'SNL' Highlights: Jenna Ortega, Waffle House, and a Dark, Twisted 'Ridiculousness'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 12, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 12, 2023 |

Cold Open — On the Oscars red carpet, we’re introduced to the guy handling security measures this year, Mike Tyson, and Chloe Fineman does an insanely outrageous (and accurate) impression of Jamie Lee Curtis, and now they’re partnering with DraftKings. There’s a lot of other stuff, and then Bowen Yang shows up as George Santos pretending to be Tom Cruise. It’s chock full of mostly unfunny bits! (Watch Here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)

Jenna Ortega Monologue — Ortega seems nice. She talks about doing scary movies, and Fred Armisen shows up for a moment. It’s very much a traditional opening monologue with very few frills. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s not memorable, either. (Score: 5 out of 10)

School vs. School — It’s a high school trivia competition between a traditional high school and basically the X-Men’s Xavier Institute, which does not go well owing to the mutants’ desire to use their superpowers when they miss a question. Decent idea, bad skit. There’s a lot of yelling. (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

Please Don’t Destroy — Ortega goes on a disastrous road trip with Please Don’t Destroy and they sing songs and get very annoyed with one another and maybe also kill someone. Better, but still not great. As a shout-out to his recent road trips (also, murders), this one is the Mat sketch of the week. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Parent Trap — Jenna Ortega plays both twins but her body double isn’t there, so she runs her lines with Fred Armisen, who ad-libs in completely inappropriate ways. (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Ridiculousness — I had to look this up, but apparently, this is a real show, and the host really is almost 50, although I cannot say for certain that he hits on minors, as the sketch suggests. It’s apparently an America’s Funniest Videos type show, where a panel provides commentary, but one of the panelists (Ortega) tells really gruesome and gnarly anecdotes. I didn’t want to laugh, but I laughed. Several times. Those stories are dark. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Waffle House — A young couple break up in front of a Waffle House where, in the background, some redneck Floridians (presumably) do what they do in Waffle Houses: Break out into weird-ass extravagant fights. The choreography is really good. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Molly Kearney appears as the Lt. Governor of Tennessee who was caught engaging with provocative photos of young gay men. And yes, he is married to a woman and supported Tennessee’s anti-drag laws. Kearney — who has not been used as much as they should be this season — kills it. James Austin Johnson stops by to do some fun and short random impressions, and Che and Jost have really settled into “Update” these days. They will just say any damn thing now, usually for better, sometimes for worse. (Score: 7 out of 10)

Exorcism — Ego Nwodim plays a woman with curlers in her hair who is awoken by an exorcism and goes down to take care of it herself because she and her husband need their sleep. The 20-minute run of good SNL tonight is over now. (Watch Here) (Score: 3 out of 10)

Law Firm Jingle — A law firm brings in two guys to come up with a jingle for the firm’s phone number that reminds them of being stank-ass drunk on daiquiris. This one has some 10-1 energy, and some real mustard on it. I’m not saying it’s good, but I am saying it’s funny. Bowen unleashes. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)