SNL Season 51, Episode 4: Miles Teller

In his second hosting stint, Miles Teller was surprisingly absent for much of the show. Instead, a nearly 20-minute Weekend Update dominated this show, which proved to essentially be an average episode of SNL.

Only five sketches were aired (six counting a NYC-centric cold open). The best of the night was the “Hockey PSA” where three hockey players (Teller, Ben Marshall, and Tommy Brennan), are asked to say lines for a NHL community program that are increasingly insensitive, misogynistic, or inappropriate. The pretape “White House Makeover” was also quite funny, continuing a trend for Season 51 where pretapes outshine the sketches.

A sketch titled “Italian Restaurant Date” was simply a blatant ripoff of “Il Cantore Restaurant,” which appeared in Season 17, Episode 3. In that sketch, waiters Dana Carvey and Rob Schneider fawned over Kirstie Alley in an Italian restaurant. In this sketch for SN 51, Teller and Teller, Marcello Hernández fawn over Chloe Fineman’s character in an Italian restaurant. Do the writers think no one will realize they’re just recycling ideas?

Former hosts Shane Gillis and Ramy Youssef appeared in the cold open.