The Best & Worst Sketches from Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Saturday

This weekend, Scarlett Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live, which allowed her to join the prestigious Five Timers Club, a rare honor for hosts of the iconic late night sketch series. Last night’s episode proved why Scarlett Johansson has joined the exclusive club, as she can throw herself into a goofy character, but also has no problem being an anchor in a sketch as the straight-woman, delivering the dialogue that doesn’t have the punchlines. Overall, this was a pretty good episode.

Below, we run through the best and worst sketches of the Scarlett Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live.

The Best

Translator – For anyone who thinks that Saturday Night Live only skewers right-wing politics, this sketch proved them wrong. Sure, this sketch has character reacting horrifically to the fact that Scarlett Johansson’s dog is a Trump supporter when his thoughts are made audible thanks to a translating helmet. But then the sketch takes an interesting turn by having the dog sound much more intelligent and articulate than the liberal-minded people in the room, who can’t help but respond with trite soundbites. This one has some layers, and while it certainly mocks Trump, it’s much more about his supporters and how people deal with them, frequently in the wrong way. Also, kudos to Scarlett Johansson for being totally chill and not rattled at all when she had to replace the helmet back on the dog’s head after it was knocked off.

A Sketch for Women – It’s been awhile since Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney had something fantastic together in an episode of SNL, so it was nice to have this come along. In honor of A Day Without Women, Scarlett Johansson and Aidy Bryant explained that they didn’t work on the day when most of the writing usually takes place. So they placed Mooney and Bennett in charge of writing a sketch for all the women in the cast. The result is the epitome of mansplaining where the women have little to do but echo the sentiments of the wise dudes. It was sharp and hilarious.

Complicit – This is one of a handful of sketches that shows SNL can figure out how to mock Donald Trump without just doing a topical mockery of something insane the president did that week. This one focuses on Ivanka Trump, who has been lauded with acclaim for being a successful feminist. But as the ad questions, “Like, how?” Offering up a jab at the president’s daughter for letting her father get away with some ludicrous nonsense while still somehow being praised for her work, all in the form of a perfume ad, is some solid satire.

Olive Garden – If this is one of those sponsored sketches that SNL is doing from time to time, then some kudos should be given to Olive Garden for letting SNL take some jabs at both the company and their customers. But if it’s not, then this is still a supremely funny sketch, especially when it comes to pointing out that the people in these kind of commercials act like they’ve never had food or eaten at a restaurant before. Beck Bennett deserves a special shout out, because while Mikey Day, Scarlett Johansson, Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson are doing the funnier, goofier stuff for laughs, he’s spouting off endless dialogue driving it all, and doing it in a perfectly straight-laced way that makes it all work even better, especially when he does that totally racist voice for Leslie Jones’ character.