A strange thing happened while I was watching this week’s SNL: I found myself really liking Megan Thee Stallion while also recognizing that she was an imperfect host. Some people are larger than life figures who can’t settle into even the most basic SNL sketch and Megan Thee Stallion was the worst culprit in recent memory, if only because she can’t help but talk with her hands, and those nails were distracting as hell.
Still, she’s great and her palpable charisma was on display, it’s just that this was a truly bad fit. It’s all good. Not everyone is cut out to be funny.
As for the ample criticism that SNL’s attempt to stay relevant with the youts is costing it decades-loyal viewers? Yeah, I tend to agree. To my mind, SNL is never going to capture the attention of younger millennials and zoomers, if only because they don’t watch as much television as older generations. The best they can hope for is a viral video on YouTube. Short of that, the model isn’t going to adapt to have seventeen year olds staying up late on Saturdays to watch SNL when they could be gaming with their friends or watching social media that is real-time curating to their individual likes. It’s a common refrain I hear from people who have quit SNL: what’s better? A one-size fits all SNL brand of comedy that you like 5 to 10% of the time or a TikTok feed that instantaneously doctors itself to your individual tastes so that you can enjoy 90-100% of the content?
What’s better? A one-size fits all SNL brand of comedy that you like 5 to 10% of the time or a TikTok feed that instantaneously doctors itself to your individual tastes so that you can enjoy 90-100% of the content?
I’ve recently heard more people saying “I guess I’m too old for SNL now and it’s not for me anymore.” That bums me out. This website has many of the exact same issues. How many younger readers are actively searching for the longform written word as opposed to just watching TikTok? My kids don’t even read this blog and they love me. Is there any hope for the written word? Is there any hope for old-format SNL? Sometimes both feel like they’re a thing of the past.
Let’s get to the stats.
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 now 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.
Cold Open
Concept: Terrible
Execution: Fine
s – Heidi Gardner “Dick Cheney is my dad.”
s – Sarah Sherman playing Chuck Schumer
s – Sarah Sherman Schumer getting pushed
s – Sarah Sherman “While I’m eating?”
Monologue
No laughs.
Hot Girl Hospital
Concept: a hospital of mean women something something fashion something something Draymond Green? Inaccessible.
Execution: choppy
s – Megan Thee Stallion “Mean as hell”
S – Devon Walker “Oh snap”
We Got Brought
Concept: Simple
Execution: Good
S – Bowen Yang grimacing
L – Ego Nwodim “Only?”
L – Bowen Yang “I don’t want to be here anymore!”
Deer
Concept: Absurd and fun
Execution: Fine
s – Molly Kearney “Mr. Reynolds it’s got a knife!”
S – Kenan Thompson reaction to deer
Girl Talk
Concept: Astute but Challenging
Execution: Decent
No laughs
Please Don’t Destroy – Wellness
Concept: Relatable
Execution: Very good
s – Ben Marshall – screen time reveal
s – John Higgins – “not yet”
s – Ben Marshall – “okay cool!”
S – John Higgins – “my penis is broken”
S – Martin Herlihy – “cigarette fitness”
s – Ben Marshall deleting money from his bank account
Weekend Update
l – Michael Che “…speaking on the phone to Nancy Pelosi, which, to Pence, counts as adultery.”
l – Michael Che “I assume because she owns stock in private prisons.”
S – Colin Jost “Herschel Walker is/has brain problems.”
L – Colin Jost “Mitch McConnell seen here watching someone get injured at the Special Olympics.”
S – Colin Jost “All the treasure in his pot of gold.”
l – Colin Jost “At Spirit airlines, bath salts are the in-flight snack.”
S – Colin Jost “Pedophiles are calling a buffet”
s – Colin Jost “If whale oil is really the best way to give my hair this amazing volume.”
l – Michael Che “Also, let’s see here…domestic violence.”
s – Michael Che “but the pleasures are undeniable.”
l – Heidi Gardner “we don’t need a movie where kids’ souls are gettin’ sucked off”
S – Devon Walker “I see the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life”
s – Devon Walker “I’m regular”
s – Devon Walker “my body’s big I try to make my voice little”
S – Devon Walker “real quick – where my straight boys at?”
s – Devon Walker “morale is real low right now alright?”
l – Devon Walker “If I had asked that question in 1996 the building would have exploded.”
s – Michael Che “Say what now?”
s – Devon Walker “No I’m tryna kiss you on the lips, actually.”
s – Michael Che reaction
Workout Class
Concept: Preposterous and hard to deliver on
Execution: Awful
s – Ego Nwodim – “I’m trying to drag a wagon down the aisle.”
St. Andrew’s Center for Shivering Girls
I actually really enjoyed this concept and it felt like it could have been in the hopper for a while for any guest, rather than being an entire sketch written so highlight the current host’s lovely curves. Again, it’s a video so it’s a cheat code, but it worked.
Concept: Smart and inventive
Execution: Stellar
s – Ego Nwodim – “very drafty apartments without boyfriends”
l – Kenan Thompson singing
S – Heidi Gardner reveal of “giant, broken-in men’s sweatshirts”
s – Megan Thee Stallion thermostat on 74 reveal “That’s how cold it is”
s – Heidi Gardner “if you didn’t want me to steal your sweatshirt then why was it in your closet?”
s – Kenan Thompson doing Coolio
s – Heidi Gardner “I miss Dutch ovens.”
Classroom
Concept: An universally understood homage
Execution: Above average
s – Ego Nwodim “This is that?”
s – Ego Nwodim “Nah”
s – Ego Nwodim sings nobody
S – Devon Walker “who said we were born the wrong color?”
s – Megan Thee Stallion “my name is Amy”
l – Ego Nwodim “Big ol’ book”
s – Ego Nwodim “detention”
l – Ego Nwodim “sometimes teachers are the ones who are dumb”
s – Ego Nwodim “sometimes that makes them say & do racist”
