Abbott Elementary is a delight and the same can be said for its creator, Quinta Brunson. I don’t know how anyone could look at Quinta Brunson and not love her immediately. She just has one of those faces.
This is the first time she’s hosted SNL and she killed it. I’ve been chronicling stats for every episode in season 48 and while this one didn’t hit me as the funniest episode of the year, it somehow felt like the smartest. The numbers were the second highest of the season, only nine points off the leader. Brunson hit singles and doubles all night and the episode featured a particularly memorable Weekend Update where Michael Che asked the studio audience not to laugh at Colin Jost’s jokes and hilarity ensued. You can draw up a million scripted interactions, but one of the great things about humanity is how much we enjoy funny people and genuine reactions — which is why so many of us love it when players break in the middle of a sketch. Colin Jost’s reaction when he realized what was happening was memorable.
The Trump Cold Open was a hole the show had to crawl out of and it ended with a dud of a sexual harassment sketch but the middle pieces were tight. Moreover, the staff trusted Brunson not just with key punchlines, but demanding physical comedy as well. Like Pedro Pascal’s episode, her comedy chops were impressive and on full display.
In addition, episode 16 marked Kenan’s 400th show. That’s mental.
Please Don’t Destroy, which had been climbing into prestigious pre-update featured slots slid all the way to the end of the episode this week as the guys tried on a new format of acting as people other than themselves and the results were still good but strangely kind of toothless. Nevertheless, seeing Brunson with Obama was great and I can’t wait to see her host again in the future.
Previous Episodes:
- Miles Teller
- Brendan Gleeson
- Megan Thee Stallion
- Jack Harlow
- Amy Schumer
- Dave Chappelle
- Keke Palmer
- Steve Martin & Martin Short
- Austin Butler
- Aubrey Plaza
- Michael B. Jordan
- Pedro Pascal
- Woody Harrelson
- Travis Kelce
- Jenna Ortega
A Word on Laughstatting:
Everyone has a different sense of humor, so the things that I laugh at will most likely not be the exact same things you laugh at. The goal of this exercise is not to convince anyone, but to say “here’s what worked for me” and hopefully, if our tastes are similar enough, maybe it worked for you too and the overall stats for the season will have some value. It also strangely works if you have polar opposite taste to me, because you’ll know the episodes that were a hit for me might not land with you.
I try to be very generous with my rankings in the hopes that eventually a more clear picture of the cast and season will shape itself and contribute to some additional insight. And we get charts.
Everyone likes charts.
Here are the episode results!
(For all the details and the joke-by-joke ratings, keep scrolling.)
Cold Open
Concept: Trump puts out an album
Execution: Yikes. Pretty irritating and a rough start out of the gate.
s – James Austin Johnson: “Just 30 covers, all horrible.”
s – James Austin Johnson: “From the evil Manhattan DA.”
s – James Austin Johnson: “And speaking of taking advantage of fighters, here’s my friend Don King.”
Quinta Brunson Monologue
s – Host: “Instead of not having Black people, it does.”
s – Host: “people expect me to solve it.”
S – Host: “How do we fix this, Cousin Greg?”
l – Host: “I mean, I’m not a filthy whore, but.”
S – Host: “I prefer my Butterbeer with Hennessy.”
l – Host: “I call him Barack now.”
S – Host: “Kicked it shut, went to bed wasted.”
s – Host: “I have to teach these dishes now?”
s – Host: “Why did I have so many dishes?”
S – Host: “That last dish was a mistake.”
Drug Dealer
Concept: Drug Dealers compete in a cocaine metaphor white-off
Execution: Clever shade done well
S – Host: “My stuff is so white it’s like Gwenyth Paltrow skiing in Utah.”
S – Kenan Thompson: “The cocaine I got is so white its dad sends it money every month for the rent.
S – Host: “it’s so white it takes your shoes and socks off on a plane.”
l – Kenan Thompson: “Cut my life into pieces. This is my last resort.”
l – Host: “I chimed in with haven’t you people ever heard of-”
L – Andrew Dismukes: “Closing the goddamned door.”
S – Punkie Johnson: “It’s so white it was written by Noah Baumbach.”
L – Kenan Thompson: “Oop lemme scoot right by you.”
s – James Austin Johnson: “Let me scoot right by you there.”
s – James Austin Johnson: “Alright, toodles.”
Bridesmaid Cult Documentary
Concept: Bridesmaids are featured in a horror documentary about the event
Execution: Very good
s – James Austin Johnson: “They prey on vulnerable groups like college roomates and sisters-in-law.”
s – Heidi Gardner: “I thought it was a one day commitment.”
S – Host: “We ended up going with ‘Bride Tribe.’”
s – James Austin Johnson: “Outgoing gay men.”
s – Bowen Yang: “Whenever a girl starts calling me ‘sis’, I know I’m in trouble.”
S – James Austin Johnson: “Almost always in Nashville.”
S – Host: “Where am I going that calls for a floor length, light blue chiffon gown with a modest neckline? Nowhere.”
S – Sarah Sherman: “There was all this…penis stuff?”
l – Sarah Sherman: reaction to groom’s cousin Donnie
Couple Goals
Concept: A game show where couples test their knowledge of each other
Execution: Good-ish
S – Host: “Burgers. I’m the burger queen.”
l – Kenan Thompson: biggest fear sign
S – Host: “That’s your biggest fear?”
s – Kenan Thompson: “Shoulda said spiders.”
l – Kenan Thompson: “Ey, what’s the next question man?”
S – James Austin Johnson: reaction to ‘get on top’
l – Devon Walker: feeding his wife
l – Ego Nwodim: being fed
Traffic Altercation
Concept: Two people miming insults in traffic
Execution: Fantastic, a pleasant surprise
S – Host: “eat…me.”
l – Host: “eat…my butt. All of this eat all of this.”
S – Mikey Day: “booo, bad choice.”
S – Host: “It wouldn’t read.”
S – Mikey Day: “I guess. I guess.”
L – Host: pointing to his daughter
l – Chloe Fineman: “You suck. You suck.”
L – Mikey Day: “I don’t love that you used two hands.”
L – Host: “You are a giant puss. You’re this.”
l – Ego Nwodim: “You white devil.”
H – Mikey Day: “She was a bitch.”
L – Chloe Fineman: “Dad!”
S – Chloe Fineman: “You…suck!”
Weekend Update
S – Colin Jost: “Great news for conservatives! New York is finally cracking down on crime.”
S – Michael Che: “Business fraud is also what they call the Trump costume at Spirit Halloween.”
S – Colin Jost: “Man we all knew was criminal may be criminal.”
L – Michael Che: “I told them not to laugh at you.”
L – Colin Jost: “Am I not micced?”
l – Colin Jost: “I just suck.”
S – Colin Jost: “You’re evil.”
l – Michael Che: “They’ll probably laugh at this next one.”
S – Colin Jost: “That’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done to me.”
l – Colin Jost: “I’m covered in sweat.”
H – Colin Jost: “No no! Don’t you even dare. Don’t you even dare try now.”
s – Michael Che: “How long before these kids earn a stereotype.”
S – Colin Jost: “Boooo”
l – Colin Jost: “Who are you psychos sending these cards to?”
S – Colin Jost: “If I received that card in the mail I would move.”
s – Michael Longfellow: “Hey.”
S – Michael Longfellow: “Wow, that hurt like hell.”
s – Michael Longfellow: “Okay, well right now it’s pornography.”
S – Michael Longfellow: “On the Italian version of SNL you can show full penetration?”
S – Michael Che: “What?”
l – Michael Longfellow: “Our Matt Foley lived in a MAN down by the river.”
S – Colin Jost: “Yo mama so poor she put Candy Crush on layaway.”
S – Michael Che: “The flavor will be called ‘Mom Left.’”
l – Michael Che: “I like this crowd a lot, man!”
l – Colin Jost: “Yeah…me too. Agreed. Agreed.”
s – Colin Jost: “You lying son of a bitch.”
l – Michael Che: “It’s hard to believe that a place that filthy and disgusting also has a sewer system.”
S – Michael Che: “Honestly, after a few beers? I would.”
s – Colin Jost: “Stank shacks.”
s – Michael Che: “She couldn’t open the weed jars on her own.”
s – Marcello Hernández: “Okay then let’s stand back to back.”
S – Colin Jost: “I don’t want to do that.”
s – Marcello Hernández: “Sorry I forgot you two were friends.”
S – Marcello Hernández: “On the dance floor working.”
S – Marcello Hernández: “Yeah, you’re a tower.”
Midwife
Concept: A doctor doesn’t remember a midwife
Execution: Iffy
S – Bowen Yang: “I’m curous.”
S – Host: breaking on hair reveal
S – Bowen Yang: breaking seeing host
S – Bowen Yang: “furous.”
s – Host: “It made me feel emburssed.”
S – Bowen Yang: breaking again on surrous
Bosses
Concept: A woman is sexually harassed?
Execution: Maybe it seemed funnier on paper
Please Don’t Destroy – Street Eats
Concept: Three ignorant white knobs have a food show
Execution: Decent
S – John Higgins – PDD: “It’s a melting pot of over three cultures.”
S – John Higgins – PDD: “Queens make some noise!”
S – Host: “So you all just moved here from Connecticut?”
S – Ben Marshall – PDD: “The Bodega.”
S – Host: “The nicest one I saw said Gay Fail.”
