SNL is back with three in a row, starting with Shane Gillis hosting the show that dropped him in 2019.





Season 49 (2023-2024)
SNL 10/14/23 (S49E01) — H: Pete Davidson - MG: Ice Spice (Season Premiere)
SNL 10/21/23 (S49E02) — H: Bad Bunny - MG: Bad Bunny
SNL 10/28/23 (S49E03) — H: Nate Bargatze - MG: Foo Fighters
SNL 11/11/23 (S49E04) — H: Timothιe Chalamet - MG: Boygenius
SNL 11/18/23 (S49E05) — H: Jason Momoa - MG: Tate McRae
SNL 12/02/23 (S49E06) — H: Emma Stone - MG: Noah Kahan
SNL 12/09/23 (S49E07) — H: Adam Driver - MG: Olivia Rodrigo
SNL 12/16/23 (S49E08) — H: Kate McKinnon - MG: Billie Eilish
SNL 01/20/24 (S49E09) — H: Jacob Elordi - MG: Reneι Rapp
SNL 01/27/24 (S49E10) — H: Dakota Johnson - MG: Justin Timberlake
SNL 02/03/24 (S49E11) — H: Ayo Edebiri - MG: Jennifer Lopez
SNL 02/24/24 (S49E12) — H: Shane Gillis - MG: 21 Savage
SNL 03/02/24 (S49E13) — H: Sydney Sweeney - MG: Kasey Musgraves
SNL 03/09/24 (S49E14) — H: Josh Brolin - MG: Ariana Grande

I wouldn't know Shane Gillis from some dude working at a tire store, and watching that video above was the first time I've seen him tell a joke, but all I've heard since his "return" to SNL was announced was how big he is in comedy, especially with the yutes.

I've watched a couple of his stand up specials and have seen him on some podcasts, I think some of his stuff is funny. But he's kind of....problematic to many, so this could be interesting. Of course I'll watch the show live as I always do, it's been a Saturday night tradition for me for a long time.

Too bad 21 Savage will not perform this song

I am wholly unfamiliar with his comedy and, literally, the only thing I know about him is that he apparently pals around holocaust deniers and antisemites.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-do...ocaust-deniers

Seems like a weird decision for SNL to have him host after they dropped him from being on the cast.

This pretty much explains it

https://time.com/6760234/shane-gilli...ght-live-host/

Dude went for it!

Uh this is pretty bad.

Yeah, even though I don't know Gillis at all, it seemed like he was kept in check by the writing staff. Like I think he has a more over-the-top nature that he wasn't allowed to explore. Just a hunch, like I said, not familiar. And it probably would have been the same if he was a regular cast member so it's probably best for both parties that he got canned.

What's with this latest trend of coming out with the weakest sketch right after the monologue? Traditionally SNL would put the strongest one right there at the show start. A white family at a church in Jamaica is funny.....how?

The Trump sneaker/Like Mike parody was inspired. It doesn't make you better at basketball, it just makes you refuse to admit you lost. Low hanging fruit, but it was there so why not.

"The Floor" sketch had potential then just seemed to kinda end without any kind of resolution. A good idea wasted.

Fugliana, the average-looking blow-up doll, also a good idea.

I know nothing about 21 Savage and don't care for much of this style of music but I know he is the 'hot new thing' right now thanks to my 14 year old nephew.

Gotta say, this video was the stuff of nightmares. Wish I hadn't watched it now. It was way more entertaining than this episode of SNL tho. Shane Gillis can go back to working the counter at the tire store.

I get clips of his stand-up on my TikTok feed occasionally and I've yet to see anything "over the top" it's all very tame humor at about the level of a Jeff Foxworthy.

There's Liberty Mutual ad parody on Youtube that was not shown last night. It's really good.

Maybe when he did a Trump impersonation that brought him back in the good graces of Lorne and the cast.

Guess maybe we got a preview or a little glimpse of how Shane would have turned out if he was a cast member?

He seems like or comes across as a nice guy though he has the baggage from the past.

A Forrest Gump sketch. Timely stuff. Okay I liked it after they revealed it was the kids who chased him down in a pickup truck.

The Liberty Mutual parody was solid too.

It's interesting that every negative review of Gillis on SNL starts with the premise that he is a racist and a misogynist (etc) and then frames every sketch from that POV.

It makes me think of Al Bundy. Married w Children was crass and boorish and sometimes simply stupid, but I have never met a man my age or older who hadn't watched and liked the show.

Does comedy have to be for everybody? Can Dave Chappelle be Dave Chappelle, and the people who like him can like him, and the people that don't can ignore him? Like I posted earlier, I don't think I ever heard Shane Gillis speak out loud before this SNL, and IDK when I will again, so why do I have to care about his problematic brand of humor?

Thought it was pretty good. Definitely one of the better ones of the season. Felt like one of the weakest parts of the show was actually the monologue which was in part recycled material from his act but he just did little segments of longer bits so they were poorer versions of the same stuff i had already seen. Don’t know if someone who hadn’t seen his specials would take it though.

I assume this will be his first and last hosting gig since it was a mixed bag and not sure if it got colossal ratings.

WU was prettty funny including the Truman Capote bit.

Or his $180,000 a month Patreon podcast gig.

I thought he did a decent job hosting, but could tell he was on a bit of a tight leash.

Agreed. That's what comedy is, a lot of comics, including Gillis, try to toe that line, but you gotta find it first, otherwise you don't know where the boundary is. Sometimes you go a bit too far past it and need to reel it in a bit next time, especially these days where the goalposts of what is offensive or not are moving a lot faster than they used to. Gillis often makes me laugh, sometimes makes me cringe, but I accept that, it's how the artform often works. And as you say it isn't always for everybody.

They were obviously piping in fake laughter for the broadcast because during his monologue you could definitely tell he felt like he was bombing up there.

They say that the mics placed above the audience in the bleachers picks up the crowd laughter that is broadcast, but standing at home base, it is hard to hear anything but what the people on the floor in front of you are giving back.

When Che told the audience not to laugh at Jost, on the broadcast you could still the mic'ed audience laughing, but Jost says he heard nothing.

The visual of the band behind him not really being into it, particularly the red headed woman, didn’t help the uneasy feeling.

If people are watching the host perform a comedy monologue and looking at the out of focus faces of the band behind him, then he's fucked no matter what he's saying.

I always look at the band behind the host for reactions. Though I mean most SNL monologues are pretty trash.

Yeah, I remember the discussion during that episode too. It's possible, but idk because the show always starts with the same weird laughter right before the cold open starts after the NBC logo.

That particular gag makes me think that SNL uses a laugh track to either punch up the studio audience's reactions or make it more consistent. I guess it sort of makes sense because they might run into situations where someone in the audience has a weird laugh or tries to heckle the performers and they'd want to mask that. Not sure why they didn't turn it off the Jost bit because it was completely lost for home viewers.