Saturday Night Live Wants You to Know Host Jacob Elordi Is Very Handsome

Tall, angular, and blankly attractive, Aussie Saltburn star Jacob Elordi confessed he wasn’t “much of a public speaker” in his monologue in this first episode of 2024. He’s not being modest. The quick “let’s take some questions” format is generally reserved for a host that Saturday Night Live doesn’t know what else do do with, a strategy the show would employ intermittently throughout this below-middling return from break. Elordi is strapping, has a great American accent or two, and is one of those up-and-coming young actors everyone is sort of waiting around to judge. He is not yet a natural live sketch performer, as SNL kept casting him as “incredibly handsome guy” in sketches where his incredible handsomeness was the joke.

In the reality show sketch, Elordi was the tall, handsome guy the bachelorette contestant immediate dumped all of her shorter suitors for. In the AA sketch, he was accepted on sight by the all-woman support group because he was a tall, handsome guy. In the acting class sketch, his tall, handsome, successful actor’s complete inability to comprehend concepts such as auditioning or rejection in the face of the students’ struggles was the joke. Elordi’s not terrible in anything here. He’s just sort of a tall, handsome template onto which Saturday Night Live projected very similar premises. The actor seemed to be having some fun in his first ever hosting stint, but it wasn’t particularly infectious.

The Best and the Rest

The Best: Since something has to go here, I’ll say that Elordi’s charms were used best in the acting class sketch, where his visiting movie star fields questions from Bowen Yang’s striving amateurs. Elordi plays it straight to good effect, his born-on-third overnight success (he was cast as Selena Gomez’ love interest literally right off the plane in L.A.) leaving him genuinely baffled by the students’ tales of fruitless auditioning and broken dreams. Here, Elordi’s projected niceness is amusing, as his leading man stares blankly at the word “rejection,” before asking if it’s some sort of new internet slang. “No, it’s just part of the human condition,” Mikey Day’s student fills him in. Same when he’s informed of the whole audition process, with the celebrity earnestly advising, “Oh my god, they make you do that? I don’t think that’s allowed.” The class itself adds some funny window dressing, as Heidi Gardner’s stifled actress reveals that her agent has just advised her to start thinking about porn and a guesting Rachael McAdams (on hand to pass the Regina George torch to Mean Girls star and musical guest Reneé Rapp) popping in as an resentful student named Natalie Partman, who looks just like Rachel McAdams. There was even something of an ending, as Yang reveals that the star only agreed to come by because he was told they were all Make A Wish kids. The best of a mediocre lot on this listless Saturday Night Live, but amusing nonetheless.

The Worst: On general principles, I’ll toss The Bachelorette sketch down to the bottom. Apart from the sketch turning on the single most obvious possible premise (Chloe Fineman’s contestant leaps to choose towering late-comer Elordi over “short kings” Bowen, Molly Kearney, and Marcello Hernandez), I’ve made my case that SNL goes to the reality show concept way too easily, as a rule. Plus, this was the pick for the first sketch after the monologue? The joke is embroidered by Elordi’s hunk having a girlfriend, needing to borrow 200 grand, and reading a heartfelt note that Fineman’s body is “just okay,” but this limped out of the gate and set the pace for the SNL to come.

The Rest: With some better pacing and a funnier host, the bowling sketch could have been something. As Elordi and Heidi Gardner’s daters roll, the onscreen animations illustrating their results quickly go from the expected cutesy to mini-playlets either wrenchingly intense or elaborately nonsensical, with the cast dressed as bowling pins for the occasion. Elordi’s 7-10 split elicits a sketch where two parent pins explain their impending divorce to their child. Elordi’s 9 score throws to Sarah Sherman’s bowling pin FBI agent holding a press conference to announce the number of victims of the Grovedale Killer (9 and counting). And his gutter ball sends pin daddy Mikey Day off on a rant about that’s where his caught-smoking daughter pin in going to wind up. Again, fun idea that could have used a little more oomph.

I haven’t watched the Katt Williams Club Shay Shay interview with Shannon Sharpe for the same reason I don’t google car accidents. I have read some of the rambling, deeply questionable stuff the diminutive stand-up put out there, so I’ll give it up to Ego Nwodim for somehow finding a way to make her Williams seem even more defiantly bonkers. Devon Walker does a finely observed Sharpe as Ego’s Katt claims that rival Kevin Hart is an actual Teddy Graham, that Williams invented fruit, and launches into a complex point involving French philosopher Albert Camus to take a shot at Steve Harvey. With Walker’s Sharpe continually refusing to question his guest’s outlandish remarks, I especially got a kick out of Williams’ claim to be able to speak every word in the English language at once. (It comes out as “blumanapazori.”) I can’t imagine this will age beyond next month or so, but it was fine on a largely unmemorable Saturday Night Live.

Same goes for the Alaska Airlines commercial. Apparently the regional airline had a little problem with a door blowing off, and Elordi, Heidi, and Kenan’s employee spokespeople make the case that even the passengers (nobody died, somehow) have to admit, it’s a pretty awesome story. Kenan especially was on point as ever, elbowing viewers to admit that, apart from being better than any Spirit Airlines flight, the whole “hole in the plane” thing is at least super-interesting. Some improvements are promised, as James Austin Johnson’s reluctant Sully Sullenberger is drafted to fly again, while a smiling Elordi promises, “We’re gonna go ahead and tighten some of those,” in reference to all the loose bolts everywhere.

The AA meeting was another chance for everybody to marvel at how attractive the host is, with the all-lady group first kicking out Mikey Day’s entrant (“Well, I’ll tell the judge I tried”), and then eagerly accepting straggler Elordi, especially once he admits that his substitute for drugs and alcohol is non-stop, indiscriminate sex with women of all ages, shapes, and ethnicities. (He ashamedly further admits that he’d even better at it when he’s drunk, prompting Heidi Gardner to whip out a couple of beers.) That’s the joke, and Elordi’s just sort of a prop, but everyone else has some fun. I liked the move where Punkie Johnson’s attendee is suddenly shirtless, offering up the solution that some bouncing might straighten things out. The abrupt ending sees Day apparently continuing to live out some sort of personal comedy curse, as his character comes back in to restate the premise of a Saturday Night Live sketch in case anybody missed it. We did not.

As stiffly competent as Elordi was all throughout SNL, his one attempt to get a little loose was just okay. He and Bowen (who teamed up a lot tonight) played a pair of professed professional lip readers on Entertainment Tonight, there to decipher the silent conversations of various celebs. As chummy as he and Yang were all night, Elordi really can’t match Bowen’s sketch charisma, but at least he got to do a few funny voices as he mimicked his half of a purported Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift walk-and-talk. (“Big guy! I’m a big guy—clomp, stomp, clomp!”) Reneé Rapp drops in as the duo’s intern to narrate the Gwynneth Paltrow ski collision trial (according to the sketchy reading, she was actually on trial for a stabbing murder, which she actually confessed to on the stand). Again, this could have been juiced up with a more sketch-friendly host involved, but it was the silliest Elordi allowed himself to get, which was a decent look.

Weekend Update update

Blue in the face as I am complaining about this Update’s too-cool-to-give-a-crap approach to actual, pressing news, I’ll give it one more go. Still not touching the Israel-Gaza war with a ten foot comedy pole? Framing the looming literal election to determine whether America remains a democracy or not as a “boy, these guys are equally old and out of touch” punchline? Jost and Che clearly want to whoosh past all that hard-to-write stuff and zip to their favored zingers. Luckily, their zingers were particularly hot tonight, but I’ll stand by my objections.

Che, after his second joke of the night elicited groan-gasps from the SNL crowd, ad-libbed, “I’m gonna sleep like a baby tonight, I really am.” He should—the guy can pitch a joke right into an audience’s tender spots. Referring to Republican candidate and Indian woman who changed her name to something white people wouldn’t find scary Nikki Haley’s comment that American has never been a racist country, Che’s Haley goes on, “If America was so racist, then why did they have sex with their slaves.” Cue groans and accompanying satisfied Che smirk. Jost got one in just as good, mocking the Pope’s recent attack on surrogate motherhood (of all things) by noting, “Plus, the Catholic Church doesn’t want extra kids around while they’re trying to quit.” As much as I wish these guys would go deeper, they can cut sharp.

Correspondent-wise, Devon Walker had his second good impression and confident performance of the night, here as former GOP candidate and recent Trump endorser Tim Scott. The voice is solid, with Walker describing his odd cadence variously as “Forrest Gump imitating Ja Rule” and “both the princess and the frog” before attempting to explain why he’s bringing his 1% (at most) voter support aboard the Trump train. Refuting Che’s accusation that notorious racist Trump is only using Scott to court the Black vote, Walker’s Scott defiantly notes that no Black people whatsoever relate to him. (His one use of the n-word at a Black barbershop was met with horror.) He further rebuts Che’s assertion that Trump’s recent attacks on Haley’s heritage represent a racist dogwhistle by producing an actual racist dogwhistle—which causes Colin Jost to ask what the hell that noise is. Making fun of Jost is always funny.

I question Punkie Johnson’s take on that guy seen launching himself over a desk to attack the judge in his trial. I mean, the dude was on trial for some heinous stuff, and did try to murder a judge and all. Regardless, Punkie’s been getting better airtime of late, which I like, and at least her bearded defendant is funny enough, whipping out the telestrator to show how bad an angle the bailiffs took to cut off his leap. So, score one for Punkie anyway.

Recurring Sketch Report

Garrett from Hinge is a thing now, apparently. This was a big Saturday Night Live for Bowen, at least in airtime if not belly-laughs, with his Family Guy-shirted former almost-boyfriend here interrupting Chloe Troast’s wedding to Elordi, complaining about being thrown over (Troast only remembers him as the guy who said she had “Hufflepuff vibes but the ass of a Slytherin” on their one date), and dramatically excusing himself to collect himself in the bathroom. (“No matter what, you cannot kill them!”) As before (if anyone recalls), the other guy takes an inexplicable liking to Garrett based on Stewie impressions, with both of them taking a time out to, once more, assure themselves that, no matter what, they will not murder the bewildered Troast. (Props to props for Yang’s eyeball-spinning spell book, which he promises not to use to enact revenge.) I liked the one original bit, where Garrett reveals his best friend is the organist who told him about the wedding: cut to old lady playing him out with a dramatic sting while wearing a Stewie t-shirt.

Political Comedy Report

Wow, Saturday Night Live’s requisite Trump cold open just sucked all the air out of the studio, huh? It’s a little puzzling, since James Austin Johnson’s Trump remains a brilliantly observed piece of impersonation/assassination. The subject-jumping and the way his Trump elides articles (“We are here at courthouse”) are the sort of tics that can seal a good presidential impression, and the voice is great. Maybe it’s just the lingering stench of all that Alec Baldwin flop sweat, or maybe the SNL audiences are just conditioned by this point to have the lowest of expectations for this sort of thing. Perhaps there’s just something less and less funny now that the runaway Republican frontrunner (now embroiled in his second defamation trial stemming from his rape of journalist E. Jean Carroll), has openly admitted to everything from plotting vengeance on his political enemies to deporting millions of non-white Americans, to begging the MAGA-packed Supreme Court to let him literally get away with any crime he commits as president. I do think JAJ’s Trump works better when he’s slotted into a larger SNL sketch rather than having to carry an opener by himself. A punchier drive-by Trump appearance might be all we can collectively stomach.

Not Ready for Prime Time Power Rankings

It’s was a Bowen Yang sort of SNL tonight. Plenty of Yang, although perhaps not the funniest Yang we’ve seen.

Kenan is such a comforting presence, isn’t he? Not a lot to do tonight, but every role just had that little Kenan spin on it to make things that much better.

Devon Walker is getting more sure of himself, which I’m all for.

Michael Longfellow got the goodnights, but that was just about itl.

10-To-One Report

No repeaters as 10-to-one sketches. How many times do I have to say it, SNL? C’mon now.

Stray observations

The teased Please Don’t Destroy short was nowhere to be seen. Must have been a timing issue, since it’s hard to imagine that the guys came up with something more forgettable than the sketches that actually aired.

Elordi is the second big screen Elvis to host recently. Let’s start a grassroots movement to draft Kurt Russell and Bruce Campbell next.

In addition to help from McAdams, Rapp also had Megan Thee Stallion come out for an energizing verse on “Not My Fault.”

Che’s other killer: GOP voters only view Tim Scott’s embrace of Trump as “3/5 of an endorsement.”

Next week: Madame Web herself, Dakota Johnson hosts Saturday Night Live alongside musical guest Justin Timberlake. Oh god, Jimmy Fallon’s going to make the trip upstairs, isn’t he?