Saturday Night Live scores a season-best episode with Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce
Provocative material and peculiar characters make for a memorable evening
TV Reviews Travis Kelce
From 1977 with football player Fran Tarkenton to tonight with two-time Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce, there is a substantial, if uneven, history of professional athletes hosting Saturday Night Live. It feels like an odd combination considering that athletic completion and sketch comedy hardly utilize the same muscles. While Kelce may have entered Studio 8H as an underdog, he proved himself as one of the season’s most agile hosts. With a game plan to lean into more provocative humor, from cuckholding to a game of Russian roulette, and giving the ball to a deep bench of performers with peculiar character-driven sketches, SNL scored one of its best episodes of the season.
Best sketch of the night
In American culture, the football player remains a prototype of masculinity. As a result, many of the nights best sketches dealt with assumptions and subversions of this trope from “Straight Male Friend” to “American Girl Café.” By connecting masculinity and insecurity, “Please Destroy Me: Self-Defense” proved to be one of the best. After weeks of bullying from SNL interns, the writing trio seeks help in the form of a self-defense class. The sketches conflation of self-worth and self-defense is a perfect premise, but lifts off with slapstick violence and escalating absurdity. The way that brute force destroys all hope each writer to stand up for themselves is hilarious. The addition of a fighting grandma and a game of Russian roulette made for frenetic and memorable laughs.
Worst sketch of the night
A lot of the night’s sketches dealt with dating – perhaps a node to Kelce’s time on an unsuccessful reality dating program – in fact, the word throuple appeared in two separate sketches, but “Abby the Ex-Girlfriend” had the least to offer. The sketch established that Abby suffers from misunderstandings and delusions early on, but gives Heidi Gardner little room to develop Abby’s idiosyncrasies. Instead, the sketch relies on an exaggerated water gag to show Abby crying. The practical effect has some humor, but without it or the cameo from Kelce’s brother, the sketch has little going on.
Biggest waste of time
It was exciting to see Punkie Johnson show up on “Weekend Update.” She remains one of the most consistently underused members of the cast. Unfortunately, in what felt like a somewhat bloated “Update” with an op-ed from Dilbert and a birthday edition of “Sarah’s News,” Johnson’s appearance with Mikey Day felt like a low point of an otherwise better-than-average SNL. Under the guise of discussing Oscar predictions, Day revealed that Johnson has the inability to recognize or correctly name numerous celebrities. There is little doubt that Day finds this amusing, the duo utterly fails to translate that for a wider audience. It all feels like when something funny happens at work and when you tell the story outside of work, no one laughs. The bit has no payoff. Formatting it in an overly complicated and unenthusiastic guessing game with Coin Jost and explanations like “I’m sorry but does this bitch not look like a Claire?” do little to make any of it funnier. The entire segment was undeserving of airtime on national television.
Needs more time
Bowen Yang was excellent in “Straight Male Friend,” which perfectly paired him with Kelce. However, it was his portrayal of Garrett, the unhinged Hinge date that demanded more screen time. It is such an unsettling character study of a lonely, socially awkward man looking for love in all the wrong places. If it weren’t for his barely repressed homicidal urges, you’d almost feel sorry for Garrett. He’s such a fascinating mix of rational thought and irrational expectations. He’s the kind of character that will haunt you after the sketch has ended. Even now, I’m wondering what is Garrett he’s doing and what he’ll do next. Hopefully, he’ll appear in another SNL.
MVP of the night: Travis Kelce
It was probably unfair to have low expectations of Kelce as a host, and he quickly dispelled them during his excellent monologue. Wonderfully written and well delivered, the opening managed to celebrate his recent triumph while also checking all ego at the door. From relatable family content to a series of self-deprecating jokes involving his “eloquent pump up speeches” on the field, failing French, English, and a drug test in high school before becoming a Super bowl champion. The joke about riding to and from the super bowl in his mom’s minivan was a perfect summation of his personal journey and a warming introduction to a new wider audience. It felt genuine when he said it was an honor to be hosting SNL and felt even more genuine when he said he would “give it everything,” which he proved by the end of the night.
Stray observations:
- From Bowen Yang’s Glen, to the singing parents, and Chloe Fineman’s dating show creation, SNL needs to make some of these recurring characters.
- It felt like “American Girl Café” was missing a little political commentary around the children culture wars going on right now and the hysteria concerning child safety.
- The waterworks of “Abby the Ex- Girlfriend” was reminiscent of “Blood Oath” from earlier in the season.
- I wonder if there was a version of “Straight Male Friend” that involved Bowen Yang developing a sexual attraction to an unavailable straight man.
- I hope they keep up the provocative content for the next episode.
79 Comments
It took me about three minutes to remember Travis Kelce as the guy in the Super Bowl whose brother played for Philly, but after the dud of an opening monologue, the episode served as a great work resume for Travis to have a film career when he retires from football. He was a great gamer in everything they threw at him, even an actual funny bit using the unfunny SNL writers; boy was that a shocking turn!
GRONK > kelce. Gronk is just a better tight end overall this has to be said I’m sorry
Better at pass blocking yes, better overall? No chance.
Also they had a very good Dilbert costume and Michael Longfellow needs to have a bigger role in other sketches he’s great and I also Miss Beck Bennett he played generic white dude perfectly Mikey day is fine but Bennett was a master at it.
The thing that makes Garrett from hinge work is that Stewie Griffin shirt. I have never seen a shirt elevate a character and skit so much. Without it I don’t think the skit is as funny as it is.
“You changed INTO that??”
My mom and I were watching (she lets me stay up late on Saturdays) and I got so excited because I have the same shirt!
Does anyone know what’s hanging off his suit in his monologue? It looks like a whole other lapel folded around the regular lapel. I’ve never seen anything like it. It gives it a sort “front tails” look.
I thought it looked like two sleeves. Each one had three buttons at the ends just like a suit jacket.
It was weird, cause it looks like he’s wearing two coats around the lapels, with an extra sleeve hanging down, sort of like a loincloth.
(The scroll for details thing is a YouTube artifact. I have no details.)
It looks like an extra set of sleeves that came with the jacket and are meant to be removed until needed.
It’s his towel for keeping hands dry between plays. Don’t want any passes slipping through.
“Please Destroy Me”? Uh, Freudian slip much?
That was such a damn fun episode. I’ll admit that I was a little bit worried during the opening monologue, not because it was bad, but because you could see Kelce is doesn’t have a natural relaxation in front of the camera. But the show did a fantastic job in building around that and make it work.It’s a really tight race between the Please Don’t Destroy sketch and American Girl Cafe for the best sketch of the night for me.
It’s weird how Travis Kelce is so comfortable yelling “You jabroni!” and ripping WWE-style interviews in front of 50,000 fans on live TV, but gets on that stage in that tiny studio and the lights seems so much brighter. But for the most part he never seemed uncomfortable. Definitely in the top tier of athletes hosting.And the American Girl sketch I think was tops. The Please Don’t Destroy sketch was kinda what you’d expect they’d give an athlete host. way preferred the huge dude who just had a weird American Girl doll thing.
It felt like “American Girl Café” was missing a little political commentary around the children culture wars going on right now and the hysteria concerning child safety.That was a brilliant, hysterical sketch that did in no way need to be bogged down by some misplaced political commentary about culture wars or child safety or whatever. Not everything has to have a message. It’s okay to just be funny.
I laughed more in that sketch than I have at entire episodes, this season.“No kids menus.”“Don’t worry, she’s on the pill.”
Am I the only one who is creeped out how smug certain people are getting with their mocking of child safety? I have to be fingerprinted and get a background check and get updated training every year for my job. Here’s the truth: child predators don’t have an ideology. They come in all classes, races, religions and political creeds. Smugly thinking only “the other side” has predators is a dangerous and awful thing. All they need is sexually naive parents and vulnerable children. Q-Anon was a gift to predators because it made concern for children look wacky and conspiratorial. Q-Anon was wacky, concern for children is not.
Also, it wouldn’t have made any sense since there’s nothing oversensitive about wondering what a single adult man is doing in a doll cafe primarily for little girls and their parents.
My recent experience has been that if that man (homosexual or heterosexual) identifies as a woman he’s the most oppressed person on earth and if he wants to gyrate in front of children, that should be celebrated. It doesn’t matter if he gets erect while wearing women’s clothing, what matters is that he doesn’t feel sad and is affirmed. And yes, I am a feminist. It’s just that my feminism doesn’t extend to women with penises for reasons that should be obvious. But I will submit to safeguarding checks at my job because a small number of biological females do commit sex crimes, and as an adult human female, I feel it is important to help keep safeguards in place.
You’re right, your reasons are obvious.
Here’s the truth: child predators don’t have an ideology. They come in all classes, races, religions and political creeds. Smugly thinking only “the other side” has predators is a dangerous and awful thing. All they need is sexually naive parents and vulnerable children. Yep.Y’know what most sexual predators look like? A kid’s uncle or cousin. Because that’s usually who the fuck it is.
There’s genuine concern about children’s safety that supports those who work with children being carefully monitored and well trained. Then there’s pearl clutching “won’t someone please think of the children!” moral panic hysteria. The dog and pony show the GOP is currently doing about drag queens and trans people is the latter and a distraction that endangers the LGBTQ+ community far more than children.It’s not about mocking child safety. It’s about recognizing real problems from fake, made up moral panics.
In my experience living in the deep blue UWS of Manhattan, liberal parents are just as concerned about their kids’ physical safety as anyone else – kids in my neighborhood are never left alone, their moms can go full Karen over who’s teaching them, what they’re eating, etc. The real differences seem to be about what kids see and read. These parents would happily take kids to a drag story hour, and worry less about talking about tough subjects – for example, I once saw some super-liberal parents I know explaining 9/11 to their very young kid when we were walking by the memorial. Ultimately a lot of the “won’t anyone think about the children!” stuff you hear in the media is really about culture-war stuff – e.g., removing books about two penguin dads from school libraries, not protecting playgrounds from child predators. And I think it does deserve to be mocked!
When you say Karen do you men the original meaning, a white woman who was condescending to black help or do you mean it in the white male appropriated meaning: old hag that needs to shut up but I’m not a misogynist I stand in solidarity with black people wanting middle aged woman to shut up no matter what she’s saying including sounding the alarm about sexual predators? Just curious so I can respond.
I didn’t really need this to have a message, I would’ve liked to of had a coherent point of you. I wasn’t sure with a joke was supposed to be, that he is weird, or that it’s a big, tough guy, normalizing playing with dolls, but then he turns out he kind of is a pedo? It felt like every single one of the sketches this week was written maybe two days ago.
It always amuses me when people seek some kind of deep meaning in SNL sketches. I don’t think anyone involved in actually producing the show has ever been burdened with the feeling that they somehow need to make a statement in every piece of material they come up with. They’re just trying to be funny.
That was so funny and out of nowhere
Are you sure? Did you just assume my pronouns? I’m dyeing my hair!
This was the best show of the season. Here is 1 good thing and 4 bad things from the episode
Just 1 truly good thing would, in fact, make it the best episode of the season, so that tracks.
My mom likes to do the 4 bad/1 good thing about being my mom but she can never come up with anything for good.
He did a great job! Sometimes the least likely are the best on SNL. Heidi Gardener is the new featured hot girl and it would be nice to see some of the other female cast members get these roles.
Heidi is a Chiefs fan, so it makes sense they’d use her more with Kelce, especially in those dating sketches. They had a good time leaning into the ‘himbo’ vibe.
This is her 6th season.
I’d say it was fun and better than expected, but the season’s best? Really? Better than the Pedro Pascal, Michael B. Jordan and Dave Chappelle episodes?
The sketches were a LOT funnier than any of those episodes.“Sorry I was such a pussy about my dad dying.”
Yeah. The Pedro Pascal episode was my favorite of the season so far. But this comes in a close second or third after that. The great thing about the Pascal ep was how incredibly pumped and comfortable he was with all the weird characters he played, and how he really seemed to be enjoying the hell outta himself. Kelce had exactly that same energy, but he’s not an actor. Two really fun episodes because the hosts were on, and they were reaching for the more absurdist humor. Humor in the neighborhood of Monty Python or the first few seasons of SNL.
I figure Pascal for poise and strength in front of a live audience due to his theater background, but his comic timing was terrific. Also, as you said he had clearly a blast and you can tell when they trust the host to take lead on sketches, not just surrounding and protecting them, but making them front and center in the live segments. Pascal’s taped stuff was just as good, though the pre-tapes are easy to engineer around if a guest is not as confident. I watched a couple of Pascal’s sketches again the next day and laughed just as much.
I just watched The Massive Weight of Unbearable Talent about a week ago and there is no doubt he is a fantastic comedic actor – an unusual skill.
He was so much fun to watch in that movie, and I have seen him in other light roles but my qualifier is it is a lot harder to flex comic muscle in front of a live audience on a sketch show in a new venue than in film or taped TV, which made him a wonderful surprise and a cut above as a host. ‘
With athletes you always worry you’re going to get something horrific like the Nancy Kerrigan episode, where the world discovered it’s possible she doesn’t know how to read. That’s what makes the good ones stand out even more.
I still play the Pedro Pascal sketches on YouTube and they’re still funny AF. My favorites are Mario Kart, Protective Mom, Waking Up, and Wing Pit.
I know it’s been habit for a long time to shit on SNL, and not unfairly, but I’ve really enjoyed the parts of this season I’ve seen so far. Kelce and the three you list all brought it and seemed psyched to be there (well, Chappelle played it with his usual nonchalance but the other three were clearly excited).
Has to be Dave Chappelle for pure woketard reaction
Best? He was energetic and game for whatever they threw at him, but focused all his eyeline on cue cards and bungled even single lines. The cast did all the heavy lifting. Above average for a first timer and athlete but I have to strongly disagree about best, especially after Pascal just melded with the cast like he has been doing it for years and crushed every sketch like the theater veteran he is.
“one of its best episodes of the season.”Plus, given the spotty history of athletes hosting, the expectations vs. actual outcome was probably one of the largest gaps ever. It was certainly better than last week’s with veteran comedic actor Woody Harrelson. Kelce may not have read the cue cards like a seasoned pro, but he never looked uncomfortable or out of his depth. Much like a good football team, they leaned into his strengths and set him up to succeed, which he more than did.Now Jason Kelce… as much as I love the guy, he seemed way more nervous and wooden.
I think using qualifiers such as “First Timer” and “Non-Actor Athlete” he did very well in the taped segments. In the live sketches he was no Barkley or Manning but as a supporting actor was lively, tried his best and not stiff (I agree about wooden man-toy Jason). I appreciate they saw his strengths and wrote with his personality in mind. I always wince when they can’t take their eyes off the cards even for a moment, and bungle a single response line, but certainly he did it with a smile and a sense of fun. Clearly he has presence and confidence and there were a lot of laughs. But they wrote for him, they surrounded him, it was very clear he was protected by the defense. Woody is just Woody, he is an icon. He never looks stressed, they adore him there and he is one of those guys who has no reticence and up for anything, plus he pitches ideas and writes stuff too, no comparison—like the other veterans they know what they are getting and he blends well. I just caught his “By Myself: The Musical” which I think was a Cut For Time Sketch and he makes me laugh. Pascal was my best so far this year; he has presence and timing like a seasoned pro.
Kelce has a big natural personality that they leaned into, and I actually thought he seemed very relaxed in his sketches. But let’s face it, no one is going to top Peyton.
Athletic completion?
Coin Jost?
“Abby” might not have worked as a sketch, but what I love about Heidi’s work is that she consistently gives performances – not just “sketch performances,” but committed work, both physically and vocally. I think she’s the best actress in the cast right now.
I feel like the skit would have worked better if whatever they used to make the fake tear’s wasn’t as clumsy. But, yes, a lot of Heidi’s work is adding depth to characters in a five minute skit
whatever they used to make the fake tear That leads to my big question from the sketch: Was Kelce trying (and failing) to trigger his own fake tears at the end of the sketch, or was he just trying to make a hand gesture similar to Gardner’s? I was also kinda curious if the same thing happened on the re-air (instead of dropping in a dress rehearsal version).
Did he play someone with a felony in every sketch? Was this referring to him getting arrested for weed. I was not looking forward to this episode but he won me over in the monologue, I gave him a chance and he had a fun energy. I think he’s awful at speaking the lines but that didn’t stop Leslie Jones from her run either. A lot of specificity in the character work here, was an enjoyable night. Punkie is still not a good fit though, sorry.
Huh? Kelce has never been arrested for weed. He was suspended for a year at Miami for failing a drug test, but he’s never been arrested from what I can see/remember.
It was probably unfair to have low expectations of Kelce as a host, and
he quickly dispelled them during his excellent monologue.
I dunno. I think its pretty fair to have low expectations when any non-actor hosts the show. It’s hard to gauge how they’ll fit in and the track record typically isn’t all that great. There’s been plenty of times where they end up being disasters. But Kelce did a fine job here. He was even better than the trainwreck that Woody Harrelson, professional thespian, conducted last week so he’s got that going for him.
I’m a lifelong Chiefs fan and love Kelce, but this episode was one of the weaker of the season IMO. He did well enough but there was also very little asked of him for most of the night. As usual, the prerecorded stuff absolutely wiped the floor with the live stuff the point where I’m starting to wonder why they broadcast live at all anymore.Honestly it feels like I have opposite tastes from the reviewer here. I tend to dislike episodes/sketches they like and vice versa. For example, while it was a poor choice to stuff at the end of an already-overlong Update, the Day-Johnson bit had me cracking up more than anything else. I know it’s not a bit with legs but I wouldn’t mind seeing it a few more times. There’s something about getting names ridiculously but not completely wrong that tickles my lizard-brain humor center just right.
He did a lot better than I thought he would, and as a Kansas City resident I’m used to his antics. The show still has the same problem with not knowing how to end sketches. Update was worse than normal. I can’t believe Punkie and Dilbert didn’t get cut. Someone looked at those bits and said, “Our backups are *worse*.”Sarah Sherman was mvp for me, with Bowen right there.
Anyone who watched Moonbase 8 wasn’t surprised that Kelce is quite comfortable in front of a camera. That he’s also a solid live performer is impressive, though (no, football doesn’t count).Once he’s finished being one of the best football players in the world, I expect him to have a rather successful TV/movie career.
I really thought this was terrible throughout. There were a few funny lines, and Weekend Update was good, but it was mainly low-quality material, and the sportsguy was pretty unappealing.
Has there been some edict for Season 48 coverage that the musical guest just isn’t mentioned anymore? I mean, I never heard of this week’s act before either, but still.
The Punkie celeb name thing might have been a waste of time, but it also provided the most whole-hearted laughs in my household. It was dumb and pointless and also perfectly hilarious.
A- is waaaayyyy to high imo…
Travis Kelce though did way better that I expected though. He did not stink on screen.
I have no idea how you’d land on “Please Destroy Me” instead of “Please Don’t Destroy”.
They confused it with my fan fiction sequel to Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You.
The writing seemed exceptionally lazy this week.
What is “athletic completion”? What is “cuckholding”? Do we want to know? Where are the handles with which cucks can be held? Also not familiar with “Please Destroy Me.” Whatever that is, it sounds like it could be more entertaining than anything Please Don’t Destroy has done. “The way that brute force destroys all hope each writer to stand up for themselves is hilarious.” Huh? You could really benefit from the attention of an editor, Mr. DeLellis. Failing that, try spell-check. Or, at least, get someone else to read through your work once before you post it. Or maybe you’re working to match SNL’s lazy, hacky lack of effort in slapping these recaps together while half asleep.
RE: Please Don’t Destroy. I guess I don’t get Zoomer humor. A senior citizen with a death wish? And punching women isn’t funny in any circumstance, but I’ve seen it elsewhere. So what was the point here? Is this just some absurdism? SNL is known for that particular flavor. Oh well, if someone wants to clue me in, I’m here:/
Their thing has confused me from the start. Absurdist ‘humour’ that almost never makes me smile, let alone lol. Then I read something about most, if not all three being related to former SNL employees (probably writers) IIRC.
Explained a lot.
They clearly think they’re funny, but are surely no Lonely Island.
I’ve only seen a few Lonely Island pieces. Most were pretty good. Humor is just plain hard to do, and getting it to land is even trickier. I’ve tried a lot of the younger comics on Netflix and it’s really pretty flat, overall. Doesn’t seem to be much fresh material out there or maybe outrage is too popular.
This episodes made me feel old and out of touch. I don’t watch football so I have no idea who this guy was and the only Hinge app I know about is the daily stretching coach my health insurance pays for that is suppose to help keep my joints healthy. In my defense, the last time I dated we didn’t even have phone apps(or smart phones). People still gave you a weird look if you admitting to using a dating website back then. I’m old
Yeah at this point if yhe whole thing shifted from TV to just being a load of YouTube shorts released on a Saturday night, it would be fairly on brand.
I tried a dating website but I kept getting matched with my mom.
I had no clue who he was, thought maybe a wrestler or country star. He looks like a cross between John Travolta and Liam Hemsworth.
I think Kelce has a future in show biz after this whole football thing plays out.
Wow. This was an absolutely terrible episode – the only redeeming sketch was “Straight Male Friend,” and Punkie Johnson and Mikey Day were charming and funny in their bit. I never want to see characters from the other sketches ever again; they were just cringe inducing – someone needs to go back to reviewer school.
american girl was the best sketch of the night and i dont think it was particularly close.
The please don’t destroy always are funny