Saturday Night Live
Dakota Johnson & Justin Timberlake
January 27, 2024
Dakota Johnson (and not Fanning as I attempted to call her throughout this recap) has returned to host Saturday Night Live for the first time since 2015 — which I did recap, but it was so long ago, it was before this website existed. Thus the recap has long ago vanished, along with any trace of Tubular.
R.I.P. Tubular.
But somehow, more remarkably, it’s been even longer than eight years since musical guest and former SNL regular, Justin Timberlake has been on the show. Timberlake, who has hosted five times (separate from the other two times he was only the musical guest and the EIGHT times he made a cameo), hasn’t set foot in Studio 8H (at least not on air) since 2013. SINCE 2013.
That’s right: neither the host nor the musical guest have been on Saturday Night Live since OBAMA WAS PRESIDENT. If that doesn’t make you feel old, I don’t know what will. In any event, despite having to brush off a few cobwebs, both Johnson and Timberlake were up to the task and performed well last night. If anything, Johnson seemed worlds more confident and mature than the last time she hosted, and she was the best thing about the episode.
Saturday Night Live
Jacob Elordi & Renee Rapp
January 20, 2024
I have seen a number of people online today saying that they had never heard of Jacob Elordi until last night, and if you’re in that same camp, I’m here to tell you it’s OK. You’re just old. Elordi’s breakout role was in Netflix’s 2018 teen movie, Kissing Booth, before joining HBO’s teenage fever dream, Euphoria. He’s having a moment right now after starring as Elvis in Priscilla, and as the object of unfettered lust, Felix Catton, in the devious and demented Saltburn. He’s very tall, he’s very handsome, and Saturday Night Live wants you to know they see it, too.
Like when Jennifer Lopez hosted in 2019, the majority of the sketches’ premises were “HE’S SO HOT! ISN’T HE HOT? MY GOD, HAVE YOU SEEN HOW HOT THIS MAN IS?”; A premise that wears pretty thin by the third or fourth time. That said, despite Elordi’s lack of comedy chops, and despite the repetitive nature of the sketches, in the end, I wasn’t mad at this episode. There was enough padding from the rest of the cast to keep it afloat, and when Elordi quit clenching his jaw for a second and relaxed into trying to be funny instead of just handsome, he had a moment or two. Or maybe it was terrible and I was just blinded by his hotness, who’s to say.
Continue reading “(Updated) ‘Saturday Night Live’ gets all hot and bothered by Jacob Elordi”
