For someone whose nerves were at a 10 out of 10 in the week before their Saturday evening live debut, first-time host Josh O’Connor began his Studio 8H debut as quietly as possible: in his monologue, the Wake up dead man The star easily slipped in erased jokes – “No, I’m not the mouse of Rinsed” – plucked from the digital zeitgeist to brazenly lean into his public persona as a “sweet boy,” otherwise known as an “average 65-year-old woman” who embroiders, makes albums, and gardens.
The tight 3-minute opening took a delightful turn when O’Connor addressed fans offering him the chance to play Alfredo Linguini in a live-action remake of Walt Disney/Pixar Animation’s beloved. Ratatouille (a film he espoused his affection for more than once) and creative director Pete Docter’s subsequent rebuke of such a project. “Do you know what it feels like to be publicly rejected from a job I didn’t even want? For the record, I don’t even want live action. Ratatouillehe said, before finally interrupting his own thoughts to pivot: “Sorry, sorry, for what it’s worth: I will.” kill like Linguini.
Unfortunately, like the (albeit heartwarming) story between a restaurant garbageman and Remy the rat, O’Connor – much like Linguini – was stuck playing second fiddle tonight on SNLpuppeted from one sketch to the next, which sidelined his comedic talents. The party mainstay had a hard time suppressing O’Connor’s distinctive whimsical charms (those featured in Emma And The brainfor example) via skits that did not showcase his strengths as a skilled performer and often did not know how to fully utilize it.
In the first sketch, “Let’s Find Love,” O’Connor is a contestant on a boys’ dating show who, when introduced to three potential romantic partners in a blind format, is almost immediately overshadowed by 84-year-old scooter-riding Ashley Padilla, whose blatant disregard for reality TV (and social norms) draws big laughs at first, but eventually peters out due to the repetitiveness.
Similar problems abound in a later sketch regarding deleted scenes from The Wizard of Ozwhich stars Dorothy (Sarah Sherman), the Wizard (Bowen Yang) and his motley band (Andrew Dismukes as the Scarecrow, Kenan Thompson as the Cowardly Lion and O’Connor as the Tin Man). When Thompson’s Lion is revealed to have wished for a “big thing” rather than courage, the other two male characters jump on the bandwagon to wish for the same thing. Not only does O’Connor get some mediocre lines, but the sketch itself can only go as far as a dick joke can take you. (As the naughty refrain goes, it’s not the size that matters, but how you use it; in this case, it’s not the content of the sketch, but how it’s executed.)
Meanwhile, the evening’s closing brunch sketch only featured O’Connor in the second half; playing an awkward, intrusive father whose presence is clearly not welcome, the sketch cuts through a cast of characters who take turns breaking the fourth wall in song to comment on the “pretty strange” nature of their outing. It’s also overloaded that Veronika Slowikowska’s character finds Chloé Fineman’s, after the latter character commits a mathematical faux pas by grabbing an extra slice of flatbread.
In a solid, pre-recorded sketch spoofing Spotify’s beloved shrouded playlist, O’Connor doesn’t appear at all. Perhaps it was a scheduling conflict, and certainly not every host participated in every sketch, but it seems like a glaring oversight not to include O’Connor in one of the night’s best.
The strongest release of the night was, without a doubt, “Bachelorette Party Strippers,” starring Ben Marshall and O’Connor as “the most sensitive strippers in all of the Catskills.” With A little life in tow, beanies floating freely on their perfectly scrunched heads and multiple layers of clothing, the sketch’s golden moments include a lo-fi version of Ginuwine’s “Pony” and line readings of “You’re enough” and “You’ve got to forgive yourself,” all of which makes Padilla’s bride-to-be more than hot and bothered — although the real will-they-won’t-they lies in Marshall’s undeclared romance with Augie and Remington by O’Connor.
And while SNL opted for resurrections this episode, it did so with varying levels of success. Another appearance by Yang’s character, Dr. Please, launched triumphantly during Ryan Gosling’s stint last year, quickly fizzled out: O’Connor plays an intern with little to do, especially as Padilla’s repartee with the doctor overshadows everything else (“Doctor, your car…” she begins, “Was it towed?” Yang asks. “No, it was left at the scene of a crime,” she replies. “Just like I left her,” he concludes.) There was also the second round of Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell’s animated short, “Brad and His Dad,” first shown during Nikki Glaser’s run earlier this season, whose holiday-themed second episode seemed like little more than filler tonight.
As for Weekend Update, there was some decent criticism of President Donald Trump (“In a new interview, President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days are numbered. Unlike Trump, whose days are written,” joked co-anchor Colin Jost, as the screen flashed with an image of a weekly pill box. “Trump also said the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem,” adding ” Bribe! » response, Netflix offers Trump a night with the [KPop] Demon Hunters.
But perhaps the best aspect of Update was the return of Jane Wickline’s offbeat keyboard songs. Addressing the song’s “greatest threat to humanity right now,” Wickline’s ode was initially presented as an ominous warning against AI, before the track abruptly shifted gears to discuss child stars of Stranger Things. With lines like “They’re adults, we have to destroy them before they destroy everything / The AI is just a distraction / The real threat here is Sadie Sink and her child co-stars in Stranger Things” “Stranger Things ends / They’ll have so much time on their hands / What if they became self-aware / We’ve got to keep them busy / They’ll mobilize their subscribers, 60 million subscribers / We’ve got to keep them busy” and “Finn Wolfhard is the devil to me / All six of them are in a room right now, getting ready to seize the next election / And for those reasons, I’m with Vecna,” Wickline warns the casting could go through Joe Rogan who was “making people eat bugs “. [on Fear Factor]and now he is president of the United States.
And, in what has become a trend in recent years among SNLespecially this season, Lily Allen’s second performance — the West End Girl single “Madeline” – featured a surprise appearance by Dakota Johnson, who was revealed to be the woman performing the song’s spoken lines, hidden behind a sheer curtain. THE Materialists The star made his grand entrance as Allen finished the track, greeting the musician with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
