The big talking point from Saturday Night Live’s Halloween episode is, of course, Tom Hanks’ surprise cameo. The A-lister and beloved member of the five-timers club reprised his role as David S Pumpkins during last night’s cold open to the delight of the crowd. I was obviously stoked to see Hanks too, but since everyone else is giving him his shine, I need to spend a few paragraphs talking about the other SNL cameo we got during Inde Navarrette’s episode.
If the skeletons behind Hanks’ David S Pumpkins seemed familiar, it’s because current cast member Mikey Day and longtime former cast member Bobby Moynihan have played the sassy dancing skeletons (who both have amazing names) in the other David S Pumpkins sketches too. The two co-created the sketch alongside Streeter Seidell and have played supporting roles in each version.
It’s obviously not a surprise to see Day back for last night’s version, but it was a welcome surprise to see Moynihan back too. He clearly has a great relationship with everyone at 30 Rock and has returned several times to make appearances since, but given he’s a working actor currently starring in Fall & Rise Of Reggie Dinkins, you never know. You can watch Hanks, Moynihan and Day do their thing in the latest David S Pumpkins sketch below…
I would have been happy just seeing Moynihan return as the skeleton, but to the delight of myself and many other fans, he actually made a second appearance on SNL last night too. He showed up on Weekend Update to give us another round of Drunk Uncle. It turns out the character is just as enjoyable as ever, as he gave us updated takes on pitch challenges in baseball, Mrs. Met and hot gay hockey shows.
He also introduced the Milwaukee Brewers, who recently won the World Series, the first in the team’s history. Christian Yelich, Brice Turang and manager Pat Murphy all made cameo appearances and interacted a bit with Drunk Uncle. Amusingly, Moynihan referred to Yelich as Pete Davidson, which continued a theme of referring to Colin Jost as former cast members including Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler. You can watch the whole Drunk Uncle appearance below…
People often measure different SNL eras based on their most successful cast members, but the truth is the success or failure of SNL is often directly related to how good the key supports are. Moynihan is a great example of that. He was never the most famous performer during his nine seasons on the show, but he was always a key guy who could elevate a few sketches each week and be entrusted to carry one of his own. He’s a key reason why the 2010s were so good, even if he’s not quite as famous of a name as Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader or Jason Sudeikis.
I have no idea if we’ll see any fun cameos in the coming weeks, but I do know we should be in for some banger SNL episodes with amazing upcoming hosts. Next week we’re getting guest host Druski, and he’ll be followed by stand-up comedian and longtime writer John Mulaney. Both of those episodes have the potential to be top tier. I can’t wait.
