When this week’s Saturday Night time Reside host, Adam Motive force, defined in his opening monologue that he had a “very deep and private courting with Santa,” it was once lovely evident that no matter was once to observe wasn’t going to be your conventional vacation cheer.

The Oscar-nominated actor sat down at a piano, demonstrated that he in reality may play it, after which began barking his want listing to the jolly guy within the North Pole. Amongst his desires for Christmas: “A kind of massive steel Tesla vehicles” that will “pair completely with [his] teeny tiny micropenis.” He additionally printed that he would really like other people to forestall coming as much as him in the street pronouncing that he killed Han Solo, given his position as Kylo Ren in the most recent Big name Wars trilogy. “I didn’t kill Han Solo,” he mentioned. “Wokeness killed Han Solo.”

Right through the episode, Motive force endured to ship this type of warped model of season’s greetings. Even if he wasn’t taking part in a model of himself, he was once throwing himself into characters who have been cranky and obstinate and, frankly, simply bizarre. While some lauded actors come onto SNL to turn out they are able to be goofy, Motive force, who was once webhosting for the fourth time, makes use of his herbal depth to derive laughs from simply how critical he’s. I don’t suppose the true Adam Motive force, who’s starring as Enzo Ferrari in Michael Mann’s Ferrari this 12 months, is in point of fact perturbed about “wokeness” or all that insecure concerning the measurement of his genitals, however he convincingly performed the position of Adam Motive force as a reactionary who believed Santa may lend a hand him with those issues.

As an actor, Motive force is understood for his nearly serious and ceaselessly idiosyncratic determination to his craft. A 2019 New Yorker profile described how, when he was once learning at Juilliard, he would run 5 miles to college on a daily basis and devour a complete hen for lunch. One among his most famed onscreen gestures is punching a wall within the movie Marriage Tale throughout an issue. This may reputedly make him an bizarre have compatibility for SNL, however as he has proved in his many appearances, he’s in fact a really perfect fit for comic strip comedy partly as a result of he refuses to regard the fabric as any lesser than his different paintings. He might be doing the silliest factor conceivable and he would nonetheless be stone-faced.

This was once particularly noticeable in an episode main into Christmas, the place a variety of the sketches have been concerning the staid traditions that come round this time of 12 months. Take, for example, the pre-taped bit “Previous Pals.” Mikey Day and Chloe Fineman performed a person and his spouse visiting his folks for the vacations. In his formative years bed room, she remarked on an image of him as a child with a former friend. Day’s persona determined to achieve out to mentioned spouse, Keith, performed by means of Motive force. In the beginning the interplay appeared candy, however then it grew to become out that Keith had turn into a intercourse culprit and onetime sperm-bank janitor who changed the samples along with his personal sperm, and whose crimes have been the topic of a Netflix documentary. Motive force expertly performed Keith as a tragic sack whose loneliness simply matched his risk. As Day wavered between feeling sorry for Keith and being horrified, so did we.

That talent to carry a neatly of anger additionally got here up in a comic strip the place Motive force performed a mustachioed guy environment meals on a desk for a vacation collecting whilst pronouncing “beep beep,” as though he was once a bit automotive. His niceness was once challenged by means of any other guy (Andrew Dismukes) with the similar facial hair who additionally had a penchant for pronouncing “beep beep” as he put down his dish. They reached an deadlock the place they each mentioned “beep beep” on the similar time, and you want to in point of fact imagine, in spite of the softness of his voice, that Motive force would possibly have grew to become to violence if Dismukes didn’t yield.

Nonetheless, most likely the triumph of Motive force’s determination got here throughout a second that eschewed any Christmas theme. Enjoying a creepy child with complete command of vocabulary on his first aircraft experience, Motive force refused to let the truth that he had doll palms remove from his dedication. His screams have been tough, and his face when he pooped in his diaper was once a masterful show of focus.

You don’t must be a really perfect actor to be a really perfect SNL host, however Adam Motive force is each as a result of he sees the drama in absurdity. The vacation season is an absurd time of 12 months. Motive force, on the other hand, introduced a dose of creepiness as a welcome antidote to saccharine festiveness.