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SNL returned for its 48th season last night, and with it came its first Weekend Update since May. A lot has happened since then. A lot has happened this week alone. Hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che slipped back into the swing of things, taking on such hot button issues as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hurricane Ian, and one of the more bizarre GOP candidates in ages.

First things first: Jost roasted Vladimir Putin, who delivered a bonkers speech in which he decried the U.S. for alleged “Satanism” and its embrace of what he called “many genders.” Said Jost, “It was a hateful, unhinged speech which has many Americans calling him ‘electable.’”

Hurrican Ian, meanwhile, laid waste to parts of Florida. The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, took a break from tricking refugees into going to Martha’s Vineyard to do work with the president he regularly derides, calling the storm a “500-year flooding event.” Cracked Che, “it’s such a historic tragedy that DeSantis won’t let them teach about it in Florida schools.”

Eventually the segment got to Herchel Walker, the footballer-turned-improbably Senate candidate, whose campaign has been marred by bizarre revelations and creative gaffes. Kenan Thompson played him, alongside James Austin Johnson’s Mitch McConnell, who pretended to be okay with a candidate he has previously brushed off as, well, terrible. At one point Che brought up one of his more out-there claims: “Our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air, so when China gets our good air, the bad air got to move.”

“I’ll slow down so you can understand,” Thompson’s Walker explained. “We all know air, right? Air Bud, Air Jordan… Erin Brokevich. Science don’t understand. Everybody talking about climate, but what we really should be focusing on is putting Hawaii closer…. bring that climate over here.”

You can watch Thompson tackle Walker in the video above and watch other portions of Weekend Update below.

Last night (October 1) The Killers performed their second of two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. The concert followed the release of the band’s two 2021 albums, Imploding The Mirage and Pressure Machine. During the encore portion of the show, The Killers brought out a special surprise guest — Bruce Springsteen.

The band and Springsteen performed two of Springsteen’s hits, “Badlands” and “Born To Run.”

Springsteen also joined them in a performance of his Killers collaboration, “Dustland.”

Before Springsteen arrived onstage, The Killers’ lead vocalist Brandon Flowers admitted he was feeling some jitters.

“Everybody gets a little nervous when their boss shows up for work, right?,” Flowers said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but me and my friends have been sweating bullets up here all night, because The Boss is here. Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen.”

The Killers and Springsteen have long been admirers of each other’s work. In 2021, upon the release of “Dustland,” Flowers credited Springsteen in an interview with Rolling Stone for helping him grow into the songwriter he is today.

“I attribute my discovery and absorption of his music with helping me become a more authentic writer,” he said. “He helped me to see the extraordinary in everyday people and their lives. And in this case, it was my parents who were under the microscope. Their faith and doubts, their search for salvation in the desert. It sounds Biblical. It also sounds Springsteenian.”

Check out the performances above.

Last month, Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theatres’ ad turned one year old. As the pandemic cooled, the movie theater chain paid a fortune for the Oscar-winning actress to woo audiences back to multiplexes. It’s proven so popular that they’re even doing a sequel. And when SNL returned for its 48th season, you better believe they sent it up.

Chloe Fineman does her best Australian accent as Kidman, mostly sticking to the script. One difference? Unlike in the ad, she’s not alone. First, Kenan Thompson joins her, sitting a few seats away until he’s creeped out by her loud monologuing. Soon others — including new cast members Molly Kearney and Michael Longfellow — join her.

Kidman’s AMC ad has been known to inspire Rocky Horror-style participation; sometimes audience members even recite the lines. SNL’s sketch runs with this idea. When Kidman gets to perhaps the most famous line — “Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this” — people start standing up and saluting the screen. Once people start chanting it over and over, Kidman gains supernatural powers, levitating above the seats as lightning shoots from her eyes.

As it happens, SNL’s first host of the season was in the biggest blockbuster of the summer: Top Gun: Maverick’s Miles Teller. He kicked off the show by doing a scarily spot-on impersonation of Peyton Manning.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

In his second performance of the night, Kendrick Lamar performed “Father Time” on the Saturday Night Live stage.

During the performance, Lamar raps in a bedroom set-up, complete with a bed, a nightstand, and a chair. A man is seen in the chair with his back turned. The man is later revealed to be Sampha, who joins in and sings the song’s chorus.

“Father Time” is one of the more confessional songs on Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers. In an interview with GQ, producer Sounwave said working with Lamar on this album was therapeutic, especially after feeling isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m a perfectionist,” Sounwave said. “So that whole 2020 of me locked in, making music with just me and my thoughts, I hated everything. ‘This is terrible. Nobody will ever like this. Who would ever sing on a song like this?’ I didn’t have that one person to be like, ‘No, this is good!’ I missed that. I didn’t realize that. And Kendrick is king of that. Even if it’s something terrible, he can hear something small in there and flip that to where it actually makes sense. A lot of our songs in the past came from that. When you take that element out, you get lost in your head where you kind of go mad.”

Check out a clip of the performance above.

Kendrick Lamar opened the 48th season of Saturday Night Live as its first musical guest. During the episode, Lamar performed “Rich Spirit” and “N95” from his fourth major-label album, Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers.

During the performance, Lamar opened by rapping “Rich Spirit” in an empty blue room. As he progresses into his song, Lamar’s shadow on the wall begins moving in a different direction than him. The song then transitions into “N95.” The lights then blink on and off, as various shadows, tableaus, and patterns project onto the wall.

This year has been a big one for Lamar — from performing at the Super Bowl. to releasing one of the year’s buzziest albums, to completing his deal with Top Dawg Entertainment, and now, opening the lastest season of SNL. Still, he chooses to avoid the limelight as he wishes to use the time he has to invest in himself. He opened up about his choices to stay out of the spotlight in a recent interview with Citizen.

“I’m so invested in who I am outside of being famous, sometimes that’s all I know,” he said. “I’ve always been a person that really didn’t dive too headfirst into wanting and needing attention. I mean, we all love attention, but for me, I don’t necessarily adore it. I use it when I want to communicate something. The person that people see now is the person that I’ve always been. For me, the privacy thing has never been an issue that I had to carry out with full intention. It’s just who I am. If I feel I have to remove myself, I just remove myself.”

Check out a clip of the performance above.

Saturday Night Live returned for the start of Season 48, where there is an awful lot of cast turnover and fresh faces making their debuts. To play into that, the premiere featured a rare cold open appearance from this week’s host, as Miles Teller delivered an unbelievably spot-on Peyton Manning impression for a “Manningcast” skit in which Peyton and Eli break down a rather disastrous Trump sketch from the cast.

It’s a great concept for the cold open, as it steers into the skid of introducing a bunch of new cast members by having Peyton and Eli poke fun at how bad they’re doing in a purposefully awful sketch. They weren’t done there, though, as they kept it going by bringing Jon Hamm in as the Manningcast’s guest, where he prodded at Teller with a joke about a random Shaun White appearance as desperation on an episode where the host doesn’t have much juice.

Teller’s impression of Peyton is truly sensational stuff, as he nails his mannerisms and cadence, while the skit pokes fun at efforts to be overly trendy, with cast members doing the Griddy for no reason and a Corn Kid impression weeks late for that to be relevant or funny. We’ll see how the rest of the season holds up, but for anyone wondering how they’d handle a lot of turnover, the cold open for the season premiere was one of the best in recent memory and provides some optimism for what some fresh faces will bring to the cast and writer’s room.

Saturday Night Live kicked off its 48th season tonight, with Miles Teller as the host. In a sketch called “Send Something Normal,” the Top Gun: Maverick actor took on the role of a host of a game show called Send Something Normal, in which he challenges male celebrities to respond to Instagram DMs with a tame message.

Competing in the challenge were Adam Levine (Mikey Day), Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Kenan Thompson), and Bowen Yang as himself.

The sketch didn’t shy away from Levine’s recent Instagram DM scandal. The Levine character received a message reading “Hey Adam! Huge fan. Love your music,” to which he responded with a series of messages reading, “Hooly Moly,” “Hooooly Moooly,” “Holy Crap,” “Your body is makin’ my penis smile.”

Later in the sketch, Yang credits his ability to have won the “Send Something Normal” game in the past, due to the fact that he’s gay. But when he receives a message from Dua Lipa, he is faced with a new challenge.

The message from Lipa praises Yang’s comedy and expresses an interest in forming a friendship with him, to which Yang responds, “Hooooly Moooly,” “Holy Crap,” “Your music makes my penis smile.”

Check out the sketch above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Lemonheads played a headlining set at Roundhouse in London last night. During their set, the band was joined by Courtney Love, who performed a cover of the band’s song, “Into Your Arms” with them.

Love and her band, Hole, came to fame around the same time as Lemonheads, and they have remained friends over the course of several decades. Following the performance, Love took to Instagram, sharing a video of her playing “Into Your Arms” on guitar in various situations.

“I have been trying to play guitar again for years & been so uninspired,” she said in the post’s caption. ‘Kate [Moss] came, and manifested it! I had to cut up a debit card to use for picks. We all love [lead vocalist] Evan [Dando]. He’s not got a bad bone in his body . When Kurt brought him home (Kurt pretty much liked Frances, dealers & cats only. So I was surprised to see them stumble in.) They just had such FUN with each other.”

She also revealed that she had a case of pre-show jitters before the performance, and considered taking a drink from a bottle of Jack Daniels she spotted backstage.

“it’s SO much better when you face the terror, walk through it,” Love said. “And do the scary thing clean & sober! It felt great to be up there with him.”

Check out the performance above.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Atlanta will be found below.)

Season three of Atlanta was set overseas as Paper Boi conducted a tour following his stateside success. Earn, Darius, and Van accompanied for what amounted to ten episodes of wacky events that we’ve come to expect from Atlanta, just with a European twist. For the show’s fourth and final season, the gang returned to Atlanta where things are certainly different than how they left the city. Seeing the world has caused them to see their home in a new way.

In episode four of the new season, titled Light Skinned-ed, Earn spends a Sunday with his family. What initially began as a trip to church together, quickly turned into a chaotic day thanks to family drama that finds Earn and Paper Boi in the middle of it.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways we have after season four’s fourth episode.

It’s Okay To Be Selfish About Your ‘You Time’

We all have busy lives nowadays and as much as it’s important to get through our daily and weekly tasks, it’s also important to make sure you carve out time for yourself to unwind, reset, and refocus. That’s what Earn’s dad makes clear at the beginning of this week’s episode. For just three hours every Sunday, Earn’s father’s free time consists of spending time at the mall during its early morning quiet hours. He doesn’t let Earn rag him into the family drama, but he, unfortunately, lets a lady at a hat kiosk in the mall distract him from his agenda for the day. Earn’s father’s frustration with that is clear, but they’re also understandable. It’s okay to be selfish about your “you time,” just maybe not to the point where family is ignored.

Make Sure There’s Always A Second Way Out

Earn eventually drags Paper Boi into his family drama as he brings his aunt to the studio where Paper Boi was hanging out with Gunna (!!!) and friends. Earn’s aunt throws everyone but Earn and Paper Boi to continue her fit about Earn’s mom running off (or as she calls it, “kidnapping”) their father. Arguments are had and the cops are called, and despite Earn’s grandfather being deemed as safe and sound, it’s still not enough for Earn’s aunt. Soon enough, Earn and Paper Boi decide to make a break for it and it’s here that they discover their studio building actually has two exits. They slip out to freedom from the second exit which allows them to carry on with their days. The government requires two exits for every public space, and it’s something that came in handy for Earn and Paper Boi. They were unaware of the exits, so take this as a reminder to be aware of yours. You know, for the next time you need an exit from family drama or something else of the sort.

Nobody Wins When The Family Feuds

Earn and his family could’ve had a peaceful Sunday together. It should’ve been a calm day of church together and then brunch or dinner later on. Unfortunately, their quarrels made their Sunday anything but a relaxing day. Earn’s mom and sister are at odds over the care of their father, and as a result, everyone gets dragged into the mess. Even Earn’s uncle, played by Katt Williams, gets brought into the mess which distracts from his Sunday grilling. Arguments and disagreements among families are common, but when they linger and grow into disdain for each other, it makes gatherings unenjoyable and makes people not even want to hang out with each other. Nobody wins when the family feuds — it amounts to unnecessary stress and life is too short for that.

Don’t Ever Leave Without The Bread

Remember that one social media debate that said there’s a certain amount of time to wait for that before diving into the free bread when you’re at a restaurant? There was plenty of commentary around that, but everyone indirectly agreed that there should at least be bread at the table. Earn and his family are ready to make their way home after getting dinner together when Earn’s mother realizes that they were never brought a basket of bread. She requests that it be brought out, and while the waiter fusses about it a bit, a scold from Earn’s dad ensures that their bread will be brought out. Bread is essential and it’s comforting to see that Earn’s family agrees. Don’t ever leave without your bread, and if they don’t bring it out, do everything you can to make sure you get it.

FX’s ‘Atlanta’ airs on Thursdays at 10:00pm EST.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Hot girl summer may be over, but Megan Thee Stallion is maintaining a festive spirit year-round. Today, the “Pressurelicious” rapper shared some spooky photos on Instagram.

In the series of photos, Megan is seen in silk pajamas, wearing a Jack-O-Lantern on her head. In one picture, she is seen reading a book on her couch, with a mimosa in hand. In two other pictures, she is seen opening the door, still in her spooky attire, then creepily walking back in.

While Megan may be the reigning queen of Hot girl summer, she may soon have a grip on spooky season. In 2020, she announced she was working on a screenplay for a horror film. She’s since remained quiet on the details, however, in an interview with Variety, Megan revealed she’d like Jordan Peele to direct the movie. She also said she wants to stay away from remakes and create something completely original.

“It’s gonna be something that definitely blows your mind,” Megan said. “You’ve never seen it before.”

It is also worth noting that Megan is set to star in a comedy film called F*cking Identical Twins next year.

Check out Megan’s frightening photos above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.