Saturday Night Live
Mikey Madison & Morgan Wallen
March 29, 2024
I’m not going to talk about Morgan Wallen. I think he’s trash, I think his music is trash: someone described it as “music for 26-year-old men who buy White Claws for high school girls,” and I’ll never be able to top that. But I’m also angry that his little temper tantrum and stomp off at the end of the episode distracted from the wonderful Mikey Madison’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live.
Was it a successful outing for her? Not exactly, but not because Madison was an unsuccessful host. The writers clearly didn’t know what to do with her, or maybe they didn’t trust her to do sketch comedy, so aside from a couple of sketches, she was relegated to the background. But when Madison was brought forward, she held her own just fine, including in the cold open, something that the hosts rarely participate in. Ultimately, it was a shame because the Oscar-winning actress’s first big break was on a comedy series — Madison has the chops, she just needed a chance.
The cold open was EXACTLY what you thought it was going to be: a spoof of the whole Signal classified group chat fiasco that should — but won’t — see everyone involved FIRED. Here, a group of teen girls suddenly find themselves privy to classified information from the likes of Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio, even as they protest that they shouldn’t be included. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, is there, too, clearly.
Was it obvious? Yes. Was it easy? Absolutely. But were they going to pass up a comedy gift this huge? Of course not, and why should they? If the administration is going to be a bunch of clowns, they should be prepared to be laughed at.
Grade: A-
Mikey Madison’s monologue was a bunch of disparate pieces jumbled together: her acting career; being a horse girl when she was little; her twin brother who looks like Ron Weasley; doing her own pole dancing (or not) in Anora. It’s messy and all over the place, but Madison remains quite charming.
Grade: B-
Having extinguished the nation’s tolerance for Domingo, the show decided to revive a different Marcello character: the acting teacher that debuted in Charli XCX’s episode earlier this season. “There’s a LOT of crazed Martin Short energy going on here,” is what I said at the time, and I stand by it. It’s not funny, but it’s also not terrible. It just is.
Grade: B-
I am in New York City as I write this, and yesterday was the city’s first warm day of the spring (I mean, can you Houstonians even imagine?). As we wandered around downtown, there were Big Dumb Lines for God even knows what EVERYWHERE. My son and his girlfriend kept asking us what people were in line for, and we had to explain to them that in New York, a line becomes a line because it is a line. I know that sounds like a Zen koan, so I’ll let this song explain, because it does so perfectly:
Grade: A-
In this very dumb — but also amusing enough — little sketch, a judge tries to set a jury from a panel of absolute lunatics and weirdos which serves also as a means for Chloe Fineman to do her impersonation of Parkey Posey on The White Lotus. Did Tina Fey do this same conceit better and smarter on 30 Rock years ago? Sure, but I’m feeling generous.
Grade: B+
I don’t know why the video below is age-restricted, but it might be worth clicking over to YouTube to watch it if you enjoyed the now-classic “Waffle House” sketch from Jenna Ortega’s episode in 2023. The model is the same here: a couple has a serious conversation — this time a college couple discuss getting engaged — while in the background, all Hell is breaking loose, this time set at Spring Break in a cheap Florida motel. It’s repetitive but still very funny. My only question: why did Chloe Fineman star in this instead of Mikey Madison?
Grade: A
“Weekend Update” is strong this week, and it should be with all the material this adminstration has given them: the group chat, Pete Hegseth in general, Greenland, all the immigration bullshit they’ve pulled, and Che has a very spot-on Will Smith joke that I will not spoil here. There’s also a Jost rant against Paddington Bear that seemingly comes from nowhere. It feels like a bit he was given sight unseen — maybe he lost a bet? — but it is funny even if I don’t entirely know what’s going on.
Grade: A
So, there’s this guy on Instagram and TikTok, Ashton Hall, who has posted a completely ridiculous series of videos showing his morning routine that has received MILLIONS of views. If you’re like my husband, you might not have heard of him, so here’s what you’re “missing”:
@ashtonhallofficial The Morning routine. Easy routes don’t pay well, get up.
Absurd.
So Devon Walker joins the “Weekend Update” desk to mock this weirdo, but also to roast Michael Che for not being present at SNL. It goes on too long, but the heart is in the right place.
Grade: B
Newcomer, Ashley Padilla, joins the “Weekend Update” as Joann, from Joann’s Fabrics, to freak out about their recent bankruptcy.
Grade: B
In the first of the worst sketches of the night, Dismukes is an older gangster who is shot, and as he is dying, he expresses his greatest regret to his sons: that he never became a stand-up comedian. It’s not good. (Also, a note to the backup actor who comes in at minute 4? DON’T STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. I’m pretty sure you had one note and it was: “Whatever you do, DO NOT STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA.)
Grade: C-
And then there’s this misfire: “Barry the Midwife,” which, somehow, impossibly, is also a recurring character? Here, Bowen Yang is Barry, the midwife, who is mad at a doctor because she doesn’t remember him from a 2007 Hillary Duff Today Show concert. For some reason, he begins donning increasingly long blond wigs. Unhinged and not in a good way.
Grade: D+
The Please Don’t Destroy boys are back, this time with a live-action SpongeBob HBO series with Mikey Madison as Squidward. It doesn’t work.
Grade: C
No commercial spoof this week, but we do have a game show spoof: “So, Like … What Are We?” involves host Mikey Madison asking a dude she hooked up with on Hinge what their relationship status is. What I will give is that it is a fully-baked idea, and it has its moments; I just wish it was … more.
Grade: B
I thought “So, Like … What Are We?” was the last sketch, but no! In fact, it was not! “Planning New York,” a little animated sketch about two explorers designing the insanity that is New York City, is the final sketch and it is DELIGHTFUL. Will this bit mean anything to the viewer in Kansas who has never been to New York? Certainly not. But as someone who has lived in the city and is currently overlooking the weird diagonal that is Broadway: yeah, this is great. No notes.
Grade: A++
Final Grade: B+ BARELY.
If you know, you know.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.
I’m real bummed out that Wallen is all people will be talking about. Stupid Lorne. Why was he even there?