For the third time in the last four seasons, comedian Shane Gillis hosted Saturday Night Live. Puzzlingly, the popular standup comic once again bombed in his monologue, which set a weird tone for the night that ultimately survived to come in as an average episode of SNL, thanks in large part to a pair of beautiful musical performances by Rosalía.
This episode was marked by three notable storylines: Rosalía; a breakout performance by rookie cast member Grace Reiter; and the destruction of a sketch by the host when he chose to use the word “FUCKING” on national television.
Cold Open: Hegseth U.S.S. Lincoln
“What’s up, dong munchers?”
With that line, Colin Jost opened his address to sailors on the USS Lincoln. The cold open was shorter than the first two of the season, which I’m thankful for.
A segment was filled by James Austin Johnson as squeaky-voiced RFK Jr., who revealed that the government is looking into “something called testicular dementia.”
Cameos were made by Kam Patterson, Mikey Day, Tommy Brennan, and Andrew Dismukes.
The LFNY line was delivered by Jost as Hegseth.
Monologue
How can a standup comic be so bad at doing a monologue? Here’s how: the room isn’t behind Shane Gillis. This episode, unlike his first two hosting gigs, was obviously filled with a few more of his friends and fans (Gillis even acknowledged one by name), so that made a slight improvement.
But Gillis seems sort of like a college kid at an open mic night when he tries to do comedy at SNL. If he doesn’t have “his people” in the audience, Gillis is just flailing like a fish in the bottom of a boat. And I really wish I had a club. This monologue was AWFUL. Not because of the material. Because the comedian was AWFUL at doing his job.
Someone should tell Gillis that when he’s on a national TV show he should bring his best game. This is a chance to absolutely crush and show an audience that may not know him that he is a pro. Instead, when he shows up at Studio 8H, he seems like he’s still in the minor leagues.
Sketch: Cop Talk
Gillis is the host, and Day is the co-host of a “talk show” by cops. The guests are Jeremy Culhane as an author, Ben Marshall as an artist, Kam Patterson as a comedian, and Veronika Slowikowska. We also see Kenan Thompson pop in as Gillis’s AA sponsor, and Grace Reiter as a cop.
The premise is that the cops treat the guests like they would a citizen on a pullover stop. The best bit is when Patterson enters the doorway, sees the cops, and declines “I’m good,” he says as he leaves quickly. “Smart, smart,” Gillis says.
This was a decent sketch to open the night, but pretty unforgettable, and a little rushed. I would have liked to see Gillis interact with Culhane and especially Slowikowska more. It feels like this premise was underdeveloped OR chopped down through cuts from rehearsal.
Pretape: Father/Daughter Song
In this first music video style pretape of Season 52, we see Gillis as the father of the bride. Three musicians (JAJ, Dismukes, and Tommy Brennan) sing a country-themed song titled “It’s My Room Now,” about how the Dad is excited to remodel his daughter’s room.
We see Gillis with a pinball machine, Pacman machine, popcorn machine and more into his daughter’s old bedroom.
I didn’t like this as much as other pretapes this season. Maybe it was the singing (weak) or the predictable themes.
Ashley Padilla plays the mother, Marcello Hernandez is a zumba instructor, and Sarah Sherman plays the the daughter.
Sketch: Green Eggs & Ham
This sketch is an homage to the classic Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs & Ham. It features Mike Day, Andrew Dismukes, and Shane Gillis, with quick appearances by Sherman and Hernandez.
The premise: Sam’s son (Gillis) doesn’t like how his Dad is being pressured to try green eggs and ham. He grows increasingly irritated that Dismukes continues to push the dish on his father. The premise is fine. But Gillis sank the entire sketch when he went off cue cards and use the F-word. It’s probably the most clear use the FUCKING on SNL in the show’s history. Ho-hum, nowadays that word is less offensive than ever, and for the west coast audiences it was bleeped live thanks to the several seconds delay.
The problem with Gillis choosing to go off script is that it destroyed the mood of the sketch. It was impossible for me to get back into the premise after the host bumbled his way for several seconds following his F-bomb.
I say “choose” because I don’t think this was an accident at all. There are cue cards everywhere on the stage off-screen. Gillis only had to read the damn cards. He wanted to make some sort of incident, and he accomplished it. It’s not a big deal, I don’t care that it happened (not sure Lorne Michaels liked it, but who knows?), but the comedy was completely destroyed due to the choice by Gillis.
It’s interesting all the hate that Dakota Johnson gets when she comes back to host SNL, like she did last week. Contrast that with Gillis, who is far less comfortable on the stage, awkward, fumbles his deliveries, and is an epic 0-for-3 on monologues. What is Dakota’s biggest crime, that she’s too hot? That she’s a little icy? That she’s a Nepo Baby? I’ll take that over Gillis, who really just feels like a guy who won a contest to host the show most of the time.
There was a nugget of a good sketch here. “I’ll hit you so hard, you’re going to be called ‘Sam I Was'” is a funny line.
Sketch: Sneakers
Here’s a History Channel sketch, presenting as an episode of “Innovation Nation: The Products That Shaped a Nation.” It features JAJ, Gillis, Kenan Thompson, Day, and Ben Marshall as the board of directors of Filmore Footwear in the 19th century. JAJ presents a canvas shoe with a rubber sole, hoping to attract seed money.
Seeing the new shoe, Gillis quickly recognizes them as perfect for “sneaking.” He soon describes a scenario where he could use the shoes to sneak around and deceive his murdering wife.
“Now the murderous cow stays asleep: Thank you, Sneakers,” Gillis says.
Brennan appears in a quick cameo.
Pretape: Upfront Heating & Air Conditioning
In a pretape largely helmed by Gillis, we see a commercial for a sketchy heating and cooling company. This has many cameos from cast members and extras. We see Patterson, Veronika Slowikowska, Day, Sherman, Hernandez, and Thompson as a cigarette-smoking employee with bad advice for the child of the customer.
This pretape worked well, with quick jokes and good production. The best segment of the night for me, outside of a section of Weekend Update.
Live Music: Rosalía
In two live performances where she was actually singing (thank you, very much), Rosalía crushed. If you’ve heard her before, you already know the beauty of Rosalía’s voice. You also know she’s stunning. But in these musical numbers, the Latin pop star performed her songs in two amazing presentations, one with water falling on her as if it was rain. Fantastic.
Take note, Shane Gillis: THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT.
Weekend Update
In today’s world you probably shouldn’t start a fake news segment with a “developing tragic, breaking news story.” Life is already too real. I’ve heard from many viewers who thought this was a real breaking news pop-in. But, it was just a rather mild jab at Trump for getting his feelings hurt over not winning the Novel Peace Prize.
Most of the jokes here were political, and fairly tame. Mostly I am happy that Weekend Update was eight minutes shorter than last week’s episode.
I liked much of what Che shared this week, especially “National No Bra Day is on a Tuesday this year. Last year it was on a Monday, so I guess it bounces around some.”
Mr. Wonderful
JAJ returned with his impression of Kevin O’Leary, the insufferable mogul on Shark Tank. He appeared in that role in the season opener in a sketch. The impression is fantastic, especially the voice (uncanny).
Mr. Wonderful discusses his proposal for data centers to be built in Utah. “I’m going to make the future go away,” JAJ says.
This was a solid, but not particularly belly-laugh funny WU segment.
A Mother Whose Babysitter Cancelled
Padilla and Reiter appeared as a mother/daughter in this segment ostensibly to provide Fall activities. It soon becomes clear that this is a dysfunctional push-and-pull relationship between a bad Mom and a scheming daughter.
Reiter shined as “Coco,” a precious teen whose trying to learn who her biological father is. “Is it Sean Hayes?”
The key to this segment, which worked wonderfully was the unhinged performance by Padilla, who embodies the overwhelmed single mother trope here. The chemistry between Padilla and Reiter (loud vs quietly mischievous) is something the show hopefully explores again in the future.
Sketch: Saying Goodbye
We see Sherman as a hospice nurse, Reiter as a dying patient, and Gillis as her son, who is torn between being there for the fateful last moments or attending a Jelly Roll concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
“I hear Teddy Swims may be there,” Gillis says. We then see Jelly Roll appear in a thought bubble, urging Gillis to see his concert. He’s later joined by Hernandez as “Cool Jesus,” and Rosalia as a hottie that he’ll meet at the concert.
Per usual, we get Sherman laughing on her lines late in the sketch, but it doesn’t really ruin this sketch.
10-to-1 Sketch: Chess Tournament
The last sketch of the night opened on Jeremy Culhane and Tommy Brennan at a chess board in a middle school tournament. I thought this would be a Culhane vehicle, but it went in a much different direction.
Culhane’s divorced white trash parents are attending the tournament to support their son. They’re played by Reiter and Gillis. Quickly the pair devolve into cheap shots at each other, but after trading insults they soon resort to flirtation.
Reiter is very physical with her comedy here, and it works wonderfully. Gillis actually looks normal in a mullet wig (with a rat’s tail braid) and a football jersey. Eventually he and Reiter end up on the chess board table in a lewd embrace.
This sketch actually feels like it could have led off the show: it was a basic premise, but driven by the strong performance by Reiter. As Jon Schneider said in his instant reaction for Saturday Night Network, “This may be the moment we look back on later when Grace is an alltime great SNL cast member, as when she emerged…”
Episode Grade
Gillis isn’t good at hosting SNL. If you fail once, maybe it’s nerves. If you fail twice, maybe you got bad writing. But if you’ve been a host three times and you’re still awkward in live sketches and your monologue: you’re a bad host.
Having said that, Gillis is a good-natured performer who seems to be trying. He’s capable at handling pretape performances. He shines in the Cooling & Heating sketch in this episode, and he wasn’t cringey in everything he did live here.
The best writing of the season so far, in addition to the performances by Rosalía, lifted this otherwise so-so episode to a better than average grade.
If Shane is asked back again (given his huge reach he will be), maybe a co-host would make sense.
