Adele Saves Thanksgiving On SNL

Matthew McConaughey has appeared on Saturday Night Live a lot more than Matthew McConaughey has hosted Saturday Night Live. It’s been 12 long years since the real McConaughey debuted as the show's host. In the interim, he has been getting a lot of screen time from Studio 8H. Taran Killam has a recurring bit as McConaughey on Weekend Update and Jim Carrey starred in a parody of those infamous Lincoln commercials when he hosted last year. McConaughey’s molasses drawl, general good-guy nature, and tendency to take some long verbal detours clearly make for good comedy. So, how did the real McConaughey compare? Was everything indeed “alright, alright, alright"? Here are three must-see moments from the show.

1. Star Wars Screen Tests: Hands down the most memorable and instantly re-watchable moment. J.J. Abrams himself introduced this collection of screen tests for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mixed in with cameos from two of the movie’s real stars, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, were failed auditions and clips from actual celebrities decked out in their galaxy-far-far-a way best: Emma Stone lampooning her controversial casting in Aloha, Michael Bublé serenading Daisy Ridley, and Jon Hamm writing himself a part as a character named Hamm Solo. Bobby Moynihan pulled off a spot-on George Lucas impersonation, saying, “I’m not the George Lucas you’re looking for,” and, “I find your lack of Coke Zero disturbing.” Bummer that McConaughey didn’t make an appearance — a Skywalker, perhaps? Was “Screen Test” just product placement for the new movie and Coke Zero? Does it matter?

2. A Thanksgiving Miracle: Adele is all things to all people, this we know. But did you know she can save Thanksgiving? SNL brings us Aidy Bryant as your racist aunt, Kate McKinnon as your out-of-touch grandmother, and Beck Bennett as your mustachioed and uptight father figure. When talk of ISIS, racism, and equality get too heated, the youngest member of the family (a girl who is about 12), slips over to the CD player and hits play. Watch as the dulcet tones of "Hello" take everyone out of themselves and turn them into one person: Adele. Props to props for its use of Adele's fingernails and shoutout to McConaughey for slipping into a few scenes to give us an idea of what a really creepy, mustached Adele would look like. File under: It's funny because it's true. We're all just gearing up to talk about the new Adele album this Thanksgiving — it may be the only common ground we have with some family members.

3. 3-D Printed Man: This sketch makes the list for the simplest of reasons: watching Matthew McConaughey do an awkward robot dance. The premise, for whatever it's worth, is a tech launch of a 3-D printed man. The three men on stage were peppered with questions to determine which wasn’t the real boy, so to speak. Predictably, McConaughey’s Bruce stood out with obvious bugs like repeating words, questions, and nonsensical answers. Bruce replied to a question about his hobbies, saying he likes pens. “Using pens. That’s cool and smooth like a real sunglasses guy. You’re making a sunglasses guy like me laugh hard from my face.” Okay, so the premise isn’t the most original, but seeing McConaughey go for it with the physical comedy really worked.

Adele, unsurprisingly, delivered as the musical guest. No fanfare and no pyrotechnics other than her phenomenal voice. Both Adele and McConaughey appeared in commercials during the broadcast, she for her new album at Target and he, of course, for Lincoln. Combine those with the Star Wars sketch and the line between comedy and commerce was occasionally hard to see.