‘SNL’ Recap: Everybody Must Get Stone’d

After being repeatedly criticized by Donald Trump on Twitter, Saturday Night Live responded by spoofing his tweeting (and retweeting) habits during the cold open of last night’s episode. Funnily enough, the sketch itself was something of a retweet, sparking memories of the time that Trump hosted in November 2015, when he was a presidential candidate instead of the president-elect.

During that now-infamous episode, Trump “live-tweeted” one of the sketches, poking fun at his propensity for no-filter Twitter commentary. At the time and still today, that skit is all kinds of awkward, which happens to be another thing it has in common with this entirely forced cold open. While a pair of national security experts look on, Alec Baldwin’s Trump merrily retweets the 140-character opinions of a series of less-than-enlightened citizens. “I do it because my brain is bad,” Baldwin remarked by way of explanation. No, Alec — it’s just the script that’s bad.

Emma Stone’s monologue, sadly, didn’t reverse the trend. Returning for her third — and least successful — hosting stint, the La La Land star compared her previous experiences in Studio 8H to high school, complete with Vanessa Bayer as a classic mean girl and Bobby Moynihan as the resident football stud. Once again, this was a pale retweet of an earlier sketch. The first time Stone hosted the series, in 2010, she appeared in a hilarious digital short playing a high schooler who kept breaking all her limbs. That short film highlighted her flair for Gilda Radner-esque broad comedy; it’s no accident that she was later invited to SNL’s 40th anniversary special to portray one of Radner’s signature characters, Roseanne Roseannadanna. This episode, in contrast, just highlighted how much the SNL writing staff needs a break.

Best Sketch: “The Christmas Candle”

Enough about the retweeting — the episode’s biggest laughs came in this on-point music video about the dubious joys of re-gifting. Looking like Wilson Phillips circa their classic “Hold On” days, Stone, Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon tracked the path of an unwanted gift candle around the globe. This is why you should always keep a stack of Bed Bath & Beyond gift certificates on hand when in need of a last-minute gift.

Worst Sketch: “High School Theater Show”

This recurring sketch usually never fails to crack me up … but tonight it failed big-time. I’ll accept a sequel to “Crucible Cast Party” as an apology for mounting this student theater fiasco.

Best Use of Emma Stone: “Cleaning Crew”

Speaking of Gilda Radner, the SNL icon probably would have appreciated Stone’s ultra-goofy turn as an Eastern European cleaning lady who sings dirty ditties about Santa Claus. Don’t worry — her La La Land song-and-dance routines have more double spins than double entendres.

Episode MVP: Jennifer Aniston

The Friends star experienced the Ghost of Aniston Past up-close and personal when she appeared alongside Vanessa Bayer’s expert re-creation of her ’90s persona. Even more impressive was when she shared the stage with Kate McKinnon’s rambling Hollywood legend and avoided pulling a Ryan Gosling.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of SNL on Yahoo View.