Entertainment

Maya Rudolph was “mother” last night on the Mother’s Day SNL episode.

It’s the Mother’s Day episode, so “SNL “Saturday Night Live” brought on a “mother” to host.

Sure, she’s an actual mother of four children herself, but Maya Rudolph, an SNL cast member from 2000 to 2007, is also “mother.” As in, a legendary woman who slays and serves. 

“You were the first to slay the house down, boots queen!” says Bowen Yang. Rudolph concurs, and breaks into a song — “I’m your mother.” 

“Not now, child. Mother is mothering,” she tells Punkie Johnson, who has a “message from the gays: the monologue, it’s giving body-ody-ody-ody.”

This was Rudolph’s third time as SNL host — her last appearance was in 2021. Alongside her last night was musical guest Vampire Weekend.

The indie rock band from New York released their fifth studio album, “Only God Was Above Us,” last month. Headed by lead singer Ezra Koenig, the band has won two Grammys and been nominated four times. 

Cold Open

Instead of a traditional cold open, the cast brought their mothers on to tell a few jokes. But Kenan Thompson’s mom was excited for a regular cold open this week to see who’d play Stormy Daniels. Andrew Dismukes’ mom brings in some baby photos, and Chloe Fineman’s mom prepared some jokes to roast Tom Brady. Molly Kearney and her mom come on in bald caps, and Ego Nwodim’s mom needs to find Lorne Michaels and thank him. Without him, who would Nwodim be? A successful doctor, perhaps?

Monologue

Maya Rudolph, a four-time mom herself, is thrilled to be back at SNL. Bowen Yang notes that she’s not just a mom — “You’re mother. You were the first to slay the house down, boots queen!” Queue a musical number, with Thompson as the MC. “Ladies and gentleman, gays and theys, I give to you Mother of the House of Rockefeller!” In a bodysuit and with a crew of backup dancers, Rudolph sings about her various movies and SNL skits in the ballroom-style bit where she proves she’s “mother.”

Hot Ones with Beyonce 2

Beyonce’s back on Hot Ones with Sean Evans, after a disastrous appearance three years ago where she struggled with the sauces. But she’s back for a second try. “This was the only thing I have attempted that I did not slay, and that bothered both me and my husband. My husband is Jay-Z.” But it goes about as well as expected. “I’m about to start speaking in tongues,” she says after a particularly spicy wing, before asking her assistant (Thompson) if he can replace her bones with bones that aren’t on fire. “Why is this janky hot wings show the one thing Beyonce cannot do?”

Please Don’t Destroy — Explore Page

The Please Don’t Destroy guys are out with their girlfriends, who decide it’ll be a fun game to show each other their Instagram explore pages. But the guys’ algorithms are just videos of Uneesa Confidence (Rudolph), an “online girlfriend for young men with self esteem issues.”

Teacher PSA

We’re nearing the end of another school year, and teachers have a PSA for the kids: “Y’all won.” COVID broke something that can’t be fixed, so the teachers are giving up. Rudolph’s student said she had a “funky neck,” and James Austin Johnson recently found kids cooking a rotisserie chicken over a urinal. “From every teacher to those rude, sticky, illiterate children, we give up.”

British Cavemen

Nat Geo airs a special called “British Cavemen,” because cavemen roamed the whole Earth — even the places you don’t think about. The cavemen speak gibberish that sounds remarkably like modern-day British accents, and one of them even utters the first modern phrase when he’s burned by the fire: “Bloody hot, innit?!”

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend performed “Gen-X Cops” and “Capricorn,” both off their most recent album, “Only God Was Above Us.”

Weekend Update

Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle some of the week’s top news stories, like Stormy Daniels’ testimony in court, the northern lights, RFK Jr.’s brainworm, a new Lord of the Rings movie, and the Met Gala. Heidi Gardner comes on as “a woman who insists she’s not mad,” and Sarah Sherman is, you guessed it, RFK Jr.’s brainworm.

Coffee Commercial

Rudolph is a famous, diva-ish actress, and she’s shooting a commercial for Tip Top Coffee. She loves the product, and she’s never even had coffee before. “My doctor said, ‘do not.’” She goes more and more off the rails as the taping progresses, forcing staff to leave and overdoing it on the coffee. 

Nurse Appreciation

It’s Nurse Appreciation Week, so nurses are sharing what they love about their jobs. Some love getting to see babies born, or seeing a patient beat the odds. But two nurses (Nwodim and Rudolph) aren’t so jazzed. “90% of my job is cleaning up a grown man’s dookie,” says Nwodim. “Listen, if you can do any other job, do it.”