Willem Dafoe Brings His Wild Eyes To A Surprisingly Horny Saturday Night Live

It's hard to believe that it took this long for Willem Dafoe to host "Saturday Night Live," even though there's actually a pretty reasonable explanation behind the wait. But thanks to the power of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and probably a lack of availability for Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, the "Spider-Man" franchise villain and wild-eyed star of films such as "Antichrist" and "The Lighthouse" finally took the stage at Studio 8H to partake in the long-running sketch comedy series. How did it go? Well, this episode was surprisingly horny. Actually, with movies like "Nymphomaniac" in Dafoe's past, maybe it's not all that surprising. However, there was quite a show-stealing surprise during Weekend Update. So let's dig into the best and worst sketches from this weekend's episode of "SNL."

Tenant Meeting – I'm a sucker for the kind of sketches that feature an endless line of different characters. It's even more fun when cast members appear as multiple characters. But with such a large cast, that's not necessary here, and I'm pretty sure the entire cast makes an appearance throughout this sketch (with the exception of Cecily Strong, who is still missing in action). Kate McKinnon is a standout, as well as Sarah Sherman, and the pairing of both Mikey Day & Bowen Yang and Kyle Mooney & Andrew Dismukes (who really should be playing brothers in sketches). There are a lot of inside jokes about New Yorkers here, but the characters themselves are universally weird and funny, even if the sketch overstays its welcome a little bit.

Please Don't Destroy: Martin's Friend – I hate to say it, but this is the first Please Don't Destroy sketch that wasn't a home run for me. This one actually felt more like a Lonely Island misfire than a recent Please Don't Destroy bit. Plus, it showed a little bit of the comedy trickery that makes their sketches work. Maybe those strings were a little more visible because the material itself wasn't great, but it's clear here that the rapid cuts and incredulous reactions and repetition of ridiculous phrases is meant to incite laughter, but it doesn't work nearly as well. They can't all be winners.

Nugenix – Adding to the overall horniness of this episode, "SNL" parodied the Nugenix ads that you've probably seen airing late at night when everyone else is in bed. They always feature athletes talking about erectile dysfunction, and this parody is no different. But it does get shaken up by the presence of Willem Dafoe as himself. This one takes a turn into 10-to-1 territory when the arrival of a hard-on is accompanied by a horrifying, ongoing mechanical sound, implying there Nugenix is some kind of bio-enhancement with robotic parts involved. It's a weird turn, but it makes for a funny ending, even if the rest of the commercial isn't consistently funny. I needed more of Dafoe's crazy facial expressions at the end.

Dog Show – We've seen plenty of sketches with real dogs, and it's typically the lack of cooperation from the canines that makes for some comedy. In this case, the dogs actually behave pretty well, and it's their faux profiles as total weirdo dogs that bring the laughs. It's not necessarily paced very well, but there are more than a few amusing moments. Unfortunately, it ends with a bit of a thud and doesn't really have any peaks throughout. Not bad, not great.

Another Weekend Update, another round of mostly average one-liners without much interaction between Colin Jost and Michael Che. Their strength comes from ribbing each other throughout the joke line-up, and I'm always disappointed if that doesn't happen at least once. However, Che's dolphin joke was top notch, and I'll admit that I wasn't expecting that "Full House" joke to take a turn towards Lori Loughlin, even if it's not the most timely reference. Weekend Update's political jokes lack bite when the headlines surrounding the government offer such little viability for great jokes, which is exactly the problem with their topical satire overall. "SNL" used to be much better about making the best out of political satire, but it feels like they've been waning in recent years, even since mocking Donald Trump turned into a tired affair. Lorne Michaels has to figure out how to get the writers and cast to up their game in this department.

You can watch the second part of Weekend Update right here.

Trend Forecasters on the Latest Trends – Is it just me, or does this feel like a musical revamp of The Art Dealers sketches that Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen used to do roughly a decade before? It's somewhat amusing, if only because Aidy Bryant and Bowen Yang almost break several times. I think the biggest problem is these characters feel better suited for a sketch outside of Weekend Update, perhaps a talk show format, even though that's not always a guaranteed hit. It's just missing something to make it pop.

Peyton Manning on the NFL Playoffs – Wow, this came out of nowhere to steal nearly the entire episode. I'd love to hear how this one came together, because having Peyton Manning make an appearance was such a surprise. Even more of a surprise was how good he was at this Weekend Update bit. We already knew Manning was one of the rare athletes who makes for a good "SNL" host, but his comedic timing and delivery in this "Emily in Paris" inspired appearance was simply perfect. Can we have Manning host the show again? I don't care if he's retired. Just bring him back.

Heidi Gardner – This week's episode didn't really feature a clear breakout member of the cast. The comedy was spread pretty evenly across everybody with the sketches making use of the ensemble. But after consideration, I think Gardner came away with some of the biggest laughs outside of Willem Dafoe. This might seem like a good opportunity to give it to Dafoe, but the host is supposed to be a standout star, so it takes a lot for me to give the MVP title to the host. In this case, Gardner had a series of supporting turns that brought big laughs, especially in Office Song. She wasn't leaps and bounds ahead of a few other cast members, but she felt like the most worthy.