Tag: snl
Josh Brolin gives his all in a serviceable ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Josh Brolin & Ariana Grande
March 9, 2024
I never think of Josh Brolin as being a particularly funny actor. Which is strange, because he stars in one of my all-time favorite comedies, Flirting with Disaster, and is genuinely delightful in it. (You’ll never look at armpits the same way again.)
But here he is, hosting SNL for the third time in sixteen years, and he is as engaged, game, and hilarious as he was in Flirting with Disaster 28 years ago. You can’t accuse Brolin of not being enthusiastic: he readily strips down twice in the episode, seemingly unprompted at least one of the times; plays against a cat puppet; and finds himself unable to hold it together against the likes of one recurring character. Brolin is a solid host who appears to be enjoying himself — it’s no wonder why he was invited back, I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened more often.
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‘Saturday Night Live’ traps Sydney Sweeney in the hotness bubble
Saturday Night Live
Sydney Sweeney & Kacey Musgraves
March 2, 2024
I don’t watch Euphoria because I have had teenage children and it was just A LITTLE TOO MUCH for me, so I was formally introduced to Sydney Sweeney in the first season of The White Lotus, as the bitchy, entitled teenage daughter of a mogul, full of woke ideas and oblivious privileged behavior, and I found her both hilarious and compelling.
Unfortunately for Miss Sweeney, based on purely anecdotal evidence, many of my male friends find her compelling for …. other, mostly prurient reasons. And it felt like with this episode, the SNL writers fell into a similar trap, focusing largely on her physical attributes, despite Sweeney being both hilarious and game and a natural at comedy. The protective older woman in me wants to fold Miss Sweeney under a wing and tell her that she deserves better, that she can demand better than just being reduced to being a pretty blonde with big boobs. But the realist in me also recognizes that the reason she is hosting SNL at all is because she’s a pretty blonde — who also happens to be a talented actress and comedian — and that sometimes (a lot of the time) she will be expected to lean into the pretty blonde thing to just survive in this business.
HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, EVERYONE!
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Jimmy Kimmel brilliantly exposes the shameless hypocrisy of the MAGA cult
Shane Gillis’ not-so-victorious return to ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Shane Gillis & 21 Savage
February 25, 2024
There is going to be (has been) a great deal of digital ink spilled on who Shane Gillis is, and why it’s both a big and weird deal that he hosted this week’s Saturday Night Live. The shortest answer I can give is that Gillis was hired to be on SNL in 2019 (the same year Bowen Yang joined, for a little bit of context). But a couple of weeks later, before Season 45 began, Gillis was fired after clips of his comedy emerged in which the material was deemed to be racist, sexist, and homophobic. This became the best thing for Gillis’s stand-up career, as you can imagine, as he became a poster boy for the anti-cancel culture crusaders. Gillis went on to have two popular Netflix specials. And, in his attempt to prove to someone, anyone, that he’s not a liberal shill, Lorne Michaels invited Gillis to return to Saturday Night Live as a host. (Vulture has a very good explainer on the whole situation, including a solid theory on why he was invited to host, if you need more.)
So was his debut on Saturday Night Live as disruptive and offensive as his fans wanted and his detractors feared? Well, no, not really, and frankly, that’s not a win for anyone. Gillis’s monologue was messy and bombed with the studio audience; and a majority of the sketches, playing on his reputation, seemed to dare the audience to be offended, even when they weren’t that offensive. The most offensive thing about them, in fact, was Gillis’ inclusion in them.
All in all, the episode felt like watching a 15-year-old getting messy drunk for the first time: he thinks he’s being naughty and dangerous, but the rest of us just see a mess that needs to be cleaned up.
seeing shane gillis on snl was a double win for us bad boys: we got to hear super raunchy words on tv, and stay up crazy late
— jos (@josiahhughes) February 25, 2024
Finally, the thing about Shane Gillis is that now that I’ve seen this episode, I genuinely understand why he was originally cast: he fills a certain role — he slides right into “middle-aged dad” and “beer-drinking sports guy” just fine; and, I have to admit, his impersonation of Former President Dipshit is quite good. The problem here is that once SNL fired him, the only way to have him be on the show was to have him host it. By hosting it he was able to show off his stand-up, something that he wouldn’t have been able to do as a cast member. And by featuring his stand-up, as they did last night, the show not-so-passively endorsed it. And that, as you will see below, was somewhat regrettable.
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After a brief detente, a new battlefront has opened in the endless Britney/Justin war.
Ayo Edebiri gives a bear of a performance on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Ayo Edebiri & Jennifer Lopez
February 3, 2024
Ayo Edebiri, if you weren’t aware, has become something of America’s Sweetheart, between her Emmy-winning and delightful portrayal of Sydney on The Bear, her hilarious role in Bottoms (if you’re in the mood for a very silly teen comedy, this has got you covered); her voice acting in Big Mouth; Clone High; The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; and her guest-starring role as Quinta Brunson’s sister on the ever-popular Abbott Elementary. Edebiri is ubiquitous these days, and for good reason: she’s funny, relatable, and very likable.
As for her performance as a host on Saturday Night Live, like any professional stand-up comedian, she’s a natural. She’s comfortable in front of a live audience; she’s completely devoid of embarrassment or self-awareness (in a good way); and she’s clearly up for anything, from portraying a nerdy teenage boy to poking fun at herself and her own public missteps. Edebiri is one of those hosts that you just know on an alternate timeline somewhere is actually a member of the SNL cast. But as for this timeline, we’ll just have to hope she comes back to host many more times.
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Dakota Johnson and Justin Timberlake stop by ‘Saturday Night Live’ for the first time in years
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.
(Updated) ‘Saturday Night Live’ gets all hot and bothered by Jacob Elordi
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.
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Kate McKinnon comes home for Christmas on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Kate McKinnon & Billie Eilish
December 16, 2023
In my mind, the pre-Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live has traditionally been hosted by a former cast member — the perfect episode for some nostalgia and a homecoming. However, I did the math, and it turns out that over 49 seasons of SNL, only 10 of the Christmas episodes have been hosted by previous cast members, so go figure!
In any event, it’s the wonderful Kate McKinnon’s first trip back to SNL after having left the show in 2022 after 10 seasons. McKinnon is one of the best SNL performers of the past 20 years, a solid comedian who prefers to go full weird, and who has been the savior of many a sketch. And so I had high hopes for this episode, hopes that I’m afraid were unmet. It wasn’t a bad episode — McKinnon is always fun, she was joined by two other SNL greats, and the annual Christmas Joke Off is one for the ages — but overall, it feels like it could have been so much more.
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