I don’t usually spend a lot of time in Saturday Night Live recaps discussing the musical guest, because I think of it more as a value-add to the show than a make-or-break element. That Questlove documentary for the show’s 50th last year made a great case for how integral music has always been to the show in both its spotlighting of “real” musicians and frequent use of musical parody (something the show is uniquely qualified to do), but the musical guest only really looms over the episode in certain cases. Mostly, when the musician in question is clocking in for double duty to host, too.
That, in turn, has meant that the show rolls out its reddest carpets for pop superstars trying their hands at both. That’s the Justin Timberlake influence at work. There were plenty of double-duty hosts also serving as musical guests before Timberlake—typically actors promoting a musical-ish feature film (Lily Tomlin; Gary Busey) or musicians with some degree of prestige (Simon; Garfunkel; Ray Charles; Willie Nelson) or, edging into the ’90s, the occasional rap star with broader branding to do (Hammer!). Even in the realm of a massive top-40 superstar doing both at once, Timberlake’s ex-girlfriend Britney Spears got there first. But Timberlake unlocked a new level of pop-star flattery when he became a regular presence on the show in the 2000s, and people started bandying around the idea that in another life, he could have easily been an SNL cast member. On one hand, sure. He’s multitalented and quick on his feet. On the other, the idea that Timberlake’s true calling is sketch comedy feels a little glib.
Still, it’s pretty cool that suddenly being good at SNL was seen as a desirable trait for the most mainstream of singers. (I wonder if Debbie Gibson or Hall & Oates were annoyed that peaked at a time when the show seemed to be aiming for cooler dual-role hosts.) Harry Styles did his second tour of double duty this week, and his chumminess with SNL seems both inspired by Timberlake—what better gig to accompany the transition from boy band to mature solo artist?—and outside of it. Despite his boy-band experience, the Styles style is far less people-pleasing and Disney-trained than Timberlake. This has its advantages, like a relaxed deadpan; and its drawbacks, like a tendency to feel like maybe he’s not trying very hard. Last time out, he did an amusingly loopy monologue that skewed toward the former. This time, most of his performances leaned toward the latter, particularly in his second monologue, cast in a kind of mock-louche tone he would maintain for much of his performance: affable, not too self-serious (apart from his deathly dull actual songs), and so unbothered that it was sometimes hard to really ready much comic personality through the audience’s screams.
You also don’t want to blame a hot crowd for a droopy episode, but man, it does throw off the timing to have people training themselves to scream not just at particularly innuendo-laden dialogue or silly/sexy sights, but just the sight of Styles doing literally anything. I’m pretty sure at one point well into the MAHAspital Pitt parody, someone let out a “WOO!” when the camera… cut back to Styles. Not when he made his entrance or did anything particularly interesting. Just the mere sight of him! At home, the glee over him doing nothing in particular felt almost illusory, like hearing the echo of crowd reactions to a concert being held a few miles away, and none of the music.
It was probably more fun in the room. At a greater distance—whether from 30 Rock or from understanding the hype about this fairly average singer-songwriter—it was also easier to see the show giving Styles some stock moves. Two different sketches ended by having him suddenly imitate the outsized performance of a cast member who had just been going off in front of him: First Marcello Hernández, then Kenan Thompson, and those are two tall orders of ham for a guy who doesn’t seem to naturally gravitate toward bigness in his comedy. The “Sparkle of the Sea” cruise ad and “Harry for Him” clothing ad both depended on crazy outfits, whether newly assembled or secondhand; agreeably silly, but ultimately underwhelming once it becomes clear that they’re both just a parade of similarly themed straight-to-camera gags. This stuff didn’t completely bomb, but as with the Connor Storrie episode that kicked off this three-episode run [of handsome white dudes], it took the show longer than usual to dig out of a dire beginning.
Then again, that’s clearly not the feedback they were getting from the crowd, so what are they supposed to do? Rejigger the show after dress to make it appeal more to middle-aged nerds? But I can only really report how the show played for me, and what felt sort of off about Styles throughout the night was the sense that he was getting the royal treatment for looking like a good sport without risking much. Honestly, that’s how a lot of Styles’ music strikes me, too: Receiving some undue credit just for showing up.
What was on
A sign that the show might have challenged Styles a little more with its format: The night’s most complicated sketch structure, cutting between a White Castle employee (Styles) berated by his manager (Ashley Padilla) for not keeping his eye on the ball, and a pair of his high school classmates (Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska) repeatedly pulling up to the drive-thru in an attempt to ask him out, actually paid off brilliantly! What a charming, funny little number, with Wickline and Slowikowska taking their occasional pretape partnership into a live sketch, Styles underplaying effectively and sweetly, with both Padilla and Kenan adding plenty of extra laughs on the margins. It’s the too-rare sketch where everyone in it gets to be funny without fully confining anyone to a straight-man role.
Between that and the “Irish Step” pretape music video that followed shortly thereafter, we got a glimpse at what the episode seemed to want to offer: a batch of high-spirited sketches having fun with a beloved pop star. But two delightful bits and one pretty good, if broad, swipe at MAHA culture isn’t quite enough to fill 68 minutes.
What was off
Boy, I felt like a real sucker not immediately clocking that opening sketch as a freeze-the-cast-for-Trump bit; in my late-night, head-cold-addled naivete, I briefly rejoiced, even, that they found another way into the obligatory political cold open, because they wouldn’t trot out Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, and Marcello Hernández, a real range of heavy-hitters in the current cast, just to put them on ice, would they? Of course they would! Anyway, that was pretty bad, and they’re really leaning hard on Jost’s Pete Hegseth. I get it; it’s a good way into the Iran mess that’s otherwise hard to find funny. But it’s the weird opposite of the Baldwin Trump years, where the show would mirthlessly parade a stunt-cast ensemble of faux-wacky Trump-world characters; now it’s just the skeleton crew of great impressionist James Austin Johnson and non-impressionist Colin Jost, trading off. Go back and give me that other sketch they started!
Speaking of impressions, and going back: Marcello’s Sebastian Maniscalco is still very well-done, but a leadoff sketch asking “what if Sebastian Maniscalco was a lawyer?!” feels very Chris Kattan-coded. Maybe it’s just a strange fit for a show that doesn’t really do a lot of notable celebrity impressions. There just wasn’t a lot of room for this one to go anywhere. Ditto the similarly musty-seeming Best Buy sketch where Kenan Thompson’s character, one that feels like he’s been in mothballs for as long as another (much funnier) character he did actually revive tonight, acts creepy and/or flirty toward Styles. Funny voice, “funny” name, peaking way early (with Kenan assuming that the staff meeting has been called to arrest him), punctuated by Styles doing a bad Kenan impression… yeesh.
Most valuable player(s)
Veronika and Jane make a great duo. I have no idea if they were familiar with each other before getting the show—they’re two of the most TikTok-forward SNL hires ever—but one of the secret strengths of the show is when it acts as a comedy matchmaker, and it certainly feels like it’s put them together in a fun way, even if it might have happened regardless.
Next time
Jack Black, vaguely promoting another videogame movie for kids, and Jack White, potentially not promoting a new record unless he surprise-announces one soon? I will happily take some Gen-X pandering, whatever the cause, please and thank you!
Stray observations
• Can the audience for this show in 2026 be reasonably expected to recognize Kenan’s French Def Jam comedian Jean K. Jean as an old recurring character? That’s not a criticism but an honest question; for this particular old man, it was delightful to see him pop up again after nearly 13 years. This is probably a record, albeit an ultraspecific one: Most time elapsed between recurring-character appearances from a regular cast member (rather than one revived by a host or guest star). A record only Kenan could set, in fact!
• Just saying: There’s a much better sketch about an employee meeting at a Best Buy. (“You were better off in the well!” is still a line I think of often.)
• Jeremy Culhane has a solid Tucker Carlson and he debuted it on Weekend Update, finding antiwoke objections to Oscar movies with convincingly moronic credulity. A little why-now, given that Carlson doesn’t seem nearly as prominent today as he did during the previous Trump term, but he nailed it.
• I guess it’s kind of fun that, excepting the cold open, the episode was bookended by Styles talking about Ben Marshall’s ass.
Jesse Hassenger is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
123ru.net — быстрее, чем Я..., самые свежие и актуальные новости Вашего города — каждый день, каждый час с ежеминутным обновлением! Мгновенная публикация на языке оригинала, без модерации и без купюр в разделе Пользователи сайта 123ru.net.
Как добавить свои новости в наши трансляции? Очень просто. Достаточно отправить заявку на наш электронный адрес mail@29ru.net с указанием адреса Вашей ленты новостей в формате RSS или подать заявку на включение Вашего сайта в наш каталог через форму. После модерации заявки в течении 24 часов Ваша лента новостей начнёт транслироваться в разделе Вашего города. Все новости в нашей ленте новостей отсортированы поминутно по времени публикации, которое указано напротив каждой новости справа также как и прямая ссылка на источник информации. Если у Вас есть интересные фото Вашего города или других населённых пунктов Вашего региона мы также готовы опубликовать их в разделе Вашего города в нашем каталоге региональных сайтов, который на сегодняшний день является самым большим региональным ресурсом, охватывающим все города не только России и Украины, но ещё и Белоруссии и Абхазии. Прислать фото можно здесь. Оперативно разместить свою новость в Вашем городе можно самостоятельно через форму.
123ru.net — ежедневник главных новостей Вашего города и Вашего региона. 123ru.net - новости в деталях, свежий, незамыленный образ событий дня, аналитика минувших событий, прогнозы на будущее и непредвзятый взгляд на настоящее, как всегда, оперативно, честно, без купюр и цензуры каждый час, семь дней в неделю, 24 часа в сутки. Ещё больше местных городских новостей Вашего города — на порталах News-Life.pro и News24.pro. Полная лента региональных новостей на этот час — здесь. Самые свежие и популярные публикации событий в России и в мире сегодня - в ТОП-100 и на сайте Russia24.pro. С 2017 года проект 123ru.net стал мультиязычным и расширил свою аудиторию в мировом пространстве. Теперь нас читает не только русскоязычная аудитория и жители бывшего СССР, но и весь современный мир. 123ru.net - мир новостей без границ и цензуры в режиме реального времени. Каждую минуту - 123 самые горячие новости из городов и регионов. С нами Вы никогда не пропустите главное. А самым главным во все века остаётся "время" - наше и Ваше (у каждого - оно своё). Время - бесценно! Берегите и цените время. Здесь и сейчас — знакомства на 123ru.net. . Разместить свою новость локально в любом городе (и даже, на любом языке мира) можно ежесекундно (совершенно бесплатно) с мгновенной публикацией (без цензуры и модерации) самостоятельно - здесь.
123ru.net — международная интерактивная информационная сеть (ежеминутные новости с ежедневным интелектуальным архивом). Только у нас — все главные новости дня без политической цензуры. "123 Новости" — абсолютно все точки зрения, трезвая аналитика, цивилизованные споры и обсуждения без взаимных обвинений и оскорблений. Помните, что не у всех точка зрения совпадает с Вашей. Уважайте мнение других, даже если Вы отстаиваете свой взгляд и свою позицию. Smi24.net — облегчённая версия старейшего обозревателя новостей 123ru.net.
Мы не навязываем Вам своё видение, мы даём Вам объективный срез событий дня без цензуры и без купюр. Новости, какие они есть — онлайн (с поминутным архивом по всем городам и регионам России, Украины, Белоруссии и Абхазии).
123ru.net — живые новости в прямом эфире!
В любую минуту Вы можете добавить свою новость мгновенно — здесь.
