SNL Scorecard: Harry Styles
If you have been following Season 45 of Saturday Night Live, and/or this blog's recaps of each episode, you know that one theme has developed early on: WEIRD. I keep waiting to see which episode will revert to the mean of easy political humor and more cynical wit, and though last night perhaps didn't reach the heights of the previous two episodes' absurdity, the bizarre was still largely the crux of its comedy.
Unfortunately, this does not always spell success for SNL, and last night was the 2nd straight week in which we witnessed a fairly inconsistent episode on the whole. It was not without its highs, to be sure, but there was more deadweight throughout the episode than we've been accustomed to so far this season, which speaks to how enjoyable this year has been. The choppiness of the episode at large, though, was not the result of the host, who performed admirably. Harry Styles had made several previous appearances on the show as musical guest, both as solo artist and previously as a member of One Direction, but for the first time, appeared as host AND musical guest. To go with Chance The Rapper a few weeks ago and Halsey back in March, that makes three "double duty" hosts this calendar year, which is more than usual. For reference, Seasons 42 and 43 had one such host in total (Donald Glover in early 2018, whose stage ego Childish Gambino was musical guest). Anyways, Styles looked up to the task most of the night; though somewhat stiff in a couple of the sketches, he showed good range and impressive comedic timing-- maybe Brits are just born with it.
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 6th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
“That's The Game”: 7.5/10
Chris Redd plays a new “king” of the drug game, but it becomes increasingly clear that he is in way over his head. Redd is so good at playing these half-witted characters with full commitment; this was in a similar vein to his “Mr. H” sketch with James McAvoy last season. Definitely the most laugh-out-loud funny skit of the night.
The Good
“Monologue": 7.5/10
If you asked me before the year who would give the best monologue of the season, my prediction would not have been Harry Styles. Yet, the One Direction frontman delivered one that will be hard to be topped. Of all the repeated monologue formats, I think “dishing out one-liners while playing the piano” might be favorite, and Styles did it with aplomb. He even channeled some Eddie Izzard at one point! (1:45 mark in link)
“Funeral DJs": 7/10
This was a terrific 10-to-1 sketch, but this week I would have loved to see it anywhere in the episode. This was reminiscent of the “Funeral Service” skit with Scarlett Johansson a couple years back, and though the music wasn’t as original this time around, Styles’ and Redd’s energy delivered in a major way. Is it a coincidence that Chris Redd featured heavily in the two best sketches of the night?
"Childbirth Class": 6.5/10
Heidi Gardner and Harry Styles play an attractive, fit Icelandic couple who learned their English from Instagram and are oblivious to how inferior they’re making the other expecting couples feel. It was the perfect blend of infuriating and strange, and one of the best live sketches of the night. Special shoutout to Melissa Villaseñor for her delivery of “No. You can’t.” when the instructor is attempting to explain you can in fact have sex this far along in a pregnancy.
“Sara Lee": 6.5/10
I don’t know if it might have had to with the more adult humor, but I’m surprised this didn’t air earlier in the show. It definitely included some of the funniest/most creative writing of the night. Also, I laughed way harder than I should have Cecily Strong’s character mixing up the names “Santino” and “Jake.”
“Weekend Update": 6.5/10
Weekend Update, just like Season 45 of the show in general, was at its best at its weirdest. Michael Che and Colin Jost certainly didn’t have their strongest material this week, but the split screen bit of Jost and Stephen Miller was golden. Also, it was a strong week for bizarre guest appearances: though I became a bit tired of Kate McKinnon’s Jeff Sessions in the past, she had a hilarious return last night. Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder. And I don’t know what the heck the point was of Kyle Mooney’s Dairy CEO character was, but I loved every second of it. I’m pretty sure this was the most emotive AND the closest to breaking that I’ve ever seen him.
“Joan Song": 5.5/10
This was funny without being too funny (though Styles as “Doug” come to life was great), cute but a little sad, and bizarre but in comparison to some of the sketches we’ve seen this season, not that bizarre. In other words, more good than bad for sure, but not the most memorable pre-taped segment.
The Less-Good
“Airline Pilots”: 5/10
I like the premise of “pilots aren’t aware their intercoms are on,” but this felt like it could have been funnier. It was not without its highlights: Bowen Yang was a good presence, and Mikey Day’s fumbling through “sit black and relax” was hilarious, but other than that, the writing felt pretty weak.
“Baby Faye and Her Newsboys”: 5/10
Most of this season, the strange has really worked. This one…not so much. It seemed weird for the sake of being weird, rather than having a really funny comedic reveal. That said, it wasn’t a total loss. Some of the devastatingly brutal lines by the male newsmen were comical, and I certainly enjoyed the production aspect of it.
“Lunch Run”: 5/10
I know what they were going for here— it’s hard not to, the jokes were pretty on the nose—but the timing was off, and it wasn’t very impactful as a result. This was certainly a weird choice for the first sketch of the night.
"Days of Our Impeachment Cold Open”: 4.5/10
I appreciate them trying to do something new with the obligatory political cold open, but this just didn’t quite work. The cast’s energy wasn’t bad, but the audience was pretty clearly not into it. And, though Jon Hamm is always welcome to return, the sketch boiled down to little more than cheap impressions. One plus was that this was Pete Davidson’s best sketch appearance thus far this season, one in which he’s been largely absent.
Musical Performances
Harry Styles: 7/10
The host first performed a slower, more soulful version of his new single "Lights Up." It was not exactly the rendition I would have expected, but he made good use of the unforgiving SNL sound stage, and it musically was very appealing.
Styles’ vocals seemed somewhat tired out by the 2nd song, “Watermelon Sugar,” as his intonation was off a little. But the song as a whole had a great sound, and the host and his band brought good energy to the end of the set.
OVERALL SCORE: 6.13 (Comedy Only score: 6.05)