SNL Scorecard: Lizzo
After one week away from the 'first-time host' trend that has dominated the last couple seasons, Saturday Night Live went back to that well this past weekend. It was not, however, for an unfamiliar face by any stretch of the imagination. Pop sensation Lizzo had graced the Studio 8H stage as a musical guest in the 2019 Christmas episode with Eddie Murphy-- one of the best episodes in recent history --and even beyond that, she's become one of the most instantly recognizable faces in America since her breakout success a few years back.
That Lizzo was tapped for double duty was a mild surprise; the show, of course, is no stranger to enlisting musicians to also perform as hosts. This very season, in fact, Lizzo's fellow 2020 Best New Artist/Song of the Year/Record of the Year/Album of the Year nominee Billie Eilish did that (Eilish won each of those Grammys, in case you were curious). But Billie's hosting gig, like Childish Gambino's back in 2018, was a case of a big star hosting in the midst of a very big moment. The timing of this host selection was much more in line with Chance The Rapper and Halsey's gigs in past seasons, where it falls in a period where they have significantly less buzz than they did, say, a year or two ago. That said, to the delight of everyone and the surprise of nobody that is familiar with her, Lizzo was fully up to the task.
The quality of the various sketches depended on when the writers and cast were up to matching their host's energy. In one of the most up-and-down episodes of the season, they were much less steady than Lizzo was. Fortunately, the lows were not in fact all that low, and the highs were really, really high.
Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 18th episode of the season:
Sketch of the Night
"Six Flags": 9/10
Oh. My. Gosh.
The Good
“Monologue": 8/10
Three things about Lizzo: she is naturally funny. She is easily likable. She is great on stage. Therefore, it should not have been at all surprising that she’d give a good monologue, and yet I was still impressed with just how good this was. It was self-referential without being overly cheeky (no pun intended), genuinely witty, and ended with a great positive message. Kudos all around.
"Trivia Game Show": 8/10
I don’t have many notes for this, other than it was just great. I loved how quickly Lizzo became indignant, and how easy it was for her to turn the others against Clint Litoris. Also, really cool to see the first sketch of the night feature the host as the main comedic star. The writers of this one get major props.
“Lizzo Has Writer's Block": 7/10
Another solid outing from the Please Don’t Destroy trio. Not their most clever out of their already-impressive catalog, but I feel like their style can sell just about any concept. I am mildly disappointed, though, after learning that these three co-wrote the Six Flags sketch with Sarah Sherman, they didn’t reveal that as their sketch pitch to Lizzo instead of “Horny Zookeeper."
"TikTok": 7/10
Much like the first iteration of this sketch back in the Billie Eilish episode, this was more a re-enactment than parody. Its humor lies in just how dead on it is, really. I’m impressed they’ve found a way with these sketches to reference Gen Z content/humor without sounding painfully out of touch.
“Weekend Update": 6.5/10
Compared to last week, which was one of their best all season, this week was pretty “meh” from Che and Jost. Still, it turned out a solid Update on the whole thanks to some late heaters from Che in particular, and a great (and all-too-rare) appearance from Melissa Villaseñor, debuting a hilarious new character.
"Steve's Beanie Babies": 6.5/10
An absurd premise, Andrew Dismukes roaring into Lizzo's face, cast members struggling to keep it together....sweet, beautiful 10-to-1 chaos.
“Orchestra": 6.5/10
It was a pretty obvious conceit, but that didn’t make the payoff— nor Mikey Day’s and Heidi Gardner’s futile attempts to keep from breaking any less enjoyable. I’m disappointed they didn’t name the sketch “Twerkestra.”
“Black Eyed Peas": 5.5/10
Doing this sketch in 2022 just felt weird. It was a funny concept, and none of the points they were making about The Black Eyed Peas’ inane hits of 2008 were wrong, but why air this 14 years after the fact, when countless jokes have already been made at the band’s expense? Also, the audience low-key missed the best joke of the sketch; perhaps it’s not common knowledge what the original name of “Let’s Get It Started” was….
“Easter Wishes Cold Open": 6/10
I’ve talked before— probably the last time we saw it —about how James Austin Johnson’s Trump is the polar opposite of later-stage Alec Baldwin Trump, in that he has the capacity to save a flagging sketch, whereas Baldwin’s would tank an otherwise promising one. Never has that been more clear than in this cold open. This bit, a slew of mediocre impressions and a lazy attempt at recapping the week’s major events, was headed for a sub-5 score before “Trump” showed up. His unhinged ramblings had me dying laughing and at least left the sketch with some good momentum heading into the opening credits.
“Throne Room": 5.5/10
Everyone’s full commitment to the crazy made this enjoyable, but this sketch never really went anywhere. It does get a slight bump for Kyle making Bowen break harder than I’ve ever seen him break, though.
Musical Performances
Lizzo: 8.5/10
I’ve never seen Lizzo in person, but I’ve seen enough video of her performances, including her last musical appearance on SNL, to know she tends to absolutely kill live. I was curious to see, though, how much excitement she’d be able to generate when she was coming in with no mega-hits at the moment, unlike in 2019, when she was capping off a year of absolutely dominating the radio.
The answer after one song was quite obvious: she has not lost a step. If my Dua Lipa stardom has taught us anything, it’s that disco/funk revival is the way to my heart, and “About Damn Time” felt straight out of the past in the best way. There was good choreo, there was a highly-anticipated flute solo, and Lizzo herself sounded phenomenal, even though it appeared her mic was off or at least turned down way too low. Her second song, “Special,” doesn’t slap in the same way, and she was a little pitchy in the first half of her performance, but it’s still a powerful song that she closed extremely well.
OVERALL SCORE: 6.96 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.82)
As we enter another break, here is where the Season 47 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.:
John Mulaney/LCD Soundsystem - 7.17
Oscar Isaac/Charli XCX - 7.06
Zoë Kravitz/Rosalía - 7.05
Jake Gyllenhaal/Camila Cabello - 7.00
Lizzo - 6.96
Rami Malek/Young Thug - 6.95
Billie Eilish - 6.95 (tiebreaker goes to the Rami Malek episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Willem Dafoe/Katy Perry - 6.88
Simu Liu/Saweetie - 6.83
Jason Sudeikis/Brandi Carlile - 6.83 (tiebreaker goes to the Simu Liu episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Jarrod Carmichael/Gunna - 6.68
Owen Wilson/Kacey Musgraves - 6.64
Kim Kardashian West/Halsey - 6.63
Will Forte / Måneskin - 6.50
Paul Rudd (COVID Christmas) - 6.50 (tiebreaker goes to the Will Forte episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Kieran Culkin/Ed Sheeran - 6.25
Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift - 5.88
Ariana DeBose/Bleachers - 5.68
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