Saturday Night Live returns with a great host but moderate laughs
Aubrey Plaza kills in an unfortunately so-so episode of SNL
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live found the perfect host to bring it into 2023 in Aubrey Plaza. In addition to her deadpan delivery, she often treats press junkets, red carpets, and late-night interviews as her own experimental sketch show. It turned out to be a sort of homecoming for Plaza. She got her start in the entertainment industry in the NBC page program and even worked with the SNL set-design department. Since those early years, she has built a surprising and impressive career with her role as April Ludgate in the NBC comedy Parks And Recreation, earned laughs in broad Hollywood studio comedies, and captivated in a litany of dark indie films from Ingrid Goes West to Black Bear. Hosting SNL caps off a stellar year for Plaza after the success of Emily the Criminal, which she starred in and produced, and her role in The White Lotus. Perhaps this all caused too high of expectations. The episode overall felt middle of the road, even though Plaza proved to be an excellent and enthusiastic first-time host.
Best sketch of the night
The episode was full of spoofs on recent pop culture entertainment from “M3gan 2.0” to “Avatar,” but “The Black Lotus” stood out as the best of the bunch. A terrific showcase for Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson, it makes a good argument for them to join The White Lotus cast next season as the hotel managers. The sketch allowed Chloe Fineman to reuse her Jennifer Coolidge impersonation and gave room for Plaza to show her range after playing Harper on the show’s second season. Most impressive is that the sketch works well for those who were fanatics of the series and for those who immediately dismissed the show as rich white people problems.
Worst sketch of the night
Of the pop culture spoofs, “Avatar” was the worst. The sketch felt like an obligation as if the writers felt like they had to do something with the cultural phenomenon of Avatar. It lacked focus, direction, or commentary. It felt overlong, even though it was relatively short. It was a lazy sketch that relied more on costuming and sets than good writing or funny performances.
The most WTF moment of the night
It could be the best sketch of the night. It could be the worst sketch of the night. Sam Smith’s performance of “Gloria” was bizarre and bewildering. It took a while to realize that it was actually Sharon Stone surrounded by a choir in black sequin robes like a gay remake of Eyes Wide Shut. Smith sang in the back as Stone lounged before staring out into the horizon or the studio audience. Why all this was happening is up for debate. Is it camp? Is it a case of queerbaiting by an actual queer person? Is it a homage to Stone’s 1999 remake of the gangster film Gloria? We may never get the answer to these questions.
The most material of the night
The New York Times published its bombshell report about George Santos the day after the final 2022 episode of SNL. In the meantime, Santos’ web of lies has become as intricate as it is absurd. For SNL, it is the gift that keeps giving. Featured in a solid string of jokes in “Weekend Update,” Santos, played by Bowen Yang, made two separate appearances in the “Cold Open” and as a special guest on “Weekend Update.” There is something fascinating about Santos and the way that he embodies the fragility and failings of the democratic system in the United States.
MVP of the Night: Aubrey Plaza
While tempting to give the MVP slot to George Santos or even Molly Kearney, who had a good amount of screen time this week, Aubrey Plaza had the biggest impact on the episode. It was a mixed bag of sketches, but Plaza was committed throughout. She managed to show an impressively wide range of characters while infusing the show with her brand of off-beat deadpan humor. She was at her best during the monologue which played on her own history with SNL and NBC. She also managed to pull in a remarkable and peculiar collection of celebrity cameos from former co-star Amy Poehler to Tony Hawk to the aforementioned Sharon Stone, and even the President of the United States Joe Biden.
Stray observations
- Cecily Strong’s Verizon commercials got a shoutout.
- They felt like very short sketches this week, which was good and bad.
- It was sort of funny when Michael Che didn’t seem to get the joke about the Staten Island Ferry.
- “M3gan 2.0" had some funny moments, but it needed to be pushed further and be much gayer. Like offensively gay. “Little Homo?” Just bleep out what she really should have said.
104 Comments
do we even need weekly reviews of SNL anymore? Just do one if it DOESNT suck, which it always does. I knew not even Aubrey Plaza could save it.
The ep Dave Chappelle hosted didn’t suck.
Blatent dog whistle bro
Sad thing is I cant tell if this is a joke or not, cuz some people on this website are legit pathetic enough to see someone say his episode didnt suck and assume it’s a dog whistle.
a rare exception.
THIS.
Man, I dunno about this. Plaza had the energy, and was totally game, but she doesn’t really have a sketch comedy background, and that came through. She was clearly reading off the cue cards all night, and her jitters got in the way of a high-energy, engaging performance. Just take the “Taboo” skit: she was struggling to read the cards and forgot to flip the cards, then on Mikey Day’s “turn” he looked much more natural and comfortable.Also, there was a lot of Molly Kearney, and, frankly, we never need that much again. She’s just dollar store Aidy Bryant, and brings nothing to the table.
I thought Molly’s first sketch, the filmed piece where she talks about killing Putin, was hilarious. This one was not.
Comparing Molly Kearney to Aidy Bryant is only possible if you’re just focused on what they look like. Kearney is dollar store Chris Farley, not anyone else (but there’s probably room to grow there.) I agree a bit much last night.
I think this review is an excellent example of AVClub’s difficulty in discussing SNl. And, by the way, to be honest it is a really difficult to show to discuss as in addition to being a comedic show, which is inherently probably the most subjective form of entertainment, it is also an institution that has targeted multiple different audiences over the decades.However, to return to the Aubrey Plaza of it all, I agree that you could really see that her energy was causing issues with a lot of the sketches. Which is fine in itself, it happens, but if it is a host that the site has decreed as a favorite, then they are never responsible for anything negative. Hence you get stuff like this where some of the criticism is working hard not to point at Aubrey herself.
What issues?
She is not good. It’s fairly obvious why she’s in the ensemble.
her jitters got in the way
Dare I say, that’s just Aubrey Plaza.
Yeah, you don’t have Aubrey Plaza on your show if you’re not looking for Aubrey Plaza. It’s not like they didn’t already know who she is.
I don’t get why she was cast as Terry Bradshaw, it’s not like it was so good an impression as to justify it.
Yeah, but who else would you cast?
Molly Kearney’s been solid since the start.
I think Molly Kearney is great in the right sketch, but so far, they’ve mostly put her in sketches where her shtick is to say weird things in a gravelly voice (see: Terry Bradshaw and the Miss Universe sketch as prime examples), much like how Mikey Day really only appears in a skit to provide exposition, it feels like. Here’s hoping she and the writers find a better use for her talent before they decide whether or not to make her a permanent cast member.
That’s an odd critique about Aubrey not having a sketch background. She’s not part of the cast. Is this your first time watching SNL or something? That’s kind of the entire point of the guest host. They rarely if ever have sketch backgrounds. That comment applies to 95% of the hosts. The cast is supposed to have enough of a comedy background to guide the host through if they are unsure of themselves. Your comment is so fascinating to me.
Me during Sam Smith’s first song. And a meme for his second.Black Lotus, M3gan, and Game Night were fun and Update had a couple of good jokes.
It’s not great for Saturday Night LIVE that their prefilmed pieces are consistently the best things they do.
It’s been that way for at least 20 years, so we should probably get used to that.
I mean, the reason you edit is to take out the things that aren’t working, right? So I don’t exactly find it shocking that the quality tends to be higher on average. Indeed, I would hope that would be the case…
Did you ironically or unironically repeat Amy Poehler’s Weekend Update bit?
They’ve always been part of the show and usually the best part. For almost a thousand episodes, so maybe we’re in the “acceptance” part of that.
For a second, I wondered if that was Chloe Fineman that popped out from under his coat.
Same.
I thought it was to make us forget that Sam Smith’s music is distilled dullness in a bottle (as nice a bland, milquetoast-y person as they seem), and they had to stage an elaborate distraction to keep us from dozing off.
I didn’t even realize Sam Smith was still a thing. Seems like a lifetime ago when he lost the case to Tom Petty.
So, uh… what’s going on with Sam Smith? I thought he was the sad love song guy, and now he seems much more… messy.
The straight guy in the HIV drug commercial was a funny skit. Especially since every other commercial on TV these days is for HIV treatments…or Cecilys goddam Verizon ads.
“The sketch felt like an obligation as if the writers felt like they had to do something with the cultural phenomenon of Avatar.
It lacked focus, direction, or commentary. It felt overlong, even
though it was relatively short. It was a lazy sketch that relied more on
costuming and sets than good writing”Sounds to me like they nailed Avatar. In spirit, at least.
There’s good pulp and bad pulp. Avatar’s good pulp. Bad pulp is, idk, Boondock Saints.
Pulp implies entertaining, avatar isn’t
I can only speak for myself, but I was entertained by the first one a decade ago and entertained by this one. I didn’t think either was a jewel of cinema.
I’d rather watch Boondock Saints on repeat than watch Avatar again.
Hey, free country. Enjoy.
Except the part about it being relatively short. Neither Avatar is relatively short to absolutely anything..
Avatar felt “overlong, even though it was relatively short?” Also, hard to claim the films lack focus or direction.
Relatively short my ass. Two hours in and I was clawing at my seat when I Realized there was another hour left.
We know its you James Cameron
I think they were referring to the sketch, not the movie itself.
Yeah we were all just scratching our heads when that Avatar came up.
Tiny objection: neither Avatar is relatively short.
“[Host] proves to be charmingly game / up for anything, but the writing lets them down” has got to be the most revised and repurposed headline in the history of AV Club. It’s like having to review Water every week and finding a slightly different way to say “it’s wet.”
The only more common AV Club-ism is “uneven.”There was just a major academic study showing that 73% of all recorded (and *expected*) uses of the word “uneven” occur in AV Club reviews, mostly as the laziest possible cop-out way of signaling “this [episode/film/book/album] had some good stuff in it and some less good stuff in it and I refuse to write with conviction.”
No mention of the Leslie Knope/April Ludgate appearance on Weekend Update?
It was garbage, why would they need to mention it?
Was it just me or did Aubrey seem nervous during her monologue?
“They felt like very short sketches this week, which was good and bad.”No, never bad. SNL’s cardinal sin, for as long as it’s existed, is overlong, one-joke sketches that refuse to end.
Especially this week everything felt like they had no idea how to end them. With the Game Night and the gay commercial sketch (the medication one not the Allison Williams one) they just cut to the exterior in what felt like a mistake. Even the ones that did have an ending, half the time it was just “celebrity cameo”.
They played hard and fast. It was good pacing because they didn’t linger or overstay a sketches welcome and their jokes were a step ahead of the audience. I loved the rhythm last night.
Is it just me, or are there a LOT of technical mistakes this year? Consistently obvious gaffes from what should be pros? What’s going on with the SNL tech crew?
Yep. For example, the camera direction was off again when Mikey Day was left wondering what the hell to do when the camera should have been on someone else in the cold open. Been seeing a lot of that in recent weeks. There’s also something frequently going wrong with the sound; there are often parts that are unintelligible no matter how I adjust my TV & speakers.
It was cool they got Biden to cameo. Has any sitting POTUS ever appeared on the show, even if it was a recording and not live? Other than that I thought way too many sketches relied on celebrity cameos, and not actually being funny. The Beauty Pageant and the old time detective especially. JAJ was good at that though. I hope he gets to do characters and not just impressions. Bringing back Amy Poehler was fun. It was great seeing her on WU. I know I keep saying this but I didn’t see anything Aubrey-like in the sketches. She’s supposed to have this rep for deadpan but other than when Chappelle hosts, the sketches never conform to the host. Everything was playing to the rafters, like it always is. There weren’t any standout sketches this week except maybe George Santos.
I doubt she wanted to do a bunch of sketches where she’s the sarcastic deadpan girl.
Not saying she should. I just don’t get the reviewer saying that Aubrey brought herself to the parts, when (as is usually the case with hosts) the host never does and their parts could be played by anyone. The host usually not the star.
Gerald Ford appeared on SNL in its first season.
Played by Chevy Chase??
Gerald Ford was on SNL with a pre-recorded “Live from New York” etc.
I remember George HW Bush doing a recorded bit once, though I can’t remember for sure if he was president at the time or if it was shortly after.
I thought Barack Obama cameoed the second time when he was a POTUS.
Surely that was a deep fake Biden right? They didn’t actually get him to film something. There also seemed like something about his was off, but that could just be Joe these days
It was a personal message he sent Aubrey after she won the most famous person from Delaware contest. I don’t think he did it for the show.
I can’t be the only person disappointed Aubrey wasn’t name-checked as Janet Snakehole during the old time-y detective sketch, right?
> “Little Homo?” Just bleep out what she really should have said.
OMG.
The best sketch was FRANCE!And WTF was that singer
I think you forgot to upload the rest of the review
I really enjoyed the hell out of this episode. In fact, it was my favorite episode in a long time. Everyone was game. Committed. Playing. Having fun. The cameos were ridiculous. The premises for sketches were a little more off kilter. And Aubrey fit in like a glove. A lot of the newbies had more chances to shine. I would’ve liked more Sarah Sherman, but she stole a sketch with one line “yes, Mom. I mean Sister. Noooooo!”Sam Smith’s performances were fun, in the moment, and grand spectacles. And I could use those descriptors for the episode as a whole. The episode was full of artistry and life.
Agreed, this was easily a highlight of the season. Very weird review.
The opening was okay, the monologue was good even if her timing was off, and then it looked like it was taking off: the beauty pageant, Black Lotus, and Game Night were three of the best sketches of the season…and then with the nun sketch it just came to a crashing halt and it seemed like the writers couldn’t figure out how to end or even continue the sketches. The Avatar sketch will definitely make a “worst-of” compilation. Like with the private eye sketch…why didn’t they have any idea where it should go? It was only like three minutes long and they couldn’t figure out how to end it? Why did the Nun sketch end with them singing Lady Gaga terribly? And the gay club one was intermittently funny (“it’s a hot salad”), but “not gay” was a joke from Popstar!Anyway, Weekend Update was pretty good this week, and Game Night was nearly perfect, and Chloe Fineman’s Jennifer Coolidge impression is just insanely good. Btw, in the promo for this week Chloe Fineman and Aubrey Plaza make out, if that’s the kind of thing that appeals to you.Also do watch Emily the Criminal, it’s good
I don’t know, I haven’t watched much SNL recently but I thought that was all pretty funny. The skits weren’t flabby, the cast was jelling well, and when it comes to complaints of reading cue cards – there was wayyyy less of that this time than I see on average.
I kind of agree with this review. Aubrey was very committed to the sketches – but she isn’t really a great sketch performer. Black Lotus was a fun idea – and Chloe does a very solid impression of Jennifer Coolidge but they didn’t give her any funny lines. Bowen – once was plenty for his George Santos. And Sam Smith’s 2nd performance was atrocious. A real surprise to have Sharon Stone – twice – but why not give her some real material? The Avatar parody was definitely the worst of the night.
Aubrey Plaza looks…um…real good in that opening monologue.
Bowen as George Santos was fun.
B- to a solid B is fair grade. Aubrey Plaza did well as host. Some cue card reading (which is fairly common for a lot of hosts) but she brought a lot of good energy to everything she did. I liked her opening as well along with Amy Poehler’s appearances. Some solid sketches tonight too, the best being The Black Lotus and Miss Universe. Miss Universe is the hardest I’ve laughed at an SNL sketch in a long time. There was good laughs throughout and I completely lost it with Tony Hawk. Props to whoever came up with that.The less said about Sam Smith, the better. They can sing, but they should just stick with that. All of that…extra…yeah, you need a friend to tell you “no”. I also see technical production miscues are a thing. The show use to never have them, but has had a slew of them in the first half of the season. I figured maybe they’re working in new people behind the scenes and they’ve got it worked out over the break. Nope. Within the first 2 minutes of the opening, they blow it, awkwardly focusing on Mikey Day while Kearney is speaking and then awkwardly shifting back and forth, throwing the rest of an already weak sketch into more of a mess. It’s just really odd seeing a show that rarely had these types of errors to having multiple ones every show.
Yeah, the technical issues used to be a sporadic at best problem– which, I get it, accidents happen, especially on live TV. But the last few seasons they’ve been happening more and more. Maybe the director is losing his touch or something but it’s just cringe-worthy at this point.
Except that the Miss U sketch is stolen from a tik tok video that dropped last week, so points for originality…
“Like Bros, but for gays.” is such a massive burn.
I dont mean to be gross but holy shit she looks hot as a blonde!
The Amy P. thing seemed awkward and flat in a sad way – it hit me similar to when Mike Meyers and Carvey revisited Wayne’s World on an SNL cameo or even (to jump genres) the scenes with Brian Cranston and Aaron Paul on the last go-round of Better Call Saul. Recapturing those characters (with the obstacle of distance) sometimes seems impossible and when it comes up short, there’s a pathetic aroma to it all. The “you can’t go home” syndrome.
It did feel really weird and awkward. I think it was just some long set up to get Amy to tell a joke on WU
It’s kind of amazing how much Tony Hawk DOES NOT look like a legendary skateboarder.He looks like an accountant, or an insurance salesman.
It looks like he’s had about nine cosmetic surgeries, which is definitely not something you’d expect on a legendary skateboarder.
If he lands on his face.
He looks like the guy who sells you weed through the high school fence.
The OP said he didn’t look like a skateboarder though
For me for some reason I mostly only like SNL when it goes utterly random, and for that my favorite skit turned out to be the Miss Universe one, inspired by the recent Miss France’s oddly hoarse yelling of her country’s name.
I never need to see another SNL studio tour… Possibly ever? The opening monologue in general seemed awkward and devoid of any real laughs.Gave up on this one by midnight, the writing seemed so uninspired and boring.
A shout out to Cecily Strong’s Verizon commercials? My goodness what a waste of her talent thus far. Maybe some of the SNL writers could freelance for Verizon.
“While tempting to give the MVP slot to George Santos…”Hope this is a typo, as the living, walking disgrace of a human being that is GS does not deserve to be within walking distance of any sort of positive designation or validation.
Every time I hear the name Aubrey Plaza it sounds to me like the place where the Nakatomi building was.
Pretty okay episode, the miss universe sketch was easily the funniest sketch of the night, surprised it doesn’t get any mention at all.Just something funny with silly delivery like that especially if you know the context.
Bowen’s George Santos was the only highlight. He saved a cold open that was packed with the usual writing clunkers. (Mikey Day, consistently wasting his talent playing “guy who’s bewildered by the weird characters” for the millionth time). Bowen’s Weekend Update appearance was a grand slam.
I was wondering where saw that before lol
News flash: The AV Club’s standards are way too high.
There are peaks and valleys in the SNL cast, and this is kind of a low time when the cast is in need of some replenishing. A couple of them have their moments. The writers are awfully poor right now too I think, since most recent funny moments have been from something injected by a good host. But to be fair even going back to it’s glory days SNL has always had hits and misses. When ‘best of’ episodes go back they skip over a lot of episodes and skits that weren’t great. It’s been more during the peak casts where the shows were consistently good. But most of the time it’s 1 out of 3 or 4 episodes where I finish it feeling like I got more than a couple laughs. The good ones still make it worth watching though.
Every time I see George Santos, I keep thinking Fred Armisen would do a killer take on him. Missed opportunity.
I dislike how few people are pointing out Aubrey was playing a racial charicature in a sketch where 2/3 of the writers were white. Her having one metista parent isn’t a pass to act like a spicy child stereotype.
I’m not a regular viewer so I can’t really comment but my Dad watches SNL religiously and he actually called us all over to watch this one cuz Aubrey Plaza just tickled him right pink.
I mean, “M3gan 2.0″ had a whole runner about ass-eating… did it really need to get gayer?
That Black Lotus sketch was cringe af.
She did ok. I thought her comedic timing would be better ngl