Miles Teller Hosts a Ho-Hum SNL installment
Episode Grade: C
The fourth episode of Saturday Night Live Season 51, hosted by Miles Teller with musical guest Brandi Carlisle, desperately needed to deliver. After an opening trio of episodes that can only be described as disappointing, plagued by timid political commentary and a reliance on overwrought digital shorts, the pressure was immense for this week to prove the show still knows how to cook.
The fourth entry of SNL 51 was supposed to be the installment that finally rescued the season’s narrative. After the first three episodes fizzled out with low energy, recycled formats, and an overall air of tentativeness, the show needed a decisive victory. Instead, what we got was an hour and a half that felt largely reconstructed from a hazy rundown of sketches that failed to land years ago. The episode’s mild disappointing quality was cumulative rather than flagrant, a series of secondhand ideas that underlined a critical vulnerability: the lack of a true, spotlight-pulling star at the center of the current cast.
This argument has always been resisted by the show’s purists. The idea that SNL needs a foundational figure like an Eddie Murphy to thrive is often countered by remembering how well the show functions when its deepest players, like a Will Ferrell or a Dana Carvey, prioritize ensemble work. But when the material is this shaky, you desperately need the gravitational pull of a Ego Nwodim or Cecily Strong type to level up the material. Teller, a highly professional host, unfortunately proved himself to be precisely the kind of generic comedic foil who exposes the cast’s reliance on familiar structures. He also strangely disappeared for about 30 minutes after the first sketch.
The good news is that the episode, while far from a classic, marked a necessary course correction, relying on the raw strength of the rapidly ascending featured players. Teller’s low-key, professional approach provided a steady foundation, allowing a few in the ensemble to shine, particularly the exceptional featured player, Ashley Padilla, whose work this season has been nothing short of a breakout.
Cold Open
The episode started with a predictable but well-executed take on the increasingly absurd political news cycle, tackling the New York City mayoral race. While the premise felt stale, the casting saved it. The key performance came from guest star Shane Gillis, whose impression of Curtis Sliwa was the most reliable political satire tool. He anchored the sketch, which predictably derailed with a “popup video” appearance by James Austin Johnson as Trump. The cold open succeeded not in saying anything new about the mayor’s race, but in simply holding the line, benefiting from the subtle support of Teller and Ramy Youssef, another guest.
The problem wasn’t the fodder; mayoral races are ripe for ridicule. The issue was the execution. Teller, though he was neat to see anchoring the sketch, could not muster anything close to an Andrew Cuomo impression. Youssef was equally lacking in embodying Zohran Mamdani, powered by writing that seemed oblivious to what might be funny about the candidate’s millennial energy. Gillis, not known for his range, was given a single, tired Curtis Sliwa idea. The lack of distinct character work made the entire sketch collapse into mere table reading. To cap it all off, the obligatory JAJ Trump impression was wheeled out to interrupt, proving that even when the show tries to pivot away from national politics, the White House always finds a way to take the stage. Even Kam Patterson‘s brief debut as Eric Adams felt curiously subdued.
It’s interesting to note that this early in the season the show is already looking outside the cast for a large chunk of the show. This says more about the relative weakness of the veteran cast than anything. Season 51 is clearly a transition year, and Lorne Michaels and the writers are obviously more comfortable leaning on star power outside of the cast.
Also of note: this episode marked the third straight where a host or former host said “Live From New York, it’s Saturday Night!” That’s the first time we’ve seen that since Season 12.
Miles Teller Monologue
Miles Teller’s monologue was refreshingly modest. After the high-octane spectacle of Top Gun: Maverick and his dramatic turn in Whiplash, Teller’s comedic persona is surprisingly grounded. He joked about his status as “that guy who played Goose’s son,” which was a nice moment of self-awareness. However, the monologue failed to give Teller a clear comedic point of view, reinforcing his role for the rest of the night as a handsome, amiable vessel for the writers’ lukewarm concepts.
Sketches Before Weekend Update
The pre-Update block was defined by the relentless energy of the featured players. Mainstays Bowen Yang and Mikey Day were present, but Veronika Slowikowska, Ben Marshall, and especially Ashley Padilla were given the stage. Andrew Dismukes was the only veteran to match their prominent screen time.
This early stretch was where the show’s reliance on old blueprints became most grating, creating what felt like a comedy karaoke night. The “What Did I Do Last Night?” sketch was another tired social-faux-pas game-show format.
The hockey charity ad was a tedious “keep-calling-cut” structure where the single, visible joke (the team name is the Predators) was repeated until it was threadbare. Teller himself was continually shuffled into generic roles, playing a hungover mess, an office creep, or a real-life sexual predator who the sketch only glancingly addressed.
The saving grace and the clear highlight of the entire night was the “GarGirl” sketch, the brainchild of Dismukes, who has quietly become one of the most reliable utility players, starred as a police reporter using a homicide investigation as an opportunity to solicit feedback on his rejected, self-written graphic novel. This was weird, highly specific, and exactly the kind of intellectual absurdity the show needs more of. It was also the stage for the week’s most important performance.
The captivating Padilla has been a complete breakout this season, delivering clutch utility player energy in every appearance. She shines not as an impressionist, but as a commitment comic who can dial up the intensity immediately. In the GarGirl sketch, her moment of shrieking, irrational rage felt almost Will Ferrell-esque in its sudden, unearned fury. She and Dismukes are quietly logging serious face time in Season 51, and their combined work, including their well-acted “Update” segment as two strangers who just hooked up, is the show’s most compelling argument for its future. Similarly, Slowikowska is establishing herself as a go-to for surreal, wide-eyed characters, proving the new cast can certainly act, even when the writing fails them.
As we mentioned in a pre-season analysis, SNL has always been carried (mostly) by cast members who excel at sketch and character work. It’s no surprise that Padilla, Slowikowska, Dismukes, and to a lesser degree (so far) Jeremy Culhane have shined.
It’s at the point where Yang, Day, Chloe Fineman, and even Sarah Sherman seem like old news when they share the screen with this new group of featured players + Dismukes.
Sketches After Weekend Update
The post-Update slump hit like a wet noodle. The sketches in this block suffered from a lack of commitment to their premises.
The late-night block was where the episode’s cumulative suckiness truly took its toll. The Netflix spoof about missing wives who are actually just on previously mentioned trips or in the bathroom hit familiar material, but once again strayed into the “dopey dad, incompetent husband” territory, which is both overdone, and unfair. Imagine the heat SNL would take if it did sketches about women who can’t perform math or hold a job, or do home repairs.
However, the final sketch, the 10-to-1 slot, was the low point. Set at an Italian restaurant, the premise was a near-exact rehash of “Il Cantore,” an idea the show should have filed away forever. Featuring Teller and Marcello Hernández, the sketch’s core joke was stale, and the whole thing was simply actively bad. As the only major sketch in the last fifteen minutes of the show, it bore the brunt of the “oh-this-is-it” deflation, sending viewers off on a flat note.
During this dreadful reboot of a sketch the show did decades ago, the phrase “Get the fuccatta!” is central to the “jokes” we have to suffer from.
If you want to see this sketch and actually laugh, watch it when it was done the first time with much more talent (Dana Carvey and Rob Schneider shine) and and better writing:
Musical Performances
Brandi Carlisle’s return to the Studio 8H stage was predictably superb and provided the show with its most emotionally resonant moments. Performing two tracks from her new album, Returning to Myself, she first offered “Human,” an expansive, soulful ballad that showed off her incredible vocal power, backed by a full complement of strings and the unmistakable harmonies of the Hanseroth twins. Her second song, “A War with Time,” was a more intimate, acoustic performance that felt incredibly raw, creating a brief, beautiful pocket of genuine vulnerability amidst the sketch comedy chaos. Carlisle is a pure, undeniable talent, and both performances were masterclasses in emotional delivery, giving the audience a much-needed lift.
Final Verdict
The Miles Teller episode was a step in the right direction, arresting the downward slide the first three weeks had established. It benefited from the remarkable contributions of Ashley Padilla, who is proving to be a genuine star, and the reliably quirky work of Dismukes and Veronika Slowikowska, who are having solid years. However, the show still suffers from too much filler, particularly in the impression category. Teller was a genial, competent host, but the show remains a work in progress. It was a serviceable, rather than spectacular, evening of comedy.
Once again in Season 51, SNL’s comedy material displays an over-reliance on retread formats. The show is surviving on its featured players and musical guests, not on bold new comedic ideas. It was a serviceable, not spectacular, episode.
