For the one whose nerves were at the level of 10 out of 10, as they called themselves. a week before Saturday Night Live debut, first-time host Josh O'Connor kicked off his Studio 8H debut as smoothly as possible: Wake up, dead man the star easily glided from modest jokes – “No, I’m not a mouse from Washed away— has broken away from the digital zeitgeist and leaned cheekily into his public persona as a “soft boy,” a.k.a. “the average 65-year-old woman,” who embroiders, records albums, and gardens.
The intense three-minute debut took a delightful turn when O'Connor approached fans about playing Alfredo Linguini in Walt Disney and Pixar Animation's remake of the beloved animated film. Ratatouille (a film for which he has shown affection on more than one occasion) and subsequent rebuke of such a project by chief creative officer Pete Docter. “Do you know what it's like to be publicly rejected from a job I didn't even want? For the record, I don't even want a live performance.” Ratatouillehe said before finally breaking his thoughts to turn around, “Sorry, sorry, whatever it takes: I would.” murder like Linguini.”
Unfortunately, like the (albeit touching) story between the restaurant garbage man and Remy the rat, O'Connor, like Linguini, is stuck playing second fiddle tonight. SNLwho was moved back and forth from sketch to sketch, which overshadowed his comedic talents. The late-night mainstay struggled to contain O'Connor's obvious quirky charms (those on display in Emma And Mastermindfor example) through skits that didn't play to his strengths as a deft performer and often didn't know how to fully utilize him.
In an early “Let's Find Love” sketch, O'Connor is a boyish contestant on a dating show who, when blindly introduced to three potential romantic partners, is almost immediately upstaged by an 84-year-old man riding a scooter. Ashley Padillawhose blatant disregard for reality TV (and social) norms gets big laughs at first but eventually peters out due to repetition.
Similar problems abound in the later sketch. regarding deleted scenes from The Wizard of Ozwhich features Dorothy (Sarah Sherman), the Sorceress (Bowen Yang) and her motley crew (Andrew Dismukes as the Scarecrow, Kenan Thompson as the Cowardly Lion and O'Connor as the Tin Woodman). When it is revealed that Thompson's Lion wanted “the big old thing” rather than courage, two other male characters join the bandwagon to desire the same thing. Not only is O'Connor given some mediocre lines, but the parody itself can only go as far as a lame joke can take you. (As the naughty refrain says, it's not the size that matters, it's how you use it; in this case, it's not the content of the sketch, but how it's executed.)
Meanwhile, Sketch of the final brunch of the night O'Connor did not feature until the second half; playing a bumbling and intrusive father whose presence is clearly unwelcome, the sketch goes through a group of characters who take turns breaking the fourth wall with song to comment on the “rather odd” nature of their outing. It's as bloated as Veronica Slowikowska's character thinks Chloe Fineman's character is after the latter character makes a mathematical faux pas by grabbing an extra piece of tortilla.
In one solid, pre-recorded sketch that mimics a beloved wrapped Spotify playlist, O'Connor doesn't appear at all. It may have been a scheduling conflict, and of course not every host was in every sketch, but it seemed like it would have been a glaring omission not to include O'Connor in one of the night's best performances.
The highlight of the night was undoubtedly “Bachelorette Hustlers,” where Ben Marshall and O'Connor were “the most delicate strippers in all the Catskills.” WITH Little Life With beanies hanging loosely on their perfectly rumpled heads and 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 Gotta Forgive Yourself,” all of which gets Padilla's bride-to-be more than hot and bothered—though the real will-they-won't-they fervor is in the unannounced romance between Marshall and Augie and Remington O'Connor.
And bye SNL chose to resurrect in this episode, and did so with varying degrees of success. One more run for Ian's character “Doctor Please”first emerged triumphantly during Ryan Gosling's work as a presenter last yearquickly runs out of steam: O'Connor plays an intern with not much to do, especially since Padilla's exchange with the doctor overshadows everything else (“Doctor, your car…” she begins. “Was it towed?” Young asks. “No, left at a crime scene,” she replies. “Just like I left it,” he concludes.) There was also a second round of Mikey Day and Streeter Seydell's animated short “Brad and his dad.” first introduced during Nikki Glaser's performance earlier this season, whose holiday theme No. 2 felt like little more than filler tonight.
As for the weekend update, were worthy shots at President Donald Trump (“In a new interview, President Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's 'days' are numbered. Unlike Trump, whose days are written in letters,” co-host Colin Jost joked as an image of the Weekly Pill organizer flashed on the screen. “Trump also said the proposed merger of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem,” adding “a bribe!” In response, Netflix is offering Trump a one-night stand with [KPop] Demon Hunters.”
But perhaps the best aspect of Update was the return of Jane Wickline's quirky keyboard ditties. Addressing “the biggest threat to humanity right now” through the song, Wickline's ode was initially presented as a foreboding message against AI before the track abruptly switched to discussing child stars Stranger Things. With lines like “They're adults, we gotta destroy them before they destroy everything / The AI is just a distraction / The real threat here is Sadie Sink and her fellow kids on the show.” Stranger Things“, “Stranger Things running out / They'll have so much free time / What if they start to become self-aware / We need to keep them busy / They're mobilizing their followers, 60 million followers / We need to keep them busy” and “Finn Wolfhard is the devil to me / Six of them are in the room now getting ready for the next election / And for these reasons I'm backing Vecna,” Wickline warns that the cast could go through Joe Rogan, who “used to make people eat bugs [on Fear Factor]and now he is the President of the United States.”
And, what has become a bit of a trend in recent years in SNLespecially this season, Lily Allensecond performance – West End Girl single “Madeline” – unexpectedly born Dakota Johnsonwho turned out to be a woman performing spoken lines in a song hidden behind a transparent curtain. Materialists the star made a grand entrance as Allen finished the track, greeting the musician with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
