SNL Scorecard: Pete Davidson / Ice Spice

Months after its abrupt and untimely end to Season 48, Saturday Night Live returned to NBC! The return came on the heels of the resolution of the writers' strike that caused that unforeseen 6-month hiatus, although the SAG-AFTRA strike rages on. If you, like I was, are wondering how they can proceed with this show and not be in violation of SAG strike rules, a more detailed explanation can be found here.

Just as he was scheduled to do the week the strike began, recent SNL alum Pete Davidson hosted the Season 49 premiere. I met this announcement with a mixture of low expectations and genuine curiosity; I thought Davidson's tenure on the show was solid on the whole, but unlike almost every former cast member that comes back to host, he had never really carved out any memorable characters on the show other than "Chad," and well, himself. So how would he fare as a host for the first time? Well, true to form, over the course of the show, Pete... pretty much either played himself in self-referential bits, or played minor roles in assorted sketches. The more they stay the same, yada yada.

Partially because of this, but mostly just because of pretty weak writing overall, the first episode of the new season was a forgettable one. It started on a strong-- and abnormally poignant --note, with Pete offering some words on the attacks in Israel and Palestine. I won't give a grade to the cold open for obvious reasons, but it was very well handled by the host and everyone involved. From there, though, while not without a couple highlights, the often wink-nudge nature of the humor this episode got tiresome, and frankly, though Davidson handled himself fine, his self-deprecating humor, numerous references to being an addict, and generally flat affect all night made it a downright uncomfortable watch at times.

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 1st episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Please Don't Destroy - The Original Princes of Comedy": 8/10

Between how soon he began collaborating with the trio after they joined the show, to him actually bringing them aboard his 2021/22 New Year's Eve hosting stint on NBC, one could easily conclude that Pete Davidson, to his credit, caught on pretty quickly to how funny the "Please Don't Destroy" guys were. Thus, it was somewhat fitting that the strongest sketch on Pete's hosting night was a PDD digital short, although in this case, the stars were neither the host nor the three PDD members themselves, but rather the three kids who perfectly played the younger versions of Ben, John and Martin. Hilarious concept, and great execution.

The Good

“Weekend Update": 7.5/10

The last year and a half or so of Saturday Night Live has been wildly inconsistent in quality, but its one constant throughout has been Weekend Update. Some weeks are better than others, to be sure, but I'd be hard-pressed to remember an episode in which the mid-episode news segment isn't among the best parts of the night. That was no different in the premiere- Colin Jost and Michael Che's jokes were just okay overall, but their repartee with each other is as sharp as ever. And unsurprisingly, Kenan Thompson (as Deion Sanders) and Bowen Yang (as a present-day Christopher Columbus) were show-stealers as guests.

“I'm Just Pete": 7.5/10

Yes, the Barbie parody was obvious, considering SNL didn't get a chance during the summer (or the strike) to touch on the cultural zeitgeist. Yes, the excessive self-referential humor made me roll my eyes a bit. All that being said, this was very clever from start to finish (though again, there was an element of "...should we laugh at this? Are we laughing at him, or....?" present).

"Wired Autocomplete Interview": 7/10

I'm not surprised Saturday Night Live found a way to poke fun at the viral story of a plane that had to reroute due to a diarrhea disaster in the bathroom. I am surprised that it came in the form of a fictional Hollywood cast doing one of those popular 'autocomplete interviews' in panel format. It was a great misdirect, and made for one of the most laugh-out-loud moments of the episode at its initial reveal. The sketch had a hard time keeping the energy and humor up from there once the punchline was revealed, but overall, still a very enjoyable bit.

"Glamgina": 6/10

I'm annoyed that this was the only time all night that we got to see Sarah Sherman. Yes, it's only been one episode, but I don't care, it's not too early to scream for MORE SARAH. That said, like the "Wired Interview" sketch, the joke here ran dry pretty quickly (Eh? 👀), but was silly and enjoyable enough on the whole to be one of the better ones from this episode.

“Secretary": 6/10

This really was more goofy than actually funny, and on a stronger night overall, would have functioned much more effectively as the 10-to-1 button on the episode. But Heidi Gardner's full commitment to her absurd character helped this one grow on me gradually... the rare 'one-note' sketch that had me laughing more at the end than at the beginning.

The... Less-Good

“Monologue": 5/10

The monologue was one aspect of the show I actually thought Pete would handle well, an expectation that was only buoyed by his surprisingly steady and thoughtful handling of the cold open. After all, he had first plied his comedy trade as a stand-up comedian, and when comedians host, they tend to just do bits of their standup set. But in this case... eh. This wasn't painfully bad, there were some funny lines in there. Just... eh.

"FOX NFL Sunday": 5/10

I am neither a die-hard fan of either, nor a hater of Travis Kelce or Taylor Swift (any more). But god, I am SO. TIRED. of this story, and it feels like the "relationship" (air quotes because I am far from convinced that it's real and not PR) has had 45 news cycle lifetimes before this episode aired. It wasn't unfunny throughout, and I get that SNL probably had to discuss it-- plus I liked the twist of getting both Travis and Taylor on the live episode, even if the former botched his one line. But like the real story, this got old fast.

“Spaceship": 4/10

This just felt half-realized, and it's a shame because it felt like it could have been really great. After all, Bowen Yang playing someone wacky and/or smarmy usually is a winning recipe. This time, though, his character just didn't go anywhere, and there was so little development around everything else (why did Pete's character randomly have super long fingers?) that it made the protagonist more annoying than annoying-ly funny. I hope they can bring him back, or a character similar, for a sketch earlier in a future episode that may have more time to develop.

“Roadhouse Bar": 3.5/10

The biggest crime of this episode is having not one, but two true '10-to-1' sketches, and somehow completely whiffing on each of them. This one rates slightly due to its wacky energy, and the only example of Pete playing someone truly unhinged all night, but it just didn't amount to anything funny.

“Beach Day": 3/10

This one felt like when your friend tells you a "funny story ," and he starts by dropping a funny detail, and you're like "Okay, this is a good start! Where's this going?", and then you realize that wasn't a funny detail he threw in for context, that was the extent of his story.

Musical Performances

Ice Spice (feat. Rema): 6.5/10

Ice Spice's rise to fame has been so sudden and sharp, I had to look up if she had even exploded onto the scene before the strike began. She had, in fact, but not as far in advance as you might think, so it came as no surprise that this was the Bronx rapper's first SNL performance.

Spice is an undeniable sensation right now, and even if she's a bit of a one-trick pony musically thus far, she performs that trick very, very well; she's a bop machine. That said, I thought her live set was just okay on the whole. The first performance of "In Ha Mood" was a pretty lit performance, and Ice exhibited great vocal control, though the backing track also playing at the same time was distracting. The energy fell off considerably with the second performance, though, of new single "Pretty Girl," with guest artist Rema's vocals being the only thing that came through clearly.

OVERALL SCORE: 5.75 ('Comedy Only' score: 5.68)