TThe third episode of Saturday Night Live's 50th season begins with an election episode of Family Feud featuring the Democratic team consisting of Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph), Dough Emhoff (Andy Samberg), Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and President Joe Biden (Dana Carvey) against the Republicans: Donald (James Austin Johnson), Don Jr (Mikey Day) and JD Vance (Bowen Yang). Melania was supposed to take part, but she decided not to show up, similar to the election campaign. Steve Harvey (Kenan Thompson) hosts.

Harris and Trump bicker and try to name something you could keep in your glove compartment. Harris tells a detailed story about her upbringing before answering with “a Glock.” Emhoff parrots them, which turns out to be correct (“a second weapon” is the number one answer), while Walz flails around by listing a lot of white nonsense and Biden tries to buy a vowel.

Vance and Junior are ordered not to speak so Trump can go on a dementia-fueled tirade about immigrants eating moo deng. He loses and that's the game.

Since nothing particularly new happened this week regarding the election (aside from the numerous things Trump said that would immediately disqualify any other candidate), it was smart to incorporate the characters into a game show format. It's just a shame they didn't make the skit something memorable.

Even when all the prominent guest stars chosen to play the Democrats are standing next to each other, it becomes clear how little the show thinks of its actual cast.

Ariana Grande returns as host. The pop star and “Wicked” co-lead remembers her last performance in 2016, when we were about to elect our first female president (“second time's the charm”). She also makes it clear that she's just hosting tonight, although a second later she passes a microphone and performs a Broadway show song imitating Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani. It's a solid performance, although it's a little surprising that there's no joke about her ex-fiancé and former cast member Pete Davidson.

The musical antics continue in the first sketch. During a wedding reception, the bridesmaids (Grande, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and Sarah Sherman) perform a version of Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso about her bachelor party to Charleston, where the bride cheated on her fiancé with a random guy named Domingo. In the end, Domingo (Marcello Hernández) shows up and gets involved in the events. Unlike the cold open, this one – like the pop hit it parodies – is grueling in its repetition.

This is followed by another musical number in the form of a short film by Dan Bulla. In “My Best Friend's House,” Grande's bubbly teenager sings her love for her best friend's house – especially the cozy smell. Just as things are dragging on, she takes a dark turn when she learns that her friend's endearingly stupid father is actually a notorious serial killer and the pleasant scents wafting through the house only serve to scare away the rotting ones To cover up bodies buried throughout the site.

A young man (Michael Longfellow) introduces his new friend (Yang) to his family. A friendly game of charades turns violent after the friend celebrates a little too hard, angering Ariana's overly competitive mother. She immediately starts calling him a “pathetic little fagot” and making fun of the size of his “toad stool.” It's only when the boyfriend freaks her out and (literally) molests her with rag dolls that he earns her respect (and her body). Short and sweet, with Grande showing a talent for quick dialogue.

Next, Grande plays Céline Dion (creating another impersonation). She sings a version of “It's All Coming Back to Me” about her love for the Ultimate Fighting Championship as the camera shows gruesome footage of various fights. The best joke is at the expense of UFC commentators (like Joe Rogan): “All bald and in the shiniest shirts.”

Musical guest Stevie Nicks sings a protest song, then continues with Weekend Update. Your first guest is Monica, a supposedly happy Amazon employee (Nwodim) who is actually and obviously overworked. The dig at Amazon's inhumane working conditions and the hypocrisy of conscientious American consumers who still order from the company is clear, but it's not as memorable as most of Nwodim's appearances at the update desk.

A little later, Jost introduces the recently reunited Oasis band members Noel and Liam Gallagher (Johnson, Sherman). The ever-fighting British siblings explain how their feud began: Noel told the Spice Girls that Liam had a crooked knob that “bent like Beckham.” Jost – who has already bought tickets for the upcoming tour and plans to “go off so hard that I win White Boy of the Year” – is trying to get them back on common ground.

In Renaissance Italy, the prince has musicians perform to entertain him. Two farmers (played by Rudolph and Samberg) bring out their high-voiced son (Grande with a creepy pageboy haircut). It turns out the only reason he can hit those high notes is because he's a castrato. All the talk about “gonads” and “opium-induced comas” in silly Italian accents is punctuated by Grande's perfect thousand-yard, dead-eyed stare.

Nicks returns to the stage and performs the classic “Edge of Seventeen” to huge applause. Then we get a message from Jennifer Coolidge (Chloe Fineman) for Maybelline. The actress talks to herself in the mirror – giving Grande another opportunity to show off her celebrity impersonator skills. Leaving a few things aside, she shines once again; Your Coolidge is actually more accurate than Fineman's. In the end, Carvey joins in and turns it into a threesome.

The show ends with a classic film noir parody: “The Hotel Detective” sees Grande play a femme fatale who engages in a convoluted tet-a-tet with the titular dick and another FBI detective. Grande, Johnson and Andrew Dismukes all nail it that the dialogue goes a mile a minute (even if the cue cards enter the picture at one point), despite the ending button revealing that it's all an episode of Twilight Zone is one twist too many. Still, it's a fun piece of silliness to go out with.

Grande was good the last time she hosted, but she was great here, elevating even the smaller sketches in the second refreshingly solid episode in a row after the disappointing season opener.