Over the past couple of months, it seems to be that I have begun going through a normal sleep pattern, and going to bed at around 9 pm rather than staying up until 11:30 to eagerly watch a new episode of “Saturday Night Live.” 

I will not deny the fact that I still love and enjoy watching “SNL”, however, just not these past couple of seasons. I relished the opportunity to watch new information about what had happened in a week in their enthusiastic and funny ways of expressing it.

Recently,  it seems that it’s a commitment to watch, and it is harder to enjoy it.

In the past couple of weeks, “SNL” sketches have begun to be looked at as an empty white wall with the week’s events. With the actors reenacting several political standoffs, or a mildly relatable concept in three minutes. It seems as if these three minutes are turned into a snoozefest. 

The most recent episode from the newest season, Season 49, was Episode 9 with Jacob Elordi, hosting and musical guest, Renee Rapp. At the time, this was the most anticipated episode, due to Elordi’s newly-released movie, Saltburn. 

In addition, I had thought that the writers were going to innovate and create fun sketches. And boy was I wrong. 

The episode started with the usual political aspect of “SNL” by bringing in Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson. Trump was to speak to the media after appearing in court for his E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. Although I thought that Johnson had depicted Trump perfectly, there were humorous aspects that seemed reused. With Trump saying something stupid and everyone laughing, we’ve seen these bits before and we’ve seen them done better. 

At this point, I thought, “Okay, though that was a cold and flat opening to the show, the opening monologue can’t be disappointing.” So, when Jacob Elordi came out and started his monologue, he started rambling about Saltburn, and I won’t lie, there were a few chuckles that peeped through. However, midway through the monologue, he stated that he wasn’t much of a public speaker, and would hand it off to questions. At this point, it could go either way– either funny or disappointing. 

It was disappointing and indeed wanted me to just skip the monologue to the sketches. So I did. 

The first sketch I landed upon was the Alaska Airlines Ad. This was funny because recently, a cabin door on one of the Alaska Airlines planes had flown off mid-flight. Overall, the sketch was making fun of Alaska Airlines by having Elordi, Kenan Thompson, and Heidi Gardner play the role of the airline’s employees. They were to share the company’s new slogan after the cabin door broke off mid-flight. 

This sketch was overall really entertaining and funny, and by the end of it the slogan was in my head for the day, “Alaska Airlines, you didn’t die and you got a cool story.” With this, I thought, of course, the rest can’t be bad, let’s see the other sketches.

The second one I fell upon was called, Bowling pins. This one was about a couple’s date at a bowling alley that takes an unexpected turn throughout the game. The couple was played by Jacob Elordi and Heidi Gardner, during the whole sketch it seemed a bit awkward for the actors. To me, it seemed as if the chemistry didn’t match, and each time Elordi’s character bowls it seems to be getting a centimeter higher with the awkwardness.

Throughout the sketch, I had to pause from the cringeness I was developing. However, “Weekend Update” was a segment that might go down as one of my favorites of all time. Colin Jost and Michel Che know how to take political or new entertainment information and make fun of the right things. In this episode, they had done exactly that. 

In any other week, Jost and Che would have been more than enough to save the episode. They have a depth and personality that feel completely lost in the sketches, whose writers conflate absurdity and discomfort with clever humor. 

Overall, the product of this episode left me feeling unsatisfied, and it is only funny when skechers go viral on Instagram. It is disappointing to hear since this was once a perfect way to end an eventful week.