Saturday Night Live Recap: SNL Is Still Figuring Out Olivia Rodrigo’s Sense of Humor

Saturday Night Live
Olivia Rodrigo
Season 51 Episode 18
Editor’s Rating ★★★
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Pop stars are an obvious choice for hosting Saturday Night Live. They have natural comfort with performing live on stage, a built-in base of rabid fans, and are usually already familiar with the show from having previously appeared as a musical guest. It’s understandable why a solid number of them are consistently picked to host every season (perhaps they receive a jury-duty style summons from Lorne in the mail?) That’s all to say that Olivia Rodrigo, with her highly anticipated third album on the way and an established history with the show, made perfect sense as the designated host and musical guest for last night’s episode.

Where the show faltered last night, however, was in assuming a one-size-fits-all approach to its pop-star-hosting formula. Rodrigo, despite her Disney Channel bona fides and larger-than-life pop persona, is not a broad comedic actress. She’s a singer-songwriter with an inherently sensitive approach. She certainly has a sense of humor and brought an enthusiastic spirit to the gig last night, but where she shines is in smaller, more intimate moments of irony or wry observation. She is not fit for, say, musical impressions in the style of Ariana Grande or the energetic physical comedy of a Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga.

Which made the show’s choice to spotlight her in sketches that required over-the-top comedic performances all the more baffling. The very first sketch of the night, a soap opera parody in which Rodrigo’s character pushes a bunch of people down some stairs, is not necessarily a bad sketch idea in itself. But it cast Rodrigo as its exaggerated, campy villain when that’s not really the role to which she’s best suited. The trend continued throughout the night as we saw Rodrigo in one of those silly Shop TV sketches, where she bravely tried out a Southern accent and, as the recurring sketch requires, delivered a bunch of unsubtle sexual innuendos. Or even in the night’s last live sketch, which had Rodrigo starring as a possibly cheating girlfriend in a musical Isley Brothers/Trapped in the Closet parody opposite Marcello Hernández, a tricky feat for even a seasoned sketch performer. It’s not that Rodrigo totally bungled these roles, or even that she wasn’t game — it’s more so that as the night went on, it became clearer and clearer that the show wasn’t interested in playing to her strengths. Which is a shame, because she has many!

It’s lucky, then, that we still got a few moments last night in which our talented host was really at her peak. Here are the highlights: 

My Room

Undoubtedly the best showcase of Rodrigo’s understated sensibilities. This installment of Dan Bulla’s Midnight Matinee segment takes a super strange premise (Rodrigo’s character is trapped in a human zoo by a species of alien bug-people) and fills it with beautiful, silly hyperspecifics (the bug people giving Rodrigo’s character an all-bug remake of A League of Their Own, Rodrigo’s character falling in love with a bug protesting the human zoo). Other standout moments include Rodrigo getting hit with a tranquilizer dart after a bug child falls into her room/enclosure, and James Austin Johnson making an appearance as her potential mate. It’s weird and wonderful, and Rodrigo is great in it.

My Ex

SNL essentially has a carved-out spot for an Ashley Padilla sketch every week now, and I’m not complaining. This sketch has a bit of a convoluted starting point (four characters are at a birthday dinner in which they are seated randomly but intimately at tables of two?), but once the sketch gets underway and Padilla gets cooking, it doesn’t matter. Rodrigo and Ben Marshall play two exes who are trying to make each other jealous by pretending to date other people (Tommy Brennan for Rodrigo and Padilla for Marshall). Marshall and Padilla play off each other extremely well in this very physical sketch, and by the time a piece of mashed potato perfectly falls off of Padilla’s face and into her champagne, the sketch cements itself as one of the best of the night.

Weekend Update: Alix Earle and Alex Cooper on Their Brewing Feud

This Update desk bit has Veronika Slowikowska and Chloe Fineman teaming up as Alix Earle and Alex Cooper (respectively) to explain their stupid internet non-drama to Michael Che. What works best about this sketch is Slowikowska and Fineman’s chemistry, which makes this bit fun to watch even (or perhaps especially?) if you have no idea what they’re talking about. Che is also good here as the baffled straight man (the “Michael Che: Enemy to White Women” chyron really made me laugh). 

Rasta Driver

A late-episode gem, this sketch puts Slowikowska and Rodrigo in the backseat of a taxi driven by Andrew Dismukes. The women’s fun night out is derailed by the unexpected talent of Dismukes’ driver as a gifted Rasta emcee. Dismukes absolutely nails it here— he appears to be actually possessed as he performs and is genuinely startled and concerned when he emerges from his flow-state (I was reminded of this Community bit). Rodrigo also shines here, playing off of Dismukes (her delivery of “No offense but like, how?” is a highlight).

Home Security Ad

This pretape squeezed in just before the end of the episode, and the episode was better for it. The premise is smart and topical (a home security company has TikTokkers interview robbers to help CCTV footage go viral), and the sketch is nicely targeted at the particular type of influencers it’s commenting on. Rodrigo plays a droll man-on-the-street influencer/interviewer while Hernández makes a star turn as the Subway Takes guy. 

Cut for Time

• We can’t finish out this recap without addressing the cold open. We need to talk about Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth. Look, I understand the impulse to give James Austin Johnson a break from his Trump impression. But replacing one recurring impression with another, especially when Jost is not as talented a sketch performer as Johnson, is simply not the solution the show seems to think it is. Jost is trying his best here, but he belongs behind the Update desk, not taking up space in the cold open every week. 

• Also, Aziz Ansari as Kash Patel: sure, fine, whatever. 

• Debbie Harry and Connor Storrie each introducing Rodrigo’s performances kind of neatly sums up her whole project. She’s reverential towards the greats while keeping her finger on the pulse! I respect it. 

• Kam Patterson had a good week, from his Weekend Update desk bit to an extended appearance in the Home Security sketch. Judging by the desk bit, though, he’s not quite there yet. 

• “The U.S. State Department is introducing a special edition passport that features an image of Donald Trump, so you’ll always carry a reminder of why you fled the country.” 

• Jake Paul catching strays in Rodrigo’s monologue? I’m not mad about it!