Drunk Uncle Out-Drew SNL's Halloween Sketches on YouTube. He Had Help From the Brewers

Saturday Night Live's Halloween episode had Tom Hanks in the cold open, a host with a score to settle with Shane Gillis, a puppet short that the critics adored and the Paw Patrol investigating grisly crimes. Sunday morning, the most-watched of the five newest SNL uploads on YouTube was a man who left the show in 2017, playing a drunk. Weekend Update: Drunk Uncle on the Milwaukee Brewers' World Series Win had 567,002 views when we looked. The Inventor's Wife had 520,097, Paw Patrol: Special Victims Unit had 453,697 and Plates had 301,502. It's early yet, but then early is when a drunk does his best work.

Bobby Moynihan was in the cast from 2008 to 2017, and this was Drunk Uncle's 16th appearance at the desk, his first on a regular episode since October 2022. The occasion was Milwaukee's first championship, clinched 4-1 over Tampa Bay in Game 5 on Wednesday. According to LateNighter, he told Colin Jost he'd been drinking since then, and for 57 years before that, which is the most believable stat anyone has offered about Wisconsin. He got tangled up in Moneyball, Elizabeth Holmes and the WNBA, began to fear the whole thing was a dream, and then manager Pat Murphy and Christian Yelich walked out carrying the Commissioner's Trophy to reassure him. I've seen a lot of managers walk out to check on a man in that condition. It's the first time I've seen one leave him in.

The reviews were all over the place, which tells you how SNL reviews work. LateNighter gave the night a C-plus, called The Inventor's Wife the best thing in it and said the Brewers bit missed its cue. SNL Rankings called it the best show of the season. Pajiba gave it a B-plus. So the same 90 minutes was either a triumph or a disappointment, and a person could go to any of the three and find out which one he already thought.

YouTube has no such trouble. It's a very simple creature, and on Sunday morning it wanted the old guy. I don't blame it, but I'd look hard at the shape of this episode if I were Lorne Michaels. The cold open brought back Tom Hanks and David S. Pumpkins. Update brought back a man who'd been gone for nine years. That's what a family does in the last weeks, when somebody's decided the patient ought to see everyone. The show is in its 52nd season and in fine health, I'm told, but the visitors are starting to come in order of how long they've known him.

To be fair, next week it's Druski with The Strokes, so somebody over there still has a phone. But I'd bet that a Drunk Uncle clip from a Halloween show will outlive most of what the current cast does this year. Nostalgia is the only drunk a family will still drive home.