While watching Lizzo’s host turn on Saturday Night Live, I thought about how much the energy level of the show was UP. In the first of their two-hundred write-ups about SNL, Vulture remarked how Lizzo’s episode had the feel of an event. That’s rare for even regular episodes, let double-duty hosts. Most of the time, say on your random Nick Jonas or Halsey host/ guest deal, the episode makes you ask, “Who passed and with how little notice was it?” Not the case with Lizzo, a great host.
Lizzo introduced herself for her first performance. Has that happened before? No way for me to tell (also known as “I do not want to look it up”). Throughout the episode, I couldn’t stop thinking about past bad or unenergetic hosts. It sounds so simple and obvious, but just being committed and energetic make such a big difference.
For example, Please Don’t Destroy could have done that sketch with any musical guest and filled in the music to match their style. Would it have been good with Nick Jonas? Probably not! It plays well on the anticipation of new Lizzo music and I don’t think many people are excited for more solo Nick Jonas. I don’t mean to be rude to Mr. Jonas, but this is where we are.
Even as a straight person playing off of the 2008 Black Eyed Peas, Lizzo excels. The whole sketch makes me wonder if these are BEP thoughts Lizzo has been holding for most of her career. Also, when did the cast first attempt a full Black Eyed Peas impression?
Like the Billie Eilish episode, Lizzo’s turn as host brings a new TikTok sketch. Such a premise seems like the the sort of easy idea we will continue to see until the writers get so bored of it that their eyes bleed, but we are not in that space yet. Hopefully there is a twenty minute version with Arcade Fire in May.
I wonder how many flute takes were pitched before landing on this one, which includes some of the more intense extra work in a while. Does the casting call go out to people with instruments or are the instruments provided on the day? Can you get a bassoon on short notice?
Again, I don’t mean to shit on Nick Jonas or, like, Liev Schreiber, but it’s exciting to watch a show with an excited crowd and an engaged host, rather than someone who was available or was promoting the end of Ray Donovan. You can’t get these things every time and sometimes you bring on actually bad people because you are tempting damnation and wondering if eternity will judge you, but when the host can make the show feel like event, that’s good as hell (GIGANTIC SHEPHERD’S CROOK PULLS ME INTO THE ABYSS).
No Notes
Wild that the two cut for time sketches were both musical. First, Bowen Yang and Chris Redd talked about radicalization with an anthropomorphized YouTube
Then, Lizzo joined Glitter Revolution for a spin on a past cut sketch that featured Kim Kardashian
There was also a Six Flags/ Vengaboys sketch that was not in my wheelhouse, but I understand if you think that it might have been in my wheelhouse.
Next week, or May 7th actually: Dr. Strange and Arcade Fire!