Jay Pharoah

Whatever your politics, there’s little denying that Donald Trump will deliver the spectacle to SNL this weekend, hosting alongside musical guest Sia. Following a short break, the first promos of Trump’s SNL return have arrived, and The Donald comes out swinging at his opponents just as absurdly as you imagined.

Kevin Hart may have spent the past few years becoming one of the biggest movie and comedy stars in America, but last night’s ‘SNL’ proved that the ‘Ride Along’ and ‘The Wedding Ringer’ star is entirely unafraid to make fun of himself. Hart made for a strong guest host, capable of playing variations on himself and new characters quite well. However, one sketch made direct fun of his public image and personality and he went right along with it.

The ‘SNL’ digital shorts may have begun as scrappy little projects fueled by random jokes and silliness, but recent years have seen them evolve into so much more. When they’re at their best, they play more like little short films that feel like complete entities. When they’re at their absolute best, they make you forget that you’re watching a 40 year-old comedy sketch show in the first place. Last night’s digital short felt more, alive, funny, and complete than just about any actual “live” sketch.

‘Saturday Night Live’ started 2014 as a show that was rebuilding; it ended the year in a noticeable groove that foreshadows, hopefully, many more great things to come. The following 10 sketches represent the calendar year of 2014—which includes the last half of the 39th season and the first half of this current 40th season. So, with that explanation out of the way, here are the 10 best ‘SNL’ sketches of 2014. Like all lists, you will like some choices and not like others.

Last month we checked out the first green band trailer for ‘Top Five,’ but now Chris Rock’s directorial debut has revealed a red band trailer, which also reveals all of that NSFW language and humor that the first trailer had to hold back. Rock may be taking his leap from actor and comedian to director seriously, but you didn’t think a film directed by Chris Rock would be totally void of F-bombs, did you?

‘SNL’ has rarely been afraid to wade into current events, so it‘s not surprising that the show took some time to focus on the recent hubbub surrounding new immigration policies and executive orders. And since the show realizes that not everyone is up to date on the political process, it uses the shorthand of the beloved series ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ to remind everyone of the necessary details.

After watching Bill Hader host ‘SNL,’ I think there’s a chance that we all undervalued him while he was actually on the show. And I write this knowing that Hader actually was highly valued, but maybe it wasn’t enough. Hader is this generation’s Phil Hartman. It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he makes the perfect host. And it’s evident that ‘SNL’ really hasn’t figured out quite how to replace Hader yet; he fits so effortlessly into this cast. Hader has a way of elevating everything, and that’s why last night we got one of the best ‘SNL’’s in recent memory.

The energy level from last week’s ‘SNL’ season premiere wasn’t quite there with Saturday night's Sarah Silverman hosted effort. It was almost like last week felt like “we’ve got a cast we’re proud off; let’s show it off!” and this week was almost a little more experimental. (I realize, most likely, none of this was intentional.) Silverman was good in the respect that it at least appeared she was certainly trying, but sometimes stumbled over some lines (hosting ‘SNL’ isn’t easy!) and she would go back and forth from looking, at times, confident – obviously she was comfortable doing her standup act in the monologue -- and, at other times, looking a little off ... which all seems really reasonable. Oh, hey, here’s a scorecard for your Sunday morning...

The 40th season of ‘Saturday Night Live’ has arrived (as well as the fifth season of ‘SNL’ Scorecard -- and I just can’t believe I’ve been doing this for five years) and, boy, what a difference a year makes. Last year’s season premiere featured six new cast members and was one of the clumsiest shows in recent memory. (Hey, remember ‘New Cast Member Or Member of Arcade Fire’? Gah.) This season, we have two new cast members and, more importantly, a significantly smaller cast. This was the first ‘SNL’ in over a year where I felt some actual intimacy with the cast. Look at newcomer Pete Davidson: he was everywhere! It was almost as if this incarnation of ‘SNL’ was built just to make us forget about last season. It didn’t completely work (I’ll never forget you, Rick Shoulders), but with a first-time host like Chris Pratt (who is a natural) and what feels like a much more focused show, this was a really great start.

The 39th season of 'Saturday Night Live' is over. From the beginning, it was a strange season -- gone were so many of the show's powerful voices: Hader, Samberg, Wiig, Sudeikis, Armisen -- yet this allowed new voices to be heard. And that's the thing about being new on 'SNL': not everything is going to hit. But, in compiling this list of the ten best sketches from the 2013-2014 season, there were