Cook’s style of stand-up has gotten his comedy album “Retaliation” on the top rungs of the Billboard chart -- a feat not achieved by a comedian since Steve Martin in the 1970s. SNL has been improving since a weak start this season and Cook’s appearance helped push it in the right direction.

The host’s monologue, which can turn into a perfunctory train wreck when the writers don’t have a good idea of what to do with it, was given over to a sample of Cook’s stand-up as it should have been. A second bit of standup in the middle of the show would have been welcome, as SNL used to do with some comedians years ago.

The best sketch of the episode -- which excelled because it fit Cook’s stand-up persona so well -- was his desperate attempts to get comfortable in a turtleneck sweater because his girlfriend liked it. Cook’s not known for physical comedy but he did it well, culminating in a table-breaking fall even as he protested that he was fine to all watching him writhe uncomfortably around the room -- just as a man hit by car does in one of Cook’s stand-up bits.

While a sketch about high school drama club announcements didn’t really need Cook or give him too much to do, his appearance as an addled assistant cashier at Target worked well, again employing the kind of scenario you might hear in his stand-up act.

On this episode, SNL’s writers tailored their sketch ideas to Cook’s sense of the absurd and unusual as shown in his stand-up material. The obvious collaboration served the show well, avoiding what happened in the earlier shows this season that didn’t take full advantage of the comic talents of the hosts.