SNL Scorecard: Jason Momoa / Tate McRae
Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Saturday Night Live, as you might expect, does not have a new episode tonight over the holiday weekend, but one week ago, they aired the fifth new episode of Season 49. After a start to the season that saw 3 consecutive first-time hosts-- very much a trend last season as well --SNL went to repeat hosts in consecutive weeks.
Just like last week, the host Jason Momoa was back for just the second time, and his inaugural stint was not too long ago. Where Timothée Chalamet was returning after a 3-year absence, Momoa came back after 5 years, hosting a Christmas episode in 2018 (though he did make a cameo nearly a year later, to hilarious effect). And also like the previous host, Jason was once again an amiable host, who seemed even more comfortable in himself and onstage in his sophomore hosting gig. However, unlike the last episode, the writers let their host down with some extremely weak material, and while there were some high spots, we unfortunately head into the break failing to capitalize on the momentum generated by the last couple episodes.
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
"Rome Song": 8/10
My little brother pointed out that SNL was about a month behind on the viral “Men think about Rome daily” TikTok meme, but eh, who cares. This was a ton of fun and in a pretty weak episode overall, was a clear standout both in humor and energy.
The Good
“Please Don't Destroy - Ramen Order": 8/10
This felt like vintage Please Don’t Destroy; after a few shorts in a row that saw them going out of the office and in more bizarre directions, this was a return to the three of them just in a room, playing off each other expertly, around a funny central concept. One thing I love about PDD is how every one of their sketches includes some hilarious line that has nothing to do with the main joke; this time it was Martin messing up the “I got a fever!” reference.
“Weekend Update": 7.5/10
Update has been more good than bad for sure, but has tended to rollercoaster so far this season. Fittingly, after a pretty “meh” outing last week, this segment was among the best of the night tonight. Most of Che’s and Jost’s jokes were great, Bowen Yang made a welcome return as George Santos, Devon Walker (who is consistently good in limited appearances) was hilarious as Draymond Green, and we got another taste of James Austin Johnson-Andrew Dismukes chaos, which is always encouraged.
"UNTOLD: Battle of the Sexes": 6.5/10
A sketch like this wouldn’t typically rate in the middle ground, they tend to either really work or really not. But I don’t know, it felt like it was good, not great. There were, naturally, elements of the classic “Saving Mr. Bunting” sketch that made it enjoyable, especially when juxtaposed with the documentary format. But, perhaps because of how short a bit it was, it felt like this one failed to match the energy or incredible payoff of that classic, and instead was just a *little* bit shocking, and thus, *pretty* funny.
"Old-Timey Movies": 6.5/10
What a bizarre idea for a sketch, but a fun one! The joke was simple, and didn’t really develop, but it was fun to see Momoa ham it up, and I respect the creativity of leading off with an almost purely physical comedy bit.
“Nightclub Line": 6/10
Another bizarre sketch concept, but I’ll never complain about Marcello getting more airtime. Momoa’s character’s first attempt to reassure a potential patron he was “bouncing” was maybe the hardest I laughed all night, but the sketch didn’t really go anywhere from there.
“Cab Driver": 6/10
I’m annoyed that the 10-to-1 sketch was one of the least weird ones of the night, and that it had a sloppy ending after building momentum throughout the sketch. But still, this was fun, and a good use of the host who expertly played the chill, blissfully ignorant himbo.
The... Less-Good
"Thanksgiving Week Airport Parade": 5/10
Another fun idea that didn’t go anywhere enlightening in particular. This had several good laughs, but while they generally nailed the genres of people you might see in an airport, those individual characters hardly had any memorable lines themselves.
“Monologue": 4.5/10
Momoa seems like an incredibly warm presence, and as mentioned before, seemed very comfortable onstage in his second appearance on the show. But this monologue just wan’t funny. Sweet! Inspiring, even! But not funny. It felt like it got to showtime and the writers realized they hadn’t written anything, so they just let Jason trot out there to talk about his charity work and charm the audience.
“Cast Away": 4/10
I tend to roll my eyes when SNL has a host, male or female, that is a sex symbol and they trot out sketches that don’t really have anything to say other than “Get it?!?! Jason hot!!! Jason hot body!!!” This is no different. Andrew Dismukes was great and cracked me up a couple times, but in general this just felt like cheap crowd play.
“Biden Panda Cold Open": 4/10
As far as political sketches go, this one actually did make a pretty incisive point: that the “panda!!!” coverage was a bizarre distraction from an extremely important summit between two world powers. But the writers clearly just didn’t really know where else to go besides that, and not even Bowen could rescue a pretty flagging, toothless opener.
Musical Performances
Tate McRae: 6/10
This was the first time in a while that I can remember Saturday Night Live featuring a musical guest I really knew nothing about. I think I had heard the name Tate McRae before, but I couldn’t name a single song of hers, nor in fact anything about her. As it turns out, she’s a 20-year old Canadian star that— as I learned on Twitter after show —many think is poised to be the next “it girl” of pop.
And, I will say this, it has been a while (maybe since Beyoncé’s emergence on the scene) since a pop star was a truly gifted dancer, and McRae, a So You Think You Can Dance finalist at 13 years old, is certainly that. That was on full display in her first performance, of hit single “greedy.” Less impressive, unfortunately, was her vocal performance; it’s no secret that the Studio 8H stage can be very unkind to performers, and perhaps that was the case. In the more restrained second performance, of her song “grave,” the opposite was true: no choreography— which makes sense given the emotional tone —but much more settled vocally. It wasn’t the strongest breakout performance, but still, she’s one to watch for the future!
OVERALL SCORE: 6.00 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.00)
Heading into Thanksgiving Break, 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.:
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)
Jason Momoa/Tate McRae - 6.00
Pete Davidson/Ice Spice - 5.75
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