SNL Scorecard: Nikki Glaser / sombr

It’s no secret that SNL’s 51st season hasn’t had the smoothest start. Some may even go so far as to call it inauspiciously poor, given that more than one thinkpiece with titles like this one have been published already, just a month/a handful of episodes into the season. I would not be among them; much as I have been doing about my favorite team Liverpool in their unexpectedly poor start to their Premier League season, I am trying to both preach and practice patience this year. After all, the show is not only coming off a monumental and celebratory year, their 50th anniversary (much like Liverpool, coming off a title-winning season), but are also breaking in a ton of new faces in the cast and writing room (much like Liverpool, with a complete overhaul of their roster this summer). As such, it stands to reason that it will take some time for Liverpo—I mean, Saturday Night Live to figure things out, but I think the ceiling is high when it does.

This probably all sounds like a wind-up for either a big “All of that being said, YIKES!” or a self-congratulatory “What did I tell you??” about this latest episode, but in fact it is not. It’s more so a response to the discourse I saw in the wake of this episode: the show, centered around first-time host Nikki Glaser and first-time musical guest sombr, was an uneven one, getting off to a bit of a rough start but producing just as much funny as unfunny. That, of course, was not unlike a good bit of not only this season but many of the last several seasons, but the inconsistent nature of it meant I saw many an “SNL is dead, long live SNL” eulogy online, and yet somehow also a fair bit of “is SNL back?? Best episode yet!!”

I was right down the middle of those two extremes in my reaction to this show, which I found perfectly okay. Coming off a slew of episodes that had gotten better with every week, and off a particularly solid episode, did this one continue the upward trajectory? I can’t say that it did. But was it a disaster, free of any originality or true highlight? Far from it.

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

"Brad and His Dad": 8.5/10

SNL's only started doing these animated bits via Streeter Seidell & Mikey Day in the last year, and it already feels like a classic series. This is perhaps a hot take, but I was never a big fan of most of the old Saturday TV Funhouse animated sketches; each of these, though, has been a winner, and this was probably my favorite one yet. Simple, hilarious and surprisingly sweet, and on a night full of strange and often sardonic humor, it stood out even more so.

The Good

“Pilot Announcement": 8/10

The success of this episode pretty much came down to letting James Austin Johnson do his own thing. His Trump is, of course, brilliant but I have long felt that JAJ is done a disservice by pigeonholing him only for his impressions, and this sketch shows why. A pilot who decides to just shoot the shit and share too much information with his passengers is a simple premise-- and not all too distant from other funny sketches SNL has done before --but he sells it so unbelievably well that it makes for a hilarious sketch, one of the stronger ones of the season.

“Mechanical Bull": 7.5/10

The first minute or so, I was already ready for this sketch to be over- it seemed doomed when even Kenan hamming it up could only get half-hearted laughs from the audience. But then who showed up to rescue it, but....that's right, one James Austin Johnson. The hilarious Johnny Cash-esque narrative song that accompanied Glaser and Sarah Sherman on their drunken journey was hilarious and low-key riveting. I actually can't believe how early this one aired; that this wasn't the 10-to-1 sketch feels like a crime. It won't win any awards for the funniest, but it might for the craziest and silliest, and that's not much worse.

"Pinwheel": 7/10

On the other hand, this did make sense as the last sketch of the night. A perfect, silly little finish to the night and a great starring turn from Jeremy Culhane, for really the first time this season. I was a little thrown by how much this reminded me of that cursed Charlie the Unicorn video from my school days, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't enjoy this sketch.

"Weekend Update": 7/10

Weekend Update hasn't been quite as strong this season, which was concerning me just a bit, as it had been the only near-consistent thing from the show in recent years. But this was a nice return to form from Che and Jost, whose chemistry was as good as ever, and who both had some of their sharpest punchlines in a while. Only one walk-on guest this time, and it wasn't even a current cast member, but rather alum Pete Davidson. His appearance was ostensibly to talk about the negative press surrounding his and Colin's co-owned Staten Island Ferry, but it seemed like it was also to show SNL fans he's generally doing alright after some years away from the public eye (cool!), and also to try to get some good PR back after controversially performing in Saudi Arabia (aggressive eyeroll). I found Pete's tenure on SNL largely annoying, but this was mostly good, and it's good to see him doing well.

“Spirit Tunnel Anxiety": 7/10

This felt oddly specific, so I was wondering if it was self-referential (i.e. 'did Nikki Glaser actually go on the Jennifer Hudson Show and get teased for her spirit tunnel walk or something?'). But no, it doesn't seem she's ever been on the show, so it was just a straight-up parody of a viral trend. Funny, even if the older, mostly offline TV audience probably was lost.

“Oval Office Press Conference Open": 6.5/10

It's probably lazy writing to let JAJ just basically riff as Trump for a whole sketch, and sure enough, this had as many detractors online as it did fans. But man, this was a terrific one-man performance, and some of the most outright, angry parody of Trump in a long time from Johnson. The brilliance of his impression is that he brings so much evident personal dislike to Trump yet also feels very intent on doing the impression justice, and not make him any more cartoonish than he already is.

"Beauty and Mr. Beast": 6.5/10

This was pretty much exactly what the title would suggest it was: an opportunity to skewer the YouTube billionaire's wild challenges. Not the most original writing, but they did the most they could with it, and Ben Marshall did a pretty damn good Mr. Beast.

"American Girl Doll XL": 6.5/10

American Girl dolls are now life-size!! And that means...exactly what you think it means. The premise of this one was obvious from the start, which makes it almost impressive that it was still pretty funny. Not a standout, but it didn't overstay its welcome. "Mine looks like...my brother's wife" made me laugh out loud.

The... Less-Good

“Monologue": 5/10

I figured if anyone was going to break the streak of pretty unimpressive monologues thus far this season, it would be a stand-up comedian, especially a fresh-faced one making their first appearance on the show. The only thing I could tell you I had seen Nikki Glaser in before this was her Golden Globes stint early this year, where she gave what I thought was a brilliant performance as host. Unfortunately, this monologue was a lot more hit and miss. It seemed like she was trying to condense a whole special into a "highlights" bit for the monologue, and it just didn't flow naturally. As for the extremely risqué content that had the Internet all abuzz? Look, I'm not a prude (mostly), and I can appreciate the desire to be bold and edgy, but when it feels like the goal is simply to be shocking and not necessarily funny, that's when you start to lose me, and Glaser teetered on the edge of that a little too much.

“Sorority Meeting": 4/10

It was fun to see cast members close to breaking on this one, and it had a nice "TV magic" twist at the end, but in general, I found this very lame. "Dudes dressing up as girls to get access to girls" feels very mid-2000s, Sandler/Schneider era comedy, and at the risk of sounding like the friend that's too woke, can come across as thinly veiled transphobia. I did at least find some enjoyment in the fact that Mikey Day sort of looked like Erling Haaland.

“Karaoke Night": 4/10

This was certainly a choice to air this as the first sketch post-monologue, especially fresh off a monologue that was already bound to be controversial. Much like the American Doll sketch, the punchline was obvious from the start, but unlike that one, this didn't tread any ground that incest jokes haven't already. (That was a wild sentence to type.) There were a couple funny moments, and it was fun to see Tommy Brennan finally get a chance to shine, I just wish for his sake that it was in a better sketch.

Musical Performances

sombr: 7/10

I am starting to have my first moment of feeling old and out of touch, because we’re barely into SNL’s season and they’ve already trotted out multiple musical guests I know absolutely nothing about. And fittingly, there must be a generational divide over somber’s performance, because the online reaction I’ve seen has exclusively been “Sooooo good wow!!! 😍” or “Wtf was this trash, I turned it off, what has music become?!?” 

I should say I had at least heard of sombr, though, which I could not say of Role Model last month, but my knowledge was limited strictly to seeing some online buzz, his brand-new nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and some discourse over an apparently obnoxious video he recorded trying to "clap back" at a TikToker criticizing his concert. I could not have told you the first thing about his music or him as a performer. And my first reaction? I gotta say, I see the appeal. The first performance, of his hit single "12 to 12," was electric. It had a great Tame Impala disco-pop sound, and his vocals, while imperfect, were strong. More than anything, I appreciated his chaotic, gangly and award, but fully committed stage presence. The show had started pretty slowly at the time of his first performance, and that felt like the exact injection of energy the episode needed to pick up somewhat. I had a bit of a flashback to watching Mk.gee's set around this exact time last year, where I was seeing a young star I had never heard of break out something new and raw, and that was very exciting.

Both his second performance, and the song itself ("back to friends") were just okay by comparison, but not a disservice to his talent. It’s quietly been a damn good season of musical performances thus far, and this did nothing to stop that trend. 

OVERALL SCORE: 6.50 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.46)