SNL Scorecard: Jack Harlow
Saturday Night Live returned from its first rerun week this past weekend, and in many ways, picked up right where it had left off. The last show before the break, as you may recall, was hosted by a rapper that is hugely popular with the younger generation, who was a first-time host but pulled double duty as a repeat musical guest. This week, the new host was... a rapper that is hugely popular with the younger generation, who was a first-time host but pulled double duty as a repeat musical guest. Exit Megan Thee Stallion, enter Jack Harlow.
When they announced Harlow as host, I'll admit, I was pretty surprised. I don't follow him particularly closely, but have listened to enough of his music and seen enough of his interviews to know he's decently charismatic and like a pretty cool dude, so it would not have surprised me to see him be a good host. But it's abnormal to have two double duty hosts back-to-back, and he strikes me as a weirder choice than Megan Thee Stallion was. He's huge with a certain demographic of course, but I feel like the vast majority of viewers probably reacted by saying “...who?" And unfortunately, the episode quality did not pick up much (if at all) from the last outing, which had already been the weakest of the season; Harlow seemed game for most anything, which is always good to see, but once again the writers sacrificed too much funny in the name of weird, and opted too often to go the lazy route of playing on the host's public persona.
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 4th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
“AA Meeting”: 7.5/10
This was the best use all night of the weird brand of comedy that was clearly on display from start to finish. I low-key love this idea for a movie, but also loved how perfectly everyone contributed to Jack’s character’s vision. Exemplified most of all, of course, by Cecily Strong’s musical contribution. Make this film, dammit!
The Good
“Kanye Skechers Commercial": 7/10
SNL probably felt they had to address the two weeks of Kanye madness that have been going on, and managed to do so in a way that wasn’t offensive! Which was, of course, vital. The joke here felt pretty demur, all things considered, but I appreciated the original way of gently ribbing Skechers and other brands as well while obviously taking shots at Kanye’s anti-Semitism.
“Weekend Update”: 7/10
Weekend Update has been the best part of this young season, the only facet of the show that has been consistently good week-to-week. That being said, it has sneakily gotten worse each week, and that slide unfortunately continued, with Che and Jost turning in easily their worst performance of the young season. It wasn't bad, mind you, there was still more funny than unfunny; but the jokes in general felt less sharp this time around, and the audience didn't seem to love them, either. Fortunately, a good guest can rescue an Update segment, and this one had a GREAT guest, in the form of a most welcome surprise appearance by Drunk Uncle! Bobby Moynihan is one of the most underrated cast members in recent memory, in my opinion, and even though this wasn't the single-best Drunk Uncle appearance, it was a great reminder of how consistent of a hit that character was. The fact that I couldn't tell whether Bobby's "Seth" flap was intentional or accidental speaks to how good of an improviser he is.
“Horror Movie Trailer": 6.5/10
This was the kind of thing that seemed like it was written to go viral, which always annoys me a little bit. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny, nor that it didn’t make a good point! Nothing too needle-moving here, but some solid political humor.
"The View: Jack Harlow": 6.5/10
It took me a while to warm up to this one. Ego Nwodim is brilliant, but her Whoopi Goldberg impression is not, and I'm just tired of Jack Harlow's 'come hither' playboy schtick. But I'll admit, this won me over gradually, much like Whoopi was won over by the rapper's charm; it helped that the audience was REALLY into it, lending it a good amount of energy and closing the episode on a solid note.
“Bartenders": 6/10
I wanted to like this more than I did, because I loved the energy behind it. But, despite enjoying the concept, it felt like something was missing. I think Jack had some trouble fully leaning into his character, and there were some timing errors that also slowed its momentum. Still a decently funny bit, and I wouldn’t mind seeing that idea or something similar returning in a future sketch.
“PBS NewsHour-Republican Momentum Cold Open": 6/10
I won’t get on my usual soapbox about political cold opens, because to be fair, we are just two weeks from the election. It makes sense to air current political events right now. This open had plenty of funny moments, especially provided by Cecily Strong (welcome back, queen!!!). But it still felt a little toothless on the whole; most Americans know these candidates are insane, the punchline has to be a little more original than that. The audience really didn’t seem into this one either… maybe they’re not ready to laugh at the return of Trumpism in full force.
"Halloween Red Carpet Show": 6/10
There wasn’t anything particularly hilarious or fresh about this sketch, but it did nail just about every type of person you’ll see out late on Halloween, so kudos. Plus, Jack Harlow was perfect as the frat bro character, which was fun to see.
"David Pumpkins Returns": 5.5/10
Even if I— watching the day after —hadn’t had the surprise spoiled for me by Twitter already, I think I could have pieced together where this was going, especially with Tom Hanks and Bobby Moynihan both already providing surprise cameos earlier in the episode. And did we need a return of David S. Pumpkins? We absolutely did not; SNL needs to learn to leave a good thing untouched now and again. And truthfully, this wasn’t anywhere near as funny as the original, now that the audience was in on the joke from the start. But all that being said… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a big goofy grin on my face the whole time.
The... Less-Good
"Joker”: 5/10
I respect the weirdness of this one, I really do, and Andrew Dismukes’ energy in particular did its best to help this be more funny than unfunny, but this went on way too long, eventually just giving way to stereotypical accents and an increasingly bizarre energy. What on earth were they thinking airing this as the first sketch of the night?! This had 10-to-1 slot written all over it, and even then, probably only should have made the live show if it were to cap off an already high-energy episode instead of being charged with setting the tone for the rest of the show.
“Monologue": 4/10
Harlow seemed relatively comfortable for what had to be a totally new dynamic than most anything he’d done before. Unfortunately, he didn’t exactly get set up for success by the writing for this monologue, whose only funny moments came via other people’s tweets. This was essentially a ‘Greatest Hits Of Twitter,’ capped off by a “my culture isn’t a costume” joke that’s been beaten to death online, and in this case, was— in the words of a friend I watched this episode with —“not funny enough for how insensitive that joke can be.”
Musical Performances
Jack Harlow: 6.5/10
Jack Harlow’s interesting to me, because he has all the makings of a musical artist I would despise (mostly just that he’s an earnest white rapper). And yet, my first introduction to him was through his breakout hits in 2020, “What’s Poppin’” and “Tyler Herro,” among others, and I really liked his sound! Follow that up with an SNL musical guest debut in 2021 that was absolutely electric— even with a COVID-restricted audience— and I was pretty sold on the guy.
But suddenly, he now seems to be morphing into the type of artist I despise, with an album full of corny tracks, too earnest to be self-aware, but too laughable to be considered anything other than the ‘Post Malone brand’ of Rap. In case it’s not clear, I am not at all a fan of his hit single “First Class,” which is one of the dumbest radio hits I’ve heard in a long time, and though it was my first time hearing it, not a particularly big fan of his attempt at an ‘emotional boi’ bedroom come-on with “Lil Secret”, which I assume is another track off his critically-panned Come Home, The Kids Miss You. From an objective performance standpoint, he did a fine job with those songs, though; the energy was nothing to write home about, but the vocals came through, and the stage design was nice. Harlow rocked much more energy on the 2nd performance with latest single “State Fair”; though I can’t say I was a huge fan of this track, either, I was more on board with the performance, and it did provide the first glimpse I’ve seen in a long time of the star quality I thought he initially showed when he burst onto the scene..
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