Saturday Night Live
Paul Mescal & Shaboozey
December 7, 2024
I’m going to be completely honest with you: I have not seen Normal People. In fact, I haven’t seen anything Paul Mescal has been in. I hear he’s often naked? He cries a lot? He dated Phoebe Bridgers for a while? Critics have been falling over themselves about his acting performances for years now, he’s been nominated for an Emmy and the BAFTA for his searing emotional delivery, so it only makes sense that he is the lead of a violent sword and sandal epic currently in theaters.
What I’m saying is that Mescal isn’t exactly known for his comedy chops, so even though he’s headlining a huge holiday blockbuster, he’s not the most obvious choice to host Saturday Night Live. Was the episode terrible? No, but it wasn’t good and it will be well forgotten by the end of the season. As for Mescal himself, he seemed to be having fun, and curiously, the highlight of the night was a big musical number which he seemed to lose himself in. Maybe Broadway should be the next area this talented young actor conquers?
I’m not a huge Dana Carvey fan, and I’ve never been a Church Lady fan, but because 50th anniversary season, here we are. The Church Lady interviews Matt Gaetz, Hunter Biden (via David Space, who is surprisingly not a bad choice here), and Juan Soto? For some reason? The whole thing coasts on nostalgia and not much else. But side note: am I the only one who doesn’t like Sarah Sherman’s Matt Gaetz? She is certainly creepy in the makeup, but she doesn’t actually look anything like him because she doesn’t have a huge lunchbox head.
Grade: B-
Paul Mescal reminds us that he’s known for crying naked and being Irish. And so, yeah, he is a curious choice to host a live comedy show when you put it that way.
Grade: B
Here Mescal plays a college student whose parents discover he’s pierced his ear and they completely overreact because we’ve time-traveled back to the 1980s when pierced ears on men were semi-scandalous? The punchline is that they are worried that he will be a bad influence on his younger sibling, and the only thing I took away from the entire exercise was that this was clearly written by a first-born.
Grade: C+
It’s the sequel to Gladiator, but make it a musical! And you know what, I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work. Mescal is obviously enjoying every second of this. Easily the best sketch of the night.
Grade: A
Here, a pair of actors film an Italian restaurant commercial. When the actress receives praise for making up pasta-related puns, her partner becomes jealous and tries to do it as well, with terrible results. That’s the entire sketch: bad pasta puns.
Grade: C+
The Please Don’t Destroy boys imagine Paul Mescal as their daddy — but not in that way.
Well, not entirely.
Grade: B
A bachelorette party goes to a male strip revue where the strippers take their roles as pirates REALLY SERIOUSLY. Like, way too seriously. Like, scurvy and amputations seriously. It’s not a terrible idea, but it goes on entirely too long, and one begins feeling like a bachelorette party guest who just wants to see some jiggling already.
Grade: B
“Weekend Update” was perfectly serviceable this week, with jokes about the United Healthcare CEO shooting, President Biden pardoning his son, and Pete Hegseth.
Grade: A-
Heidi Gardner plays a mom whose son just got signed to the NFL, and she has big plans. Marcello as the hopelessly dumb son sells this bit.
Grade: B+
Here a criminal defense attorney has a “brilliant” idea to get his client off the hook: he makes him wear a ridiculous outfit and then fills the court with men in identical outfits so that the witness can’t identify the defendant. Is it stupid? Yes. Did I find myself giggling at how dumb it was? Also yes.
Grade: A-
A guy shares his Spotify Wrapped to reveal that he is listening to an obscure musician that none of his friends have heard of, but Tricia Paytas has. Do you know who Tricia Paytas is? Because I have no idea who Tricia Paytas is, but her Wikipedia biography is something else. She once identified as a chicken nugget and has named her daughters “Malibu Barbie” and “Elvis.”
Grade: C-
Finally, we head to the red carpet for the premiere of that Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown mostly so Chloe Fineman can do her Timothee Chalamet impersonation, James Austin Johnson can play someone other than Trump and Paul Mescal can do Bono because he’s already got the Irish accent down. It’s not great.
Grade: B-
Final Grade: B-. That seems about right.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.