Inside jokes and long-running gags are no longer the standard at S.N.L. Long-time fans and scholars of the show will remember old-school bits like producer Lorne Michaels’ repeated misunderstandings with The Beatles, or his recurring “Get Me a Soda, Bitch” routine with Tracy Morgan. A few traditions have endured, like the Five-Timers Club, the joking feud between frequent hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, and, memorably, the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it silent visual gag of Abraham Lincoln, a llama, and a showgirl endlessly wandering the halls of Studio 8H.

Still, there are fewer inside jokes and recurring backstage bits (not to be confused with repeating characters and sketches) than one might expect from a show that’s been on the air for over four decades. In recent seasons, inside jokes had almost become extinct on a show that was increasingly built around viral online videos and an audience that rarely watches each episode all the way through. That makes the recurring visual joke the show created for Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway last night such an unusual surprise. Is this a one-off bit or a return to form for Saturday Night Live?

Throughout the latest episode, as the show headed into commercial. . .

. . .or flashed—as it often does—to the musical stage during the ad breaks—McKinnon’s Conway could be seen perched, “leglessly,” and tapping away on her phone. . .

. . .in a silent visual homage to the Trump advisor’s now-infamous Oval Office couch photo that got the second-hand McKinnon treatment in this week’s Cold Open.