SNL Scorecard: Jason Sudeikis / Brandi Carlile
It might not be quite the crazy (and ill-advised) six-episode stretch to open the season that last year saw, but Saturday Night Live opening with four uninterrupted episodes is still pretty abnormal, as we usually see just two or three to kick off the season before its first break. Considering the insane schedules the cast and crew live by during new episode weeks and the amount of work that goes into putting on just one show, it's not hard to imagine by Week 4 all parties could be running out of steam somewhat. That seemed to come through somewhat this weekend, in an episode that featured as many retreads of old characters and sketches as new ones, and with writing that at times felt tired.
Fortunately, the episode was still a good one, and that's in no small part due to the fact that it was helmed by someone who was very well-versed in the ins and outs of this show. Jason Sudeikis, cast member on SNL from 2003-2013, made his first return to the show as a host. Like longtime fellow castmate and friend Bill Hader, Sudeikis has found a perhaps surprising level of success in his post-SNL career, winning Emmy like Hader did for Barry, in his case for a little show you might have heard of, Ted Lasso. He's the man of the comedy moment, but you wouldn't know it by the way he carries himself; when I drew the comparison with Bill Hader and remarked on a "surprising" level of success, I say that to mean he never commanded the stage as a clear star. Rather, he was always the steady supporting role, versatile in roles he played and consistently so solid. It made perfect sense, then, that this episode felt less like "Emmy winner Jason Sudeikis hosts SNL!!" and more like "SNL castmember Jason Sudeikis returns to show from long hiatus." The host plugged into each sketch perfectly and helped facilitate an episode that may have had few highlights, but was one of the most consistently solid of the young season.
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 4th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Science Room": 7.5/10
This is the third time they’ve done this sketch, and each time has been absolutely terrific. I always hope SNL will refrain from running sketches I love into the ground, but so far, this one is still batting 1.000. For the first while, I thought this may be the weakest edition yet, as Jason’s consistent impatience wasn’t proving as funny to me as the slow burn of Sam Rockwell’s and Adam Driver’s anger. But man, things really kicked up to a next level the last couple minutes, and by the end, I was rolling. Who knew ‘dumb schoolkids’ was such a gold mine of a premise?
The Good
“Weekend Update": 8/10
In a season (and really, almost the entire calendar year) that has seen only good editions of Weekend Update, this may have been the strongest one yet. And that’s especially impressive because it was so short; it featured only one guest and ran only about 7 minutes in all. But shorter was sweeter in this case, as Jost and Che pulled no punches with their jokes. And that one guest was the welcome return of Sudeikis as The Devil. Ironically, this wasn’t his funniest outing in that character, but it was still delightful to have back and his interplay with Colin in particular killed me. I mark it down somewhat, though, for the travesty of not including this great Melissa Villaseñor bit nor the return of one of my all-time favorite Weekend guests.
“Casino Proposal": 7.5/10
If you read this piece, you know by now that there’s nothing I like more than a perfect 10-to-1 sketch. This was an example of one. Completely ridiculous, but the perfect amount of buy-in from all the actors (in fact, now that Beck Bennett is gone, can we just reserve 10-to-1 for Kenan Thompson characters exclusively?) to make it hilarious.
"Parent-Teacher Conference": 7/10
Well, this was unexpected. I vacillated between delighted and uncomfortable throughout this whole sketch, but Kyle Mooney’s hapless husband kept cracking me up. And all I’m gonna say is, I don’t know if I am more jealous of Jason Sudeikis or Ego Nwodim…
"What Up With That": 7/10
A couple siblings and I had a running thread going leading up to this week’s show, trying to guess which sketches from Sudeikis’ time on SNL we might see return, and what’s interesting is all of us agreed that “What’s Up With That” was a likely contender, even though it really isn’t a Jason-centric sketch in the least. But it perfectly encapsulates his time on the show: rarely the focus of the sketch, but consistently doing hilarious things in the background that only accentuate the funny the main character is bringing. This wasn’t the most memorable installment of WUWT, in part because some of the timing between Kenan and his various guests was slightly off, but man, it was still so much fun to hear the audience go wild for the return of these characters. Also, I wanted to hear more from The Heebie Bee-Gees!!
“Declaration Pitch": 7/10
At first, I just thought this was a National Treasure send-up, and I was mildly disappointed it didn’t stay that route. But still, between Andrew Dismukes’ hilarious initial pitch, and the absolutely ridiculous entrance of Aidy Bryant and Aristotle Athari at the end, this was great.
"Mellen": 6.5/10
This one went on just a *touch* too long, trying to milk every last joke out of the premise of “Ellen, but for guys.” That said, it was still a hoot; my favorite part (other than the complimentary nut taps) was probably the one time Jason said “I’m Mellen!”
“Monologue": 6/10
Jason Sudeikis is, by all accounts, a class act not unlike his famous character Ted Lasso, and that shone through in this humble and gracious monologue, which largely consisted of the host encouraging the audience to look around in wonder at the physical space that has seen so many comedic and musical icons perform. It was surprisingly short on laughs, to be honest, and felt a little bit like the writers forgot to write a monologue so they said “Let’s just have Jason run out there and talk about his time on the show,” but oh well. It was nice and all.
“Annie": 5.5/10
I’m a sucker for when SNL does musical productions, whether they’re originals or parodies of real musicals, as in this case. This one never really found sure footing, but it was so delightfully absurd and unexpected that it made for a memorable sketch overall.
"Ghost of Biden Past Cold Open": 5.5/10
I was actually hoping they wouldn’t bring back Jason Sudeikis’ Biden. James Austin Johnson is one of the better impressionists SNL has had in a while, and he just got started as Biden (which, ironically, came just as Alex Moffatt was taking over Biden from Jim Carrey). But credit to the writers for finding a way to do it in a manner that didn’t undercut the new Biden; it was a clever recognition of the fact Sudeikis’ Biden, great as it was, doesn’t really fit the current iteration of the more aged and soft-spoken president. The writing wasn’t anything spectacular, but the thought behind it, especially with the funny cameo by Moffatt, was clever enough to make this enjoyable on the whole.
"Men's Underwear Commercial": 5.5/10
This won’t go down in the pantheon of great SNL toilet humor sketches, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna laugh at it. I especially loved that they kept referring to “mistakes” as a placeholder for…well, you know.
Musical Performances
Brandi Carlile: 9/10
The musical guests thus far have been fascinating for me, because there have been two female folk/country artists that I love sandwiched around two more mainstream Pop/Hip-Hop artists that I really don’t like. I was a bit late to the Brandi Carlile train, only really diving into much of her music with her Grammy-nominated album By The Way, I Forgive You in 2018, but between that and her work with The Highwomen, I was won over.
She came out swinging with her first song, “Only Broken Horses,” belting the opening lines pretty much as soon as the host finished saying her name. That energy kept up throughout the whole track, which was classic Brandi, coupling vulnerable lyricism with no-holds-barred vocals and harmonies. That energy came back with her second song, “Right On Time.” Starting softly with the singer at the piano, signs pointed this being a much more stripped-back song and performance from the artist. Not so, as the song, as so many of hers do, crescendoed gloriously. In case you didn’t know, Brandi can SANG.
OVERALL SCORE: 6.83 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.64)
As we enter the first 'bye week' of Season 47, here is where the episodes stand thus far-- 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.:
Rami Malek/Young Thug - 6.95
Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile - 6.83
Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves - 6.64
Kim Kardashian West/Halsey - 6.63
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