SNL: St. Vincent, Daniel Kaluuya, Aidy Bryant (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)

Holy moly, this is a review of an SNL episode hosted by Daniel Kaluuya with musical guest St. Vincent! Kaluuya was great in Get Out, and he’s great in everything else I’ve seen him in as well, and while most of those credits aren’t terribly similar to sketch comedy, I had a feeling he had it in him to deliver the funny in front of a live audience. And as for Ms. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, she always brings it without fail.

So this is an episode airing on Easter Weekend, I ran 8 miles on Saturday morning, the spring sun’s blazing in the mid-Atlantic, and I’m still freaking out over that Final Four buzzer-beater. This is all to say, a bunch of dopamine is swirling around my system, which is a perfect formula for me to laugh aplenty. Did the sketches also give me reasons to laugh? Let’s find out!

First off, we’ll check in with Britney Spears (Chloe Fineman’s impression version) with another edition of Oops, You Did It Again (Grade: 3/5 Easter Bunnies). A few guests stop by, including Pete Davidson as Congressman Matt Gaetz, who looks just like his Andrew Cuomo impression except for a more colorful tie.

Daniel Kaluuya’s Monologue (Grade: 3/5 Easter Eggs) wasn’t very long, but it was long enough for him to assure us that he was a Kenan & Kel fan back in the day.

My viewing experience was broken up by an Easter breakfast feast, including an omelette, chocolate babka, and pork roll (and a few trips to the bathroom if I’m being honest).

The game show sketch Will You Take It? (Grade: Understandable Mistrust of White People) takes a real cultural trend (in this case, African-American distrust of vaccines) and mixes it up with a bunch of absurdity, and what do you know? That’s a formula that delivers the laughs!

Kyle Mooney has a lot of YouTube experience from back in the day, so he’s an ideal fellow for this Prank Posse piece (Grade: 4/5 Racist Farts) about a YouTuber delivering a bunch of suspect apologies. I was not fully prepared for that TV drop!

Here’s a thought experiment: imagine Kate McKinnon playing a character loudly completing household tasks while her family tries to play a board game, and then ask yourself: does that sound like quality comedy to you? Well I’ve got good news for you, because it IS quality comedy, and it was featured on this episode, and I give the Scattergories sketch a Grade of 4/5 Easter Bunnies!

“Parents annoyed that their kid is majoring in something artistic instead of something practical” is a premise as old as MFA degrees, but never before have we seen a version in which Chris Redd reads a poem about how his emotions are as blue as blue paint, so the Proud Parents sketch gets a Grade of 4.5/5 Easter Eggs.

I didn’t know that St. Vincent had new music coming out, and I don’t know how that news passed me by until now, considering that she’s one of my favorite artists of the past decade. But better late than never, you know? For her first song, she whips out “Pay Your Way in Pain” (Grade: 4/5 Bobs), and she had me going “Is it the 70s again?” in the best way possible.

Now as I transition into talking about Weekend Update, I will make this observation: Colin Jost seemed really energized by his physical resemblance to under-felonious-suspicion Congressman Matt Gaetz!

The Update guest correspondents took the holiday into account, as Aidy and Kate teamed up once again as Wylene and Vaneta Starkie (Grade: 4/5 Extremely Rude Steers) to hawk their meats from supposedly poorly behaved animals, and these ladies just know how to get silly.

I haven’t always been the biggest fan of Alex Moffat’s Guy Who Just Bought a Boat routine (Grade: 3.5/5 Chodes), so maybe this is just the dopamine talking, but I actually found this edition adequately amusing. It certainly helped that he mixed up the phrasing about his below-average manhood.

I don’t know if I would marry a centenarian character played by Heidi Gardner, but I’m happy to spend some time with her, so I’ll give Jeff and Hattie Deeley a Grade of “Better Than Exxon-Mobil.”

Honestly, if you’re asking me, I’d be happy to spend some time with my college friends alongside all our moms, so the Fraternity sketch (Grade: 3.5/5 Easter Bunnies) was all about good vibes as far as I’m concerned.

The Dog Park sketch (Grade: 3.5/5 Easter Dogs) ended abruptly, which is appropriate, because the emotional swings before the ending were just as extreme. People with dogs sure have strong opinions!

I would have been happy if St. Vincent had performed more than two songs, but the two songs that she did perform were both great. The second one, “The Melting of the Sun” (Grade: 4/5 Easter Songs), melted my sun, if you know what I’m talking about. (Now I have to come up with a definition for that euphemism.) How did she get her guitar to sound like such a sitar?!

Have you ever noticed how Cecily Strong likes to team up with the host and sing goofy songs? It’s a trend I’m happy to see continue in the Half Brother Birthday Party sketch (Grade: 4/5 Easter Eggs) as she and Daniele Kaluuya slap the bass and say “Meow” together. It was also fun to see Kaluuya dressed like Morpheus by way of Bernie Mac.

Next week, a current Oscar nominee will be hosting for the second episode in a row, as Carey Mulligan takes the stage, alongside former Comedy Bang! Bang! (TV show version) bandleader Kid Cudi as musical guest.