SNL Scorecard: Quinta Brunson / Lil Yachty

After a multi-week break, their second in as many months, Saturday Night Live returned with yet another pair of first-timers as host-- Quinta Brunson, of Abbott Elementary fame, and musical guest-- Lil Yachty, fresh off the release of his album Let's Start Here. Brunson being tabbed as host continued SNL's streak in the calendar year of selecting hosts that could have plucked straight from Twitter polls; the lead actress, creator and head writer of Abbott Elementary has received her flowers from all corners of the Internet over the last year-plus thanks to the zeitgeisty nature of her beloved program. She also had one thing that the previous slew of Twitter baes and zaddies that hosted didn't: an extensive background in comedy, both as a writer and comedienne. While you might think that fact would seemingly position this episode to be the best one yet, the opposite result was actually just as possible. I've noticed, as have many others, and perhaps have even mentioned on this blog before that oftentimes when the show has a terrific comedian as host, it results in an underwhelming episode in part perhaps

So which dynamic with Quinta at the helm would win out? In a strange way, both did. And neither? The episode as a whole was quite good, among the better offerings of the season, and that was thanks in no small part to the host, who very much looked the part of an experienced SNL player. However, almost every sketch on the night started with a lot of promise that ultimately didn't end up fully realized, and that perhaps may have been a result of writers lazily banking on the host being able to carry it home herself, when in fact stronger writing was all many of them required to become unforgettable. Again, very good episode overall, but as a big fan of the show and Quinta herself, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that it wasn't the instant classic it certainly had the tools to be.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 16th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Traffic Altercation": 8/10

Sometimes the dumb humor is the best humor for SNL, and this sketch walked the impressive line of somehow being both dumb and clever all at once. It was a simple, silly premise, but a creative one, and Quinta, Mikey Day and Chloe Fineman's full commitment to their parts got the audience on board in a delightful way.

The Good

“Monologue": 7.5/10

Quinta was phenomenal onstage, no surprise there. As mentioned at the outset, the actress has an extensive comedy background, and that (plus, frankly, the amount of time she's spent onstage accepting awards in the last year) likely prepared her well here. It wasn't the most memorable monologue ever or anything, but she checked all the boxes: comfortable despite an intimidating environment? Check. Multiple laugh-out-loud jokes? Check. Heartfelt call to action on a crucial issue? Check. Touching "can't believe I'm up here!" content? Check.

“Drug Dealers": 7.5/10

The first live sketch post-monologue was the first of a couple sketches in which the host portrayed a short king, which I found humorous. This whole sketch was basically just an excuse to replicate a sort of "(x) is soooo white..." "how white is (x)?!?" call and response, but nearly all the punchlines to describe how white the various dealers' cocaine was was funny. Michael Longfellow's bizarre cameo in which he begins to describe how black his black tar heroin is was a nice touch as well.

"Bosses": 7.5/10

The last live sketch of the night was the second time seeing Quinta as a short king, and was also a quintessential 10-to-1 sketch. Zany, off-color, and high-energy. The two regrets about this bit: 1. that it had a somewhat sloppy ending, seemingly to reassure the audience that the show doesn't think sexual harassment is cool, which felt unnecessary. And 2., that it was the only time all night we saw Sarah Sherman. Let the rising star shine!! She's so uniquely and consistently hilarious.

"Weekend Update": 7/10

Michael Che's April Fools joke on Colin Jost, and Jost's flustered, scrambling attempt to recover from it was one of the best Update bits we've seen in a long time. That aside, though, while I too was confused by how little the audience seemed to be enjoying the jokes early on, these were far from their best or sharpest punchlines of the season. Keeping with the theme of the night, both Update guests, newbies Michael Longfellow and Marcello Hernandez, were funny, but it felt like their stints overstayed their welcome, and/or just didn't really evolve from the initial joke. I think the live audience just doesn't know how to react to Longfellow's quasi anti-humor style; this is not the first time I've enjoyed his dry delivery a lot more than the audience, seemingly.

“Couple Goals": 7/10

This was a good sketch overall, but in the long illustrious catalog of SNL's game-show categories, I doubt it will stand out. I did appreciate that they managed to make both couples' dynamics a joke, though, instead of just settling for the obvious "couple that moved in together during COVID don't really know each other" punchlines.

“Please Don't Destroy - Street Eats": 7/10

After several weeks in a row where we got Please Don't Destroy sketches surprisingly early in the night, they were moved to the absolute last slot prior to the closing credits. Given how rare it also is to see PDD as the very last sketch of the night, I have to imagine this might have been fated to be cut for time, but was shoehorned in to fill out the little bit of space between the "Bosses" sketch and the end of the hour. It does feel a little like a cut-for-time sketch, to be honest; not because it was bad, it wasn't. It just felt like a pretty simple joke that, as funny as it was, ran thin kinda quickly and functions better as a bit New Yorkers can send around amongst their friend groups, either to cathartically bash gentrifiers or tag with a message of "oops we got so called out lol."

"Trump Indictment Cold Open": 6.5/10

Folks, we say it all the time: letting James Austin Johnson just riff in his note-perfect Trump impression is a winning formula. That said, this was one of the less impressive uses of JAJ; there were plenty of memorable one-liners from "Donald" still, but the premise of his new musical album and the various celebrity impersonation cameos both got a little tiresome.

“Bridesmaid Cult Documentary": 6/10

This sketch, perhaps more than any other, epitomized my feelings of the episode at large. All the parts for a great pre-taped bit were there in this one, but it just never went anywhere above the obvious punchline and thus, never elevated beyond "pretty good." It felt like the writers were more interested in packaging a ready-made viral video than making it a hilarious sketch.

“Midwife": 5.5/10

I appreciate the zany absurdity of this sketch-- not at all surprising to me that it aired so late in the episode --but this was more bizarre than funny. Bowen Yang and Quinta's repeated mispronouncing of "curious" made me laugh, as did the former's futile attempts to keep from breaking, but this one was pretty forgettable all things considered.

Musical Performances

Lil Yachty (feat. Diana Gordon): 8.5/10

I was aware of a few of Lil Yachty's big hits prior to his early 2023 release Let's Start Here., and my sense of him as an artist was that he was a goofy, radio-focused rapper. I found a lot of his stuff catchy, but never amounting to much more to smile-inducing, infectious tunes over whimsical beats. So imagine my-- and many other hip-hop heads' -- surprise when in late January, Lil Yachty surprise dropped an hour-long psychedelic prog-rock album produced by Pink Floyd!

Let's Start Here. isn't the best psychedelic rock album I've ever heard, but it is very good, and has to be one of the best-executed sharp pivots by a rapper that I can remember. The opening track, "the BLACK seminole.", a 7-minute trippy epic reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, is my favorite on the album. So I was delighted to hear the artist, backed by an all-black, all-female band, launch into the recognizable opening chords for the first performance. Yachty chopped a couple verses (and minutes of runtime) out of the track for the live performance, but quite frankly, they killed it. Yachty's vocals were on point, the band was marvelous, the set design awesome and light show appropriately trippy, and accompanying singer Diana Gordon (who I definitely didn't go from not knowing to instantly believing is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen) closed the song in stunning fashion, with her haunting vocal outro. The second performance of "drive ME crazy!," more of a duet with Gordon, was a little more discombobulated and lighthearted, but immensely enjoyable all the same. All in all, a terrific set by the breakout star, accompanied by the new love of my life.

OVERALL SCORE: 7.09 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.95)