Saturday Night Live recap: Molly Shannon delivers but the show doesn’t
The SNL superstar's return deserves better material
TV Reviews Molly Shannon
One of Saturday Night Live’s most recognizable alumni, Molly Shannon returns to Rockefeller center as a host for the second time. During her tenure, Shannon crafted memorable characters like Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley as well as impersonations like Courtney Love. Since SNL Shannon has continued non-stop playing a litany of memorable characters and proving to be an adept character actress. A terrific performer who radiates positive energy, Shannon’s talents deserve better from the show that launched her.
Best sketch of the night
Shannon’s original run on SNL produced countless classic characters and it was great to see her bring a new one to life with Jeannie Darcy. As a standup with no charisma or punchline, Darcy is the antithesis of Shannon. Most of Shannon’s best known characters are hungry for the spotlight with copious amounts of energy, but all that is stripped away for Jeannie Darcy. A terrific illustration of Anti-humor, the sketch subverts the Shannon persona in pleasing way. The hair and costuming are also on point.
Worst sketch of the night
Building a five-minute sketch around a fart joke is a bold swing that produced bland results. Like many of the sketches, Molly Shannon takes center stage, but there is so little else going on in the sketch that it becomes monotonous quickly. Even the inflating and deflating visual gag cannot save the sketch from relying solely on flatulence. SNL might have hit an all-season low with the line “smells like maybe it was twins.” “Pregnant Co-Worker” and other sketches felt like the writers dusted off unused ideas from the 1995 season when Shannon started.
A sign of things to come
“Valets,” the first sketch following the Cold Open, signals a poor episode to come. It is the kind of sketch that appears at the tail end of an episode when the writers have exhausted their good material and need to fill time. Poorly structured around three valet trainees, no one is given the time to develop a character or a joke. The sketch makes multiple setups between the valets and customers but each interaction yields disappointing results. Everyone seems to be sleepwalking through the sketch, with the possible exception of Kenan Thompson who yelling “I’m going to steal your car, you Black bitch” seemed to break Devon Walker.
What went wrong
There were high hopes for Shannon’s return to SNL. Perhaps expectations were too high, but what went wrong. It’s hard to tell. Shannon is great and committed to each sketch. Perhaps, “Drug Commercial,” can provide some insights to why the show suffered this week. Beside being the second musical number of the night and another sketch relying on body humor, the sketch feels stale. There are certain SNL standards like game show, office party, or drug commercial sketches that often appear. However, the sketch also displays a strange disconnect between the host and the cast. Part of the pleasure of a returning cast member hosting is to see them interact with a new generation of performers. In putting spotlight so intensely on Shannon, the regular cast members often felt adrift and redundant. There was a strange lack of synergy.
MVP of the night: Bowen Yang
One of the few segments that worked well tonight, “Jafar on Ron DeSantis’ Attacks on Disney,” is irreverent and timely commentary. A superb blend of pop culture with the culture wars of contemporary American politics, this is the kind of material SNL should strive to create weekly. The concept of having Jafar, one of Disney’s queerest villains, read the Florida governor for banning books, fashion choices, and generally hypocrisy is wonderfully camp. Absolutely essential to the episode’s high point is another pitch perfect performance by Bowen Yang. From calling DeSantis “the boy” to his delivery of cooch, Yang is in the zone. It is the kind of cutting character work that only Yang can delivery, his disdain for his target is delectable and insatiable.
Stray observations:
- I wonder how much of these Tump monologues are scripted.
- Everyone frozen behind Trump was funnier before it was actually mentioned.
- No mention of The Other Two or A Good Person during the monologue?
- Everyone’s response to Sally O’Malley’s camel toe was the most breaking in an SNL sketch in a long time.
70 Comments
I turned off the closed captioning because it was blocking the view of Molly’s camel toe and immediately asked myself: “What are you doing with your life???”
That’s like blocking the view of the Grand Canyon.
I usually find a few things to enjoy even on a bad SNL episode, but this was miserable. The best I had was a few laughs during Weekend Update. This time, there’s no way it’s the guest fault; Molly Shannon has proven herself over a a wide range of comedies, let alone as a cast member. Frankly, a C- seems generous.
Jeannie Darcy is NOT a new character. She debuted on Weekend Update back in 2007.
Or, you know, she debuted November 18, 2000, while Molly Shannon was a cast member.
The bad standup comic Jeannie Darcy was one of Molly’s characters when she was a cast member. I’m glad they only alluded to Mary Katherine Gallagher a few times rather than build a whole sketch around her. Also this PPD was the first not bad one in ages.
Molly Kearney does comedy like a woman doing an impression of a man, who is himself doing a bad impression of Chris Farley.
How can you tell? They’re barely ever on.
I agree with everything you said, but replace Chris Farley with Bobcat Goldthwait.
Molly Kearney seems like someone who grew up with multiple older brothers and no sisters and then very early on leaned into the novelty that they could make all the boys in their generic midwestern town laugh by virtue of being female-appearing while still quoting all the right will ferrell movie lines and making fart and dick jokes. And while it reliably makes a vast number of bros laugh around the keg, don’t see how it works within a sketch comedy context like SNL
(I also think Devon Walker isn’t working either, and can’t find the sketch appeal)
Was that the most straight-forward PDD sketch they’ve done?
It’s ironic Please Don’t Destroy played to Molly’s strengths instead of going back to catchphrase characters. She’s a lot funnier doing natural humor like being genuinely horrified by their game.
My favorite Molly Shannon moment is her repeated delivery of the word “stucco” in the Wet Hot American Summer show. She completely sells the low-key comedy of a boring person who loves stucco.
I am not a Molly Shannon fan. I don’t think any of her “hit characters” were funny. I will say that I did enjoy her on Showtime’s “I Love That for You”.
It was also a total redo of one of their original internet sketches, the Shailene Woodley playstation game.
Maybe I missed something because that sketch was a big miss for me and I normally really like the PDD videos.
You mentioned the Jonas Brothers zero times, which is the appropriate amount of Jonas Brothers mentions in every situation.
Well, unless you’re Sophie Turner or Priyanka Chopra.
Except during the camel toe sketch (yes, that’s what I’m calling it), I was told to focus on the characters’ crotches, so I did, and I think one was stuffing and one was, I guess?, tucking? because he had nothing there at all.
SNL writers always talk about how they’re up until 4am writing sketches. And the end result is five minutes about a fart…? I finally figured out they mean they get wasted until 3:45, realize the sun is coming up, and write the first thing they can think of. “This sketch was brutal, (sniff) took me ALL NIGHT.”
Yeah, the sniff is from all the blow they did beforehand!
Based on people I know who have taken writing classes at Second City, where former SNL writers frequently come by to teach, being a writer on SNL is less about trying write funny skits, and much more about background political maneuvering to get “the hot performer” in your skit. So you hear these old stories about this people who wrote this funny character-driven skit, then Chris Farley says he’ll do it, but only if he screams a lot and falls down and breaks a coffee table. And well, you makes the changes, because if you don’t get your skits on the air, you won’t be writing for SNL very long.There was a documentary many years ago that followed a week of writing for SNL for one of their anniversary years which really played that out. Basically there were scenes of writers banging their heads trying to come up with ways to include “ a Will Ferrill character” into their skits (at least I think that was the hot performer at the time….it might have been someone else) because they knew their skit had a better chance of it being aired. There was really nothing about tweaking jokes or tightening the script beyond “how can we change this character to be something that Will Ferrill will want to do.”
Jeannie Darcy’s first appearance was sublime. Such a perfectly realized manifestation of that 90’s stand up staple. And it has never been funny since. I appreciate it’s SNL, so – take joke, repeat – but there’s no point in going back to this well other than “remember HER?!” with no additional nuance or flavor. Which, again, SNL. Sigh. Yes, Shannon deserves better material.
The original Jeannie Darcy sketch was one of Shannon’s funniest bits and absolutely brutal. They had her in a retirement home causing the residents to drop dead. I didn’t know if they ever brought her back. That was the era of bringing back characters with catch phrases no matter how belabored.So it was a nice touch that it was mostly a quick “now she has a Netflix special” which is also brutal, but I also felt like they could have done more.
I honestly don’t remember: wasn’t Molly Shannon considered one of the more bland aspects of her respective SNL era? I know she’s kind of an Internet darling at the moment, but I don’t recall get being all that popular 20-25 years ago.
Popular enough that they made a Mary Katherine Gallagher feature film.
Maybe you’re thinking of Chris Kattan? Molly was slightly overshadowed by Cheri Oteri’s crazy energy and endless catchphrase characters and Will Ferrell’s total dominance of most sketches, but between Mary Catherine Gallagher, Sally O’Malley, Helen Madden – Joyologist, Goth Talk, and the Dog Show, as well as her impressions of Ann Miller and Courtney Love, she was one of the main draws. If anyone was under-appreciated during that time it was Ana Gastayer, her co-star in the instant classic “Delicious Dish” skit. That said, this was a disappointing episode, most like a bad low-energy episode in the late 90s, when even Molly couldn’t save just plain bad skits.
Ana Gasteyer was like Phil Hartman, quietly elevating every sketch she was in.I’m not sure she was underrated. Her Celine Dion and Martha Stewart always killed. I remember an article somewhere about the Women of SNL, and she was front and center in the banner photo. I feel like she was kind of the “main” woman performer only Fey and Pohler came along.
her impression of jewel was awesome as well.
*until Fey and Pohler…
It was a weird era. Post the Sandler-Farley guys and before Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell was the only real breakout star. Molly Shannon was considered one of the big draws when she was on and was probably the most popular woman.
Nah, she was definitely one of the stars of that time along with Will and Cheri.
They made a movie out of Superstar while she was still on SNL. Molly Shannon was absolutely huge.
Molly was quite popular during her time on SNL. I mean Superstar was made into a movie, but then again so was “It’s Pat.”
The reviewer called this ‘new’ character the best of the night! It was one of the least funny parts of the show. This review is the least thorough of the season and is worse than half-assed. WTF is going on with this site?!It may not have been the best episode of the season, but I will say that the joy that beams off of Molly Shannon at all times makes everything she does watchable. She’s amazing.
Has there been a repeated sketch all season up to now? SNL has gone a long way to jettisoning this trope.
I am trying very hard to avoid the recency effect but holy cow that might have been the worst episode ever.
I haven’t watched SNL in years. I know these kinds of comments are greatly appreciated here, so you’re welcome.
asshole..
I feel like a Sarah Sherman/Molly Shannon two-hander would have been fertile ground for a weird character sketch, but I guess it was not to be. Maybe next time!
C- is being kind. This episode was pretty bad. Might be worst of the season, although the first few episodes to start the season were dreadful as well. It’s a shame because Molly is capable of more and SNL since the start of year has put out a string of good episodes.
Rockefeller center —> Rockefeller Center best known characters —> best-known charactersAnti-humor —> anti-humor Kenan Thompson who yelling “I’m going to steal your car, you Black bitch” seemed to break Devon Walker —> what the actual fuckbut what went wrong. —> but what went wrong? Perhaps, “Drug Commercial,” can provide —> Perhaps “Drug Commercial” can provide some insights to why —> some insights as to why Beside being the second musical number —> Besides being the second musical number In putting spotlight so intensely on Shannon —> In putting (a? the?) spotlight so intensely on Shannon read the Florida governor —> I’m not watching any of that, but surely this is wrong to his delivery of cooch —> If this means the actual word “cooch” it should have quotation marks around it that only Yang can delivery —> that only Yang can deliver his disdain for his target is delectable and insatiable —> This is an entirely separate sentence Tump —> Again, I’m not watching this shit, but unless there’s a character called Tump this is probably meant to say Trump
“read the Florida governor” is slang.
This article feels like it was written by an AI.
Too many typos
I’ve been writing that for a few weeks now.
I think we even talked about it several weeks ago.
No Superstar skit?But the Tig Notaro impression was spot on
Mean, but also kind of amusing (I love Notaro though and she is so not Jeanne Darcy…)
The hair, the way she talks, spot on
There should have been a Maggie Haberman/Trump sketch. Can’t watch Haberman without thinking of Molly Shannon.
SNL produced countless classic characters and it was great to see her bring a new one to life with Jeannie Darcy.Jeannie Darcy was an already existing character, but with the number of other mistakes and typos in this review I’m not surprised you didn’t know that.
“Perhaps expectations were too high, but what went wrong.”
Perhaps you needed an editor to add in the question mark.
I’m a little surprised Kid Rock didn’t get a mention on this show (or did I sneeze and miss it?).
I was just a little kid when Belushi and Co. headlined this show, but I remember the biting wit and the political satire.How far this show has fallen when all they can come up with are instances of social awkwardness and oversharing.You need to find another gig, Thomspson. You’re above this.
LMAO the show NEVER had biting political wit. What was witty about Gerald Ford falling down?
Doesn’t matter how shitty you thought the episode was (or even how shitty it actually was) these reviews are getting unacceptably half-assed. I miss having at least a line (and often a paragraph) about each sketch that was on, and several were skipped, which is bullshit.
Big same. I really don’t think he watches the whole show.
My weekly SNL routine: Watch through the first skit after the monologue. If it’s really good, that’s a key indicator the show will be decent, and I stick around. If it’s bad, I walk away and watch the Weekend Update clips the next morning on YouTube.
“Even seasoned performer and national treasure cant save show that just isn’t funny anymore , and needs to be retired“
Funny thing is, I was at Six Flags Over Texas once in the 90s and there was a large group of very gay men there. I remember them mainly because of the Texan scowls and silent head shakes they were getting.
A lot of these sketches should’ve hit better, but the timing was off. Not sure if it was a cast issue or a director issue.Kenan’s monologue in “Drug Commercial” had me rolling, though.
I find that I generally like SNL more than the reviewers/commenters here, but I am going to agree that this was a pretty weak episode. Molly Shannon was not my favorite cast member, but she was on during my formative humor years (middle/high school) so I thought this would be a fun outing at least. Other than the cold open and a few weekend update jokes though, there was not a lot to be had here, funny or otherwise.
I just looked it up. Molly Shannon first did Jeannie Darcy on the November 18, 2000 episode of SNL.
Yeah, a blah episode. You didn’t mention the PDD sketch–I normally really enjoy them, but this one was very pointless and I didn’t get what the joke was supposed to be besides “wouldn’t it be weird if there were a Molly Shannon video game,” which isn’t a joke.
Pregnant Co-Worker was fucking abysmal. It was like a particularly bad MAD TV sketch.
JEANNIE DARCY IS NOT A NEW CHARACTER.If you’re going to portray yourself as some kind of media critic/expert then learn something about the media you’re critiquing. FFS.
“No mention of The Other Two or A Good Person during the monologue?”And no mention of The White Lotus nor I Love That for You.
Jeannie Darcy is not a new character. Molly played her multiple times in her original run on SNL.
I thought this was a very enjoyable episode and had me laughing quit a few times as well. I would give it a much higher grade than a C-. There were a few sketches that were so-so (Pregnant Co-Worker), but Molly made it work based on her timing and performance. It was also nice to see Sally O’Malley and Jeannie Darcy make a nice return. I enjoyed this week’s episode and give it a solid B or B+.