Landing on the Saturday Night Live stage for her sixth time as host, Scarlett Johansson led a holiday-heavy episode that included her fiancé Colin Jost, who suddenly showed up during her Avengers-themed monologue.
Later in the show, the actress appeared in a musical sketch alongside Kenan Thompson, in which they played naughty Christmas elves, while a Macy’s commercial parody featured kids complaining about uncomfortable winter clothing.
In a sketch set in an office after a wild holiday party, Johansson and Thompson played employees getting fired for their inappropriate behavior. The co-workers were all charmed by Thompson’s character’s blatant harassment, while they were disgusted by Johansson’s slightly off-handed comments.
In another moment, Johansson and Cecily Strong played ghosts who appeared in a hotel hot tub and sang to characters played by Ego Nwodim and Chris Redd. “We’re just two dead strippers who get to haunt this hot tub every Christmas,” they said.
A holiday dating show parody featured Johansson as a woman searching for love. Kyle Mooney played Santa but tried not to reveal it; Beck Bennett played a guy from her hometown who turned out to be a ghost; and Alex Moffat played “Prince Simon of Caucasia.” The sketch also referenced the recent controversy between One Million Moms and the Hallmark Channel, which pulled an ad featuring a same-sex kiss after being pressured by the anti-gay group.
On top of performances by musical guest Niall Horan, it was a music-heavy episode. One of the numbers was a play on “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” in which Johansson took on the role of the mom.
Later in the show, Johansson and Bowen Yang played the people featured on the choking warning sign in a restaurant.
The episode’s final sketch starred Johansson as a scientist behind a new invention that lets humans read the minds of household pets. Her dog informed her and the other scientists in the lab that he thinks President Donald Trump is going to get impeached, only to then be re-elected. “He’s playing a game the Democrats don’t even know the rules to,” her dog Max said of Trump.
