Saturday Night Live recap: Josh Brolin returns in a gleefully odd episode
Musical guest Ariana Grande and Scarlett Johansson also get in on the silly fun
TV Reviews Josh Brolin
All of Los Angeles may be gearing up for Sunday’s Academy Awards (here are our 2024 Oscar predictions, FYI), but here in New York, we were too busy watching Josh Brolin strip down to his skivvies and shrivel up his sandworm in a cold plunge smack-dab in the middle of Studio 8H. (More on that in a bit.)
Yes, the Dune: Part Two star was back for his third hosting stint on Saturday Night Live—his debut was in 2008 and his follow-up four years later—with fellow pro host Ariana Grande pulling musical-guest duties, and the strength of Brolin’s sheer enthusiasm for being back on “the greatest show on Earth” mercifully yanked us out of the quicksand of the past few, lackluster episodes. Like Adam Driver and Emma Stone before him, Brolin was energetic and eager for every irreverent, oddball idea the writers threw at him last night, from shrimp towers to spinning wheelchairs to sandwich kings.
Cold open: Red states go Scarlett
Sure, when it comes to last week’s “State of the Union,” nothing could possibly be funnier than reality. However, if you were going to try your hand at mimicking the utter lunacy of that rebuttal video from Alabama Senator Katie Britt, calling in a favor from Colin Jost’s Oscar-nominated actress wife is a good place to start. ScarJo unnervingly nailed Britt’s nightmare-inducing delivery and exaggerated expressions, made even better by some nicely bitchy writing. (“Tonight, I am not just responding to the State of the Union. I am also selling these gorgeous bejeweled cross necklaces for QVC…you can wear it from da church to da club!”) Throw in a Get Out bit with a classic Kenan reaction face and you’ve got yourself the strongest political cold open of the season.
Opening monologue: Brolin breaks the ice
Speaking of cold opens, as mentioned, Brolin gamely capped off his opening monologue by dropping his drawers and submerging himself in an ice bath to imitate the same “penis in your stomach” nervous excitement he felt at being back at SNL. Before he froze his dunes off, however, he got ’em warmed up by performing a moody recitation of that pseudo-erotic poem he wrote for his Dune co-star Timothée Chalamet. But he assured everyone that said ode wasn’t as “super creepy” as it sounded: “I write poems about everyone I work with. This week, I wrote a poem about Kenan!” Cue another reliably daffy reaction from Thompson, as Brolin cooed over his “ageless face” and “sugar cookie cheeks.”
The most “Wait, what time is it?” sketch of the night:
This one had us checking our clocks: it had the horny absurdity that we’d sooner expect from a post-“Weekend Update” bit, when the hour hand stretches closer to 1am and the humor leans wackier. So it was a delight seeing Josh let it all hang out—literally, it was the second peek at the actor’s underwear in under 10 minutes—so early in the show. Brolin and Heidi Gardner play a newly open married couple who get a little too, uh, stimulated when their bank branch gets robbed. (“What am I supposed to do, just watch? Watch helpless while you have your way with my sssupple wife”) The physical comedy between both performers was butts-up great here and I, like the studio audience, roared at Gardner’s reaction to Marcello Hernandez’s thief. (“Ohhh, look at that. A barely legal Latino!”)
The most ridiculous prop of the night:
We can’t entirely wrap our heads around how a simple wine-and-cheese party turned into a knife fight between Thanos and a house cat named Tiger but this batty bit was made even dumber by the absolutely derpy hand puppet that played the feisty feline. Amping up the absurdity was not only Brolin’s dedication to ridiculously heated lines like “Your cat is just one big damn slut…bussing it open for every lap!” but also, the increasingly visible presence of a stage member’s hairy arm inside the puppet, sticking out from a hole in the couch like a bad dadaist dream.
The best sketch of the night:
Now, about that shrimp tower: in a pre-taped bit, Brolin played a 19th-century Austrian aristocrat named Kinski who was trying to impress an archduchess (Sarah Sherman) with a giant, lavish display of crustaceans. (Shrimp are “the thinking man’s mozzarella sticks,” after all.) His desire to please the archduchess, however, was quickly replaced by worry that she was going to ruin his shrimpy shrine and he, of course, handled it by throwing her out the window more than once. The bizarre premise was beautifully heightened by the Bridgerton-like setting. (Props overall to the production design team this week, between this and both of Ariana Grande’s theatrical music performances.)
The second-best celebrity cameo of the night:
Speaking of music performances, we enjoyed Brolin and Andrew Dismukes’ cheesy ballad about watching your seatmate’s movie while on a plane, but our favorite musical number this episode featured Ariana Grande and Bowen Yang as Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge. That Baz Luhrmann flick is known for its pop-song medleys, which were allegedly much, much longer due to worries over song rights. Cue the Wicked co-stars joyfully corpsing through a musical mash-up that includes TLC’s “Creep,” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and several reprisals of “Happy Birthday.”
Stray observations
- Very much enjoying/judging the surprisingly not small subset of the Internet who mistook Joan Grande—on hand to introduce her famous daughter’s second musical performance of the night, the Eternal Sunshine track “imperfect for you”—for theater legend Patti LuPone. Open the schools!
- It was a surprisingly short “Weekend Update” segment this week, with no “here to comment” cameos from Colin Jost and Michael Che’s fellow castmates. (A bit with Chloe Fineman as a real estate broker was reportedly cut.) It’s apparently the first “Update” without guest commentaries since John Mulaney’s episode back in season 47.
- We’ve got another SNL minibreak coming up: the show won’t be back with a new episode until March 30, with comedian-slash-Poor Things’ star Ramy Youssef as host and rapper Travis Scott as musical guest. The Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake episode will re-run next Saturday but, truly, watch anything else.
46 Comments
Sarah Sherman sure is a sport.
I was iffy on her when they announced she was joining the show (if only because I was painfully unfamiliar with her), but she’s easily one of my favorite cast members.
It was nice seeing the band happy again. For a split sec I thought there was a tiefling in the background.
The MVP of the night was Katie Britt.
Very much so. They could have even ended that quick skit with “And I am not a witch!”. Random 2010 thing there.
Did I imagine the Lisa from Temecula sketch at the end?
Anyone who’s watched any interview with John Brolin would quickly realize that he is a very, very weird dude, albeit delightfully so!
‘”Anyone who’s watched any interview with John Brolin would quickly realize that he is a very, very weird dude, albeit delightfully so!”’Who is this John Brolin you speak of? There’s a Josh Brolin. There’s even a James Brolin. Who is this John you speak of?
X_X
This was a refreshing SNL! I really liked how they handled the Katie Britt situation. They zinged her but it was a classy lampooning indeed. I am sure that there were many who wanted to see some depraved things happen to Ms. Britt, but SNL stuck to the facts. Remember she is only 33, when Joe Biden started, he was 33 but never was asked to make a SOTU Rebuttal to Richard Nixon! So, who knows maybe she can turn it around with hard work into studying rhetorical speaking.I actually really liked the feeling and tone of this one. It felt like old school SNL! The sketches were so interesting it made you wonder if Josh Brolin inspired a lot of it because there were genuinely very few cliches anywhere. Shrimp Tower was the best sketch of the year. I wouldn’t say I laughed until I peed but the entire thing was so beautifully executed, with better production values than any Peacock TV Show! Brolins Kinski is instantly iconic. I loved when he said “Logic Professor, do you concur my logics are sound???” how German can you get. I must say this cast is something special in how beautiful they all are. Sarah Sherman can look so silly but she can turn on the charm and be a delicious snack as well in a formal dress.I have to say I actually liked a break from Please Don’t Destroy and weird WU characters? More space for actual genius sketches and music. PDD is overexposed and wouldn’t mind taking a three week break from them. If you guys are reading this you are cool to me I am just saying don’t let Lorne overuse you.This episode was an A for me I think such originality and respect for the comedic art form deserves an A. Congratulations to Josh Brolin and the SNL writing staff!
She’s 42.
Yeah, which still pretty young in terms of politics, but I don’t think we need to worry about the “she’s just a kid!” angle.
Maybe VRTY could give her a nickname to make her seem like she isn’t someone who has been a legal adult for a quarter century.“You’ll do better on the SOTU rebuttal next time, Sport.”
“Remember she is only 33, when Joe Biden started, he was 33 but never was asked to make a SOTU Rebuttal to Richard Nixon! So, who knows maybe she can turn it around with hard work into studying rhetorical speaking.”
No age and experience can mitigate that level of halting delivery, devoid of substance, in direct opposition to her own party’s stated platform- plus the hysterics and horrific setting. This wasn’t a “give her time.” It was a “pretty brunette not trying to sound like MTG” travesty. She knew what she was doing and saying and deserves all of the contempt thrown her way.
Remember when he beat up Diane Lane?
I’ve already watched that cold open ScarJo a couple of times and keep just noticing new things that she’s doing there.Like she committed to the Britt bit to a degree that actually makes it work on its own instead of just repeating the utter insanity that was the original.
It’s amazing how many little things she threw in there. The cadence, the short gasps, the eyes, the verge-of-tears voice cracking. I’m impressed she could do that with like a day’s preparation.
Similar to when Matt Damon came in to be Brett Kavanaugh. Quick turn.
I actually watched the SotU address AND the GOP response and knew that SNL would have to mock the latter mercilessly. It was SOOOOOO overwrought and hilariously unhinged. I did not expect, however, that they’d bring in Scarlett Johansen who would absolutely murder the opportunity.
Nice to see Sarah Sherman showing up more. I enjoy Heidi but she’s getting a little over-featured in too many Hot Mess Miss roles.
Yikes! More than any episode in recent memory, this one reeked of “writing your entire term paper the night before it’s due”. The cold open was BRILLIANT. But it was a nightmare the rest of the way. I didn’t laugh once. Even the taped bits felt incredibly incomplete. My response after reaching the end of each skit was thinking back to an earlier part and saying “oh wait. THAT was the joke of this?”
I am questioning the capability of Jost and Che to reliably steer this ship. After the all-time classic Limu Emu and Doug taped bit from a couple of weeks ago being CUT FOR TIME in favor of the crappy skits that actually made it into the show, I don’t have any confidence in this show. (Yes, I realize this last sentiment could be cut-and-pasted into a review of any episode over the last 45 years.)
The Shrimp Tower is your best? Because it shows us the maddening ‘logic’ of a malignant narcissists, the embarrassing behavior of enablers and it’s sickening misogyny? He arses himself at the end. That wrapped it up nicely, but this seldom happens. Just because something is stupid doesn’t mean it’s funny.
Bread, if I had a nickel for every time you mentioned malignant narcissism in a comment about a piece of pop culture, I could retire and build the largest shrimp tower the world has ever known.
I am sure that sometimes a shrimp tower sketch is a metaphor for narcissism! But sometimes a shrimp tower is just a cigar.
Solid and very funny episode. Loved the cat puppet!!
The writing for most of the sketches was weak as usual but wow was it fun to watch Josh Brolin just have fun. I wonder why he doesn’t do more comedic movies.
Josh Brolin is the ONLY funny thing in Men in Black 3
He’s so fucking good in how he becomes a young Tommy Lee. Plus that ending is just…man.
He’s so fucking good in how he becomes a young Tommy Lee. Plus that ending is just…man.
He is SO GOOD in MIB3.
He’s every bit as good a Tommy Lee Jones as Tommy Lee Jones is.
Some of the writing for the sketches were pretty weak, but you saw how a great host can really elevate the material. Brolin gleefully threw himself into every role and it made everything better.
Time for new writers
The writing was not great, but the performances elevated the material. If you described that bank robbery skit, I would have just made a face, but the physical comedy was outstanding.
The cast has to stop breaking in these “Temecula” sketches, because that means they’ll keep doing them. “Cook my meat” sounds like a catchphrase from an ‘80s sitcom.
It was fine once. Then it winds up becoming overkill if done more than once.
Agree. The Temecula just doesn’t work for me. It is a very shallow premise and they just don’t go far enough in the absurdity.
‘”Scarlett Johansson also get in on the silly fun”’Did you know that she was born in Manhattan,NY? Perhaps she was visiting family.
Looking at the normal number of comments here makes the number on a couple of previous ones look highly suspect. Looks like the AV Club was targeted for some reason.
Short weekend update? So there does remain some mercy in this world.
I hoped and hoped and hoped (sadly, in vain) that the Update special commentary would have featured Reporter Sarah Sherman and Special Correspondent Scarjo double-teaming Colin Jost in a brutally vicious round of Sarah News!
why on earth would you expect Ariana Grande’s mom to be recognizable to mass audience? She doesn’t even have a wikipedia page
I tire of SNL constantly throwing in modern flavor of the month slang to get easy laughs. The bank robbery sketch was such a great/funny idea, Gardner is the tits and bowen yang killed the Moulin Rouge sketch. This episode was one for the bros for sure.
Thoughts from an internet rando:1. The monologue wasn’t bad, but it was all over the place. Touching on his past appearances, that poem (which I did not know about), his book and then the ice bath was just a lot of random, unfocused stuff. Not bad, but it was like the team could not come up with enough material on one topic, so each person threw a joke out there and they all got mashed up together.2. Sarah Sherman was in a ton of sketches, which was nice.3. I am not sure the Shrimp Tower was the best sketch of the night, but I did appreciate how the sketch at least did more than “ha, look at this wacky random thing here!” It worked for me.4. That Moulin Rouge sketch highlighted some of the changes that the show has gone through even since the early 00s. If that show was the early 00s, Will Ferrell (probably) would have been belting out a whole bunch of contemporary pop songs with no association to the scene or the movie. It would not have kept going back to Happy Birthday (a random choice). SNL in that era seemed to do a lot more celebrity impressions and riffs on popular songs that SNL lately no longer does. Not a complaint, just an observation.5. Good energy from Brolin and some weirdo sketches were overall a pretty winning combination. I enjoyed it.
I was expecting something in response to Britt’s dumpster fire speech, but ScarJo brought her A-game and absolutely nailed all the crazy rapid facial expressions, voice inflections, and general melodramatic style! So good! Brolin is a pleasure to watch in that he fully commits to any SNL role, no matter how ridiculous or insane, with no nary a hint of ego, with great acting to boot! Fun episode, especially in comparison to that Dakota Johnson snoozefest.
Great review, but this is entirely too many links in one paragraph. What do you expect, that we’ll open every one of them, read through the articles, and then come back to this one after 3.5 hours? We get it, you reference other articles you’ve written on here. But having no less than 9 LINKS in one opening paragraph is awful writing and editing.