SNL: Bowen Yang, Young Thug, Rami Malek, Ego Nwodim (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

This is a review of a very special episode of Saturday Night Live, because all SNL episodes are special, because they’re put together by special people, because all people are special. The particular special people this time are host Rami Malek and Young Thug.

This season, I’ve been playing around with the order of the sketches in my reviews, and this time, I’m going to list them in order of length of what I’ve written (in terms of number of lines and the length of the last line, as written in Times New Roman on Google Docs), from shortest to longest. Here we go!

Chris Redd: Chris has some fair points about blimps. Worth mulling over…

Bug Assembly: It was only a matter of time before Bowen Yang played a Daddy Longlegs.

Linus Minus (and Volunteer Roy): What a rollercoaster of emotions in just a few minutes!

Young Thug, “Love You More”: Wow, Nate Ruess is totally in Middle Aged Dad Mode now. Big Pink Energy from Thug.

Prince Audition: Rami Malek may have captured the Prince vibes better, but Kenan pulled off more Dave Chappelle-as-Prince Energy.

A Proud Gay Oompa Loompa: But if the Oompa Loompa wasn’t ready to come out, why did it say that he was gay on the cue card? (I assume that it said that on the cue card.)

Mattress Store: Well, it looks like Aidy Bryant has a talent for reenacting melodrama (hardly a surprise). Rami Malek wasn’t so bad either in this regard (perhaps a bit of a surprise).

A Message From the NFL: I think my favorite part of the press conference cold open was Alex Moffat’s somewhat surreal impression of Raiders owner Mark Davis. Pageboy haircut? Where did that come from?

Squid Game: I still haven’t watched Squid Game. (Can someone edit it down to a 2-hour version of the highlights for me?) Anyway, the surgery scene with Chris Redd made it look like his eyeball was in his stomach, which was odd.

Angelo: Definitely the first breakout performance from Aristotle Athari in this sketch. When Cecily said that Todd (Rami Malek’s character) is “what’s next in dance,” it felt like when Mugatu said that Hansel is “so hot right now” in Zoolander.

Weekend Update: Che’s joke about trickle-down economics was honestly one of the best (perhaps THE Best) Weekend Update jokes in recent memory. I also laughed at coal being one of the five food groups, Biden always being 22 minutes late, and Che’s emails.

Young Thug, “Tick Tock”: Young Thug is one of those rapping fellows who I’ve heard about for a few years now, but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually heard any of his songs. (Maybe I have, though!) Anyway, it’s always nice to hear a real guitar solo in a hip-hop song.

Rami Malek’s Monologue: Rami Malek introduces us, the audience, to his persona, and it’s all about having Resting Villain Face. He also offers favorable alterna-interpretations about famous movie villains, and I wrote down in my notes the things he said about Frankenstein (i.e., the Monster) and Freddy Krueger.

‘Celeb School: I think there ought to be a limit on the number of celebrity impressions in one game show sketch. Otherwise it can get pretty crowded, you know what I mean? Anyway, wow, having Rami and Pete play each other seemed kind of gimmicky at first, but they really do kind of embody each other, don’t they?

Next week will be the Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile episode, and then the plan is for the show to take a week off, so I’ll take the week off from reviewing as well.