Phoebe Waller-Bridge Hosts SNL: Watch the Best & Worst Sketches
Phoebe Waller-Bridge already has three Emmys for her work on the Amazon comedy Fleabag. Will she earn a fourth statue for her Saturday Night Live hosting debut?
This weekend’s episode was on par with the Woody Harrelson-led season opener. Waller-Bridge did a fine job as host (and was especially charming during her opening monologue), but she wasn’t given much of a showcase. (And if you need any more proof that the English writer/actress/producer has retired the Fleabag character, notice that there was no parody of the aforementioned awards darling during the show.)
Perhaps most notable is that it was another strong week for Bowen Yang, who played a Chinese trade representative during Weekend Update, and Chloe Fineman, who was heavily featured in the Love Island parody. Neither of them had particularly great material, but they both had more screen time than a handful of veteran cast members, which is a rare occurrence for SNL‘s freshman crop.
BEST: THE WAR IN WORDS – WILLIAM & LYDIA
This onetime Maya & Marty sketch (remember Maya & Marty?) is the gift that keeps on giving. Mikey Day’s increasingly exasperated reactions are never not funny (“Still rabidly curious about the Hitler of it all!” was the funniest line reading of the night), and Waller-Bridge was comedic dynamite as the dimwitted wife who drove her fighter-pilot husband mad with vague details about what’s been going on back at home.
BEST: MID-DAY NEWS
Waller-Bridge was among the local newscasters trying not to react to the race of each subject. Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim played well off each other, but the biggest laughs came from Chris Redd as the meteorologist who kept score.
BEST: CHEN BIAO ON US-CHINA TRADE WAR
Heidi Gardner broke out in a big way after her first appearance as every boxer’s girlfriend Angel, and I expect Yang to do the same following his turn as “basically the Lizzo of China.” I don’t think we need to see Chen Biao again, but I’d really like to see Yang bring that same level of confidence to another potentially recurring character at the Update desk.
HONORABLE MENTION: LOVE ISLAND
A parody shouldn’t have to spell out what it’s doing to make sure the audience laughs. With that being said, I chuckled at the montage of indiscernible accents, then again when Aidy Bryant struggled to get up from that bean bag chair.
WORST: KAYLEE, CRYSTAL & JANETTA
Welp, they can’t all be winners! The only amusing part of this five-to-1 dud was seeing Waller-Bridge nearly break character at the 0:58 mark. (Also, if someone can explain to me why a sketch about four friends is named after only three of them, I’m all ears.)
What were your favorite sketches this week? And what missed the mark? Watch all of the highlights (and lowlights) above, then grade the episode in our poll.
The show was just average. Some laughs but not enough. Taylor Swift was great but really excels with more upbeat songs. The Weekend News was subpar as usual and truly needs some new life injected into its veins!!!
Weekend update has felt really short this season compared to recent years. That might be a sign that they acknowledge it.
The “problem” with WU is that they have traditionally gone after politics. When that was Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, or Obama (or various other politicians at the time) WU excelled. Even under Clinton, there wasn’t the proliferation of comedy shows covering politics. Now, Trump jokes take up the first 5-20 minutes of a lot of nightly talk shows. All the low hanging fruit has been collected. If they have some great stuff, fine. If not, it really depends on the “guests.” And like him or hate him, Pete has had some great WU bits. Usually once every couple of weeks. Sprinkle in some Trump Sons, and you have 4-5 out of every 6 eps with a quality guest segment. Sprinkle in some Kate McKinnon (though her Warren isn’t funny anymore, and never really was that funny [Kate doesn’t do that well going after people she seems to genuine like IRL]), and few of the other ladies (all of whom are almost always great) and you have some guest segments that put it over the top. The guests on WU seem to be lacking.
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Besides that, Jost seems to really be into doing WU. Che, who is great when he’s engaged, seems a little disengaged. It is like he isn’t trying as hard as he was a few years ago. He isn’t using his entire butt.
i’ve only seen the monologue so far but i’m cracking up this woman is my hero i LITERALLY named my new car after her
PWB was fantastic!
Midday news was one of the best sketches in a long time.
Totally agree
PBW’s monologue, Mid-Day News and Chen Biao were my favorites
The WW II skit and the Mid-Day News were both hilarious.
No matter how bad it is, you will still watch and say it’s the most hilarious thing you have ever seen.
I was surprised at how good TS did “False God” on SNL. I watched it again at the end of the show and still really really liked it. Listened to the regular version on Youtube and it wasn’t nearly as good. Did she seemed surprised at the end of her performance – was that because it came across better live with the house band saxophonist?