Videos: Paul Rudd Was Effortlessly Charming On The 'Saturday Night Live' Season Finale

Paul Rudd was the host of this week's Saturday Night Live, which he noted in his monologue was hands down the "most anticipated finale of the weekend"—that may have been a winking joke about the following night's Game Of Thrones finale, but it also was an incredibly accurate description of how much I, personally, have been anticipating the end of this lackluster season of the comedy institution. Thankfully, they ended season 44 with a host who is so endlessly, effortlessly charming, it ended up being a pretty swell episode with at least half a dozen sketches to recommend. And musical guest and real-life muppet DJ Khaled brought like 200 of his friends with him! And yet, no one would hug John Legend during the credits.

Usually, like Virgil guiding Dante through the nine circles of Hell, I prefer to focus on highlighting the really funny and weird and notable sketches so that you don't necessarily have to watch every single sketch (especially when the cold opens are so routinely and utterly terrible). But since it's the finale, we're gonna run this one down in chronological order, suckas.

When your Cold Open seems like a rejected idea from Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, maybe you should rethink... your whole concept of cold opens? Alec Baldwin and Robert De Niro returned to play Trump and Mueller respectively, everybody sang Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" but with Trump administration "jokes" thrown in, and it was a timely reminder that life is pain, just like Dr. House warned us.

Paul Rudd! What can I say? He taught me it was okay to be charming. His Monologue was a best man's speech that captured his je ne sais Rudd, like when he reminisced about his days as a "vomit boy" at Studio 54 and first hosting SNL in 2008: "You were doing sketches about some guy named Barack, and I hadn't done a Marvel movie yet so I was still treating people pretty well."

Kate McKinnon brings back her breakout character Ms. Rafferty for the latest iteration of the alien abduction sketch, A Journey Through Time—but this time, it involves time travel instead of aliens. And also the phrase, "I got bush-smushed by a cavewoman." McKinnon was brilliant as ever, especially when she was climbing all over Rudd sticking her tongue in his ear. And Rudd had a mustache and was obsessed with Showtime shows, who could ask for anything more.

There's a part of me that never quite feels satisfied with any of the rap parodies SNL has done since The Lonely Island crew left the show—The Lonely Island always understood that in addition to the premise and the weird jokes, the songs needed to stand up on their own. Having said that, Pete Davidson's spotlight sketch GoT Tribute is about as good as an SNL rap parody is these days—it's an ode to the little-talked-about Frankie & Grace, with Kenan Thompson providing the audience commentary, Paul Rudd joining in on the fun, and DJ Khaled getting the best line: "Grace & Frankie. They're different but they're friends. It's a nice show. DJ Khaled!"

What's Wrong With This Picture? was the best sketch of the night—game show sketches are a dime a dozen at Studio 8H, but when they're done as perfectly as this surreal one, they're the best. Everybody in this sketch was fantastic, almost every line is hilarious, nobody breaks, and Thompson's character's name is Mr. Pants. What more could you want?

I don't understand if it was one song, or two songs, or 12 songs performed during DJ Khaled's Jealous/You Stay Medley, but there were at least seven human beings brought out game show style to sing/rap/mumble a verse then stand there awkwardly. It may not have been "the best," as DJ Khaled likes to exclaim repetitively over every song he's ever produced, but it was "the most."

I don't often comment on the non-guest portions of Weekend Update because I've soured on Colin Jost and Michael Che over the years. But to their credit, Jost & Che have developed considerable chemistry together over the last four years, and the looser their segments—the more they inject themselves into them—the better they seem to be.

And they are at their best with bits like the one below, in which they "swap" jokes in an attempt to embarrass each other on live television. Even for a Jost/Che hater like me, this is pretty great.

Cecily Strong doesn't get enough credit for being, like Kenan Thompson, one of the glue people at SNL—you can stick her in any sketch, and she will make it better, either by being the straight man or cutting loose, as with her drunk Jeanine Pirro impression. Don't miss out on her sublime spit take all over Colin Jessica Jost.

And the final Weekend Update guest was Leslie ‘Dracarys That Bitch’ Jones, who came out in a Handmaid's Tale outfit to talk about the Alabama abortion ban. It was sincere, angry, hilarious, scathing, heartfelt and serious—it was one of the best Jones segments ever.

Would you enjoy a sketch in which elderly Paul Rudd sings songs about farting? Then Music Box is for you.

The abortion ban also was the subject of conversation in The View: Pete Buttigieg, with Rudd as Buttigieg: "I do want to say that I wouldn't be running for president if I didn't believe America was ready to accept not only a gay man, but a boring gay man in the public eye." Unfortunately for Buttigieg, the ladies of The View are all in the tank for Joe Biden.

DJ Khaled called out Nipsey Hussle and brought out a bunch more guests (SZA is great!) for Just Us/Weather the Storm/Higher , and it occurs to me that DJ Khaled is basically the hype man version of Groot—except Groot might have more innate musical talents.

Paul Rudd gets roped into Leslie Jones & Kyle Mooney's romantic antics in Leslie & Kyle.

And the season officially ended with the 10-to-1 sketch Ouija, in which a demon (played by Melissa Villaseñor) is summoned during a slumber party.

And we're all done with season 44! See you in the fall! But wait, there's one more cut-for-time sketch: Retirement Party, in which Beck Bennett and Rudd played guys from the IT Department who just want to sing songs about making love to computers. It is exceedingly silly and features lots of breaking (they even got Kenan!), and probably should have been the final sketch instead of Ouija.