SNL Scorecard: Connor Storrie / Mumford & Sons
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
After an abnormal month away from business as usual, thanks to the Winter Olympics, SNL's 51st season made its anticipated return last night. The upcoming stretch of three episodes, this one included, have the potential to give us the buzziest moments of the inconsistent season, and the excitement for this show in particular was incredibly high.
Not necessarily by me, to clarify. At least at first. In fact, this was one of the few episodes all year in which neither the host or musical guest did a lot for me. I know of Connor Storrie only from his recent star turn in Heated Rivalry, which I did not watch, and Mumford & Sons as a musical guest excites me in the year 2026 about as much as it would have in the year 2010, which is to say, not a lot. But I like to have a posture of #listening and #learning at all times, and my two oldest sisters have had pleeeeenty to say about Storrie's show, and in the lead-up to this episode, had just as much to say about the actor himself, giving my little brother and I a crash course in his body of work, his journey, his friendship with castmate Hudson Williams, and their scintillating media tour. This, coupled with some genuinely quite funny promos, was enough to get me excited for the show.
And if I, a newbie to the Connor Storrie hype, was able to get excited for the show, can you imagine how the fans who waited for hours in the standby line felt? Yes, you're imagining correctly: this was one of the most energetic, enthusiastic, high-energy audiences all season-- truthfully, that I can remember from the last FEW seasons. Ironically though, as such, I couldn't help but feel what was an enjoyable episode overall was a little bit of a disappointment at the same time. The writing was at least pretty consistently wacky, which I appreciated, and there were no real stinkers at all. But an absolutely electric audience and a host who proved his comedic chops throughout the night all deserved better than a "generally fine episode with a couple highlights," even if such an episode is generally par for the course this 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 13th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Stripper": 8/10
Thanks to the crash course from my sister Catherine, I happened to know this was an original character of Connor's, and I’m happy he got to bring it to SNL! Even better, how cool that the funniest sketch of the night came from his own mind! Yes, the heartthrob du jour showing off his sculpted body is easy crowd bait, but this was still great physical acting from the host, and the various women played off of him perfectly. This ended the night with the energy level the crowd deserved from the start.
The Good
“Ice Skating": 8/10
I’m a big fan of the “genuine interaction taking place in the foreground while chaos ensues in the background," and while SNL has worked that recipe for pre-taped brilliance before, it was cool to see it executed perfectly in a live sketch format. Everyone played their part perfectly, even amidst one of the longest crowd receptions in a long time for a well-placed cameo. All in all, some of the most fun all night!
“Mr. Fronzi": 7.5/10
Both between my siblings that watched and the instant reaction on Twitter and Reddit, it's become clear that this sketch elicited mass confusion and general frustration. So, if you're one of the apparently many perplexed by who this sketch was for: nice to meet you, I'm Daniel! Yes, the humor was pretty much entirely down to “hehe funny voice,” but guess what? That works for me, especially when someone sells it as well as Marcello was selling it. I will say, this was a BONKERS choice for first sketch of the night. Plus, it felt clear they didn’t really know how to end it, otherwise this could have been more memorable. Still, I had a great time.
“Monologue": 7.5/10
Again, thanks to the aforementioned force-fed crash-course on all things Connor Storrie, I had seen enough to expect him to be comfortable on this stage, despite it being a daunting first task for a first-time host, and no surprise, that was the case! Keeping in theme for the night, the writing itself was so-so, apart from his video gag, but he sold it well. Much was made about the hockey team cameos ahead of the show, when it leaked that US Men's Hockey stars Jack and Quinn Hughes would be in the episode, and honestly, between their mixed reception and their painful line reads, at first it did feel awkwardly shoehorned. That said, the cameo from the women’s team was electric, and their comedic timing was pretty great, too, and it made the guys' energy all the more fun. It was fun! We're all having fun.
"The Gentlemen's Code": 6.5/10
Early on, this felt like a Monty Python sketch-- not just because of the accents -- and I was bracing myself for a Sketch of the Night contender. It just went on a little too long, and felt like it ran out of ideas and kind of petered out.
"Tutoring the Cool Kid": 6.5/10
This was so dumb, but it scratched an itch for me. The most “10-to-1” non 10-to-1 sketch in quite some time.
One thing about me is that funny noises will always make me giggle, yes they will.
"Weekend Update": 6/10
There was no shortage of news from the last month or so, yet Jost and Che’s jokes still felt a lot flatter than I expected. I did enjoy Che’s ad-libs for a couple jokes that didn’t work with this studio audience, but the punchlines themselves felt a good deal weaker than I would have liked. The changes of pace were the standouts from this Update: I loved Colin’s “Hear Me Out” segment, and I always love Sarah Sherman’s aggressive characters, even if this was more unnerving than usual. But the best part of the whole Update by far was the star turn from Veronika Slowikowska in her first ever appearance on the segment!
The... Less-Good
“Leg Lengthening": 5.5/10
Silly and fun, but as was the case throughout the night, it just went on too long aimlessly. And unlike most of the sketches, this premise didn’t have as high of a ceiling to start with.
“Trump Iran War Address Cold Open": 5/10
I know everyone’s tired of political cold opens by now, and I’m no different, but they sort of had no choice but to start with a political sketch given everything that’s happened since the last time they were on air. In fact, "President Trump" himself referenced how quickly this particular sketch needed to be written after the events preceding the show on Saturday. James Austin Johnson seems to be phoning it most of the time as Trump these days, I have to say, but as usual, he got a good bit of mileage out of breaking the 4th wall. Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth is always funny, and definitely picked the energy of this one up, but I hope they don’t overuse him in that role; fortunately, this one didn’t run on painfully long, but it was completely forgettable.
“Office Dance": 5/10
This was trying too hard to be a wacky 10-to-1 but it didn’t have the juice. It's fine, I just don't appreciate stolen valor, is all. It was no “Mr. Fronzi,” nor even a “Tutoring The Cool Kid." And why did we need to shoehorn Mumford and Sons in? Weird.
Musical Performances
Mumford & Sons (feat. Aaron Dessner, Hozier, and Sierra Ferrell): 6/10
As I alluded to in the intro, even years ago in Mumford & Sons' heyday, I was not a huge fan of the group. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate them, and there was plenty of 'Mumford-adjacent' music I liked at that time; like all good millennial white boys, I had a big folk-indie, nu-bluegrass era, of course. I just always found Mumford's schtick a little theatrical and inauthentic, which made it hard to go deep on their discography. Years of distance has helped me appreciate them a little bit more, though! Any time an old Mumford song pops up on a playlist, I'll go 'Huh, yeah, this is good,' which is more than I would have deigned to say 15 years ago. But knowing little of their new music, I was more curious about this performance than anything else.
The verdict: it was fine! The first song in particular was a pleasant listen, and guest artists Aaron Dessner and Hozier make for quite an upgrade from their right-wing nationalist former banjo player, so points for that. A perfectly fine set: no frills, nice memorable bluegrass performance, won’t stand out in a year of strong musical performances
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