Jonah Hill has a unique track record with Saturday Night Live. He’s one of the few hosts with a reoccurring character – and a great one to boot. Adam Grossman, the six-year-old Borscht Belt insult comic, has appeared in all three of his previous SNL episodes. But other than Adam, somehow Hill’s other material hasn’t struck a chord.

Hill is a gifted comic and clearly a good writer but somehow his episodes have been marred by lackluster material (in his last appearance, he was kicked by a fake horse and played a character with “infant penis syndrome.” Oof). But perhaps tonight the material will rise to Hill’s potential. I don’t know. What I do know is that Grossman will be back at Bennihana and that SNL will one again try to skewer politics that are already too ridiculous to parody.

Like I always do, I’ll be writing the recaps “live,” meaning I’ll watch a sketch and immediately write a short blurb reviewing and recapping it. For each segment, I’ll rate it on a scale of 0-5 stars. At the end of the piece, I’ll share some quick overall thoughts and the best/worst sketch of the night.

--

CNN Political Roundup Cold Open * * ½

Things I learned during tonight’s cold open: SNL thought it would be funny to recreate the Chris Christie meme that went rampant on Twitter the other day; SNL thought it would be funny to recreate Trump's comment about penis size; SNL has no idea what to do comically with Ted Cruz; Jason Sudeikis is a treasure and his Mitt Romney is a wonderful impression that I didn’t realize I’ve missed but I have.

Opening Monologue: *

Well this was a three-car-pile-up of a sketch, a mash-up of three horrible ideas that weren’t developed just mashed together. We have Jonah Hill insulting Kyle Mooney (unfunny), Jonah Hill joking about the N-word with Future (very unfunny) and Jonah Hill rapping (very, very unfunny). What’s going on here?

Racists For Trump: * ½

SNL writer 1: “Hmm, what’s the laziest way we can go about parodying Donald Trump”

SNL writer 2: “Oh, I know! Let’s say he’s a racist! Nobody’s done that before!”

SNL writer 1: “Should we add something besides ‘Trump’s a racist?’ to make it unique or funny?”

SNL writer 2: “No need!”

SNL writer 1: “But, wait, doesn’t this feel weird since Trump hosted an entire episode that pandered to him something awful?”

SNL writer 2: “………..”

Fond Du Lac Action News: *

Oh my God, what is happening? Why is this so awful? I don’t think there was a single laugh in this sketch based around the premise “wouldn’t it be funny if the news was read by people doing horrible Fargo-like accents.” I mean, I’ve been recapping SNL for a while now and this is pretty much one of the worst spells I can remember.

The Champ: * * ½

There’s an interesting comic idea in this sketch but somehow it never came together. Perhaps we don’t know enough about Hill’s character to make it work. Perhaps it ended too abruptly.

School Auction: * *

What is there to make of a sketch in which a shady Middle Eastern man buys a trio of teenagers for his King’s amusement? Should this be funny? Perhaps if it was written with a different spin it could work. As is, the whole thing feels questionable at best and offensive at worst.

Weekend Update: * * * ½

I’ll admit, for the first time tonight I laughed. Three times, actually. First was at that Lenny from Of Mice and Men joke. The second was when The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party started reciting all of Hamilton. The third was about Jarod from Subway. The rest was just so-so. The Flossie Dickie video merely recreated the (amazing) original without adding much to the proceeding and The Girl has since gone from topical and fun to obnoxious and totally brain-dead. Jay Pharaoh’s bit did feature some terrific impressions (his Eddie Murphy and Tracy Morgan are phenomenal), but it felt like they had an extra five minutes so they just let Pharaoh do impressions without much material behind it. But this segment did inspire me. I think I’ll watch the rest of this episode on mute while listening to Hamilton. Now that’s entertainment.

Murder Mystery: 0 Stars

During a rehearsal for a play in high school, we heard our director yell, from the back of the theater, “WHY IS THIS SO TERRIBLE.” I quote him here. WHY IS THIS SO TERRIBLE. In a night of awful material, this skit about Jonah Hill pooping is the very bottom of the barrel. I don’t understand how so much can go so wrong in one episode.

Inside SoCal: ½

Wait, we get 90 minutes of terrible, unfunny, sophomoric “comedy” and not even a Adam Grossman skit. Hell, I’d even take one of those Porn Doctor things. Anything but this. “Have out ever had Indian Food? It’s not like hamburgers or Mexican, it’s more different” is an actual line from this sketch. I’ll just leave that there.

Meeting Caterer: ½

Sure, let’s throw an unfunny gay stereotype character into the mix.

--

Best Sketch: Weekend Update

Worst Sketch: This whole episode was a grab bag of awful.

Musical Guest: Future

I’m tired and grumpy and just want to get this over with. Future was fine. Moving on.

Overall Thoughts:

What? Why? How? No. Just no. Let’s just say that I’ve been reviewing SNL for the site for two and a half years and, besides the Trump fiasco, this is, by far, the worst episode I’ve written about it.