SNL Scorecard: Alexander Skarsgård / Cardi B

Saturday Night Live cranked out one more episode last weekend before going on another mini-hiatus for the Winter Olympics. The cast and crew have lived a somewhat strange life during these 3 January episodes, spending a month away from the show for the holidays, coming back for 3 weeks, and now taking another month break until the next show on the last day of February. Throw in the fact that each episode was helmed by a first-time host, and it's perhaps unsurprising that they have all been pretty hit-or-miss.

But importantly, a hit-or-miss episode does have some hits! And this one was no different. Alexander Skarsgård was a good-natured and enthusiastic host, and we saw some great energy from the cast to match. When the level of the writing was up to par, it yielded some of the more memorable moments of recent weeks. When it wasn't? Well, there was some dead air and some pity laughs.

This one seemed to follow a little straighter a line than the inconsistencies in the last couple episodes: it started off with a bang, and then seemed to gradually drop off more and more in the back half of the episode. It will be curious to see whether the show, having dealt with a number of cast changes and weird schedule breaks, really picks up some steam and can hit its stride after this last big break of the season.

One note in case you forgot- I know my rankings can seem a little arbitrary, and truthfully there have been times where even I will look back at scorecards and think "Now, why did I rate (x) an 8.5, if (x) from this other episode was only a 7...?". So, both to hopefully clear up my scoring system for any curious readers, but also really to help keep myself consistent, here is the rubric to reference:

10/10: Perfect, no notes

8-9.5/10: Very funny-to-hilarious, definite rewatch

6-7.5/10: Pretty funny-to-funny, but won't necessarily be a rewatch

4-5.5/10: Not BAD, but not particularly funny or memorable

1-3.5/10: Terrible/poor taste, to simply bad/unfunny

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 12th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Mom Confession": 9/10

An Ashley Padilla banger right off the bat!! We love to see it. Not only the strongest ‘post-monologue sketch’ of the season, arguably one of the best of the season in general. I’ve already seen the Internet fawning over this one, and for good reason; it’s a star turn from Padilla— with great little interjections from Skarsgård, even in a limited role —but more importantly, it’s finally some truly nuanced, perceptive writing about the political times from the show that’s so often lacked in that department. A little bit of a sloppy finish, and it arguably went on a beat too long, otherwise this was close to perfection.

The Good

“Monologue": 7.5/10

I laughed harder at the popper bit than I expected to. Love some good, easy prop humor. This was awesome! Skarsgård has natural charisma, and displayed great commitment to the bit. I’ve lamented the shortage of good monologues this season, but in January we bookended what was maybe the worst one yet with what were probably the two best.

“Winter Olympics Promo": 7.5/10

A pretty simple concept, honestly, but funny to the very end. It was so great to see the oft-maligned Jane Wickline finally get a non-Update feature (and early in the episode!), and crush it.

“Weekend Update": 7/10

It feels clear to me that the co-anchors are still trying to wrestle with how to get their barbs in on Trump, and I don’t know if it’s that they’re worried about repercussions if they go too hard, or they're just incapable of anything sharper. Still a solid set of jokes from Jost and Che, but somewhat unremarkable. We were blessed by another great "Sarah Sherman hazing Colin" bit; it seems like maybe the audience is getting a little tired of this trope, but I’m sure not. We also saw the return of the "Couple that just hooked up," with Padilla and Andrew Dismukes. This was SO GOOD last time, and I thought it definitely had 'recurring character potential,' but this one felt a great deal flatter for some reason; maybe it’s that they literally ran almost the exact same lines as last time, just swapping out the political framework for a football one. Still a fine performance overall, and I still hope it's not the last we see of those two, but I am fine with getting some distance between this one and the next one.

"Funny Boyfriend": 7/10

This had a couple timing mishaps, and maybe that’s why it didn’t seem to land as much as I thought it would. But this was a very good 10-to-1, in my opinion; silly, random, with full commitment from the host, and again, good prop humor!

"Scandinavian Movie": 7/10

Another one of these already? I suppose it makes sense to run back the sketch that debuted just last November with Glen Powell, given that Skarsgård is, in fact, a Scandinavian actor...I just didn't find there to be enough in the first iteration that suggested it would be a recurring sketch. But I will say, I enjoyed this one a good deal more. Alexander seemed to be having a ball, and we got a fun Stellan Skarsgård cameo!

"Immigrant Dad Talk Show": 6/10

Once again, a reprise of a sketch I didn't expect to see, but once again, one that made sense given the host. And once again, fun and pretty funny, and with a Stellan Skarsgård cameo! Cardi B also pops in for a fun cameo here; she's so naturally funny that you could tell me she didn't even have any lines and was told to ad-lib, and I would believe you. Also, I enjoy that the host played a Swede, a Norwegian and a Finn in this episode.

“ICE Meeting Cold Open": 6.5/10

I once again saw a good deal of #discourse on this cold open online, and my feelings are that while I get it, I do feel like SNL is kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't. They can't not address the craziness from this administration, but it's difficult to make it funny. At the same time, nobody wants to tune into a comedy show just to watch people substitute humor for anger and fury, even if it might prove cathartic. I didn't love this sketch's implication that there’s a sensible person (Tom Homan) that's in charge of these Nazis, but apart from that fact, this was probably about as hard-hitting a satire as we're gonna get from mainstream television. Honestly, the thing I rolled my eyes at the hardest was the return of Pete Davidson, which was as much about him as it was about the return of non-cast celebrity cameos of Trump admin personnel. He did fine, though, and this had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, such as James Austin Johnson's “this could be wrong” bit and Ben Marshall's few lines.

The... Less-Good

“The Viking Raid": 5/10

This was mildly funny-- certainly a fun premise --and sold well by Skarsgård. The joke just ran a little thin pretty quickly, and felt like they forced the blood gag for laughs a little bit.

“Play Date": 4.5/10

The studio audience seemed to really enjoy this one, so maybe I'm just needlessly being a hater, but I don’t really get what the joke was here, other than "get it??? Alexander Skarsgård obviously is not a teenage girl!!" I did laugh out loud at two different Jane Wickline lines, though; great night for her!

“Tarzan": 4/10

Fun at moments, but more dumb than funny. One of those that on a really good night, probably could have fed off high crowd energy and been a hit.

Musical Performances

Cardi B: 7/10

It's been so many years (nearly a decade!) since Cardi B exploded onto the scene, and she's stayed in the public eye so frequently, that it's easy to forget she's only released one album before September's Am I The Drama?, and only made one SNL appearance before this weekend. Unsurprisingly for someone with so much natural charisma, she seemed every bit as comfortable on stage as the featured artist as she did in her comedic cameo.

Her first performance of "Bodega Baddie" was a terrific start to her set. The set design, choreography, and musical energy all felt like such a heartfelt and genuine ode to the Dominican Republic. Her second performance also featured a track off the new album, "ErrTime," and gave different energy, showcasing her versatility. I know the "live vocals over the pre-recorded track" is a common move for rappers, but it pretty consistently sounds pretty rough on the SNL stage, and that was no different here. Another high-energy, entertaining performance with good choreography, though! I’m a hip-hop fan and an appreciator of Cardi, so I liked it a lot, but it didn't strike me as a set that was going to win over any new fans.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.54 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.50)

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Heading into the Olympic break, here’s where the episodes stand-- keep in mind the episode's overall score factors in the musical performance, so what I considered the funniest isn't necessarily the top-rated overall, etc.:

1. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky - 7.30

2. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile - 7.05

3. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon - 6.87

4. Sabrina Carpenter - 6.58

5. Alexander Skarsgård/Cardi B - 6.54

6. Ariana Grande/Cher - 6.54 (the Alexander Skarsgård episode ranks higher due to a higher 'Comedy Only' score)

7. Nikki Glaser/sombr - 6.50

8. Teyana Taylor/Geese - 6.42

9. Amy Poehler/Role Model - 6.25

10. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen - 6.15

11. Glen Powell/Olivia Dean - 6.00

12. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat - 5.91