In the sketch's first appearance of each SNL episode, MacGruber finds himself and his assistants trapped in a control room with a ticking time bomb.
MacGruber's female assistant (played in 2007 by Maya Rudolph and later by Kristen Wiig) and another assistant (usually played by that week's SNL host) "recap" their situation, explaining that they are in an abandoned mine, abandoned factory, or other adventure-type setting (it is a running gag that they are always locked in the control room, no matter how illogical the idea of a control room is in the context of the location where they are trapped), and that the bomb will detonate in about 15–20 seconds.
The sketch typically reappears for a second or third installment later in the episode, with the characters appearing none the worse for wear but MacGruber growing increasingly unhinged and his assistants becoming more disillusioned in his capabilities.
During the January 31, 2009, episode of SNL, MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson appeared with Forte in three Pepsi commercials designed to resemble MacGruber sketches.
Skit 2: At the Cedarville Dam, MacGruber tries to defuse dynamite with pine needles, a paper cup, and asks for some pubic hair from Jojo, who refuses to give him any.
Skit 2: At a POW prison camp, a drunk MacGruber asks April to hand him a guitar, to which he plays a drunken version of his theme song before the place explodes.
Skit 3: At a drug lord's headquarters, MacGruber, having developed severe drinking problem, lazily and drunkenly eats a hamburger while shirtless.
After Casey and Caleb hand him materials, calling them "mom and dad", respectively, Taylor tells MacGruber that their friends got tickets to see Dave Matthews Band in concert.
Skit 3: In an abandoned monastery, MacGruber is setting on a stool despondently, having ruined his face after travelling to South America—where the medical standards are a lot more relaxed—for more surgeries after being cut off by his regular surgeon.
Skit 3: On a human traffic supply ship, a demented MacGruber tries to convince Vicky and Kyle to pay him money to fart a ping pong ball out of his butt.
Skit 2: At a smuggler's compound, as he prepares to defuse a bomb, MacGruber wonders why he was abandoned, triggering another flashback that takes place at the MacGyver home in December 1973.
Back in the present, MacGruber is shocked about his dad being a jerk, and MacGyver tries to leave, only to find out the door is locked, then the bomb explodes.
Skit 2: After completing a corporate sensitivity training course, in an insurgent cave, MacGruber attempts to use politically correct terms when speaking to Darrel, while still misprouncing his name.
Skit 3: After taking time off in Africa, at a heroin czar's headquarters, MacGruber, now dressed in traditional African clothes, attempts to make amends with Darrel, while still mispronouncing his name.
Skit 3: At a booby-trapped bridge, decides to end his feud with Nana (after having not spoken with each other for a couple of weeks), due to it being Mother's Day at the time.
Skit 2: At a chemical weapons factory, MacGruber, this time with a surgical mask with a hole in it, despite his claims that he's following the science and safety protocols, asks his assistants for, and downs, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine while drinking bleach.
After asking for a roll of toilet paper with Anthony Fauci's face on it and an anti-Joe Biden t-shirt, he tries to introduce them to QAnon just before the bomb explodes.
He also tells them that he supports anarchist and far-right ideologies like limited government, "my body, my choice" only for men (anti-vaccination and anti-abortion), and suppressing voting rights for non-White people, thinking that it's what creates an average American.
^4 The first and second parts of this installment also featured cast member Abby Elliott as MacGruber's mother and Michaela Watkins as MacGyver's assistant.
On the June 1, 2009 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Forte confirmed that a MacGruber film was being written by him, Taccone, and Solomon.