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
- Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
- Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
- Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B (01.31.2026)
- Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
- Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
- Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03.07.2026)
- Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
- Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
- Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
- Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons (02.28.2026)
- Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
- Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025)
- Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
- Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)
Ranking Ryan Goslings' Episodes From Best To Worst
- Ryan Gosling/Gorillaz (03/07/2026)
- Ryan Gosling/Leon Bridges (12.05.2015)
- Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton (04.13.2024)
- 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!
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