Look … I know Shane Gillis Selling out stadions, has appeared in Super Bowl advertising and has used its popularity for a popular Netflix -comedy series. I know People dig his jokes And all -round “ordinary guy” vibe and I really can’t talk about his humor is a reflection of his actual values or just an act that he knows appeals to a certain block of the population. He clearly has a pretty good timing and presence, but I simply do not buy what he is interested in selling and based on the internal audience’s reaction to much of the evening’s offers of sketches, nor were they.
The evening took off a rocky note from the jump, with a cobblestone called the Cold Open who tried to satirize off-the-Rail’s oval office meeting that took place on Friday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and others. Based on the surprise look from the former role member Mike Myers as Elon Musk (a character previously played by his “Wayne’s World” co -star Dana Carvey), it was obvious that the first intention was to lift the oveled autocrat’s power over Trump and his administration, but news in the day came on the road.
The only problem was that the terror that many felt in the aftermath of Zelenskyy’s treatment in the White House had still not dropped and since we are still in the middle of our government’s upward social and global order, it will not try to laugh at the situation. That being said, Myers was the perfect odd ball to step into Musk’s shoes and completely nailed the overall discomfort he evokes.
Getting into Gilli’s monologue, such as Dave Chappelle and many other stand-ups that have hosted over the years as the comedian kicked off his second stint by reusing some of his usual pieces, and introducing some new jokes to the studio 8H audience. Although he already had a cold open that involved Trump, Gillis immediately launched in his set with a joke about the recently re -redeemed president. He also took some time to make fun of Biden, but it was clear even that the audience was not interested in being stirred up right now and Gillis realized this too, fairly quickly. Despite this, he Sallied forward and referred to sexual abuse and Bill Cosby, as well as the trouble of wondering if your romantic partner has ever dated a black person. Gillis tried to treat this as a universal experience, but that did not seem to be the case because the light laughter reminded him that New York was “quite liberal.” At the end of his monologue, Gillis even knew that he had to mug for the camera with such a wave of his hand and recorded that his jokes might not have landed as well as he thought they would.
Gillis’ sketches were not much better, with the first perhaps one of the more fun deals for its use of pillars Heidi Gardner. The set sees her and Gillis as a couple in a vineyard that spends the day with Gilli’s parents, played by Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla, but things soon go sideways when Gardner’s stupid character insists that her boyfriend takes a series of photos of her in front of an orange tree. It is a situation that many have found themselves in or at least witnessed and Gardner’s continued escalation of the situation was the perfect parody of today’s vapid culture.
From here, most jokes seemed to play to not only Gilli’s own humor, but “Saturday Night Live‘S’ own heritage with a certain type of sketch. For a pre -advance piece Gillis pulled out the infomercial format that goes back to Dan Aykroyd’s “Bass-O-Matic.” But while that sketch played on the sillyness and forced the excitement of sales in the era, Gilli’s “connections” aims at the epidemic of loneliness and depression in many men in today’s world. The notion that these problems are fixed by a new drug called couplings, as well as a supplement called a lilbump can be funny for men from Gillis’ Ilk and the sketch ultimately points to the issues that abuse can lead to, but overall it felt like a not-so-subtel excavation at them with mental health. Not something to really laugh at.
Another living sketch that recognized a reality in today’s society, but did more to encourage division than perhaps mocking its continued folly was “mid-day news 2.” The stage contained Gillis with Gardner again, as did Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim. All four play local news anchors whose continued reporting of crime becomes competitive as the list grows between which crimes were committed by white people and as by black people. There is something very real about how much there is along racial lines in America and that has always been the case, but making light on it as a game played between pages does nothing to fix the question or change perceptions and what is worse, it rarely bumps like fun.
“SNL 50” has had many upside-down, even for a show known to them, but Lorne Michael’s continued platforms and encouragement of Gillis-a comedian who was Fired from the show For resumed clips of him that makes ethnic slurs – is one of the more worrying mistakes of his career. After two rounds hosting the show, Gillis has proven why he was originally thrown at the show, because he knows how to command a scene and fit into a role. But this is where his humor comes from and how it is reinforced when he is presented to a nationwide audience that feels scary rather than funny.
