Tag: snl

Mikey Madison needed more to do on ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

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.

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Lady Gaga goes dark in an absurdist ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Lady Gaga
March 8, 2024

This is Lady Gaga’s second time to serve as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live — the first time being back in 2013 (with an unfortunate duet with R. Kelly that she’d rather not talk about … except in the monologue), and the question that must be asked is, what took so long? I mean, besides simply not having time for it between her TV appearances, feature films, campaigning for Oscars, being the Super Bowl halftime act, dueting with Tony Bennet, leading a Las Vegas residency, performing in the Olympics opening ceremonies, and getting engaged, what else better did she have to do?

Fortunately, her schedule allowed her to swing by Studio 8H this week, and she gave her all, both in the sketches and in her musical performances. Gaga, who has become a respected actress since her last time hosting SNL, was clearly happy to be there: relaxed, funny, and game for whatever SNL threw at her. And they threw a lot of strange stuff at her: weight-lifting mice, ritual sacrifice, flapper funerals. Still, whatever material they gave her, Lady Gaga leaned into it — in fact, the stranger the better, it would seem. It wasn’t a uniformly great episode, but it wasn’t for lack of enthusiasm from Gaga.

Hey, SNL casting director? Make sure it’s not another 12 years before she hosts again.

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Shane Gillis once again delivers the worst ‘Saturday Night Live’ of the season

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Shane Gilis & Tate McRae
March 1, 2025

Because 2025 is one big experiment to test my patience, Lorne Michaels decided that he needed to bring Shane Gillis, failed SNL cast member, back to host again even though he bombed spectacularly when he hosted for first time last year. And let me tell you, Gillis didn’t do better this go-round. If anything, somehow it was worse. Though he was a serviceable sketch player in a couple of pieces, for the most part, the episode allowed Gillis’ dumb middle-school-level humor to take the lead, and his monologue, once again, completely flopped.

I blame the 6 million Joe Biden voters who couldn’t be fucked to show up to the polls in November. You did this to us. You did this to me.

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Will Elon Musk debate Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show?’ One can dream …

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

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Timothée Chalaleads a surprisingly strong ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Timothee Chalamet
January 25, 2024

Our host Timothee Chalamet is nearly 30 years old, you guys, and it feels like he has grown up before our eyes because he has. This is his third time to host, the last two times being in 2023 and 2020. And I have to admit, the little guy is growing on me! Chalamet has always been a game host, though not always the most comfortable with comedic material. But in the past five years, Chalamet has matured a great deal and become a lot more comfortable both in his own skin and with comedy. This episode was without question his best SNL outing, both because he had fun material to work with it and he was just having such a good time with it.

Additionally, Chalamet was the musical guest last night, performing his “favorite” Bob Dylan songs in honor of his Oscar-nominated performance in the Oscar-nominated film, A Complete Unknown. It was a risky choice: while there have been a number of hosts who have also served as the musical guest (49, to be exact, including Chalamet) most of those were by performers who are best known as musicians before actors. Depending on how you count Donald Glover, the number of hosts who were not known as musicians, excluding Chalamet, are exactly three: Lily Tomlin, Deion Sanders, and one Gary Busey. It should be noted Sanders and Busey each hosted exactly one time. But it was a risk that paid out for SNL and Chalamet: his performances were remarkably strong, and well-received overall.

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Dave Chappelle delivers the longest monologue in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Dave Chappelle & GloRilla
January 18, 2025

In his fourth time hosting (and third time following a Presidential Election, for whatever that’s worth), Dave Chappelle broke a Saturday Night Live record by delivering the longest monologue in the show’s history. It was 17 minutes long, though it didn’t need to be. And I’m sure, like everything to do with Dave Chappelle, that will be considered a controversial take: there are plenty of people who will defend to the death this man and his comedy, even when it runs too long or hurts others.

In the end, the monologue itself won’t be remembered for its content — which at times was very funny, and only once offensive — but for its excessive, indulgent length, which led to the cutting of at least two additional sketches and screen time for the young cast. And if the rest of the sketches had been A+’s across the board, the decision to let Chappelle do an almost entire stand-up set might have been defensible. (They weren’t. But then what else is new?)

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All of the jokes that were simply too mean to tell on The Golden Globes

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

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Martin Short and friends gift us a delightful ‘Saturday Night Live’ just in time for Christmas

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Martin Short & Hozier
December 21, 2024

Merry Christmas! In celebration of its 50th anniversary, Saturday Night Live has gifted us an episode helmed by the brilliant and always hilarious Martin Short on the event of his fifth time to host, and packed to the brim with some of the show’s favorite hosts from the past, including Tom Hanks, Paul Rudd, and Melissa McCarthy.

Was the episode perfect? No. But it was filled with warmth, some familiar comforts, cheeky nonsense, and happy surprises, which, in the end, is all you can ask from a Christmas episode.

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Oh cool, an unelected South African billionaire 400x over is now running our government. What could go wrong?

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

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Bumper photo of Chris Rock for the December 14, 2024 episode of Saturday Night Live

Chris Rock comes home for a perfectly fine ‘Saturday Night Live’

by Therese Odell, posted in saturday night live: season 50

Saturday Night Live
Chris Rock & Gracie Abrams
December 14, 2024

Remarkably, this is only the fourth* time Chris Rock has hosted Saturday Night Live since he was a cast member back in the early nineties. Despite (or maybe because of) being comedy royalty, Rock hasn’t really spent that much time in the 8H studio that helped make him a star. And honestly, it’s probably for the best? Rock seemed unprepared for live television, hesitant at times, and clearly dependent on the cue cards and teleprompter. It was almost like he was coasting on being Chris Rock.

As for the episode, it was … fine. It was completely fine and unmemorable. It was a mid episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring a couple of legitimately funny sketches, a bunch of middling ones, and a couple of desperately unfunny bits. But most unfortunately for Rock, the episode will probably be best remembered for an unexpected cameo from an entirely different SNL alum. (Not Dana Carvey.) (Thank goodness.)

*Fun little fact: note the Prince symbol necklace Rock is wearing in the bumper photo above? Prince was the musical guest when Rock hosted for the second time in 2014. R.I.P. Prince.

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