‘SNL‘ Cold Open Taps into Growing AI Anxiety with Hilariously Distorted Family Photos
New York, NY – November 23, 2025 – Saturday Night Live addressed the burgeoning cultural unease surrounding artificial intelligence in a cold open this weekend that eschewed direct political commentary for a subtly unsettling depiction of AI gone awry. The sketch centered on a family visit to an elderly woman (played by a featured cast member) in a retirement center, where her grandson, Marcello Hernández, surprised her with an AI-powered program animating old family photographs.
Initially, the grandmother was delighted to see her late husband, portrayed by host Glen Powell, brought “back to life” with a smiling, waving image. However, the joy quickly turned to bewilderment and distress as the AI’s interpretations spiraled into the bizarre. A subsequent animated photo depicted Powell’s character smoking a hot-dog like a cigarette while attempting to grill Sadie,the family dog (which lacked a head).
Granddaughter Sarah Sherman attempted to explain the glitches,stating,”There’s probably too much going on in the picture,and the AI got confused.” But the errors onyl escalated. Another animation showed Powell’s character’s best freind, Mikey Day, removing his pants to reveal a remarkably smooth, Ken-doll physique.
The grandmother, visibly upset, initially resisted viewing further animations. However, her grandson insisted on maximizing his investment in the app, forcing her to witness the final, catastrophic distortion of the very first photograph of her as a baby. The scene devolved into chaos, with portions of her mother’s body disappearing, her father stretching her infant self like an accordion, the nude friend reappearing, and ultimately, a nuclear explosion obliterating the entire image.
According to a review in The Atlantic, the sketch’s strength lay in its restraint. It didn’t directly attack tech executives, enumerate the technology’s societal or environmental costs, or even exceed five minutes in length. Instead, it simply demonstrated the technology’s unreliability, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions about the hype surrounding AI.
This approach stood in stark contrast to the episode’s more overt treatment of the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files,which were addressed in the cold open,”Weekend Update,” and three separate sketches featuring will Forte’s MacGruber. While some of those jokes landed, The Atlantic noted the Epstein topic felt “completely exhausted” by the end of the show, highlighting the effectiveness of the AI sketch’s more understated commentary.
