Knicks guard Jalen Brunson is a legend in New York city, and he always will be. That’s what happens when you lead a team to a title after a long championship drought. Now, Brunson can add TV star to his list of accomplishments. And he did it in NYC on the most iconic late night program, Saturday Night Live.
Brunson was center stage (literally) at Studio 8H as host of the the Season 52 opening episode. His performance didn’t matter much. He’s a basketball player and comedy isn’t his element. But, the episode itself was solid as far as season openers go.
The story of this episode was a flurry of sketches to start the show at breakneck pace. A second story line was the strong debuts by rookie Grace Reiter, who supplied much of the comedy in a pretape.
But SNL newcomer Saidah Belo-Osagie was shutout: no screen time, which was a bit disappointing considering she’s the first black female cast member since Season 50.
Musical guest Katseye performed a pair of songs as the SoCal band made its nationwide debut tonight. The band played “Animal” (in very small outfits) and “Hootie Frutti.”
Cold Open
Season 52 opened with special guest Ramy Youssef as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, appearing in the mayor’s mansion with his assistant, played by Veronika Slowikowska. Visited by James Austin Johnson as Trump, who in turn is visited by a storm-blown Natalie Harp, played by Ashley Padilla.
Youssef isn’t an ideal choice as the first face we see to start a season, and it doesn’t help that he’s very stiff on SNL. He has nothing to offer but straight-up read-the-cue-cards vibe.
The first LFNY line was delivered by JAJ and Youssef.
Brunson’s monologue
First we got Kenan Thompson walking on to home base as Stephen A Smith to apologize to Brunson for not believing in his abilities. That quickly pivoted to the host throwing questions to the audience. We saw cameos by Karl Anthony Townes, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart. This was as awkward as you can expect from athletes appearances on SNL. One surefire way to make an athlete-hosted episode less enjoyable is having MORE athletes speak on camera.
Famously, the monologue is the last segment written. It showed in the season opener.
First Sketch: One Second Left
Here’s a workplace sketch. Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Ben Marshall, JAJ, and Brunson as co-workers in an office. Brunson plays “Darius,” an employee woefully terrible at shooting wrappers into the waste basket.
The sketch reveal: Darius is actually Jalen Brunson, who took the job so he could be famous as an “office shooter.”
This was a quick-hitter.
Sketch: Dream Academy, Newton’s Cradle
A pretape of a reality show titled “Dream Academy,” which features all of the female cast. We see Jane Wickline as Duff, Grace Reiter as her deadpan sidekick, Sarah as a rival, Veronika as Isla, and Brunson as a choreographer. Ashley serves as the host/teacher. We get a late cameo by Katseye as the judges.
Somehow, with crazy steering from Reiter’s character, the Dream Academy “episode” evolves into a music video with Katseye, Jane, Grace, and Veronika singing a fresh hit, “Newton’s Cradle.”
Sketch: Men’s Group
Mikey leads a group therapy session for men whose girlfriends have been pulled onto stage at a concert. Brunson, Kenan, Kam Patterson, Marcello Hernández, and Marshall are in the group.
“Date a black woman they said. It’ll be fun, they said,” says Marshall, in the best line in this brief, but well-written dialogue-based sketch.
Sketch: Cougars Basketball
It’s almost certain when you have an athlete hosting that you’ll get a lot of sports-based sketches. Jeremy Culhane is at the center of this segment as a high school basketball player leading a musical number. New student Brunson interrupts his attempts to dribble, blocks his shots, and so on.
A physical showcase for Brunson, and an opportunity for Culhane to shine in physical comedy.
Appearances by Patterson, Tommy Brennan, Marshall, and Slowikowska.
Sketch: Relax XPress
Basically a Padilla/Andrew Dismukes sketch that gets hijacked by Day as he screams in orgiastic delight while sitting in a massage chair in an airport terminal. Brunson sits next to Day and also has a fantastic time having his body massaged AND trying not to break as Day goes over the top. Appearance by Thompson as a security guard.
Another quick sketch as the show continued to drive fast toward the first musical number.
Weekend Update
Another year of Colin Jost and Michael Che kicked off with lots of enthusiasm. It’s Year 14 for Jost, and Year 13 for Che, as they continue to set the record for longest-tenure behind the Update desk.
Jokes be jokes, and the batting average doesn’t have to be high. But Jost especially fell flat here, with three jokes that drew almost zero laughter.
A trend I’d like to see less of on WU are the comments by Che/Jost after their punchline. I don’t need a commentary on whether they thought the joke landed. I know if it did.
Our first Weekend Update guest of Season 52 was Wickline as Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. In a wonderful performance, Wickline was very funny, possibly producing her best WU segment ever. She seems like she spent a lot of time in the comedy gym pumping iron. She might be a force this season.
Culhane appeared with his popular impression of rightwing birdbrain Tucker Carlson, giving his analysis of summer entertainment. Best line: “Spider they, Spider them: uses whichever bathroom it likes.” OR how about “You’ve got a friend IN ME, and his name is Woody?”
Runtime: 13 minutes
Sketch: Parent/Teacher Conference
Padilla as the mother of a student taught by Marshall at a parent/teacher conference. Brunson and Thompson appear as the “other adults who live in the household” with Padilla’s character.
“During sexy time we turn the lights off and use a chess clock,” says Thompson. “I just go crazy until my time is up,” adds Brunson.
A nice showing by Thompson, who doesn’t get many chances to take the ball like this. JAJ and Dismukes do a late sketch pop-in that doesn’t add much to the very thin premise.
Sketch: Shark Tank (Bullseye)
Culhane and Marshall as entrepreneurs who invented eyeglasses that warn when a man is ogling a woman. Shoutout to the wig department for their work on this.
We get a cameo from Veronika, as the glasses continue to emit their trademark BEEP each time the men look at breasts. A very simpleminded sketch, but the spot-on creepy performances by Culhane/Marshall, and the superb work by Johnson make this sketch passable.
Sherman, JAJ, and Brunson as the sharks.
10-to-1 Sketch: Knicks Lockerroom
Thompson appears at a Knicks media availability as a former coach of Jalen Brunson, who doesn’t remember his old mentor. This is another strong performance by Thompson, who carries the sketch opposite a better-than-expected Brunson.
This sketch goes very wrong when Thompson introduces Reiter as a young woman who will star in his porno (yes, really). Then Patterson appears as a scam artist at the tail end. Even as 10-to-1 sketches go, this one was unfunny, and icky.
Episode Grade: C+
This was a much better season opener than we got in Season 51. Kudos to the pretapes, which were again very well done following a great showing last season.
The music was basically hot women dancing on stage. I’m not going to say I hate that or love that, but it’s not a serious musical guest. SNL should do better. From a music talent standpoint, this group might rate in the bottom five to ever appear on the show. But, their numbers were short, and so were their skirts. So, most people probably didn’t care.
