SNL Scorecard: Ryan Gosling / Chris Stapleton
Saturday Night Live returned this weekend for one more April show, and brought in some returning faces and heavy hitters as host, musical guest, and even guest star! I mentioned last week that in this season at least, SNL has been at their best when they have brought back hosts who know the stage well, and those instances have typically been few and far between.
But wouldn't you just know it? One week after bringing back former cast member and five-time host Kristen Wiig to the tune of the funniest episode all season, SNL went back-to-back thanks to the return of Ryan Gosling. I was shocked to learn this was only Gosling's 3rd time hosting, in large part because each of his stints have been so delightfully chaotic and deliriously funny that nearly every sketch he's ever been in is just permanently seared in my mind. After appearance number 3, I think it may be safe to say he has supplanted his former Mickey Mouse clubmate Justin Timberlake as the crowd favorite, the most beloved return host that has no prior affiliation to the show. This show was chaos, delirium, and hilarity from start to finish, and the perfect cherry on top of what was easily the show's best three-episode run of the season, perhaps of the last several years. If Wiig’s episode gave the impression that she brought the old writers back to the writers' room, the current staff took note: this was another banger of an episode, this time with even more wildly original ideas.
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
"Beavis and Butt-Head": 8.5/10
If you have any social media account, you've no doubt seen this referenced by now. This one had a bit of a sloppy start live with some technical glitches, but the energy picked up quick, for obvious reasons. Heidi Gardner’s break was an all-timer; I have to believe that she had never seen Mikey Day’s makeup until the live episode. I never really know how to rate sketches that are pretty much only (or at least largely) funny simply because of the cast breaking. But the breaks in this one were so phenomenal, and the makeup work and creativity levels of the sketch both so high... ah what the hell, I loved this. If it's even an error, I’m gonna err on the side of rating an extremely memorable sketch highly.
The Good
“The Engagement": 8/10
This was a hilarious choice for first post-monologue sketch of the night, but as the night progressed, it turned out this would prove to be the perfect tone-setter: delightful chaos as the host gamely fully commits to his character and yet struggles immensely to hold off the giggles. Even when the main joke was revealed early on, the sketch didn’t lose steam because the writing was clever, and Ryan Gosling and Andrew Dismukes both sold it so well. I was worried they’d lose steam in the end, but they pivoted back effectively.
“Close Encounter Cold Open": 8/10
Although Gosling was a key part of the original sketch's breakout, I didn’t necessarily expect a Ms. Rafferty comeback, and CERTAINLY didn’t expect it in the cold open. But I think it was a smart move to kick the show off with a huge amount of energy, and get the studio audience buying in right away, with an energy that never left. This is the rare example of a great sketch that SNL both a. has run into the ground, yes, but also b. has somehow found a way to make hilarious every single time. I don’t know how they come up with different euphemisms for Kate McKinnon each time, but each one makes me giggle like a schoolchild, and Ryan's perpetual gamesmanship in letting Kate basically do whatever she wants to him and inability to keep it together when she does it makes it a hit.
“Get That Boy Back": 8/10
The only complaint I have with this was the relative lack of Ego Nwodim; literally the first note I wrote during the sketch was “You better SANG, Ego!” But this was another terrific parody song from the show, and no surprise that it’s a Chloe Troast breakout smash. (#ChloeTroastsupremacy) The running punchlines were hilarious, but it works especially well because it’s also genuinely a catchy song.
"Monologue": 7.5/10
Ryan Gosling has been both a hearthrob and a star for so long, but it’s really felt like it’s kicked up tenfold in the wake of his star turn in Barbie, and the crowd’s reception to him in the monologue supported that; you could tell even he seemed a little taken aback by the raucous applause. The two Taylor Swift references right away in the show were a bit bizarre, though it wasn’t until the trailer for Fall Guy played immediately after the monologue that I realized the movie also has a reference to that very song. Anyway, this was a great number (“Ken Farewell” is better than “All Too Well,” don’t @ me), and some next-level promotion by Gosling and Emily Blunt, as they did a great job capitalizing on Ryan’s buzzy Oscar performance. Not as funny as his previous monologues, but a ton of fun, and very original.
"Erin Brokovich: 7/10
It took a little while to get going, and ended somewhat sloppily, but god, this was a fun 10-to-1 sketch. The dramatic music with each pseudo-dramatic monologue killed me. Even having never seen Erin Brokovich, I didn’t feel like I missed out on the joke.
“Weekend Update": 7/10
It's funny, think Weekend Update was good, but it’s the second straight week where merely being “good” (and truthfully, probably not far below the level of "good" they typically are) feels like a mini-letdown amidst the hilarity of the rest of the episode. Still, though not without a couple misses, solid jokes overall by Jost and Che, who continue to be in good form. The walk-on appearances on Update tend to either boost or damper the overall quality of the segment, but these perfectly met it in its “good! but not great" lane. I always like seeing Michael Longellow, who I think is underrated, but this bit was just okay compared to some of his past work, and right when I was about to ding Michael Che again for his continued jokes about women’s basketball, real-life Caitlin Clark showed up to do just that! This whole bit made it very clear that it wasn’t just me that was frustrated with his running "gag"; this was very obviously a comeuppance moment for the co-anchor. And truth be told, I have mixed emotions on these instances when SNL serves comeuppance to itself, but at least as far as those go, this was fun.
“Can't Tonight": 7/10
There wasn't much to this sketch other than Gosling and Kenan Thompson doing ridiculous Latino accents.
But man, did they sell it; they were clearly having the time of their life, and the audience was, too. In my mind, Marcello Hernández was the brains behind the operation, and knew it would be a crowd-pleaser. Also, “I love countries” was an underrated hilarious line delivery from Sarah Sherman.
"Doctor": 6.5/10
It had been a while since I’d seen a sketch so dumb, but so admirably committed to being dumb. Everyone here completely committed to the bit, and I love them for it because this could have painfully bad if they didn’t; instead, it was yet another delightfully wacky sketch at the tail-end of a night full of them.
Musical Performances
Chris Stapleton: 9/10
Chris Stapleton is famously the artist that opened my mind up to Country music. No joke, I was a full-on Country hater for most of my life, when, fresh off the back of its Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, I decided to give his 2015 album Traveller a listen, and boy, did I change my tune. (Seriously, go listen to Traveller right now if you haven’t yet. It will change your life.)
He has performed on Saturday Night Live a few times before, so the often-unkind stage wouldn't have been too daunting for him, but then again, I doubt there's a stage that is. That much was clear from the very start of his first performance of “White Horse,” the lead single off his latest album. There wasn’t much to this performance production level-wise, but when you’ve got pipes like Stapleton, you don’t need that. He was in great voice, his band firing on all cylinders, and song is a banger. Shocker.
All the above could be said for Stapleton's second performance, of "Mountains Of My Mind," except instead of a rocking country-funk tune, this time it was Stapleton alone onstage, playing a beautiful, slow lilt that felt like it held me captive in a warm blanket underneath the stars until the last note played out. A phenomenal two-song set from one of the truly unique talents in the music industry today.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.65 ('Comedy Only' score: 7.50)
Heading into SNL's final break of the year, here's where the episodes of the season stand-- 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.:
Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton - 7.65
Kristen Wiig/RAYE - 7.44
Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo - 7.41
Ayo Edebiri/Jennifer Lopez - 7.29
Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott - 7.18
Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande - 7.08
Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters - 6.82
Shane Gillis/21 Savage - 6.75
Timothée Chalamet/boygenius - 6.54
Bad Bunny - 6.54 (tiebreaker goes to the Timothée Chalamet episode for having a higher 'Comedy Only' score)
Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake - 6.50
Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish - 6.38
Emma Stone/Noah Kahan - 6.21
Jacob Elordi/Reneé Rapp - 6.17
Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves - 6.12
Jason Momoa/Tate McRae - 6.00
Pete Davidson/Ice Spice - 5.75
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