carolines on Broadway, where Che ran the light for 45 minutes; that Che is his second-favorite comedian. His fave? Sebastian Maniscalco. Anyhow, this Columbus is fine with taking down statues of him. Why? “I don’t even pose like that.”

Che and Jost have a history of pranking each other by writing jokes the other must deliver without seeing them first. But usually they’re both in on the act? Jost appears to have not been prepared for Che to talk about California’s new Ebony Alerts by saying “Here with more on this is Colin Jost.” “Why? It’s the first show!” Jost cried.

Kenan Thompson showed up, too, as new University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders, who’s a little too proud of himself for a guy whose team is off to a 4-3 record and just blew a 29-0 lead to Stanford. At least we get to see a clip that reminds us the real “Primetime” once performed as SNL’s musical guest (?!?!?) and some more jokes at Jost’s expense.

What Sketch Filled The “10-to-1” Slot?

At 12:49 a.m. Eastern, we’re finally getting our first Sarah Sherman sketch, and it’s a fake ad sketch in disguise as an OB/GYN appointment, with Davidson as the doctor surprised not only by the fact that there’s a product called Glamgina, “Did you put makeup on it?,” but also by all of the other women who keep popping up to offer testimonials.

What About The New Cast Members?

Chloe Troast appeared briefly in two sketches and got to deliver her own funny lines in the Glamgina sketch. And since last season’s featured players found their rookie season cut short by strike, it was heartening to see the two rookies with some of the least playing time in Season 48 kick off Season 49 with a fun sketch showcasing their talents, with Devon Walker as Michael Strahan and Molly Kearney as Terry Bradshaw show off while goofing off in the Fox NFL Sunday spoof.

SKIP IT: There also was a sketch in which Pete’s character losing his late grandmother’s bean farm in a tornado is upstaged by Andrew Dismukes wanting everyone to take a “funny picture” of him buried up to his head in sand on beach day, as well as way-out there sketches involving a spaceship employee (Bowen Yang) returning to his workplace at the worst possible moment, and a father-son combo (Davidson and Dismukes) trying to talk Kenan’s character into taking foot photos for money at a cowboy roadhouse bar. But you could SKIP IT on those.

Next week, Bad Bunny does double duty as host and musical guest!

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also podcasts with comedians sharing their origin stories at The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.