Harry Styles (03.14.2026)

Gas Prices

• Huh...a generic family road trip cold open set at a gas station? This could be interesting.

• God, I can't even remember the last time a cold open began with random unwarranted applause for no reason? Can you?

• I got a kick out of Ashleys' "we're gonna have to leave one of you behind" line.

• Well, at least this is a nice departure from the typical Trump/Hegseth cold opens we've been getting lately...AW FUCK, we're back to THESE again. Boy, the writers must've been gassed out on political stuff this week.

• Well, I got a kick out of JAJs' Troy McClure reference and his jabs at Harry and 1Ds' musical catalog, but wow...I'm surprised they cheered at that and booed more at the Timothee Chalamet/ballet jab.

• I wasn't even into the meta background cast gags in this one.

• ...and just when even I was starting to get sick of Josts' Hegseth they find an admittedly fun way to Trojan horse him in to this one. I don't know what it says about this cold open that one of my favorite lines was "as I live and struggle to breathe" though. Nothing good, right?

• This wasn't some of Josts' best work (even he seemed a bit gassed out on doing these as he wasn't exactly disappearing into character here) but I did chuckle at the "DUI checkpoint/close your eyes and gun it" joke. C-

Monologue

• ...and there's Harrys' trademark sleepy ass energy that plagued his last episode.

• I mean, I liked that sudden "you don't know everything about me, dad!" line.

• Hey, he admitted to talking slowly and being just straight up boring. At least he's self aware to some degree.

• Boy, that "Italian GPT/Mario" joke couldn't be saved no matter who delivered it the way Harry did.

• Hmm...not quite sure what he was going for with that Prince Andrew joke but his delivery didn't help that one either.

• I liked Chloe and (especially) Sarah's walk ons but Bens' bought this to a screeching halt for me.

• At least the crowd was hyped. That must've been Lorne and the shows' main concern for this week.

• God, I sure hope the rest of this episode is much less of a slog. D-

New Jersey V. Donovan

• Marcello Hernandez IS Sebastian Maniscalco IN "Sebastian Maniscalco, Defense Attorney". That's it.

• Well, I suppose this isn't the worst possible choice for first post monologue sketch. I actually didn't mind the one from Glenn Powells' episode in November. I wouldn't say this one is the better of the two necessarily but it might be the thing I like most in THIS episode so far.

• I liked Chloes' courtroom sketch of him and I liked how Marcello is throwing himself much more into this physically (not crazy about him breaking though)

• Harry Styles attempt at a Maniscalco impression was just...odd and not a great ending to this. B-

MAHAspital

• This seemed like too much of an abstract concept rather than a fully fledged sketch. I felt like I was watching a sketch literally decide as it went along that it wanted more to be a RFK/MAHA commentary than a parody of "The Pitt" (maybe that's why it went on so long).

• I don't know if it was the right choice to have Ben featured so prominently in this (he...probably wrote a great deal of this, didn't he?) but I did chuckle at his line about shooting his parents after finding out they got the Covid vaccine, pulling the plug on that old woman after finding out she was a vegan and the Tylenol gag.

• I also liked the line "From The Facebook Group 'Beach Moms Against Vaccine Tyranny" and Kams' reaction to getting that weird infrared heat mask put on him so suddenly.

• Ashley seems to be making some very specific character choices in this. Is she supposed to be doing an impression of a specific "Pitt" cast member? They put more makeup and prosthetics on her than I'm used to seeing on Ashley in any role so this must be a specific impression.

• JAJ as RFK Jr is something that I could see seeming like a good idea on paper and it mostly worked in execution...but it also proved to be something that only works with the exact right angle. 

• Hell, as adept at impressions as he is even JAJ seemed like he was still figuring out the voice. He was almost there. He just needed to make it a lost raspier.

• I'll just say Iiked JAJ as RFK just fine...I don't really need to see it again (especially not with those goofy ass rubber muscles). C+

Sparkle Of The Sea

• This reminds me so much of the type of two hander live commercial sketches that we would get with Kate and Aidy around 2019 that I'm convinced that this was an old script that was submitted for Harrys' first double duty episode from that year and didn't get picked because that episode already had the lamaze class sketch with Heidi and that Lorne thought that two "indiscriminate European accent" sketches in the same show would cancel each other out.

• I did like Jeremy and Janes Devo-ish duo as well as JAJs' singer. Who was Mikeys' assistant though? Was she someone we were supposed to recognize? That definitely wasn't Ashley, Sarah or Veronika.

• I was pleasantly surprised at how they managed to have Kenan sneak Jean K Jean in here at least 15 years after his last Update appearance (even if I was pretty ambivalent about this character and I was pretty sure he already did the exact same routine on Update already)

• Usually, I like Veronika and Tommy being paired together...but I could've done without this though.

• I did like Harrys' line about how "a cruise is just like being in a hotel except you could drown." C+

Best Buy

• Has...Kenan done this exact character before? In a sketch with Devon perhaps?

• Anyone getting inverted Leon Phelps vibes from this sketch?

• I can see Kenan is trying his damndest to put this over and I don't totally hate it...but I can't get too into it...and it seems like it is going on far too long for its own liking.

• At least they only counted on Harry to carry the "ending" rather than the whole sketch.

• I mean, I liked Kenans' line about his wife dying in a two foot deep fountain, but...the rest of this sketch was pure white noise. I mean, it was pleasant, goofy, unobjectionable white noise, but still. C-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts' Best Jokes: RFK shoulder surgery, Michael B Jordan, 

• Che's Best Jokes: Assembly of experts, Make Iran Great Again, Trump Elementary, MTG

• I dunno...something about the rest of this episode and they Jost and Che are adlibbing and audience riffing in a way that works that isn't "it's the 90s" level obnoxious makes their portions of this Update hit harder than they should. Still, this was one of those Updates that was ALL about the commentaries.

• Already, I like Jeremys' take nonsensical take on Tucker Carlson (it seems like he worked some Ben Shapiro in there to the point where I wonder if he did so intentionally)

• Not crazy about heavily costumed commentaries in any form (and if Marcellos' involved, all bets are off) but I liked the weird abstract specificity of Mikey as "the arial tramway emoji" so...this MIGHT work for me.

• Ok, somehow Mikey listing more obscure, unused emojis in full on "Wild N' Out" mode is giving me my biggest laugh of the night. This is so weird I get Marcello breaking here because it seems genuine on a very Mulaney/Stefon level. I even liked the ending more than I thought I would. B-

White Castle

• Well, I have liked Jane and Veronikas' previous two collaborations (and a few of the things they've done separately from each other this season as well) so I guess I just had to give this a chance.

• Even though this was yet another sketch in service of this episodes' whole theme of "let's just gush over how hot our host is this week", I liked how increasingly strange Jane and Veronika made this even for how formulaic this was and how "safe" the ending felt.

• I liked how Ashley anchored this too but honestly, I could've done without Kenans' motorcycle guy though. B+

She's A Dancer

• Even though THIS was the obligatory vehicle for our double duty host to sing outside of their designated musical guest spots, I did like the sudden tonal shift from "generic late 2000s club banger" to "Celtic Woman/Riverdance". 

• I even liked the harp scene with Jane and JAJ. I wasn't crazy about how this kind of just fell apart with the ending. C+

Harry For Him

• Even though this was another (literal) Harry vanity piece with more hints of "queerbaiting" that involved Ben Marshall, I liked how this was built and crafted in a way that each line from the next cast member was genuinely funnier than the last and made this more absurd.

• I also liked how this gave some much needed live airtime to Dismukes, Kam and Sarah. It felt a little long though. Kenan had the most lines in this, so maybe some of his and Harrys' lines could've been cut to tighten this up? B+

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B (01.31.2026)
4. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
5. Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
6. Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03.07.2026)
7. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
8. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
9. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
10. Harry Styles (03.14.2026)
11. Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons (02.28.2026)
12. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
13. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
14. Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
15. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts

• Well, this was just as much like Harrys' 2019 episode as I was dreading it would be since he displayed the exact same energy that appeals to no one outside his own established fan base. I wouldn't say this was better or worse, though. I'd say it was pretty much the same. There were moments I liked, moments I didn't care for, Harry was there and he was responsible for most of the latter moments.

• Sure, Harry had a lot of very vocal fans in the audience to support him (like most attractive male hosts do)....but they didn't exactly help put the episode over for those of us that aren't that big into Harry to begin with. They just made this episode feel much more like an exercise in vanity and highlighted how much of a limited appeal he still has.

• Still, the moments I did like hit harder for me as they were basically life rafts adrift in a sea of crushing dullness and the show felt a bit more stable and less uneven.

• Cast usage was all over the place, though. We didn't see much of Sarah, Kam, Tommy or Dismukes, but Chloe, Kenan, JAJ, Jeremy, Mikey, Ben, Jane and Veronika each scored in individual roles. No one cast member really "dominated" the night (except MAYBE you could make a case for Ben?)

Closing Thoughts

• Well, I'm glad this season of SNL is finally past it's three episode late winter run of "over hyped pretty boy" episodes that tried to get by on sheer fangirl energy and cuteness alone.

• Next week, NBCs' original SNL takes a two week vacation here in the states but on the other side of the pond where our most recent host hails from, Englands' Sky TV debuts their own adaptation "Saturday Night Live UK". Since this will be available for next day streaming on Peacock here in the states, I'm thinking I'll definitely write SOMETHING about it on this blog. 

• I don't know if it will be a full sketch by sketch breakdown like I usually do or a series of stray observations and comparisons but the temptation to analyze how this show compares to its' counterpart and put it in writing will be too strong to resist for sure.

• After that, you can expect a review of the Brian Williams/Feist episode from season 33 on this blog as a companion piece to an upcoming episode of the We Heart Hader podcast.

• Speaking of which, Deej and I just released a new episode just the other day reviewing the Kunuk Uncovered episode of Documentary Now! It may be our shortest episode to date, but I still encourage you to give it a listen. 

• After that, SNLUS comes back in early April with host Jack White and musical guest Jack Black. While I'm all for this combo just for the "what's in a name?" factor alone and I'm open to the idea of Jack Black becoming an official five timer...something about this feels a little "too soon" for me.

• Still, I remember genuinely liking Jacks' episode from last season quite a bit based on how starkly it stood out from the pack at that time. Of course, most of that was due to Jacks' sheer energy making it stand out by season 50 standards but it's clear he boosted morale and inspired some creative shift. 

• He elevated his episode just enough to make it feel and his infectious energy may be just what season 51 needs right now to prove its' still wanting to do something different and less complacent in its own status quo.

• Anyway, hope you guys all enjoy this output from me when you get a chance to see it!

Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03.07.2026)

Hegseth Iran Press Conference

• Possibly the safest possible choice for a cold open, but hey...I'll take it.

• The "Hegstand/Papa Roach/Trump Resort/we can do Jamaican again/Quagmires' hilarious" lines were my favorite so far.

• I like Jost randomly calling Tommy a "Hanson brother" and his "White Hamilton" response to Sarah.

• I figured they would throw in a reference to Kristie Noems firing. I did like the "reassigned under the bus" line. Nice to see Ashley in this role before she hangs the wig and lip prosthetic in the rafters. 

• Even nicer for them to end this here and give JAJs' Trump a break. C+

Monologue

• Oh, Jesus Christ. Is this just gonna be a more insufferable version of Will Ferrells' monologue from November 2019 but with Ryan Reynolds swapped out for Harry Styles? Fuck, this show is shameless.

• Oh, I see Ryan is singing again....or about to sing...while rambling on and on about his penchant for making space movies. This MIGHT go somewhere interesting.

• Ah, fuck. We REALLY can't keep the camera off Harry, can we?

• ...and Sarah has only showed up to do her "Punchs' mom" character in Harrys' lap just as his "Sign Of The Times" song is cued up for Ryan to reluctantly talk sing to.

• Nice use of heavily prostheticized backup dancers, at least.

• Yeah, I'd take a bullet right now too, Ryan.

• Obligatory "I'm Just Ken" reference.

• ...and of course the rest of the cast (which I just now remembered Chloe Fineman is a part of is only on stage to better gawk at at Harry. Called it.

• Yeah, I don't know what else I could say about this monologue except that it didn't even manage to clear the low bar I had for this episode. Oh well. Let's see if the rest of this episode delivers anything different. D-

Wedding Tradition

• This looks like a wedding set. Oh, fuck. This better not be what I think it is.

• Oh, good. Mikey and Sarah are the bride and groom. (*phew*) We're safe for now.

• Ashley got in a good line.

• Uh oh. Dismukes and Chloe are at another table as a couple.

• Oh, good. Ryan's playing some flashy ass weirdo who's obsessed with the idea of "clinking his glass to get the bride and groom to kiss" to the point of doing this at inappropriate times during their speech.

• Well, I'm glad they didn't decide to just say "fuck it" and give us another Domingo right now...but I'm not crazy about where this is going instead. Ryans' low energy delivery isn't helping.

• Hey, I just realized how far Ryan made it through this episode without break...AH FUCK!

• Well, I at least liked Sarahs' "wouldn't kill you" line as well as what Jeremy and Jane bought to this sketch.

• Didn't Kate McKinnon play an old woman who constantly demanded random people kiss for her own amusement? This reminds me a lot of that. I'm sure this is not the exact Kate McKinnon sketch people were expecting Ryan Gosling to bring back. I'm sure a lot of people are disappointed right now, but not me.

• ...and just when you think this sketch is dragging on for far too long, it has the good sense to end.

• Eh,  I didn't hate it. C-

Otezla vs. Skyrizi

• Hmm, so..this is just "what if Otezla and Skyrizi" were just more intense versions of Happy Fun Ball?"

• While there were way too many individual lines in this to list that I liked, I did like the deranged break neck speed paced absurdity of this sketch. B+

Cyclops

• This looks like it might be unique and interesting.

• Nope, it's not. In fact, the only interesting thing about this sketch is it's the first time I've seen Ashley and Veronika break ever.

• Other than that, this feels like the type of sketch that would've been written for Fred Armisen 15-20 years ago. Hell, it feels like a modern Mikey sketch since he also seems to have an affinity for playing hopeless dumbasses.

• Now, THIS truly did go on way too long...but i got a kick out of the ending. D+

Monty McTreats and The Pastry Bakery

• Ugh, this isn't gonna be another Sarah Squirm gore fest pretape, is it? I don't see her YET.

• Nope, just a Willy Wonka knock off but focused on the post mating suicide rituals of the male dough creatures Goslings' character kidnapped to work in his factory.

• Another pretape where I liked the dark and strange detail heavy nature of it more than anything. 

• This seemed like an improvement on whatever formula Dan Bulla was going for with his pretapes. I liked how it cut straight to the point without taking a detour around the expected darkness by way of a forced, saccharine happy ending.

• It doesn't surprise me that he had nothing to do with this and that this was apparently based on an old Mikey Groundlings sketch from over a decade ago. B+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts' Best Jokes: Kristi Noem, Womens' History Month

• Che's Best Jokes: Mind Reader, Dead Deer

• This Update has a lot of energy which is nice to see nowadays but...I feel like what the crowd who was here to see Ryan gave them is better than the jokes themselves (which Jost seemed to acknowledge)

• Hmm...a Kenan/JAJ faith themed musical combo. An interesting pairing. They should compliment each other well.

• I mean, this seems to be just playfully meandering nonsense that can't seem to pick a lane but the pomp these guys added to it made it at least entertaining.

• ...and it ends there. Not terrible. At least they knew they should end Update on a (relatively) high note this week. C+

Passing Notes

• Two high school teacher sketches in two weeks back to back? Ok, at least this one already looks like it might be better than the one we got last week.

• Oh, NOW I see why they felt the need to provide a disclaimer that these "notes" were changed at dress.

• This may be another cheap improv exercise put on air but at least this was a fun one that the cast had the time of their life with

• Glad to see Ashley get her "this is the absolute hardest I have ever broken on air" moment out of the way early in her tenure. I wonder what the discussion with standards & practices must have been like in order to get that "gynecologists' office" note cleared for air?

• It's nice to see that they decided to fully lean into the distinct possibility that there was going to be a historic amount of on air breaking this week and carve out a safe space to indulge themselves.

• I loved the idea of this sketch just being "let's have everyone pull a big Mulaney/Stefon/low stakes Che & Jost joke swap on each other" (and somehow our host kept it together the best out of anyone involved in this sketch).

• I may have liked Mikeys' reaction to his note that he pulled from Kam the best. B+

Goo Goo Man

• Huh...this could go somewhere interesting. Did Sarah cowrite this? She did well in this even if Ashley, Jeremy, Mikey and Kenan had some of the better supporting moments.

• Ryan performed this well although I would've liked to see the arrogance and self righteousness of his role played up a bit better.

• I did like that they tried a live sketch that just gave us a stream of meaningless goofy ass nonsense even if the pacing was a little languid. B-

Martin Herlihys' "Lies"

• I usually like Martins' solo short films and even though I can see how some would call this "one note" this was no exception.

• The pre-Jost stuff I liked the most were the "proud muggle tattoo" and the "stuntman" sight gags (which even livened up the semi-cliched ending confrontation between Jost and Herlihy)

• Colin Jost is a much maligned (with love) figure at SNL no doubt but the Herlihy Boy managed to put a new absurdist twist on that old trope (even if he did kind of drag it out without taking it anywhere).

• Man, who would've ever thought we'd get TWO Seth Meyers cameos on SNL in one season while he was still hosting Late Night? In this economy?

• The only thing I didn't care for in this was the repeated "lol Kevin Spacey amirite?" joke with the signed photo in Josts' dressing room. B-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B (01.31.2026)
4. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
5. Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
6. Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03.07.2026)
7. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
8. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
9. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
10. Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons (02.28.2026)
11. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
12. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
13. Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
14. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Ranking Ryan Goslings' Episodes From Best To Worst

1. Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03/07/2026)
2. Ryan Gosling/Leon Bridges (12.05.2015)
3. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)
4. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z (09.30.2017)

Overall Thoughts

• Well, this show certainly got off to as dire of a start as I was expecting but it somehow dug itself out of that hole much more easily than I was expecting it to.

• I do like how this episode got most of its shameless pandering and "too pointlessly stupid for its own good" moments out of the way early in three concentrated, easy to swallow doses and moved on to more strange experimental stuff later on.

• Hell, Ryan kept his breaking to an absolute minimum outside of the designated spots for it and even Lorne himself showed some incredible restraint by cutting a Beavis and Butthead sequel from dress rehearsal fer chrissake!

• Yes, this show cleared the incredibly low bar I had for it by simply having more going for it than one of the two Gorillaz performances (which were both great by the way) being "Clint Eastwood"

• While this episode may not have been quite good enough to break my personal top five for season 51, it was better than last week simply by virtue of being more stable and the best of Goslings' episode by default for how starkly different it was from his others (and yes, I personally gave bonus points for Gorillaz on this one).

• Cast usage remains stable. Mikey, Veronika and Ashley had expectedly big nights. Sarah had an unexpectedly big night. Meanwhile, Dismukes, (surprisingly) JAJ, Ben, Kam, Kenan and Jeremy (surprisingly) remained scaled back. Chloe seems to be easing back into the show after remembering she still works here and Tommy (for better or for worse) continues to make inroads.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, that turned out to mostly be a pleasant surprise.

• Next week, Harry Styles pulls double duty for a second time in nearly seven years. I somehow wasn't too crazy about his first episode and while I don't quite see him pulling off the same upset and defying previously set expectations the way Gosling just did, the show is substantially different enough now from what it was back in 2019 so I will go into this with an open mind.

• After that one, I will probably write a review of Season 33s Brian Williams/Feist episode and post it here on this blog as that will be the subject of the next episode of We Heart Hader that Deej and I record as we're doing that whole season. This will be a special episode because both the Saturday Night Network and That Week In SNL were two of my inspirations to get into podcasting in general and thus part of the reason why I cohost We Heart Hader to begin with so it will be nice to have an SNL episode that Jon, Andy, Timmy, Deej and I will have all mutually covered on our respective podcasts.

• Of course, before that the next episode of We Heart Hader you will actually be able to listen to the "Kunuk Uncovered" episode of Documentary Now which will likely be out just mere hours before the Harry Styles episode of SNL even airs on NBC if all goes well (because that will certainly be an interesting one for Deej to edit!)

• See you all again very soon!

Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)

Okay, here's my review. Thankfully, this show was as strong as last week's with Kristen Wiig but I would rank it JUST below that one (which still places it squarely in my top five for the season). The highs were a bit higher for me personally but the lows were a bit lower. Ryan Gosling still proved himself a dependable host. Still, he didn't seem as comitted this time and he REALLY ramped up the breaking like he just didn't care. It was clearly infectious and while he obviously raised cast morale quite a bit this year, I can't say for sure he alone elevated that much of the material. Cast airtime was a bit scattered. Molly, Longfellow and especially Ms. Troast made up for lost time but Marcello, Bowen, JAJ, Devon, Punkie and possibly Kenan took some minor hits this week. Mikey, Heidi, Ego, Sarah, Dismukes and Ms. Fineman continue to maintain steady visibility on the show. 
Fair warning, this is possibly the most DENSE review I have ever written, but I still stand by it, so...last chance to turn back now.
To those of you choosing to stay, let's get right to it because there is a LOT to break down tonight.

Good Grief! Even More Close Encounters - Heh, and here I was thinking that "Papyrus" would be the only sketch from Ryan's previous hosting stints they COULD revive without the pre-Ego cast...because y'know I wasn't COUNTING on them getting any previous cast members to cameo but I guess Ryan used his Barbie connection to at least get Kate to make a cameo...a few months after she actually hosted, but whatever. Well, at least Ryan and Kate still have the sense to know that without the breaking brought on by bawdy suggestive physical bits, these really lose something but (if you'll forgive my phrasing here) having Ryan sliding an extended dick joke made this feel a bit...masturbatory? Oh well, even though Bowen is prone to breaking as well (and Sarah is getting there) they along with Mikey really balanced this out with a professional demeanor. Even though this kinda breaks the continuity of Ms. Rafferty now living with the alien planet permanently, I still liked the concise, non-blowout out ending to this even if it was another group LFNY. I will admit I kinda liked Ryans meta "same clothes" joke at the beginning. C+

Monologue - Last time Ryan started playing piano during his monologue, I had trouble NOT completely tuning out until Emma Stone shows up. Now, hearing Ryan sing a half baked parody of Taylor Swifts' "All Too Well" (I guess this means we WON'T be getting to see TayTay on the show to plug The Tortured Poets Department?) was enough to keep me engaged until Emily Blunt promptly showed up and just straight up started smashing shit over Ryan's head stunt man style in an effort to remind Ryan what movie he is SUPPOSED to be plugging (before she joined in on the singing and improved the musical portions of this monologue) and I legitimately started laughing. *Man, that was a long ass run on sentence. I really need to learn to either edit these better or cool it with the parentheticals and/or self conscious meta commentary on my own writing style.* Anyway, while I didn't really have a problem with the lyrics of the song or how it was performed, I thought for a brief moment that I might have been a little too hard on that cold open. I mean, if the premise of this monologue is Ryan Gosling dramatically "breaks up" with a character that he just played in a movie, I defy anyone (myself included) to call this any LESS "masturbatory" than...well, anything really. On top of that, this monologue cuts directly to a trailer for "The Fall Guy" that shows the exact scene Ryan just described where Emily Blunt busts his balls for crying to the exact song he parodies here in his car. Tell me THAT'S not "masturbatory"! Anyway, while portions of this episode truly made me feel that at least one person in the writers room thought they were still living in 2018, this monologue alone made me feel like the show itself (and possibly just America in general) could barely let go of the fall of 2021 (or even the fall of 2014 if you remember the monologue to Woodys' last truly great episode of this show) LET ALONE THE SUMMER OF 2023! Still, as I continue to examine this monologue, I'm picking up on something deeper. Maybe we're not just stuck in the past as much as we are just trying to cling to the last few moments in time when there was still a shred of what we now call "monoculture" where there was something big enough for the whole world to grab onto and popularize in an effort just to distract ourselves, even momentarily from just our own anxieties in life or even the true horrors of the real world we were too sad to really think about. Maybe I'm reading WAY too much into something here but I suppose that's just what you get when it's 1:30am and you've been up since roughly 7am because that's just what your body is trained to do now so you've been essentially microdosing caffeine throughout the afternoon just for THIS...just because you know some people out there you know online read these regularly and decide "yes, this is for me" and you're doing this for them and we're all mutually in an effort to distract ourselves from...something in our lives? Anyway, sorry for getting TOO deep there. Now, since I've more than said my piece on this monologue I'll just move on as QUICKLY (and thoroughly) as I can with the rest of my review before the density of my writing creates a black hole or a supernova somewhere. B+

But first, here's another fun Simpsons Gif that monologue gave me the perfect excuse to post...

Yeah, this is gonna be a long and DENSE review, so I thought I would just throw that visual gag in there to keep you guys engaged and awake. Ok, moving on...

The Engagement - I love that we actually open with a well written sketch with an actual beginning, middle and end. This also had some dark, writerly psycholigical thriller type details that it reminded me of the "Fliplets" sketch from Goslings' last episode that I actually enjoyed. It's like Goslings' character in "Fliplets" grew up and started the process of turning his life around. If I'm not mistaken, I'd say that Andrew Dismukes also wrote this and "Fliplets" because Goslings' last episode was Dismukes' first as a writer and both of these seem very much in his comedic voice. My only real criticisms of this wiuld be that Ryan seemed like he could've comitted to this a teeny bit more (he kinda broke mildly at an inappropriate time near the end and cut the tension too early) and also that Jojo Siwa reference felt too forced in. Otherwise, a solid opening sketch through and through. B+

Get That Boy Back - Wow, they FINALLY give Chloe Troast a break out moment where she is front and center AND she sings lead vocals! Just like I've been asking for! The assists from Gosling and Stapleton and the fact that this was a Carrie Underwood "Before He Cheats" pastiche that also felt well plotted with shades of "Barry" were icing on the cake. This may actually be a front runner for "favorite pretape of the season" for me. A+

Cuban Bar - This felt like a quarter of one sketch stitched on to three quarters of another, but really they were probably just too skittish to have Ryan sound like he was Marcellos' ventriloquist dummy without SOME explanation upfront as to why a white guy was doing a strong accent. They should've tried a different approach to making this feel like one cohesive sketch because the main focus seemed to be listing obscure pop culture figures who were supposedly going to be at a party Kenan couldn't attend because of an obligation to his significant other. I mean the whole "Jon Taffer/Hulu" rant was ok but didn't exactly save this for me. Yeah, that didn’t work for me. Other than the dogs' appearance at the end and Sarahs' "I love countries" line, this nearly devolved into pure white noise for me. C-

NewsNation A.I. Town Hall - Well, I'm sure some of you will have mixed feelings about them bringing back the template from the "Bert Sampson Google Talks" sketch with Jessica Chastain (also from season 43 incidentally) but that one was honestly a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, so I didn't mind. I especially liked how the expanded and improved on what they were doing this time starting with the fact that they didn't quite hang a lampshade on what they were doing here. I also actually enjoyed Heidi Gardner seemingly set a new record for "Hardest And Most Shamelessly An SNL Cast Member Has Broke On Air". Mikey and Ryan really captured the Beavis & Butt-head look and vibe expertly. While I felt the gag with JAJ, Molly, Dismukes and Marcellos' King Of The Hill cosplay was a bit telegraphed but I still appreciate that they put it in there nonetheless. B-

Update felt a little flat and uneven in some parts but a couple of unexpected factors at least bought the energy up a bit. I liked Josts' first two jokes just for the absurdity he was playing off of. I did like the slightly different than what I may have been expecting approach that Che and Jost took with those PJ obit jokes. I did like Che's Trump/Johnston joke. I wanted to like that Trump/abortion joke more just for the hard right turn after that long clapter baiting setup but the setup itself was a but clunky and hung a lampshade on most peoples problems with Che on Update this season (which they will address and attempt to correct/make up for later on). I didn't want to like Che's Golden Bachelor joke as much as I wanted to like the use of the phrase "sea-metery" as a punchline. It's nice to see Longfellow start to make up for lost time but this wasn't exactly my favorite commentary of his. I mean, the only time I could really get into it was the "duvet" rant and that was the very end. I did like the real Caitlin Clark stopping by to give Che his comeuppance for the string of borderline misogynist jokes right at the exact point he'd delivered the final blow that killed that horse. I also appreciated getting to see Che take the brunt of that "joke swap" energy instead of Jost for once. I genuinely laughed at that "Be. Funnier. Dumbass." punchline as much as Che did while delivering it. The only even slightly critical thing I can say about this is I feel like it couldn't been tightened up in the pacing department but then again we are dealing with a cameo (that was likely thrown together at the last possible second) from an athlete who hasn't been on the show before. For that reason (and that reason only) I got SLIGHT Dan Crenshaw vibes from this but this wasn't nearly as bad as that whole situation between Dan and Pete and Caitlin Clark isn't exactly someone I can see damaging American democracy or the voting process or anything by SNL "platforming" her. B-

Cookie Crumbles - Hmm, yeah...I could see this was going to be another shameless Bowen vanity piece that people are getting sick of so seeing what Ryan was going to bring to it was the only thing keeping me from tuning out. This went for an absurdist vibe and came up short for me. I think this places a distant third behind the records set by Larry David & Rachel Dratch/Lindsay Lohan (tie) in the category of "Most A Castmember Or Hosts' Shameless Breaking Has Improved A Sketch". I did appreciate the attempt at a twist ending even though part of me saw it coming. This made me think I was maybe a little too hard on that Cuban bar sketch from earlier in the show because this truly felt like two barely formed ideas just slammed together and stretched out at 2am Wednesday morning. C-

Erin Brockovich Deleted Scene - Anyone else notice Ryan was wearing a fake mustache over his ACTUAL mustache? Talk about putting a hat on a hat, am I right folks? Anyway, speaking of, I still can't really decide whether or not Ryan's breaking got to be too much by this point or if it was the only interesting thing about this Chloe Fineman vanity piece (and I do mean "vanity" because the fact that she got Julia Stiles to come back just to recreate a scene from "Save The Last Dance" makes me think she at least wrote or pitched this). Still, even if this wasn't the last sketch of the night it would've been easier for me to lose interest in what was essentially Chloe, Ryan and Kenan getting caught in a loop of reciting a bunch of goofy, pointless "lists" to each other. C-

Lists? Did I just type the word "lists?" Well, here's a list of the rest of this season's episodes I have subjectively ranked from best to worst so far...

1. Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters (10.28.2023)
2. Adam Driver/Olivia Rodrigo (12.09.2023)
3. Kristen Wiig/Raye (04.06.2024)
4. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)
5. Ayo Edeberi/Jennifer Lopez (02.03.2024)
6. Kate McKinnon/Billie Eilish (12.16.2023)
7. Timothee Chalamet/Boygenius (11.11.2023)
8. Emma Stone/Noah Kahan (12.02.2023)
9. Bad Bunny (10.21.2023)
10. Pete Davidson/Ice Spice (10.14.2023)
11. Ramy Youssef/Travis Scott (03.30.2024)
12. Josh Brolin/Ariana Grande (03.09.2024)
13. Sydney Sweeney/Kacey Musgraves (03.02.2024)
14. Shane Gillis/21 Savage (02.24.2024)
15. Dakota Johnson/Justin Timberlake (01.27.2024)
16. Jacob Elordi/Renée Rapp (01.20.2024)
17. Jason Momoa/Tate McRae (11.18.2023)

...and hey, here's another list of me doing a similar ranking of JUST Ryan Goslings' previous episodes from best to worst

1. Ryan Gosling/Leon Bridges (12.05.2015)
2. Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)
3. Ryan Gosling/Jay-Z (09.30.2017)

So maybe I should just end this review here since I've already talked about the last sketch that aired...but wait, there's actually one more sketch I wanted to talk about, so why don't I just work in another format break this week just for fun?

Obligatory Band Shot...Wait, what's THIS?!? - Well, I AM grateful to the show for actually PROMOTING the thing that obviously got cut for time due to the truly historic amount of breaking in tonight's episode. I mean, I know the blame can't all be on Ryan there but it's like they just KNEW his breaking would just reach critical mass tonight and felt the need to prepare themselves and the audience. Anyway, I normally don't go that extra mile to include "cut for time" sketches in my reviews but since they mentioned this existed on air and encouraged viewers to seek it out (and this happens to be the only potential sequel/recurring sketch reprisal from Ryan Gosling I was actually interested in seeing) I'll make an exception this time and I will talk about it.

Papyrus 2 - Hmm, while I did like this and I did feel like this was a more than worthy successor to the original (which was really the only other sketch from Goslings' 2017 episode worth remembering) I get the feeling that this might still have gotten cut for time or at dress...just for being too dense for an already fairly dense episode. Still, I liked the way they included Sarah in a surprisingly grounded and appropriately subtle role for her. This is the most I feel like I've seen a Sarah Sherman character occupy the same plane of reality as every other character in an SNL sketch. I did like the character progression of Ryan's character in this (especially in terms of his sheer pettiness). I did appreciate both big reveals in this (both in the middle and at the end...I won't spoil them for you in case you are reading this review without having seen this). It was nice to see the show throw Kyle Mooney a bone even after his leaving the cast but the cosmic irony of him coming back once more just to be, once again, genuinely cut for time (and in the audience to see it in real time, no less) is a bitter pill for even me to swallow. B+

Well, the good vibes of April 2024 continue on SNL. Even if they peter out just a tad, let's hope the keep going on into May when Dua Lipa makes her double duty debut! Even though "Argyle" in which she made her acting debut seems to have bombed, I have seen a clip of her doing a guest host monologue on Kimmel during the Covid isolation era and she handled that well. I have no doubt that Dua Lipa will be a strong host.

Host? Did I just type the word "host?" Well, here's the name of one other "host" who's talk shows got me through middle school, college and...well, the last few years of my life honestly.

Conan O'Brien.

Yes, I had heard a rumor originating on Twitter/X that he would be the next host. Someone said they had a connection at the show who saw his name on a piece of paper. My first thought was that paper being tonight's rundown and he would be making a cameo in TONIGHT'S show (since he was already in NYC and in the building this week). Since that didn't happen, I guess that person just couldn't squint hard enough to truly make it out and just severely misread "Caitlin Clark" from a distance? 

My second thought was of that paper not being a list of already booked May hosts, but a list of hosts they were TRYING to book for either the mother's day show (hey, that's when they had Elon on a few years ago, so...stranger things have happened) or more likely the finale.

While it's still a long shot, I would truly love to see ol' Conesy come back to studio 8H just once more. He did make a cameo in Mulaneys' five timers club sketch just two years ago and his first SNL episode from March of 2001 (an all time banger, btw) was my first real exposure to him before those two years when Comedy Central was the cable channel airing next day repeats of Late Night instead of CNBC. Ever since then he's been an idol and a role model of mine, and it's just gratifying to see the output of love and respect he gets on Twitter/X during the rare times he does something outside of his podcast. Whether it's his graceful retirement from TBS or his new Max streaming series FINALLY coming out, it's nice to be reminded that Conan O'Brien will live on even through YouTube clips of his old work. We'll always have those and our memories of them if a time comes when he's no longer out somewhere in the world making people laugh with new content of his own.

So maybe, since it's now 3:15 am as I write this part, I can't milk a third callback out of that Erin Brockovich gag and this review had gotten WAY too long and abstract already, I'll just end it here by saying...

See you all in May!