'SNL' Recap: Melissa McCarthy and Kanye Were Our Funny Valentines

Melissa McCarthy has hosted Saturday Night Live a bunch of times (four and one-sixteenth times, to be exact), and it’s not hard to see why she keeps getting asked back. The Bridesmaids star nailed almost every one her sketches during her latest trip to Studio 8H, so expect Emmy nods to come her way just like they did after her previous SNL hosting stints.

After a cold open that featured Kate McKinnon’s perfect portrayal of Hillary Clinton and a return cameo by Darrell Hammond as Bill (this time Hillary was attempting to woo a group of Democratic restaurant diners by performing the song “I Can Make You Love Me”), McCarthy opened her monologue by announcing that she was hosting SNL for the fifth time. That would make her a member of the exclusive Five-Timers Club, the name given to those few showbiz luminaries who’ve hosted NBC’s late night sketch comedy at least five times. (Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Drew Barrymore and Steve Martin are a few of the members of this ultra-exclusive club.)

McCarthy was so proud of her Five-Timer achievement that she busted out the glittery glasses and burst into song, with several SNL players providing backup vocals and dance moves in a disco-themed dance party. Unfortunately, McCarthy’s party was cut short when Kenan Thompson, who was dressed as a number 5, broke the bad news that this was only her fourth time as host. Apparently, Melissa’s appearance on SNL’s 40th Anniversary special last year only counts as 1/16th of a hosting gig. So, no Five-Timer jacket for her.

Later in the show, SNL capitalized on last week’s Super Bowl headlines with a Weekend Update cameo by Denver Broncos linebacker and Super Bowl MVP Vonn Miller, who used an explanation of Einstein’s gravitational waves theory to tout his dominance over Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.

And speaking of the Super Bowl, there’s no way SNL couldn’t poke fun at Beyonce’s headline-making halftime show performance and the hoopla over her controversial new single “Formation.” A spoof horror movie trailer teased a new film titled The Day Beyonce Turned Black, which featured white people discovering the shocking news that Queen Bey is actually a black woman. Our favorite part? When a scared little boy asks his mom, “Mommy, is Taylor Swift still white?”

Best Sketch: Pick-Up Artist

McCarthy stole the show in this skit about a group of women attending a class on how to pick up men. The comedian played Ronda, a frumpy single lady who totally ignores her instructor’s advice on how to pick up a guy at a bar. Ronda’s pick-up techniques include putting her hand in a guy’s drink and rubbing ice all over him. “I like your hair,” she says to one guy, before turning to his friend and saying, “I think you’re a piece of crap.” Even SNL regular Leslie Jones couldn’t keep a straight face as McCarthy delivered her lines in this hilarious sketch.

Best Sketch: Movie Night

Family movie night took an awkward turn when a teen boy (played by Pete Davidson) was watching The Terminator with his parents as a steamy sex scene played. After her son blurted a few unfortunate observations, McCarthy’s mom character, Patty, tried to break the awkward tension with the line, “Boy, rubbers are rad, huh?” No wonder her embarrassed son escaped to the kitchen for a snack and came back eating dry rigatoni.

Worst Sketch: Kyle vs. Kanye

Sorry, Kyle Mooney. While we wanted to buy this comic’s story that getting hired by SNL ruined his chances at being “the greatest rapper in the world,” this long-winded thing just didn’t flow. Kind of like Mooney’s rap to this week’s musical guest, which consisted of the lame line, “Kanye West, you need a mint for your Kanye breath.” West almost saved this sketch when he blew Mooney away in a freestyle battle with a verse from his song “I Love Kanye,” but it was too little, too late.

Best Use of Melissa McCarthy: Test Screening

McCarthy didn’t have a bad sketch — even her weakest entry, the show-ending “Whiskers Are We,” was laugh-out-loud funny — but she best showcased her knack for physical comedy in this sketch about a test screening for a horror movie. McCarthy played Dottie, a member of a focus group who’s caught on camera as she’s spewing soda, puking, and punching other theatergoers during a screening for the film The Cul-de-Sac. One scene of the flick has her so scared she rips the shirt off of the guy in front of her and screams “I’m pissing myself!” When she sees the embarrassing footage, Dottie tells the movie studio she won’t sign the release to let them use the test footage because it’s not worth losing her dignity over. But it turns out dignity can be sold for $250.

Episode MVP: Kanye West
Love him, hate him, or simply don’t get him, there’s no disputing that Kanye West’s hyped up SNL appearance — his sixth on the show — was a highlight of this week’s episode. On the eve of the scheduled release of his new album The Life of Pablo, the rapper delivered two visually brilliant (and, apparently, uncensored) performances of his songs “High Lights” and “Ultra Light Beams.” West even brought in an entire posse of special guests, including Chance the Rapper, Young Thug, The-Dream, Kelly Price, El DeBarge, Kirk Franklin, and a full gospel choir, to help him out. No mention of Taylor Swift or misogynist lyrics here, and Yeezy gets extra points for his t-shirt that had the images of both his late mother Donda and his late father-in-law Robert Kardashian airbrushed on it.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC.