SNL Scorecard: Harry Styles
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
SNL returned last week to cap off its March run, and for the third week running, brought along a host that brought with him a lot of hype and a lot of energy. In a season that has often seen studio audiences as lackluster as— if not more so than —the episodes themselves, I guess Lorne Michaels and co. stumbled upon an ideal solution: just ask “the Internet’s boyfriends” to host!
That is, after all, what we’ve essentially had the last few week— three different generations of beloved male stars Last week’s host Ryan Gosling has been making the ladies swoon since The Notebook some 20 years ago. The week preceding was fronted by the heartthrob du jour, Heated Rivalry co-star Connor Storrie. And this week? The boyfriend of many a younger millennial in particular, international superstar Harry Styles. Somewhat fittingly given their staggered ages and career breakouts, Storrie was making his SNL debut, last week was Gosling’s 4th time at the helm, and Styles slotted in right in the middle, with this his 2nd hosting stint and 3rd solo appearance as musical guest (he had also appeared three times as a member of One Direction).
Now, as someone who has recently been scolded by sisters and female friends alike for having a “typical boy” reaction to the Heated Rivalry sensation, here is where I feel I should be honest and say that Styles is basically my boyfriend, too. Like, I get it. He’s devilishly attractive, he has great fashion sense, he seems like a good lad, and he makes extremely catchy and interesting pop music. I didn’t always feel this way about him but what set me on a path towards eventual unabashed random was, ironically, his first SNL hosting gig back in 2019. It was a terrific episode, and he proved himself a consummate star, both an able and good-humored host, and a talented singer whose bops translate well to live performances.
All this to say, much like the previous two episodes, I was very excited for this one as well. And much like last episode at least, I came away very happy with it! It may not have matched last week— nor certainly Styles’ first hosting stint —in terms of banger sketches or individual moments. But it might have had the highest ‘floor’ of any episode this season, with no real letdowns at all, and the continued high energy and occasionally batshit humor that made Ryan Gosling’s show such a success.
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 15th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"White Castle Drive-Thru": 8/10
Normally I gripe about sketches that are centered around the premise of "host hot!!!" In fairness, though, those sketches usually don't involve rare starring roles for Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska, as uber-dorky, uber-horned-up high school girls nervous to talk to the cute popular football star. I was laughing so hard through this whole thing. More Jane and Veronika chaos!!! I beg!!!
The Good
“Weekend Update": 8/10
After what had been a weirdly bumpy patch for the co-anchors, Jost and Che churned out one of their stronger performances in a while. There were still a handful of groaners in there, but they played off them well, and had a bevy of good punchlines to offset them. And this week, the walk-ons were absolutely electric, contributing massively to the overall quality. First, another star turn for newbie Jeremy Culhane, this time with a more straightforward but hilariously accurate depiction of Tucker Carlson. Later, rounding out the segment, was Marcello Hernández and Mikey Day as the heart and aerial tramway emojis, respectively; I know the ceiling for humor on that one doesn’t sound high, but I promise they got the absolute most out of it.
“Sebastian Maniscalco: New Lawyer": 7.5/10
Well, I can’t say this is a repeat character I expected, especially this soon after his debut, but this was a pretty brilliant use of Marcello’s kinetic energy. And speaking of brilliant use, what a perfect choice to have the infamously dry Jane play the atonal stenographer; I was giggling even before she started reading the transcript. They lost the plot ever so slightly down the stretch, otherwise they had a total winner of a post-monologue sketch.
“She's an Irish Dancer": 7.5/10
Not many sketches feel made for me, but in many ways, this one did. I will not explain any further.
"Best Buy: Mr. Pooty": 7.5/10
This was such a good Kenan performance, holy moly. I will say, though, that it kinda felt like early 2010s humor, which is I think why the reason the audience seemed to like it, but not love it. This sketch would have killed in the Obama era, but it might just play a little too close to homophobic in this generation. But as a #millennial, I was eating it up. This also ran out of steam a little down the stretch, but was a hoot the whole way.
"Monologue": 7.5/10
I was excited to see Harry’s monologue, as that was one of my favorite bits from his last hosting stint. It was the first moment that I realized, “Oh yeah, he’s a showman. He could actually be good at this.” Happy to report, not only is he 2/2 now, he also continued a very good streak that started with Connor Storrie two weeks ago, and continued last week with Styles in tandem with Ryan Gosling. This was nowhere near as explosively hilarious as that one was, and I think it was a good bit less clever than his own first monologue, too. But his dry delivery again was put to great use here, and even if the progression of this one was a little mazy, they nailed the landing.
"Sparkle of the Sea": 7/10
You know what? Hell yeah. I love a wacky, energetic, “most of the humor is in Northern European accents” sketch. It wasn’t especially funny, just fun. Harry presents pretty wooden a lot of the time, so it was fun to see one in which he was really letting loose. Also, the return of Jean K. Jean brought the biggest smile to my face; one of my favorite characters a while back.
"MAHAspital": 6.5/10
One of those where the idea was genuinely really funny and had high potential, but it just seemed to only stay at one level. Definitely a funny one, but it felt like just slight variations of the same joke, rather than anything particularly biting or clever.
“Harry for Him": 6/10
This was fun, but a little too simple and on the nose to be funny past the point of revealing various cast members in Harry Styles' famous (or infamous) outfits of past years. As I mentioned last week, the byproduct of an already bonkers episode is that there’s less of a chance the closing sketches will be the bizarro change-of-pace they so often are. That's true of this one as well.
“Trump's Gas Prices Cold Open": 6/10
Well, it's now the third week in a row that they’ve used Colin Jost’s Hegseth, and just as I was worried about, it’s starting to feel a little stale already. The irony is, that’s certainly how I had felt about James Austin Johnson’s Trump, too, but this time I actually was enjoying it so much that I didn’t think we needed Jost! Maybe a couple weeks away from JAJ’s impression made the heart grow fonder, because even though this was the same tried and true formula they’ve gone to so many times, I felt myself enjoying this bit of his a lot more than I typically do.
Musical Performances
Harry Styles: 7/10
I think at this point Harry is far too big to fail. He’s been an adored pop star for well over a decade now, he can sell out 30 consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden before his album even drops, and his previous release won the Grammy for Album of the Year. His support is rock solid for now. That said, if he was going to have a “flop era,” early returns are that this would be it. New album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally has been met with muted reception, many citing as much confusion with the album’s musical direction as with its name. And while there’s no official metric to measure reception on this, his first major performance since its release, earlier this month at the BRIT Awards, got roundly mocked on Twitter. So as a casual fan of his who didn’t totally agree with all the criticism of album or performance but also felt somewhat underwhelmed by the new release, I was curious to see how he’d show up.
Part of my curiosity was rooted in the fact that there’s a lack of obvious big singles from this abum, so I was eager to see what he’d perform. He opened with “Dance No More”, presented by Ryan Gosling in a delightful callback to last week. This song is definitely the biggest number-- and the only true disco song --on the album; in truth, it would be better served by a bigger stage allowing for a bigger dance party, but he did an admirable job bringing that energy to the stage himself, recovering well from some early vocal struggles. The second performance was a much slower cut, a rendition of the tender “Coming Up Roses,” perhaps my favorite off the album. Once again, he had to overcome some initial wobbliness, appearing to even forget the lyrics in the first verse as he looked a little unsteady on the piano. He settled in quickly, though, to what was ultimately a beautiful performance, aided by sweeping strings.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.09 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.10)
Heading into SNL's "Spring 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.:
Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky - 7.30
Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz - 7.10
Harry Styles - 7.09
Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile - 7.05
Melissa McCarthy/Dijon - 6.87
Sabrina Carpenter - 6.58
Alexander Skarsgård/Cardi B - 6.54
Ariana Grande/Cher - 6.54 (the Alexander Skarsgård episode ranks higher due to a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons - 6.50
Nikki Glaser/sombr - 6.50 (the Connor Storrie episode ranks higher due to a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Teyana Taylor/Geese - 6.42
Amy Poehler/Role Model - 6.25
Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen - 6.15
Glen Powell/Olivia Dean - 6.00
Bad Bunny/Doja Cat - 5.91
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