SNL Scorecard: Josh Brolin / Ariana Grande
Perhaps lost amidst the busy weekend of the Oscars, epic Premier League showdowns, the end of the college basketball regular season, and election mayhem, Saturday Night Live came back with a third straight new episode! And yes, the above list is exactly why I was so late to watching this latest episode, and I am taking advantage of the show's two-week break to chime in on it 7 days after airing.
Also lost amidst all that happened in the last week or so: the episode was a good one! I am not as down and out on SNL as the masses (or at least Twitter/Reddit) are these days, but even I ,with my rosy-eyed glasses and loyal fandom, can admit that it's been a pretty rough season. Hilarious sketches haven't been absent, but have few and far between, and consistently good episodes even fewer and even further between. With a significant helping hand from host Josh Brolin and musical guest Ariana Grande, this episode bucked both trends, treating fans to a solid 90 minutes from start to finish, featuring some real noteworthy highlights within.
Season 49 of SNL has seen so many new faces host or appear on the show for the first time, but last weekend, had a returner as both host and musical guest. That said, it had been a long time since either had graced the Studio 8H stage. Grande hadn't returned since pulling double duty in 2016, a period of time that included her public whirlwind romance with , engagement to, and then split from former cast member (and Season 49 premiere host) Pete Davidson. For Brolin, it had been nearly double that amount of time. I would tell you the exact year he hosted last, but I think you can guess the years of his two previous hosting stints just by me sharing guests that appeared on each respective episode: 1. Sarah Palin, and 2. Gotye. Maybe this dynamic, a host and significantly involved musical guest that had been there before but not in some time, was the key ingredient: there's familiarity with the cast and the construct of the show, and no "first-time nerves," but there's also renewed energy and not a sense of "well shit, here I am again."
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 13th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Moulin Rouge": 9/10
Phenomenal. From the voiceover to the very end. I'm typically not a fan of having a popular musical guest play such a big part in sketches at the expense of the hostI, just because it feels like cheap audience fodder. This was the exception. This is how you do it, by putting together the musician in a musical sketch with her real-life friend and letting them just run wild with it. And, even relegated to a small cameo, Josh Brolin made an impact as well.
The Good
“Weekend Update": 8.5/10
I can’t think of the last time we had an Update with no guests, but if ever there was a segment that warranted it, it was this one. Short but sweet from the co-hosts here, with pretty much nothing but bangers, especially on Colin Jost’s side, which might have felt sweet just a couple weeks after Michael Che was noticeably giving the much better punchlines. Che had a harder time getting the audience to buy in this week, but I greatly enjoyed him play-acting like he was checking out.
“Wine and Cheese Night": 8/10
On a night full of chaotic, weird sketches, this was one of the instances where the absurdity just mostly worked. It got a little away from them at the very end, but the premise was simple enough that Brolin’s absolute commitment to the odd, jilted cat lover was so effective at centering the humor.
“State of the Union Cold Open": 7.5/10
A few caveats: yes, Senator Katie Britt’s bizarro response to the Statue of the Union was low-hanging fruit for SNL. No, we did not need the aggressively “meh” first couple minutes of this sketch involving Biden. And no, I did not miss the Trump era trend of SNL just bringing in celebrity guests to play Trump-adjacent figures. Alllll of that being said, however…they had a golden opportunity, and did not waste it. Scarlett Johansson’s delivery was flawless, and the writers managed to make a number of clever jokes just beyond what the real-life Britt provided them.
"Shrimp Tower": 7/10
The set design in this pre-taped sketch was delightful, and I appreciated the absurdity of this one. But it did feel like it never quite got as funny as it could be. It played to me like a very solid Julio Torres homage, rather than a Julio Torres sketch itself, which would have found a way to make it more memorable.
"Airplane Song": 7/10
Nobody does “turn a mundane thing that almost everyone does into a song” quite like SNL, and this was another solid entry into that canon. Fun to see Andrew Dismukes get a feature, and his and Josh Brolin’s lewks helped make this even more memorable.
“Lisa From Temecula: Sports Bar": 6.5/10
I'm a bit annoyed that this is becoming a repeating bit at this point. That said, I'm happy for Ego Nwodim to have a 'signature character,' and this did a much better job at recapturing the magic of the original than the second edition with Ana de Armas did last year.
“Monologue": 6.5/10
Josh seems like a bit of an oddball, and this was a bit of an odd monologue. But he’s nothing if not a good sport about poking fun at himself, and seemed fully comfortable on this unforgiving stage, even stripping down to his skivvies. This was rarely hilarious, but was fun throughout, and definitely one of the more original monologues of the season
"Bank Robbery": 6.5/10
The first sketch after the monologue sort of had the same energy as the monologue— and I’m not just saying that because it featured Josh Brolin in his underwear. I just found it similar in that it was unnerving, original, and at times hilarious, but maybe just a touch too weird to really land with the audience.
“People Pleaser Support Group": 6.5/10
I liked this sketch, but it was a little triggering for me. Hope that’s okay! No worries if not.
“Shonda Talk Show": 6/10
The reveal of Josh Brolin’s character was one of the biggest laughs all night, but I think it happened too early. The sketch never really found another gear after that, and as enjoyable as it was up to and through that part, I almost think it would have been a classic if they could have found a way to have an even longer buildup and then let Josh come in right at the end.
“Sandwich King": 5.5/10
Like every sketch on the night, this was at least enjoyable and had a couple LOL moments. Definitely not a great bit and had somewhat a lackadaisical ending, but eh, at least it brought some fun 10-to-1 absurdity.
Musical Performances
Ariana Grande: 7.5/10
There was a four or five-year span not too long ago where Ariana Grande total domination seemed inevitable. She released four albums between 2016 and 2020, to a good amount of critical acclaim, won several Grammys, earned smash radio hit after smash hit, and embarked on multiple very successful world tours. Then over the last several years, she just sort of...disappeared. It's not without reason, mind you. First of all, two months after the conclusion of her last grand tour, a pandemic shut the world down. But even before that, she had to deal with a whole lot, from the Manchester bombing at her concert, to heartbreaking ends of relationships, to the loss of her former flame and close confidant Mac Miller.
Still, the lack of new music and especially the relative lack of public appearances, other than stepping out and going public with her married castmate (🥴) was jarring, and speaking even as someone who generally finds a lot of her music forgettable, it was good to see her back. Ariana looks noticeably different than she did when we saw her last, I think, but in her first song, "we can't be friends," her voice sounded different too; it was a deeper and more mature sound than I'm used to from her. This was a pretty song! She had some shaky moments but generally sounded great, and it was complemented visually by a very cool set design (and yes, bet your ass I was squinting to try and see if it was her SpongeBob BF she was on the TV set with at the very end). Her second performance, of "imperfect for you," was less energetic and less to write home about on the visuals, but another solid vocal performance from the songstress, who turned in a very good shift on the night.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.08 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.04)
Heading into SNL's #springbreak2024, 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.:
Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo - 7.41
Ayo Edebiri/Jennifer Lopez - 7.29
Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande - 7.08
Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters - 6.82
Shane Gillis/21 Savage - 6.75
Timothée Chalamet/boygenius - 6.54
Bad Bunny - 6.54 (tiebreaker goes to the Timothée Chalamet episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake - 6.50
Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish - 6.38
Emma Stone/Noah Kahan - 6.21
Jacob Elordi/Reneé Rapp - 6.17
Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves - 6.12
Jason Momoa/Tate McRae - 6.00
Pete Davidson/Ice Spice - 5.75
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