SNL: Kyle Mooney, Saweetie, Simu Liu, Cecily Strong (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

This year I am thankful for new episodes of Saturday Night Live. And the NEWEST new SNL is the one hosted by Simu Liu with musical guest Saweetie. He’s the self-proclaimed “first Chinese host to be the fourth Chinese host,” while she’s the Santa Clara native who sure seems to rap a lot.

For this review, I will be listing the sketches in order of running time, starting with the longest.

Justice with Judge Jeanine: The word search visual gag was something new!

Karaoke Recap: Honestly? I think singing karaoke as Marge and Homer Simpson is a great idea! (How many finance bros are there in Wilmington, NC?)

Weekend Update: The Jokes: I will have to add the “‘Michael Che Sucks Butt’ Bathroom Stall” to my list of Tourist Attractions I Must See Before I Die.

Republican or Not: This game show sketch features a clever premise. Individuals can be hard to pin down. Words can be misleading. This can lead to comedy, evidenced by laughter (including mine).

Dogheadman: Man, whoever’s in charge of animal casting at SNL has been absolutely killing it lately.

Thanksgiving Baking Championship: Pete was absolutely having a blast eating all that cake (that supposedly didn’t taste very good!). What a recovery after struggling with his fork at first.

Walking in Staten: So this ode to Pete Davidson’s home borough is apparently a parody of Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit “Walking in Memphis,” which I’m not sure I’ve ever heard, although it had an air of familiarity. Anyway, a pizza place inside a bagel place? Staten Island is a lot better than I’ve heard!

Weekend Update: Baby Yoda: Damn, I did not realize that I needed to know about the Affair of Grogu and Mama Berenstain. And if Confessions of the Diary of a Loser is released as an actual album, I might just buy it.

Weekend Update: Mother Earth: Personifying planets appears to be a winning idea.

Saweetie, “Tap In”/”Best Friend”: I would have preferred if Doja Cat had been there in person instead of hearing her portion in prerecorded form. She would’ve rocked it. At least Saweetie did a good job shaking it with her backup dancers.

911 Call: Are actual 911 dispatchers trained in the art of calming down stoned people? I imagine that’s a pretty useful skill in that line of work.

Simu & Bowen: I have my doubts that Simu was really the first Asian to blow up a dragon from the inside. Maybe the first Asian-Canadian. Considering the rich history of fantasy and martial arts in Asian cinema, there must have been other dragon explosions at some point

Target: This fake parody advertisement featured typical footage of Thanksgiving chaos, but one unusual thing I noticed was purple glue – what up with that!

Simu Liu’s Monologue: After Simu mentioned Trevor, the kid who kept kicking his shins, I was hoping that Trevor would suddenly show up on stage, but alas that didn’t happen. (It would have been okay if it wasn’t the real Trevor, but instead just a cast member playing him.)

Saweetie, “Icy Chain”: This song begs the question: what is an icy chain? Is it slang I’m unfamiliar with? Is it just something that Saweetie made up? Or is it the most literal possibility, i.e., an assembly of links covered in frozen H2O?

And now looking ahead, if you’re able to make it through Thanksgiving, then you’ll be able to check out Billie Eilish joining the ranks of Double Duty SNL Guests on December 11.