SNL Scorecard: Molly Shannon / Jonas Brothers

In a season, and particularly a calendar year filled with new faces at Saturday Night Live-- both in the cast and staff itself but also in hosts and musical guests --the show went with a familiar name to helm this past weekend’s episode. Longtime cast member and well-known comedy actress Molly Shannon returned to the Studio 8H stage to handle proceedings, and brought a “blast from the past” energy to SNL amidst a year of turnover and change. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the fact that Shannon would no doubt be known (and likely beloved) by just about every longtime fan of the show, and despite what has been an unquestionably successful long career for the comedienne, this was her first hosting stint in nearly 20 years. So how did it go?

In a word: okay! Just okay. Molly herself, to the surprise of nobody, was wholly up to the task, sliding back into goofy characters (both old and new) with ease. The episode in general, however, was not one that I would put amongst the most memorable of the year, let alone the season. I’d hesitate to call any sketch a full-on miss,” so I won’t call this a hit or miss episode, but I did describe it to my brother upon conclusion as a ‘boomerang episode.’ While it started and ended on a very strong note, there was a long slog of just fine sketches and performances in the middle that rendered this one another notch in the good-not-great category, which is far and away the most populated tier this season.

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 17th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Trump Easter Cold Open": 8.5/10

Say it with me: letting James Austin Johnson riff as Trump is a gold mine. Unlike last week’s cold open which also featured 'Trump,' Johnson's spot-on impression this time was coupled with a hilarious conceit and great writing. I also feel like at least some of the interaction with the last supper crew behind him was improv, which only added to the hilarity. Probably the best cold open of the season, and easily the best political cold open in years.

The Good

“CNN App": 7.5/10

Though SNL's political comedy has been extremely hit or miss since the initial rise of Trump, they have often been at their best when they find tongue-in-cheek ways to rib progressives, be it by depicting them as pompous or overly naïve. That very concept is at play here with this clever parody of a news app that assuages liberals' (or really, anyone who opposes Trump's) anxiety by acting as if the hammer really is going to drop on the disgraced former-- and hopefully not future --president.

“Weekend Update": 7.5/10

This was a second consecutive hit-or-miss outing from co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che, though the hits felt bigger than last week's, even without the April Fools gag this time. Che's unfazed delivery of "good!" on the joke about YouTubers comes to mind as a shining example. The Update guests this time were a real boon to the segment, too. Even though Punkie Johnson's Angel Reese bit didn't have much direction to it (and frankly, I was tired of the #discourse about Reese the same day it started), it was fun, and worth it to see Punkie get more air time. And flowers really need to be doled out to Bowen Yang, whose Jafar might make the already-impressive pantheon of his Update characters, and Heidi Gardner, who channeled Kristen Wiig in the best way for her inexplicably overworked character Crystal.

"Sally O'Malley: Jonas Brothers": 7.5/10

There were surprisingly few appearances by Shannon's characters from her SNL tenure. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing: sometimes when former cast members come back to host, original comedy is pushed aside for a night full of nostalgic trips down memory lane. But this was a good example of how to bring back an old classic. Shannon's Sally O'Malley has such a hilarious energy that she still feels fresh, and that was evidenced by the cast members struggling to keep it together. Plus, getting her to play off the musical guests, and adding some funny lines for all three Jonases, was a nice touch.

"Valets": 7/10

As has so often been the case this season, this was yet another deeply weird premise for a sketch to 'kick off' the show post-monologue; I'm curious how this even came to be, but I'm glad it did. This slowly ran out of gas (pun fully intended) by the end, but that wasn’t enough to prevent it from being very good overall. Each of the valets-in-training made me laugh in their hapless interactions with clients, though James Austin Johnson did the most with the least dialogue here, for my money.

“Please Don't Destroy - Molly Shannon 2K23": 6.5/10

We've now gotten two consecutive weeks of good-but-not-great outings from the PDD trio, immediately after their best offering in a long time. This is basically a redux of one of their pre-SNL viral Twitter videos, but lacked the fast pace and novelty of that one, and also seemed to function as somewhat of a setup for Molly Shannon’s rap, which feels like a lazy comedic cop-out. This was still funny at several parts, but not as good as it could have been.

“Monologue": 6.5/10

Unsurprisingly, Molly Shannon appeared completely comfortable and fully ready on the stage that has proven too intimidating for many other hosts and hostesses. I love a musical, showtunes number, and Shannon is a great performer, but I enjoy these more when the song itself is cleverly written and humorous.

All of the cast cameos (as well as Lorne’s and Martin Short's) made me laugh, but this was more “fun” than “funny” on the whole.

“Drug Commercial": 6.5/10

Molly's passive-aggressiveness towards her commercial castmates was funny, and Kenan's long riff badly butchering the already-bizarre name of the drug made me laugh out loud. But everything in between and after was a bit of a mess; this felt like yet another half-realized sketch.

"The Play": 5.5/10

I enjoyed the premise of the awkward situation here, and it had a fair amount of laughs. That said, the joke was pretty obvious from the start, and though I appreciated the production value, it led to some timing errors, and his just never really got into a rhythm as a result.

The... Less-Good

“Netflix Live Promo: Jeannie Darcy": 5/10

My brother had to inform me this was also one of Molly’s recurring characters from her time on SNL; judging by the (lack of) audience reaction, it seems I was not the only one that didn't remember Jeannie Darcy! She definitely seems like a character I would find hilarious... I’m a sucker for anti-humor. That said, this sketch never got anywhere besides being just okay; it seemed like the audience wasn’t really biting on the joke here.

“Pregnant Co-Worker": 5/10

For the second straight week, my lowest-rated sketch of the night is a pregnancy-themed one. I guess the only conclusion that can be made is that I hate pregnant women!!!! Okay but actually, just like with Bowen Yang's "Midwife" sketch last week, I enjoyed this but spent most of the time puzzling over how this sketch even came to be. I’m a sucker for fart humor, so I did laugh, but the audience didn’t really seem to buy in, and that plus the pace of the sketch prevented this from becoming hilarious as opposed to just pretty silly and dumb.

Musical Performances

Jonas Brothers: 7/10

When Jonas Brothers set the Internet ablaze several years ago with their unexpected reunion, Saturday Night Live marked one of their first (if not their very first) widely televised performances since their initial split. That set in early 2019, as well as their infectious lead singles, helped turn my attitude towards the JoBros from dismissive indifference to casual appreciation. I won't be lining up around the corner to get concert tickets any time soon, but I was interested to learn another album is coming soon in 2023, and was looking forward to see how this set would go.

In short, it wasn't the high-energy, rust-busting level that their last appearance was, but it still demonstrated the pop stars' performance chops in general. Their first song, the freshly-released “Waffle House” has a good, peppy sound, though it doesn’t strike me as an instant smash the way “Sucker” was 4 years ago. Joe sounded good on the vocals, but Nick sounded a bit off (perhaps distracted by being the JoBro selected to walk on to a sketch as the “hunk” character? #justiceforJoeandKevin). Their second track, “Walls,” was an interesting choice of song, because it doesn’t seem like a radio single, really. It played as much more of an album closer in tone. Still, that was a really good performance; Joe’s vocals were strong once again and the backing choir kicked the energy up a notch.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.67 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.63)