SNL Scorecard: Emma Stone / Noah Kahan

Saturday Night Live is back from Thanksgiving Break, as we all are, and is counting down the 3 weeks until Christmas, as we all are. SNL is bringing some heavy hitters to both hosting and musical duties in the last few episodes before the new year, and arguably none better than Emma Stone.

Stone has been in the public eye, both adored as a personality and applauded as an actress, for so many years now, it's easy to forget she's still pretty young. Young enough, in fact, to be the youngest 5-time host of Saturday Night Live (and by some margin). She's routinely been a star in her hosting stints, and she had all the stage presence and confidence of a seasoned professional this past weekend yet again. Unfortunately, in what has been an all-too-familiar theme the last two seasons, the quality of the writing couldn't keep up, yielding yet another very up-and-down episode that had plenty of decent, but very few highlights.

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 5th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Diet Coke by Olay": 7.5/10

Right at the very end of the night came a night little treat. A mock ad that presents an absurd product that might actually be a thing of the future, and the sort of banal happy consumers we see all the time in real ads. Vintage SNL.

The Good

“Fully Naked in New York": 7.5/10

This has to have originated in Bowen Yang’s mind. Don’t ask me why, but I would bet my life on it. At any rate, whether it was based on a real-life event or just a fun way to make the NY audience squirm, it was delightful. And, frankly, a total bop.

“Question Quest: 7/10

I don’t know why this never really reached hilarity to me, because the potential was there. I think this is another (rare) instance in which I wanted the sketch to go on longer, because it felt like it could have kicked up a couple notches and become an all-timer. That said, hilarious idea and I really enjoyed Michael Longfellow in the ‘Bill Hader’ role: game show host with something a little off about him.

"Weekened Updae": 7/10

A solid, if unspectacular night from Michael Che and Colin Jost, but in an uneven episode it was definitely among the highlights. The best part by far, though, was the welcome return of Longfellow, who deserves more airtime methinks…his Cigarette character was hysterical and had so many great moments.

"Make Your Own Kind of Music": 6.5/10

This was really more fun than it was funny, but I had a soft spot for it as really the only time we saw fully crazy Emma Stone. That felt like a blast from the past…I’m happy for Oscar-winning dramatic actress Emma, but every now and then I miss Easy A Emma. I also appreciated the sendup of the Deadpool-ification of movies.

“George Santos Expelled Cold Open": 6.5/10

With George Santos dominating the news cycle this week, the show was only going to open in one way, and Bowen Yang took his moment well. Honestly, Santos kind of has the Trump problem, where everything he says and does is so absurd, it’s hard to make jokes out of it. Bowen did a good job per usual, though, and while the writing was just okay, this was certainly funnier and more creative than most political cold opens.

“Posters": 6/10

They’ve done this sketch just about every time Stone has hosted, I think— certainly the last couple times. And I find it funny every time, though each one gets slightly less funny; the novelty of the initial sketch will be hard to top. I mostly just enjoy how much Stone clearly loves playing ‘Chrissy Knox’ every time.

The... Less-Good

"Please Don't Destroy - AI": 5/10

An extremely rare miss from the Destroy Boys. (And, because their floor is so much higher that most everything else on the show, a “miss” is still somewhat funny, enough to land a 5/10.) But this just felt like a half-baked concept, and while the central premise certainly yielded some funny moments, getting each joke spelled out to us over and over killed any sort of momentum it might have built.

“Monologue": 5/10

Emma Stone feels like a random celebrity to be crowned the youngest 5-time host of SNL, but it’s entirely deserved. She’s been a star every time she’s been on, and is one of those people that seems equal parts professional and naturally funny. So predictably, she seemed very comfortable and good-nature onstage during the monologue. But then…it didn’t really go anywhere apart from the exciting walk-on guests cracking the occasional good one-liner. On the night of her Five Timers Club induction, I fittingly give this a 5.

"Tree Lighting Gig": 4.5/10

I love Kenan’s Treece, but was very surprised to see this bit return after a few years, especially without Kyle Mooney in the cast, who so hilariously played the grizzled foil to Kenan each time. Perhaps even more surprising was how early in the show it was; when this bit works, it’s only ever as a wild 10-to-1 sketch.

“What's In The Kiln": 4.5/10

The premise was cute: a holiday QVC-esque show where all the products on display are, well, bad. And I love chaotic Heidi and Chloe dynamics, and love Emma Stone! But this, again, just felt like a half-baked idea. I gave two half-laughs and zero full laughs, and that’s a shame for a setup that had a good amount of promise.

Musical Performances

Noah Kahan: 7/10

Noah Kahan bas been one of the fastest rising young stars in the music world. I first heard of him about a year ago when my New England-bred roommate talked about how much she loved him, and I assumed this was just a random New England indie musician in his 40s who had done the local circuits for a while. Shortly thereafter, I started hearing his name everywhere, and soon came to learn he’s actually a 25-year old who’s only released a couple of albums, and he’s fast become not only the face of Vermont (sorry Bernie), but a darling of the overlap between Lumineers/Vance Joy-heads and Maggie Rogers/Taylor Swift girlies. I’ll confess: the little I’ve heard of the recent Best New Artist Grammy nominee, I’ve not been wild about, but regardless, it’s cool to see a young up-and-comer get their shot on the Studio 8H stage.

My own opinions about the singer’s voice and music at large aside, the first performance, of “Dial Drunk” was solid. His intonation roved a little, and his stage presence is a little goofy, but musically it sounded good, and was energetic and memorable. The set design was very cool, too. Interestingly enough, he played his big single “Stick Season” second. I felt the same way about that performance; his voice wandered a little bit, but musically the band sounded good, and the energy was good, albeit slightly less electric than the first time around. All in all, a good set from Mr. Kahan on a stage that’s so frequently unkind to performers.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.21 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.14)