SNL Scorecard: Sabrina Carpenter

I have long thought it was only a matter of time before pop star Sabrina Carpenter was tabbed as Saturday Night Live host— I most recently called it in my writeup of February’s SNL50 special. Carpenter is a natural performer, as evidenced by her terrific Grammys performance this year, that quickly seemed to have taken to SNL and they to her, despite only one official musical guest appearance. She is also well and truly a star, the reigning winner of Best Pop Album at the aforementioned Grammys, and came into this weekend fresh off a wildly successful tour and a second album release. So it was unsurprising timing that Lorne Michaels and co. called her in for double duty, and a good amount of hype surrounded her hosting debut. 

Unsurprisingly, Sabrina was both a gamely host and an electric performer, but much like Bad Bunny and Amy Poehler, was not done too many favors by the writing staff. There’s no question it’s been a rough start to Season 51, and frankly, the way this episode kicked off, I was worried we might have our biggest clunker yet. But then something happened that hasn’t yet this season: the episode got gradually, and markedly, better as it went on. There were one or two solid sketches in the first half that kept me hanging around instead of going to bed, but heading into Carpenter’s first musical performance and Weekend Update, I wasn’t sure what to make of what seemed to be yet another disappointing episode. And then, every sketch between Update and the close of the show was funnier than the one before, and funnier than most of what we’ve seen this season, leaving me a bit unsure of how to feel.

By that I mean, I’m almost sad the show is heading into a break now, right as they seem to be picking up some momentum. But however rough this young season has been— and it has been — there has been a clear upward trajectory in each of the 3 episodes, and markedly so even within this last episode. Hopefully that spells promise for the trajectory of this transitional season as well.

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 3rd episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Social Experiment": 8.5/10

A show that finally hit its stride in the latter half of the episode finished on the strongest note of all: the welcome return of Martin Herlihy. The breakup of Please Don’t Destroy was one of the worst developments to come from SNL’s offseason. and though Ben is now a featured player on the cast, it hasn’t hit the same without his interplay off Martin and John (who has left the show altogether). This brainchild of Martin’s had two things this young season has lacked: a sketch with wire-to-wire clever writing, and a hilarious pre-taped video that has tremendous replay value.

The Good

“Appliance Store": 8/10

THIS was the energy I had hoped for and honestly expected from this whole episode! So good to see Veronika Slowikowska, who I am rooting hard for to succeed, be the one to play off Sabrina so well both in humor and in musical energy (she’s got pipes!). A couple timing errors and a weirdly unenthusiastic crowd prevented this from being a classic, but this was the only sketch on the night that felt like an exciting success of a production.

“Surprise": 7.5/10

No, it’s fine, I always knew Ashley Padilla would lead a sketch that would kill live, I just didn’t expect it to be fart jokes, is all. Okay, yes, this was basically just an I Think You Should Leave sketch, but I still enjoyed this one immensely, and greatly enjoyed everyone struggling to keep it together at different times. A weak finish, otherwise this could have had a Cinderella run for sketch of the night.

“Girlboss Seminar": 7/10

My guess is they’ll fix this on the YouTube video upload, but in the live sketch at least, this was riddled with technical issues such as Sabrina’s mic going out, the dummy of her not actually making it out the window, forcing Kenan to walk over and toss it out himself, and then a crew member getting caught on camera for a half-second after a quick cut back to the host. All of it kind of just served to contribute to the chaotic humor of it, though, given that the humor was more physical than written anyhow. Sabrina’s delivery was great in this one, and I actually thought she deserved more laughs than the audience gave her.

"Plans": 7/10

Pretty straightforward concept, and the faux-horror movie of a specific social context is one that they’ve explored before. But a fun one all the same, with some great moments, and some very realistic editing.

"Boys Podcast": 7/10

For those of you that don’t know, this is a real podcast (or at least an homage to a real one), and what a wild world for these kids to have cultivated such a following online and now get parodied on Saturday Night Live all before reaching high school. At any rate, this one had good energy from the start but it was starting to be evident this one wasn’t going anywhere besides mocking the kids’ goofiness and Gen Z gamer lingo… that is, until the brilliant twist. Sneaking on James Austin Johnson's Trump served multiple ends: it got in a political figure in a show that abnormally didn’t have a political cold open, it parodies the Republicans’ warm embrace of the podcast circuit, and most importantly, it greatly boosted the humor of this sketch. One of those rare instances since the dawn of the Trump era that a political impression interrupting a seemingly unrelated sketch was actually a good move.

“Grind Song": 6.5/10

Boy, this brought back memories. And by that I mean it mostly reminded me of when me and my youth group-formed group of friends arrived at our first prom in high school and were horrified to find a mass of our friends and peers grinding. Anyways, this was funny, albeit not as fully realized as a joke concept than say, the tonally similar "Crucible Cast Party."

“ShopTV: Pillow": 6.5/10

Another remake of a sketch that probably won’t ever rediscover the magic of its original version. but this one has at least come close to matching the original’s energy. Decently funny, and sold well by Padilla and Mikey Day.

“Weekend Update": 6/10

For the second straight week, Michael Che and Colin Jost came out the gates with a pretty flat set of punchlines. Great George Santos callback, though. This Update was assisted minorly by the walk-ons; the SNL Reddit, which I occasionally peruse, apparently hates Marcello’s “The Movie Guy,” but I gotta admit, it kills me every time, and the audience seemed to be decently down for it even at the 4th time of asking. Tommy Brennan was the other Update guest, a featured player that has had almost no airtime so far, with a set that fittingly mostly seemed to introduce him to the audience. A decent outing from him, but all in all, while more good than bad, this was another pretty mediocre Update, which could spell a troubling trend for what has long been one of the consistently reliable bits of the show.

The... Less-Good

“Monologue": 4.5/10

I don’t usually have high hopes for the monologue, but I’ll confess between Sabrina’s natural charisma, talent as a singer, familiar with SNL but also the excitement of her first time hosting, I thought this had the potential to be great. Instead, the host— every bit as comfortable onstage as I anticipated! —made a couple self-referential jokes about her sexual persona, meandered around the crowd for an underdeveloped bit, and had one interaction with Kenan that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Not offensively bad, but a disappointment given how good it feels like it could have gotten.

“Domingo Cold Open": 3/10

I suppose the “Domingo” sketch was inevitable, given that the series started with a Sabrina Carpenter song, and in that regard I guess I’m glad they went ahead and got it out of the way at the top. But man…I get that I’m in the minority that only found it mildly funny the first couple times anyhow, but surely most everyone can agree it has already been run into the ground now, on the 5th go-round in the last year. The only chuckle this one got out of me was Andrew Dismukes saying “Okay, this is in NONE of your vocal ranges.” Given the audience’s pretty muted reception to it, too, maybe we can just be done with these now? Please??

Musical Performances

Sabrina Carpenter: 8/10

I was a mild Sabrina skeptic at the outset of her launch into superstardom, but I have slowly been won over. She makes catchy bops, she's funny and self-aware, and she's effortlessly charming. As such, even though I was not a huge fan of new album Man's Best Friend, I found myself very much looking forward to her musical performances and boy, she did not disappoint.

Lead single “Manchild” simply does not have the staying power that “Espresso” or “Please Please Please” had from her last album, and the recorded version is dreadfully over-produced by Jack Antonoff. That said, this was a great performance of that song, which successfully elevated it in my mind. She has really figured out how to successfully integrate cheeky humor in her showmanship without sacrificing vocal quality, which was on full display here.

That held true for her second performance as well, of new single "Nobody's Son," which she performed in a set that was made to fashion a dojo. Ironically, it was a less kinetic performance than her first, and her vocals weren’t quite as strong, but she still sounded good, and was humorous and engaging. Also, I swore she twice sang “he sure fucked me up,” but thought I was imagining things or it was just because I was watching on Peacock… nope! The Internet was abuzz about it. I don't care, obviously, but I didn’t know you could do that!

OVERALL SCORE: 6.58 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.45)

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Heading into the first break of Season 51, here’s where the episodes 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.:

1. Sabrina Carpenter - 6.58

2. Amy Poehler/Role Model - 6.25

3. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat - 5.91