Saturday Night Live
Jonathan Majors
November 13, 2021
Jonathan Major is not exactly a household name, having only been in a handful of projects since his first breakout role in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise. His role familiar to most people was starring as Atticus Freeman in HBO’s 2020 horror series, Lovecraft Country, for which he was nominated for an Emmy and the Critic’s Choice Television Award. And thanks to his good looks and magnetic charm, SNL clearly thinks he’s a star on the rise, and tapped him to be the host of this week’s episode. Though he’s not known for his comedy chops, Major handled the job with aplomb and managed to make even mediocre material a little better. But “a little” are the operative words here, as much of the night was very mediocre.
The fact that Ted Cruz actually picked a fight with an actual Muppet is a joke in and of itself, so obviously, Saturday Night Live took it and tried to milk it for all it’s worth. And it turns out, all it’s worth is not very much. The idea of the cold open is “What if Ted Cruz hosted his own version of Sesame Street?” And the jokes are pretty obvious: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Joe Rogan would be guests, The Count would be doing election recounts, and Oscar the Grouch would become “Oscar the Slouch,” subsisting on government handouts. It’s way too long and the addition of Britney Spears at the end? What the hell was that about?
Grade: B-
Jonathan Majors, star of the underappreciated Lovecraft Country, and Da 5 Bloods, and the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp movie is the host this week. His monologue is charming enough and full of excited energy, but I wouldn’t say it was particularly funny.
Grade: B-
The first post-monologue sketch of the night is a History Channel show about a queen searching for a husband in what is called “The March of the Suitors.” The queen is presented with her “guy friend in love with her, but she doesn’t like him in that way,” obviously played by Kyle Mooney; a fake prince who is called out by his wife played by Jonathan Majors; a lesbian suitor played by the grievously underutilized Punkie Johnson; and a peasant boy with a big dick who is played by … not Pete Davidson? Huh. They don’t go for the easy joke, and I guess that’s commendable?
Grade: B
In this “Please Don’t Destroy” bit, Pete Davidson suggests to the comedy trio that they do a music video together, and they enthusiastically agree. However, the song that Davidson and Taylor Swift sing is about how the Please Don’t Destroy guys are three sad virgins. It’s a funny and self-deprecating bit that uses Davidson well.
Grade: B+
Jake from State Farm and Flo from Progressive host “The Audacity of Advertising Awards,” celebrating the most offensive ads on television in categories like, “You Used What to Sell What?” and “Most Egregious Ad of the Year.” The sketch, which loses the audience early on, is less than five minutes long but somehow manages to feel a lot longer.
Grade: C+
One of Saturday Night Live‘s head writers, Anna Drezen, co-hosts a podcast called “Scary Stories to Tell on the Pod” with her friend comedian and actor Andrew Farmer. On the pod, they read the kids’ book series, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and discuss what about the stories scares them. The answer is “everything.” These two both love being scared and are so easily scared, it is not much of a sport. And this is all a long way to go to say I suspect Drezen is behind this sketch in which Kenan Thompson and Jonathan Majors co-host a TV show about spooky kids, and proceed to get so freaked out by the kids’ stories that they can’t stay in their seats. It’s one of those sketches that rely almost entirely on Thompson’s reaction shots, but shout-out also to these kid actors who do not break. I know for a fact I could not be so strong.
Grade: A-
In this taped bit, women take their boyfriends and husbands to a “Man Park” where they can interact with other men, talk about Rick & Morty and drink IPAs, because “masculinity makes intimacy so hard.” Sharp and to the point.
Grade: A-
“Weekend Update” is filled with dead animal and death penalty “jokes” and again loses the audience pretty quickly, though Jost and Che take it all in bemused stride. I happen to think “Giraffe Dahmer” is a solid punchline, but that might just be me.
Grade: B
New cast member Sarah Sherman joins the “Weekend Update” desk to give a report on how the new cast thinks the season is going. It devolves into a roast of Colin Jost, and praise for “noted white feminist” Michael Che. Hilarious and the best bit of the night.
Grade: A
Fellow newcomer Aristotle Athari also joins the “Weekend Update” desk as Laughintosh 3000, a robot stand-up comedian who loads jokes and does impersonations of Instagram and Tinder. It feels a little long, but Athari’s impersonation of a robot is actually kinda weird and good? I like this kid and his strange vibe, and they should give him more to do.
Grade: B+
A family takes their young daughter to a Broadway show that the mother remembers seeing as a kid herself, but the performance is all about the joys of doing drugs, cocaine in particular. This one will vary depending on your tolerance for theater jokes, but Majors is decidedly great.
Grade: B
What would happen if the 90s hip-hop group Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony opened a pet store that only sold dog bones called Dog-Bones-n-Melodies? A middling sketch that to its credit squeezes as much as it can out of a one-joke premise.
Grade: B-
The final sketch is a church service in which the pastor and his wife announce to the congregation that they are in an open marriage now and are welcoming some, but certainly not all of them to join them in the bedroom. It’s terrible, and I’m genuinely embarrassed for everyone involved.
Grade: D
Oh, and Taylor Swift sang a 10-minute song about how Jake Gyllenhaal is an asshole:
Final Grade: B-.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC.