If you didn’t know Martin Short hosted Saturday Night Live Last night you may have had a hard time figuring this out. It’s not that Short didn’t appear in skits – he used his natural flair for showmanship when he sang about taking medication for the holidays. There were just a lot of other celebrities there. Lots and lots of them: Melissa McCarthy, Tom Hanks, Kristen Wiig, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd.

The evening felt SNL is flexing its muscles as its 50th anniversary celebrations begin in February, a testament to its power as an entertainment superpower — and the episode capped a fall season in which guest appearances evolved from fun cameos to essential elements of the show have. But the overabundance of this episode also felt like a criminal underuse of Short, who after all these years is still relegated to sidekick status.

The cold opening set the tone. It began with Hanks sitting regally in a robe and explaining the concept of the show’s “Five Timers Club,” the somewhat hollow honor that is bestowed (along with a robe emblazoned with the number). 5) to those who have hosted five times. After Rudd joined Hanks, Short entered the clubroom to cheers, but the applause for his big moment was quickly drowned out by shouts of hosannas for the parade that followed. In addition to the stars mentioned above, Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Emma Stone, John Mulaney and Jimmy Fallon attended.

The sketch highlighted how much the current iteration of SNL relies on famous faces. Fey turned to Short and said, “First things first: We need to make sure you’re really ready to be a five-piece.” Quick: Name three current cast members.” Pausing briefly and then firing off the correct answer: “I have no idea .”

Turns out this self-destructive gag was more than just a punchline to the episode. Certainly a few cast members got their break: Bowen Yang was killed on “Weekend Update” while playing a sassy drone; Marcello Hernandez repeated his rapid speech Sabado Gigante Host Don Francisco — but the cameos (like Rudd playing the confused English-speaking guest on the Spanish-language game show) kept the sketches’ momentum throughout the evening.

Another example: Just when you thought “Parking Lot Altercation,” in which Short and Mikey Day played Christmas shoppers fighting over a parking space with exaggerated facial gestures, was tired, McCarthy emerged as Short’s aggressive woman. Wearing a wig with a Kate Gosselin haircut, she spit what looked like iced coffee onto Day’s car window and rubbed the residue on her breasts. Chloe Fineman, who plays Day’s sassy daughter, couldn’t help but break down.

Read: Even SNL it’s all about the mood

Later, the “Christmas Airport Parade” was just that: a procession of special guests. Yang and Ego Nwodim played enthusiastic TSA agents, introducing all the strange characters that populate Newark Airport during the holidays, but the biggest cheers from the audience came when Rudd showed up as himself, McCarthy playing a gate agent who named the of passengers lewdly mispronounced it, and Hanks reprized this role of Clint Eastwood Defile as “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Clever observations about how people behave while traveling have been overshadowed by the blinding lights of Hollywood.

Even “Weekend Update” benefited from the additional star power. Michael Che and Colin Jost’s annual ritual of mutual humiliation, in which each co-host reads out jokes the other wrote unseen, was reinforced by reaction shots from Jost’s famous wife Johansson, who watched in horror backstage as Che forced him to recite made jokes at the couple’s expense in a hackneyed “black voice.”

SNL has relied heavily on former cast members and high-profile friends from the series this season. The election coverage featured Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg as Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, respectively. And Dana Carvey doesn’t appear to be leaving the studio, even though the series is no longer based on his Joe Biden impression. He was there last night too and was just crazy Sabado Gigante sketch.

On the one hand, this celebrity cornucopia feels a little fishy. Rudd and Johansson automatically receive cheers, which can be replaced by deserved laughter or applause. On the other hand, releasing them all is smart business, as it serves as a reminder of the show’s brand loyalty and staying power ahead of a record year that it hopes can also lead to high ratings.

And yet last night’s overuse of that crutch was frustrating, especially because Short suffered from it. In the final sketch of the evening, “Peanuts Christmas,” he played a flamboyant director who had no time for the silly dances of Charles M. Schulz’s characters. It was a late reminder of Short’s irrepressible dynamism on stage. Short and Yang made a great team and put the Peanuts kids to shame. If only we had seen more of it.