Michael Keaton is returning to Saturday Night Live, as is Alec Baldwin

For his fourth time hosting “Saturday Night Live” (last time in 2015), Michael Keaton proved a grounding presence in several sketches. That's not surprising, considering he was once one of the most popular comedic actors in the world – you could argue that he and “SNL” alum Eddie Murphy dominated 1980s comedies.

But that comedic consistency – Keaton doesn't abandon his character and he still has great timing and lines – seemed to have fallen by the wayside in an episode that didn't seem to showcase Keaton's talents to their best advantage. After a monologue in which some cast members were dressed as one of his iconic characters, Beetlejuice, Keaton played a father, a cookie baker with a zombie-eyed cookie that looks like a breast whose son unwisely performs the song “Hey, Soul Sister.” about his planned interracial marriage and a canceled Lyft driver included in a live Uber Car game show.

It's not that the sketches weren't funny. There are most of the pieces, plus a late work Restaurant sketch about lost lovedidn't really allow Keaton to create memorable new characters. In fact, they seemed to make more use of his dramatic acting equipment, like they did when he did played a sad skydiving instructor in the first new Please Don't Destroy video sketch of the season.

The exception to the drama-or-sidekick issue was a skit in which Keaton played the stunt movement coordinator for a “Halloween” film in which he plays Michael Myers Move like a modern dancer instead of a serial killer. But despite Keaton's performance, the sketch was too long of a joke.

Music guest Billie Eilish performed “Birds of a Feather” And “Wildflower” with her band, including her also famous brother Finneas.

For the fourth consecutive year, guest stars Maya Rudolph and Dana Carvey returned to reprise their roles as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden multiple times. But this time, Alec Baldwin, who previously portrayed former President Trump on “SNL,” was here to play Fox News' Bret Baier in a takedown of him Interview with Harris this week. Baldwin, as Baier, frequently interrupts Harris and suggests that he won't let her finish until he goes to bed. Kamala used breaks in interviews to turn to the phone camera and make quick TikTok spots (“See how I don't let men interrupt my answers? Very reserved, very attentive.”). Harris countered claims that she couldn't handle immigration cartels by saying, “If I had been on 'Breaking Bad,' it would have ended in three episodes,” and complained that clips of Trump (James Austin Johnson) and Biden would be played context. And a lot of hay was made from it Trump plays music for 40 minutes at a town hall — Harris points out that it seemed to be full of gay anthems like “YMCA” and “It's Raining Men.” “Isn’t he listening to the lyrics?” she asked.

Keaton celebrated the 50th season of “SNL” by mentioning that when the show began, he was a production assistant on “Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.” What did they have in common? “Lots of dolls, lots of cocaine,” he joked. When he addressed the phenomenon of grown men wearing Beetlejuice costumes for Halloween, he was joined by Mike Day and Andy Samberg (“The writers couldn't squeeze Doug Emhoff into the opening.”), each in full Juice costumes and having fun with their impression. Sarah Sherman, who usually dresses in bright colors, wore a striped black and white suit for the monologue, but said it wasn't a costume. After much urging, Keaton finally sang Beetlejuice's voice, but only to say, “We're having a great show!”

Best sketch of the night: This Shop TV cookie is just the boob

The Shop TV skits are definitely funny because the premise is solid: an artisan, along with hosts Rhett and Lindy, played by Day and Heidi Gardner, sells a product, but the product is always in the shape of or is genitals in any way unsuitable for television. Last time, Adam Driver had a cheeky Santa Claus chocolate; This time it's Keaton as the baker, who has baked a Halloween zombie eyeball cookie that looks exactly like a woman's breast, complete with a red velvet nipple. As Day and Gardner struggle to keep the show on track, viewers who call in ask questions like: “Is the cookie available in different ethnicities?”

Also good: TikTok’s algorithm, but as an “SNL” sketch

“SNL” has done this before, back in 2021but again, it works just as well: a random compilation of TikTok moments on someone's smartphone. There are a lot of jokes in a short time, some of them very topical. Harris, Rudolph and Eilish all appear as people subjected to the bad singing of Bowen Yang as influencer Harry Daniels. Carvey returns as Biden on a balance board, while Ego Nwodim plays a woman who has many, many complaints about the Chili's restaurant near her. Bethenny Frankel, a Tradeswomana man slow dancing with his catand “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper appear in the fake TikTok clips. Unfortunately, the person watching the videos misses the birth of their son, as we learn from a text message.

Weekend Update Winner: Emil Wakim Says Christian Arabs Are Practically French

Sarah Sherman came back to talk about it what is missing in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Showincluding infected belly button rings and diapers, but Emil Wakim won the week by talking about what it's like to be both Arab and Christian. Wakim, one of the season's new leads, had the opportunity to introduce himself to the “SNL” audience by talking about how his Iranian immigrant father was so successful that he is now a Republican. Wakim scored with jokes about how the tension in every room decreases when he tells people that he is a Christian Arab (including in Studio 8H). Wakim said his father always told him that his family was more European than Middle Eastern in their beliefs and that they were essentially French. (The French, Wakim suggested, would strongly disagree.) Or, Wakim added, Christian Arabs are just “hairy, sweaty, passionate guys… a Greek you're kind of afraid of.”