‘SNL’ Scorecard: Gal Gadot Finally Meets The Times Square Wonder Woman

Gal Gadot hosted SNL with the wide-eyed innocence that’s always fun from a first time host. You know, that look that says, “What have I gotten myself into?” And there were a couple fun moments, but the material just wasn’t there. Now, to be fair, it’s a pretty crummy week to try to come up with something funny – and Jason Aldean opening the show by covering Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” evidenced that. But I also wonder if something else is going on. It’s a little too early to tell, but it’s hard not to imagine the departure of head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider won’t have long-term effects. Those two wrote a lot of the sketches that helped last season catch lightning in a bottle. And those two wrote for and with Kate McKinnon, which led to her winning another Emmy. But so far this season, that same energy isn’t quite there. And, again, it’s early, but that’s certainly something to pay attention to as this season goes on. (Also, it was good to see Heidi Gardner get a decent amount of screentime in just her second episode. She’s a native of Kansas City, and as someone who went to high school in Kansas City, I feel duty bound to both point that out and to root for her. Though, I hope she’s not relegated to doing “hick voice” the whole season.) Anyway, here is your Scorecard:

Sketch of the Night

“First Date” This sketch was very clever, but even this seemed to be missing something. The premise is great, but it’s like we are waiting there for the really big laugh and it never came. But what makes this interesting is that this scenario might very well play itself out. O.J. Simpson is probably going to try to start dating and that is incredibly weird. He’s probably on Tinder already. The more I think about this sketch, the more disturbing it becomes so maybe I’m going to stop now.

Score: 7.8

Runner Up

“The Chosen One” Pete Davidson’s “dumb kid who doesn’t care either way” character (I don’t know what else to call him) finds a better fit in “The Chosen One” than he did as the pool boy having an affair. I like the idea that the chosen one doesn’t care either way about being the chosen one. I suspect that’s about the way it would go in real life. If someone told you right now that you were the chosen one, would you be excited about it? Honestly, it sounds like a huge hassle and who really needs that?

Score: 6.8

The Bronze

“Themyscira” I think this should be considered canon in the DC movie universe.

Score: 6.5

Werido of the Night

“Safelite” This originally ran during dress rehearsal during the Ryan Gosling-hosted episode and I was wondering if it would ever pop up again. A couple years ago there was a Trivago “evergreen” sketch that aired during dress numerous times but somehow never made the life show and never popped up online. And it was a similar premise in that the spokesman turns out to be really creepy. Imagine you’re the CEO of Safelite (who I assume is named Clint Safelite) and you’re settling in for the night by watching Saturday Night Live, and then you hear the company jingle. I bet at first there’s just an assumption it’s a real commercial. I wonder how many seconds it took for the realization to hit? Maybe 10? I promise Clint Safelite said the words, “oh no,” out loud. I also promise there’s some sort of public relations meeting going on at Safelite right now with people freaking out about how Safelite should respond, before they all just decide that doing nothing is the best course of action. The good news is a lot of people will have that jingle stuck in their head today.

Update: Okay, Safelite has decided to respond by tweeting at “SNL.” I promise this happened after an at least five hour meeting.

@nbcsnl thx for thinking of us. We’re proud of our techs and none of them are actors. Their focus is on quality, safety and service.

— Safelite AutoGlass® (@safelite) October 8, 2017