Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons (02.28.2026)

Trump/Hegseth Iran Briefing

• Ugh, here we go, I guess.

• Well, this is easier for me to picture than a SOTU cold open at this point.

• At least I kinda liked the "allowed to do one war/year 5000/Forrest Gump jokes/SNL writers room jok...HEY WAIT A MINUTE!!!"

• OK,Jost as Hegseth MIGHT hold my attention (even if he doesn't seem to have his heart in it this time, I did like the "knuckle tats" and "Game Cube" jokes)

• At least that was mercifully short (it had to be under these circumstances). C-

Monologue

• Well, Connor isn't giving off a lot of energy but I do like how he IS giving us a sincere genuine look at his own acting background with a vibe that screams "wow, it's like Bowen Yang never even left".

• I guess the stiff cameo from the Mens' Olympic Hockey Team players (which I honestly forgot was happening until I suddenly saw it on screen) wasn't as awkward as I was expecting and its' nice that they could get the womens' hockey team to balance this out. The constant applause breaks didn't help the timing or pacing of this, though. C+

Farewell Mr. Fronzi

• Ok...seriously, what the actual CHRIST am I watching here?

• ...and I thought the obligatory Trump/JAJ cold open was meaningless, nonsensical word salad.

• I have to admit though, as much as I don't like whatever the fuck Marcello is doing here...it's still preferable to more of Connors stiff flat, meaningless line readings.

• ...and now, Marcello is walking in on Connor doing an impression of his character. A neat, if not unexpected twist, but MAN...this sketch feels like a long walk off a short pier.

• Now, everyone is joining in. Ok, yeah...sure. I'm afraid this might be that same irreversible tipping point for me with Marcello that the first "Surprised Sue" was for me with Kristen Wiig or Fred Armisens' first appearance as Barack Obama was for me with him,

• I did like Kams' sudden line about not knowing what subject this class is. 

• Is it just me or does this sketch seem like Marcello himself wrote it when HE was in high school? 

• This sketch seems like it would've been a one-and-done character piece meant for Jay Pharroh 10 years ago (or even Devon Walker three years ago) D+

Gentlemens' Code

• Well, this pretape seems to fit Connors acting style a bit more (it certainly fits Mikeys' acting style...a little too well).

• Ok, this just seemed like it was "Rookie Cop" but with hand-slapping instead of badly timed sleeve-puking but thankfully Kenan added the minor twist of being able to beat these motherfuckers so hard he launches them into the air.

• Dismukes kicking his child into the air Charlie Brown and Lucy style was a fun touch, too and this actually wrapped itself up nicely into a neat little package. C+

Ice Skating Rink

• If nothing else, this was an OK showcase for Veronikas' acting chops. Tommy was...OK here. Hell, he plays off these Mikey day roles a little bit better and with more subtlety than Mikey seems capable of these days.

• At first, this came off like an experiment on the shows part on a production level to see if they could pull off the "Background Chaos" style of pretape in a live sketch format, but once Tommy started commenting on what these grown men were up to behind him, it started reminding me a lot more of the "SWAT Recon" sketch  from Chris Pines' episode in 2017 and I began to wonder which writers from season 42 are still on staff and I was like "ooohhh, right".

• Wow, this crowd is going FUCKING NUTS for this Hudson dude who's Connors costar on his show. Seriously, he's getting the most screaming applause breaks out of anyone or anything on the show. He is single handedly making this sketch much longer than it should be and may be solely responsible for those excellent Jane/Veronika "Car Door" and "Tourettes"" sketches being cut.

• Anyway, this was all right in spite of its' length and pacing. I appreciate them adding little extraneous little details to this but of the two sketches that did this tonight...the other one did it better for me. C+

Tutoring The Cool Kid

• Well, Connors' acting style fits this sketch well (mostly because he can play off the awkward moments)

• Ben, Ashley and JAJs intentionally odd keyboard playing were the highlight of this sketch for me.

• Ashley and JAJ as Bens' parents played off the "long cold" bit really well but...I kind of wish they had come up with something different for that particular beat

• The ending was...heartwarming. C+ 

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Josts' Best Jokes: Prince Andrew, Nasal Spray

• Che's Best Jokes: Somali Pirates, Smart Mattress

• Hey, Colin...speaking of "nasal spray", are you also just getting over a cold? You sound a little congested, bro.

• Hey, Veronika finally gets a new Update character!

• Should...someone ask Vanessa Bayer if Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy or child actress Laura Parsons were MEANT to have an older sister or cousin who was recently made a bridesmaid?

• Well, I didn't like how they suddenly forced topicality on that commentary...but I do really appreciate Veronika giving us something unique with a fun energy.

• I did like Colins' Stephen Hawking "Hear Me Out" commentary.

• Ok, Lorne forced Sarah to put on a slutty ass monkey costume, didn't he?

• I don't like the framing of this being "Punchs' mom as a trashy Jerry Springer/Maury Povich guest" but it's not exactly the worst costumed Sarah Update piece I've seen.

• Marcello as Punch himself was...a surprisingly enjoyable and wholesome way to end this. C+

Griff Of The Magi

• So, Marcello just walks around on stilts uncomfortably with crunchy sound effects and all while the rest of the cast debates his height...and that's the sketch?

• I mean, I didn't HATE this...but I didn't like it enough to say it redeemed Marcello in my eyes after that first post monologue sketch.

• Connor played into this premise pretty well (or at least in the exact way I would've imagined Bowen playing into this if they did this, like, a year ago when he was still in the cast).

• This was the other sketch of the night that added various little extraneous little details I was referring to. Upon rewatch, most of these details actually served this sketch well due to the sheer thinness of its premise as pointlessly random as they seemed at the time.

• Specifically, the details I liked were Sarahs' line about the suicide of Marcellos' girlfriend and Marcello suddenly sticking his tongue out and asking "would I be able to to this?"

• I didn't much care for any of Mikeys' lines but I liked seeing hi briefly break for the first time ever. C+

Raising Office Morale

• Well, Sarah's first line and Dismukes "Severance-style" speech followed by him falling back in his chair were the only things that got me so far (aside from the oddness of this being Kenans' only live sketch appearance in the entire episode)

• Other than that, this feels like the same sketch template as the "BurrSweeto" thing from Quinta Brunsons second episode or the HR thing from Shane Gillis' first...but Connor Storrie is pitching his coworkers on the concept of a dance

• God, this has the most trouble staying focused on its one lane out of any SNL sketch I've seen in recent memory...and it's going on WAY too long.

• Well, I can't say the Mumford & Sons cameo was UNnecessary or UNcalled for. Still didn't care much for it though. C-

Bachelorette Party

• Oh, OK. So, THIS is that "stripper who just got hit by a car" sketch" that Connor talked about in an interview he did about his early performing background in sketch/clowning.

• Even though, this premise doesn't feel that unique to SNL or sketch comedy in general (it feels like a sketch template we've seen before on both SNL and MADtv) I can tell it definitely feels unique and special to Connor and I was hoping something from that part of his life made it on air so in a way...I AM glad to have gotten to see this.

• The way this cast and Connor executed this made it feel just as avant garde as Connor described it in that interview.

• Jane, Ashley, Sarah and Veronika each got great lines in and played off Connor extremely well (especially when he asked Sarah to wrap his belt around his bloody thigh like a tourniquet). 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. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
7. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
8. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
9. Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons (02.28.2026)
10. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
11. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
12. Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
13. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts

• To call this episode uneven would be the understatement of the year. This episode was a wild goddamn roller coaster. I had it pegged for possibly one of the worst of the season pretty early on but it had a few redeeming qualities to it as it went on (I mean, not enough to keep it out of my personal bottom five of the season so far, but still)

• Connor Storrie wasn't exactly a bad host. He was certainly a "game" host, no doubt about that but at times being a passively "game" host seemed to be his only trick. By this I mean that aside from the very last sketch (which he clearly had a big part in conceptualizing and getting on air) he exhibited a very low key, laid back Harry Styles/Bowen Yang type energy all night except for when the sketch called for him to imitate a specific characters one quirk or goofy shtick and suddenly he snapped himself out of it.

• He reminds me of the type of male SNL host who professes to be a big fan of the show and clearly gives it HIS all but somehow none of his energy translates into making the show that much entertaining to anyone outside of his specific fan base because he's clearly using his good looks and charm to put over some very "mid"material. I want to say that Jason Momoa is this exact type of host but that's not quite a fair comparison because he and Connor Storrie are clearly very different types of actors.

• Still, I have to say this episode gave me a bit more than the basic level of what I was expecting from an episode where they were clearly planning to get by on the sheer manic energy of the shrieking young rabid fanbase the host was going to bring with them.

• Cast usage was just as uneven. It was expected that we'd get a lot of Ben, Marcello, Ashley and Sarah tonight but Veronika may have had the best night of her entire tenure thus far and she truly deserves it. Chloe was absent and Jeremy was almost shut out (well, if you blinked you may have missed him). Kenan was surprisingly light tonight which makes me wonder how much he is actually considering leaving this season. Mikey, Jane, Tommy, Andrew and Kam were just as peripheral as they always are.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, that was certainly a show I STILL may have to chew on even after all I just wrote about it!

• Next week, Ryan Gosling returns to host. I gotta say, his last episode may have seemed just as fun and high energy as parts of this one did but it ultimately annoyed the hell out of me because Ryan literally spent the whole show after he finished his monologue breaking. It was like he was trying to break on old Guinness World Record or something.

• Knowing how Ryan usually is when he hosts, I don't expect anything different from him but let's hope they actually new ways to make this episode starkly different from his last three.

• Also, feel free to listen to the latest episode of We Heart Hader where Deej and I review the Jon Bon Jovi/Foo FIghters episode as part of our SNL Season 33 coverage and read the blog post I published just hours before this one to go along with it. I think I can safely say that episode was better than this one.

• Deej and I are about to record another episode of We Heart Hader reviewing the "Kunuk Uncovered" epsiode of Documentary Now! as part of our coverage of the first two seasons of that show.

• Speaking of podcasts that Deej Barens and I have both been on, check us each out on our own separate episodes of "Cover Wars". I talk about The Turtles' "Happy Together" in mine and Deej talks about Billy Joels' "New York State Of Mind" in hers.

• See you guys real soon!