Pete Davidson appeared on Weekend Update to talk about the ferry he and Colin Jost bought, among other laugh riots.
11/10/2025
(l-r) Pete Davidson and anchor Colin Jost during Weekend Update on Saturday, November 8, 2025.
Will Heath/NBC
“Truly a dream come true,” said host Nikki Glaser at the top of her monologue, and it has been a dreamy few years for the stand-up comedian. According to Billboard Boxscore, she is the No. 5 top grossing woman comic of the 2020s to date, with $13.8 million in box-office receipts for 252,000 tickets sold over 171 shows. A veteran comedy roast master, she was one of the stars of Netflix’s 2024 flambé of NFL legend Tom Brady and then killed as the host of the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, which got her invited back for next year’s ceremony.
She also killed during that monologue — “Here I am in New York City, [Jeffrey] Epstein’s original island” — so it was a little disappointing to see her relegated to straight woman roles in most of the sketches. Still, the sketches were solid, Sarah Sherman got more screen time (yay!), musical guest Sombr’s performances were impressive, and Brad and His Dad, a Leigh McG animated short written by Streeter Seidell and cast member Mikey Day, was funny and touching in a King of the Hill kinda way.
Plus we got a Pete Davidson cameo on Weekend Update, where he talked about his and Colin Jost’s purchase of a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry, and his impending fatherhood. (“I’m just excited to be a dad, you know. Give it all of the energy and enthusiasm I never had for this show.”) More about that later, as we count down the five funniest sketches on the Nov. 8 episode.
Sorority Meeting
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}This sketch was funny more for what didn’t happen than what did.
Glaser plays the head of a Delta Gamma sorority house — remember when that letter from the University of Maryland’s chapter went viral? — who, after announcing that its Thanksgiving party theme will be “Pilgrim ho’s and respectful representation of indigenous people,” informs her sisters that a “frat guy in a hyper-realistic girl mask” was caught masquerading at another sorority.
Zoom in on Alyssa (Mikey Day), who’s not looking so realistic. Ashley Padilla’s character points a finger, noting that Alyssa needs to lift part of “her” face to eat a donut and that smoke comes out of her eyes when she vapes. Except that despite Mikey Day’s best attempts, smoke is not coming out of the eye holes in his Alyssa mask no matter how hard he sucks on that vape pen, leaving the sorority sisters — Sherman, Glaser, Padilla, Chloe Fineman, Veronika Slowiskowska and Jane Wickline — trying to not break the scene.
All is revealed — but wait! — there’s a twist that won’t be spoiled here.
American Girl Doll XL
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}This pre-taped piece has Glaser in another straight role, introducing an exciting development for women who wish their American Girl dolls could grow up just like they have: a new line of adult American Girl XL dolls. Like the children’s version, they come with their own stories and can resemble historical figures, such as Amelia Earhart or Rosie the Riveter. But these adult dolls have male fans as well, and they’re not exactly feminist allies. Ben Marshall appreciates his policewoman doll (backstory: she “hates her father”) for her lifelike feet and open mouth (“because she wants to be a singer”).
The guys don’t exactly stick to the American Girl character stories. Andrew Dismukes‘ nurse is “Lithuanian.” And Kam Patterson’s doll has no historical roots, except that he says she looks like “my brother’s wife.” Other dolls feature lifelike movements that would work in a porn video — like the colonial-era butter churner. As the commercial’s closing tagline says, “American Girl Dolls. We made an XL mistake.”
Weekend Update: Pete Davidson Talks About His and Colin Jost’s Staten Island Ferry
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}If you’re not an SNL-ologist or a New York Times reader, this sketch might be a tad insider-y. But seeing Davidson back on SNL looking hale instead of haunted and jousting with his good bud (and fellow Staten Islander) Jost was a welcome sight.
Davidson was there for a reason, explaining that he appeared at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia last month out of necessity, “because we’re losing millions on this ferry.” That’d be the decommissioned Staten Island Ferry, the John F. Kennedy, that he and Jost bought in 2022 for $280,100; the same ferry that The New York Times recently declared “a money-losing fiasco.”
Davidson had some great one-liners, including: “We just had a mayoral election. Which is my least favorite kind of oral.” (To top the laugh this got he slapped the desk and declared: “That’s a Classic Pete!” Then capped that with a tally of his classic SNL bits: “It’s now this and Chad.”)
There was also an insider-y joke in this insider-y bit when Davidson said to Jost: “If Lorne Michaels has taught us anything, it’s that you never ever give up. Even if everyone says, ‘The time has come, and Tina Fey is ready to take over.’” He then pointed to someone off camera and Jost turned to look — Lorne, to see his reaction? Or was Fey on the set?
Pilot Announcement
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}The sketch you would expect following U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s announcement, in the wake of the government shutdown, that flights at several airports would be cut back. What makes it exceptional is James Austin Johnson’s unflappable, “uh”-punctuated patter, which as one commenter on SNL’s YouTube channel wrote is “EVERY Pilot EVER.” Exactly!
That said, commercial airline pilots don’t talk about their dating app exploits, which for this captain include sending a gif of Jack Nicholson’s “Heeere’s Johnny” ax scene in The Shining to convey his wish to join his swipe-right in her shower in Cleveland (where the much-delayed flight is headed).
The skit alternates between the cockpit and the passenger cabin, as Dismukes — who surely holds the record for sketch appearances this season — and Sherman bitch about the holdup and the flyboy’s TMI. Until Sherman says, “I don’t know, it sounds kind of hot to me. I wouldn’t mind you chopping down the door to see me in the shower.” Dismukes leans into his response — “To see what? Something I see for free every day? No thank you!” — with such vehemence that Sherman breaks scene and Dismukes, after a moment of looking really steamed, gives her a knowing smile.
Oval Office Press Conference Cold Open
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}President Trump’s reaction (or lack thereof) to a pharma executive fainting during a press conference to announce the lowering of obesity drug prices — as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fast dash from the tableau — played like a scene from a Terry Gilliam movie. So, the bar was high when it came to satirizing the moment. SNL’s writers and Johnson — replete with a neck vagina — cleared it with a cold open that saw Trump narrating his “standing here like a sociopath” after the executive collapsed “at the mere thought of charging less for drugs,” and noting that RFK Jr. “booked out of here like someone was trying to give him a vaccine.” There was also the mortality thing. “A guy collapsing on the floor. Who’da thought it would be… not me!” Trump continued.
Special kudos to whoever came up with the idea to craft a bit that melded GLP-1s with inflation, the government shutdown and the resulting airline delays. “Sir, how will I afford my Thanksgiving turkey for my family,” Johnson-as-Trump mock whined. “Well, good news is your family’s not coming, because all the planes are gone. We call that problem solving problem,” he continued. “Can’t afford food? Have some cheap Ozempic. Now you’re not hungry and you get to take one weird painful poop a week.”
An even better line followed. Looking over at the unconscious pharma executive, Trump saw that Dr. Oz and others had the man’s legs raised to help revive him. “How’s he doing over there?” Johnson-as-Trump asked. “They got the legs up. That means dead in cartoons.” If only all this was a cartoon.
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