Last evening, Saturday Night Live returned to certainly one of its singular successes—the jolly, always-grinning Halloween character David S. Pumpkins (performed by Tom Hanks) from a breakout sketch in 2016—and gave him the distinction of a second look. His return felt uncommon. Outside of the “Weekend Update” desk, recurring characters have been scant over the present’s previous few seasons. Kate McKinnon’s departure in May eliminated a wealth of choices from rotation, and the remaining solid members haven’t but crammed that hole.
SNL is in a self-proclaimed rebuilding yr, and a visitor flip from Hanks, because the mysteriously cheery man in a black-and-orange pumpkin swimsuit whose half in a scary journey makes no logical sense, infused an in any other case boring Halloween episode with some character razzle-dazzle. But it additionally highlighted what’s been lacking from the present. Recurring characters are a big staple: They will help a solid member achieve extra airtime—and notoriety—whereas bolstering the arc of a season, balancing contemporary materials with well-known fare. Smart topical sketches make the rounds, however characters—the Nerds, Wayne Campbell, Church Lady, Spartan Cheerleaders, Dooneese, Herb Welch—make an imprint, creating lasting connections to the long-running present.
The variety of sketches that includes recurring characters purposely spiked within the Nineties. “Starting around ’95, Saturday Night Live became very much a performer’s show,” the veteran author Jim Downey stated within the oral historical past Live From New York. “Writers had to write one piece for a character and then they could write a premise piece. It was enforcing the idea that the cast isn’t here to bring to life the writers’ notions; the writers are there to supply material for the characters that the cast already does.”
That construction appears to have quieted some since its heyday. Much of the present solid’s character work takes place on “Weekend Update,” the place monologues maintain sway. In that highlight, Bowen Yang has particularly sparkled—evidenced by the variety of followers who dressed up as his characters the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic and (with Aidy Bryant) the Trend Forecasters for Halloween this yr.
Pumpkins has the making of a super recurring character on SNL, however it’s telling that he’s performed by a visitor. The authentic premise adopted a pair on a haunted elevator journey promising plenty of frights, however their concern turned to confusion after they stored encountering the besuited man and his two dancing skeletons (Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan). The sketch rapidly went viral and have become a collection standout, a lot in order that it changed into a cartoon particular the next yr.
The conceit labored so nicely as a result of Pumpkins was an anomaly—a goof amongst discernibly scary scenes. Last evening’s sketch couldn’t lean on the identical setup, so it aimed so as to add to his head-scratching origin story. Pumpkins is, in any case, his personal factor. When the three riders (the host, Jack Harlow; Ego Nwodim; and Andrew Dismukes) tried to seek out out why Pumpkins was a part of the “scariest ride in Fright Night’s history,” his dancing skeletons (performed as soon as once more by Day and, in a particular return look, Moynihan) defined that he’s from Ibiza. One of the riders struggled to make sense of that skinny element, solely to have his pal chime in: “Yo, he said he was from there; that doesn’t mean he grew up there. Let him write his own story.” It didn’t matter that the sketch was largely the identical; the thought works so nicely as a result of it doesn’t attempt to clarify itself. There’s one thing comforting about seeing a recurring character inhabit their very own actuality, as a number of the finest on SNL do.
Pumpkins arrived over the past third of the episode, although there have been hints that he may reappear. Hanks materialized in an earlier sketch about an AA assembly turned Pixar improvement session, revealing that he was available, and Moynihan confirmed up on “Weekend Update” as his recurring character Drunk Uncle. Those pop-ups lessened the shock when Pumpkins made his triumphant return, however the episode nonetheless set the stage to develop him as a recurring Halloween custom.
Elsewhere, SNL leaned into the horror of the vacation with a movie trailer that precisely captured the looming sense of dread that many Democratic voters possible really feel waiting for the 2024 presidential election. The horror spoof “2020 Part 2: 2024” tried futilely to discover a reliable Democratic candidate who may need a viable probability at successful. As it ratcheted up its characters’ nervy concern into full-blown hysteria, it delivered the type of surprisingly shrewd political sketch the season has lacked to this point.
The moody trailer felt significantly potent in contrast with the episode’s weak chilly open, which relied on apt however easy impressions of political candidates akin to Herschel Walker (Kenan Thompson), Dr. Mehmet Oz (Day), and Kari Lake (Cecily Strong, returning for her first episode this season). The vibesy horror strategy finally tapped into the identical type of laughs that David S. Pumpkins, in his sillier manner, does—and that SNL ought to goal to seize extra usually: the disquieting humor of a world that’s out of our management.