Will Ferrell’s SNL Finale Had It All: McCartney, Chad Smith, and a Ghost

Will Ferrell walked back into Studio 8H on Saturday night and reminded everyone exactly why he’s one of the best to ever do it. The SNL Season 51 finale was a full-on event — Paul McCartney performing three songs, a Chad Smith doppelganger prank that nearly hijacked the whole monologue, a Molly Shannon surprise, and Ferrell himself playing the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein before the opening credits even rolled. It was, by any measure, a hell of a way to close out a season.

This was Ferrell’s sixth time hosting since leaving the cast in 2002 — putting him in rarefied company alongside the likes of Tina Fey (also six) and Chevy Chase (eight). His last hosting appearance was back in 2019, though he turned up for the SNL 50th Anniversary Special earlier this year. He’s also promoting his upcoming Netflix comedy The Hawk, dropping July 16.

Chad Smith Steals the Stage Before Ferrell Even Gets There

Even eagle-eyed viewers might have needed a full minute to realize that the person striding out to deliver the opening monologue was not, in fact, Will Ferrell. It was Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith — dressed in the exact same gray suit, styled the same way — launching into a confident “I’m thrilled to be back hosting Saturday Night Live. I was a cast member here for seven years. And now I’m hosting for the sixth time! Amazing, it really feels like coming home.”

The audience caught on. And then the actual host came sprinting out.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You’re not the host, I am!” Ferrell snapped. “He pushed me down backstage. And I fell, hard. Lorne had to give me mouth-to-mouth.”

After finally banishing Smith from the stage — “Don’t clap for him. He’s a bad guy” — Ferrell tried to do a hard reset, but admitted the vibe was off. He pivoted to audience questions, calling on “the cute one” in the front row. That turned out to be Paul McCartney, who looked up and asked, completely deadpan: “What do you think you’re doing, Chad?”

“Look, I understand your confusion,” Ferrell replied. “Me and Chad do look a lot alike. But I’m Will. I’m hosting tonight.”

McCartney wasn’t buying it. “Nice try, Chad. Get back. Get back behind the drums where you belong.”

Ferrell salvaged the bit by rattling off a murderer’s row of McCartney’s greatest hits — Beatles, Wings, solo — before noting that there are a few great songs the legend didn’t write. “The alphabet song. ‘Timber’ featuring Pitbull. All the Smash Mouth stuff.” McCartney’s only rebuttal: “Get your ass behind the drums, Chad.”

The Ferrell-Smith resemblance has been a running gag for over a decade. Ferrell once famously claimed Smith didn’t actually exist and was a character he invented — which eventually led to the two having a charity drum-off so Smith could prove he was real. Smith didn’t just show up for the monologue prank and leave, either — he stuck around all night, sitting in with the SNL band and playing drums for McCartney’s performances.

Epstein’s Ghost Visits the Oval Office in the Cold Open

Before any of that, Ferrell kicked off the night in the cold open as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein — a surprise appearance that nobody saw coming. James Austin Johnson’s Trump had returned from a trip to China, drowsy enough to fall asleep on a gold bar (“that Switzerland gave me as a straight-up bribe”), when a cloudy vision of Epstein materialized beside him.

“Don’t worry, Donald, it’s me, your best friend, Jeffrey Epstein,” Ferrell’s ghost announced.

“Jeffrey, I thought you were dead,” Johnson’s Trump replied.

“I am, remember? I killed myself. Wink!”

The Epstein ghost caught Trump up on the afterlife — “really, really hot,” mahjong on Wednesdays with Stalin and John Wayne Gacy — before pivoting to show Trump a vision of the future. In it, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (Ashley Padilla) is hawking vacuums on the Home Shopping Network, while Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) and FBI Director Kash Patel (Aziz Ansari, back for his third consecutive episode) are co-hosting a bro podcast over a shared beer bong. When Trump bemoaned his approval rating stuck in the 30s, Epstein had a response: “The 30s? Gross, call me when it hits 17.”

The whole thing wrapped with Ferrell and Johnson doing a duet of “Just the Two of Us” before nearly kissing their way into the “Live from New York” announcement.

McCartney, Mechanics, and Molly Shannon

McCartney wasn’t just there to perform — he was woven into the night. The mechanic sketch, “What It Feels Like Talking to a Mechanic,” featured Ferrell as a fast-talking auto expert bamboozling a clueless couple (Mikey Day and Ashley Padilla) with a stream of nonsense jargon. The “sprog box” was shot. The “camber” was creating problems. The “sprunkbell” was “real tree-trunky.” A second specialist (Marcello Hernández) arrived and explained the car’s ailments in funny noises and partial Spanish before declaring, “You need a new trans person.” Then came chief mechanic Nigel — McCartney — who informed the couple that “your tipsy-whipsy’s all dangly-doodly, and the spiggly-wiggly’s gone crumpily. The whole car is knackered.” Plus, he noted, “the steering wheel’s on the wrong bloody side.” The payment options were “all the money now” or the husband could “pay in ass.” They chose the latter.

The night’s most visually impressive piece was a pre-filmed Lord of the Rings parody called “Bobbin’s Sacrifice” — complete with genuinely good special effects, orcs, elves, dwarves, and Ferrell as a pint-sized halfling who bravely volunteers to destroy a bridge separating the heroes from the monsters. Once outside the gates, Bobbin cheerfully switches sides, handing the orcs blueprints of the castle and giving away magic items he stole from his friends. It didn’t end well for Bobbin. But he went out with a song.

Ferrell also showed up in a sketch as a high school drama teacher — withholding the cast list for a production of Grease with sadistic glee — alongside a surprise appearance from former cast member Molly Shannon as a hilariously overdramatic choir teacher. The two had actually done an earlier version of this sketch together back in 2019, but it was cut for time. It finally made it to air.

Near the end of the night, Ferrell committed fully to a sketch about a “Nudeman” dad whose rear end is entirely exposed when he turns around to meet his daughter’s boyfriend. That’s the kind of 100% physical commitment that made Ferrell a legend in the first place — and a reminder that, six hosting appearances in, he hasn’t lost a step.

McCartney Closes the Night With a Surprise Third Song

McCartney performed a new song, “Days We Left Behind,” ahead of his 21st solo album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, due May 29. He also played “Band on the Run” and “Coming Up” during the closing credits. And then — after the goodnights were said — he surprised the audience with a third performance, with Chad Smith behind the kit where he belonged.

It was McCartney’s fifth time as SNL’s musical guest, and almost exactly 46 years to the day since his debut on the show in May 1980.

Weekend Update’s joke-off between Colin Jost and Michael Che was one of the weaker editions of the season — Jost reading racist jokes about Black vampires, Che making light of Michael Jackson molestation claims — but the segment was upstaged anyway by Jeremy Culhane’s return as Mr. On Blast, a recurring character with spectacularly bad hot takes (“AI? More like P.U.”) and genuinely great dance moves. This time, Mr. On Blast debuted a new catchphrase — “Devout!” — and brought out a group of bearded backup dancers called the Blast Boys. Culhane is a lock to be back next season.

Season 51 has been largely about building up newer talent — Ashley Padilla, Culhane, Marcello Hernández — and Ferrell gelled with all of them, doing exactly what a veteran host should do: make everyone around him look great. The season began back in October with Bad Bunny and Doja Cat. It ended with a Beatle, a ghost, and a rock star who happens to look exactly like the host.

SNL returns in the fall for Season 52.