SNL Scorecard: Ayo Edebiri / Jennifer Lopez
Last weekend, Saturday Night Live returned for its third consecutive week, and brought with it a whole lot of eyeballs, for one of the most fascinating host/musical guest pairings of the season. If the first episode of 2024 was a buzzy Gen Z dream with Jacob Elordi and Reneé Rapp, and last week's was a "hottest ticket of 2013" event with Dakota Johnson and Justin Timberlake, this one met somewhere in the middle, partnering music industry vet (and two-time SNL host) J-Lo with Ayo Edebiri, queen of "the moment."
Edebiri has had an enormous last 18 months since making her breakout in Summer 2022 with The Bear. If you haven't yet watched The Bear, it's that cooking show with the lead actor that Twitter is thirsting over that just won allllll the Emmys. But second only to the thirst for star Jeremy Allen White has been the love for his sous-chef; Edebiri has stayed booked and busy on both TV and movies since her breakout, culminating in rumors of casting in an upcoming Marvel movie, and oh yes, just mere weeks ago, a Lead Actress Emmy win. So pronounced is her rapid rise that when she was announced as a host for this struggling SNL season, it elicited a sort of 'unstoppable force vs. immovable object' reaction online. Would the story from this night be "Ayo delivers an SNL episode that's actually good, what CAN'T she do??" Or would it be " Not even Ayo Edebiri can rescue this sinking ship"
Well, in the wake of the episode, I've seen a whole of the latter sentiment floating around on the Internet, and I have to say I am once again at odds with the masses. I don't know if it's that my expectations are lower going in, or I'm just happier in life rn, but this is the second straight week where I've enjoyed an episode far more than most others, and unlike last week-- where I was beating back cries of "worst episode EVER!!!!" with a tepid response of "guys, it wasn't even the worst episode this month" --I actually really enjoyed this episode! So much so, in fact, that I would rank it among the best of Season 49. Was there a truly standout sketch? Maybe not. But for just the second, maybe third time this season, we got a consistently good episode from start to finish, with the sketches on the night ranging from a floor of "decent" to a ceiling of "very good." I'm sticking with my theory that Ayo is Queen Midas until I have reason to believe otherwise.
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 11th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Trivia Quest": 8/10
SNL's game-show sketches almost always feature a host that's either increasingly frustrated by their stupid contestants or outright antagonizing them on their own. And as funny as I often find that, it was fun to see a sketch where the host was just vibing with one of the contestants! This was hilarious, but in a weird way, also wholesome.
The Good
“Weekend Update": 9/10
It can’t be overstated how good Weekend Update has been in the new year; nobody on the show benefitted from the holiday break as much as Colin Jost and Michael Che, evidently. This was another very good round from the co-anchors, who (Che in particular) you could tell fed off the crowd’s energetic discomfort with certain dark punchlines. But the unquestioned star here was Sarah Sherman, back with another amazing Update appearance razzing Colin-- you know what, I don’t even want to spoil it for you, just watch.
“The People's Court - Bad Hair Day ": 8/10
Maybe the reason this episode got better the furthe rit went along is because late in the night is when we finally had "Ayo and Ego" sketches. The host and the star cast member played off each other so well every chance they got, and it worked like a charm in this last sketch of the night, which was delightfully zany, and dare I say, brainy.
"School Hypnotist": 7.5/10
One of my few complaints about this episode is that for being SUCH a gifted comedic actress, Ayo played somewhat vanilla characters all night. This sketch was the only time we got to see the host really be both the main character and be completely wacky, and it only served to make me madder we didn't see more of it. She was so good here, that were she on the cast, I definitely could see Solomon being an all-time SNL character. Also, one note, and apologies that this will likely come across as being wayyyy too over-analytical, but... I'm wondering if this was her sneaky way of publicly coming out? She's been famously reticent to discuss her sexuality in the media, but the fact that Solomon's "last confession" after declaring multiple times that he was bisexual was in fact just a grand reveal that he's actually a great singer felt like a nod to the Internet recently discovering Ayo herself is a great singer, which makes me wonder if the previous "confession" is her winking acknowledgement to the LGBTQ community as well.
"Why'd You Say It": 7.5/10
Two game show sketches, one night! Game shows poking fun at contestants' past selves is always a winning formula, and this was no different. I wondered if Ayo was gonna mention podcast-gate, and when it didn’t come up in the monologue, I just assumed it never would. This was a clever way but a weird time to address it, I think, considering the ontroversy had to do with J-Lo, and Ayo’s character in a game show sketch didn’t have anything to do with the night's musical guest. Anywho, it didn't distract from what was a funny if not super memorable bit.
“Stuck In The Elevator": 7.5/10
What in the shrooms…
“Monologue": 7.5/10
I, like all of America, love Ayo Edebiri deeply, and it was so fun and not at all surprising to see her looking so comfortable onstage. It was emotional too, which was both rare from an SNL host and genuinely really sweet. Bringing back an old sketch packet she submitted in an auction was a funny move, and I wonder how much of that was real. This wasn’t a hilarious monologue, but definitely one of the more enjoyable and memorable ones.
"Bad Couples": 7/10
A simple premise, and I once again wish Ayo would have been more of a main character. But it was still pretty hilarious, even if did just consist of variations on the same joke (up until a terrific twist at the end).
“Dune Popcorn Bucket": 6.5/10
Well, this…certainly didn’t go the way I thought it would. The misdirect was one of the funnier moments of the whole episode, honestly. The song itself? Eh, it fizzled out somewhat once the obvious joke died out. But a fun early transition piece from sketch to sketch.
“CNN Town Hall South Carolina Cold Open": 6.5/10
We’ve hardly gotten any debate parodies this election cycle, and I don’t know if I even want Biden-Trump debate parodies in the Fall, so this was a nice placeholder in its stead. The Gayle King and Charles Barkley element was fun, but wasn’t needed— James Austin Johnson’s Trump, though, was back in prime form, and Nikki Haley in her cameo played off of him well. Many people were understandably upset at her appearance, and I get it, but to me it felt like the kind of ‘inoffensive cameo from a politician that’s not much longer for the election’s waking world’ that we used to see a whole lot of on the shwo. I also appreciated Ayo subbing on in a rare cold open cameo to make sure Nikki didn’t get off scot-free.
"Drugs On Campus": 6/10
It's ironic that this ended up being my least favorite on the night, because I enjoyed this one a ton at first. But I was thinking and hoping the sketch would go somewhere other than Ayo and Mikey Day being overly straight-edge. I thought the joke about their DARE energy being “late 90s” was somewhat ironic, because the 'extreme sober kid’ character felt just as dated.
Musical Performances
Jennifer Lopez (feat. Latto and REDMAN): 6.5/10
Thanks to resurfaced words from several years ago from her unknowing would-be host, this was probably bound to be J-Lo's most scrutinized vocal performance in some time! In fairness to all parties, though... she's never really been known for being a great singer. Singer? Sure. Dancer? You bet. Actress? Why not! Fashion and sex icon? Absolutely. But my experience with Jennifer Lopez has almost always consisted of reminders every several years that Oh yeah, she's technically a musician! I kinda forgot that!
Anyhow, the first performance of new song "Can't Get Enough" helped show why she is the star that she is. Honestly the song itself wasn’t that great, and Lopez's vocals were just fine, but the energy was electric. This was thanks in no small part to the cameos by Latto and REDMAN, but major kudos are also in order to J-Lo’s choreography and charisma on stage. As for the second performance, of "This Is Me Now"? Eh. It was a sweet, but very floofy sound, and I have to say, unlike in the fiery first performance, it was pretty clear in this one that Ayo's past podcast comments were...not unfounded, shall we say.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.29 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.36)
Heading into the first break of 2024, here's where the episodes of the season 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.:
Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo - 7.41
Ayo Edebiri/Jennifer Lopez - 7.29
Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters - 6.82
Timothée Chalamet/boygenius - 6.54
Bad Bunny - 6.54 (tiebreaker goes to the Timothée Chalamet episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake - 6.50
Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish - 6.38
Emma Stone/Noah Kahan - 6.21
Jacob Elordi/Reneé Rapp - 6.17
Jason Momoa/Tate McRae - 6.00
Pete Davidson/Ice Spice - 5.75
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