SNL Scorecard: Will Forte / Måneskin

It's always a unique delight when former cast members come back to host Saturday Night Live, and that was certainly the case with Will Forte, who is and was a unique delight himself during his time on the show. As was the case with Jason Sudeikis hosting back in October, SNL kept the 'first-time host' trend intact-- there's only been one repeat host all season! --while simultaneously bringing back a familiar face.

Unlike Sudeikis, however, as well as his former castmates Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg, Will Forte as an SNL alum host always seemed like more of a long shot. During that star-studded cast's time together, the aforementioned names, perhaps the latter four in particular, all felt like they had star potential. And what stars they turned out to be: Hader and Sudeikis now Emmy-winning lead actors in acclaimed comedies, Meyers the host of a popular talk show, and Wiig and Samberg award-winning mainstays in the Comedy film and television scene. Forte was more someone whose absolute lunacy frequently lent itself well to Saturday Night Live sketches specifically (see the cult classic "Potato Chip" as a shining example), but that never really seemed like it would translate in the comedy mainstream. He was much more I Think You Should Leave than Ted Lasso, in other words. So I saw his being named as host much more similar to Fred Armisen's gig in 2016 than any other SNL alum; a niche cast member who has managed to find niche comedy success, thanks to his abnormal style.

Unfortunately, as good as it was to see Will Forte back on the SNL stage, the show in its current iteration weirdly didn't seem to know what to do with him. Make no mistake, the host, as expected, once again gave 110% to all his unhinged characters throughout the whole night, and that led to some very funny moments. But for whatever reason, it seemed like he and his brand of comedy didn't have nearly as much of an impact on this episode as I anticipated, with much of the show's time being taken up by Weekend Update and repeat sketches that didn't really center around him. It was a decent show on the whole, with no clunkers, but sadly far less memorable than I would have hoped.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 11th episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

"Kid Klash": 7.5/10

Right off the bat, the show rolled out a sketch with a character perfect for Will Forte’s sense of humor. It seemed at first like the joke was just going to be a physical gag with Aidy Bryant making a mess of herself in the enormous pie. And that was mildly funny in itself, but it got taken to the next level when she found out she couldn’t exactly leave the game. The sinister music, the creepy intensity from Forte’s game show host…this was a Black Mirror episode I could have watched for hours.

The Good

“Monologue": 8/10

What a star-studded monologue! That sort of tactic can feel cheap and ineffective sometimes, but in this case it played perfectly off of Forte’s whole schtick about being disrespected. This was such a fun dynamic that he played up expertly well, and the few unrelated jokes (such as announcing the extension of MacGruber) were also terrific. Off the top of my head, this is easily the best monologue of the season.

“Weekend Update": 7/10

Between politics, world events, pop culture and the Twittersphere, there were no shortage of talking points from the last week. Which is why I was a little disappointed that Che and Jost didn’t have too much memorable banter this week; their energy level was fine, but the writing and repartee was weaker than usual. Thankfully, Update as a whole didn’t suffer, because of a solid slew of guests. I don’t love Bowen’s Chen Biao character nearly as much as some of his others, but he’s still always good for several laughs. And though this was not the best iteration of Sarah Sherman roasting Colin Jost, nor Alex Moffatt’s ‘Guy Who Just Bought A Boat,’ both are so delightful in different ways that they will always be a welcome sight, and both included clever twists this time around, too.

"Threesome": 6.5/10

Mikey Day and Kyle Mooney have a thrilling competition going on for the best ‘pushover husband’ type character actor, I swear. Anyway, the premise for this one set up nicely, and sure enough, Will Forte’s character cracked me up from the second he came in. I did think more could have been done with this, though, rather than just making the only real joke that he didn’t want the husband to be a part of the lovemaking.

"MacGruber: Coronavirus": 6.5/10

I wondered which— if any —of Forte’s characters they might bring back, but even though this is probably his most famous, I honestly didn’t think they’d do MacGruber, just because of the fact that there’s a whole show with this character that’s about to air. But it was fun to hear the audience reaction to MacGruber sketches returning. I didn’t love the running COVID denier/alt-right theme of this one, for no reason other than our airwaves are already so saturated with those folks that it didn’t feel particularly novel to parody them. But, as always, Forte gave the character his all, and his interplay with Kristen Wiig in particular was stellar.

“Jackie & Clancy": 6/10

I was surprised in the monologue that Kristen Wiig came back for this episode when she hadn’t for Jason Sudeikis’s, as I thought she had more of a history of repartee with Jason. But as soon as the monologue was over and I was racking my brain thinking of sketches these two had together, my mind went to this one right away, and sure enough, they brought Jackie and Clancy back. Especially because of it being helmed by Kenan, everything about this sketch just screamed 2000s SNL nostalgia. Was it laugh-out-loud funny? Rarely. But man, they just go all out for this every time and I love them for it.

"Ingraham Angle Cold Open": 6/10

The show opened with another fine parody of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News… we’ve seen this so many times, and though it’s consistently pretty funny, I just don’t find it so funny that we need to keep this as an often-recurring bit. Kate McKinnon’s impression is pretty funny, and the repeated sponsor jokes were good, but the guest cameos weren’t particularly memorable, other than James Austin Johnson’ Trump which is so, so good.

“Cinema Classics: Gaslight": 5/10

This was a sketch that didn’t feel necessary to repeat. I typically enjoy these, but if you were going back to the well of sketches you’ve done before, I don’t know why you wouldn’t do something specific to the SNL alum host. This also was just a fairly weak premise; it wasn’t without its laughs, but it felt like the whole point was a slow buildup to a penis joke, and one that was just okay at that.

Musical Performances

Måneskin: 6/10

Italian rock band Måneskin are an unlikely sensation; the 2021 Eurovision winners have found breakthrough success this side of the pond thanks in no small part to their ubiquitousness on TikTok, which is becoming a serious vehicle for music fame.

They're a cool and exciting success story, but I must admit I'm not a huge fan of their sound, and their set here didn't do much to change that. I struggled to know how to rate their first performance, a now-famous cover of The Four Seasons' "Beggin', because I don’t like this cover of the song or their style, and they performed it pretty much exactly how it sounds on the recording. But if you like it-- and clearly tons of people like it --then hey, they performed it exactly how it sounds on the recording! So, your perception of its performance probably depends on your opinion of the song; subjectively, I didn’t like it very much. Objectively, the performance was good!

Their second song, though, “I Wanna Be Your Slave," was more enjoyable to me. An original tune from them, it was catchy and energetic, and though still not totally my style, it made better use of the lead singer’s vocals.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.50 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.56)