A thorough breakdown of the casts contributions.
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Season 46 ofSaturday Night Livemay go down as one of its weirdest and most contentious.
The season began with people unsure whether it was evensafe to perform.
Thena country singer got canceledfornot taking COVID-19 precautions seriously.
Then that country singerdid a mea culpa sketch with Jason Bateman.
Then that country singergot canceled again.
Its been a year, folks.
A year that made no damn sense.
Its sometimes hard to gaugeSaturday Night Lives cultural relevance in an ever-fragmenting culture.
People tweeted angrily aboutSNLon both sides of every issue it prompted.
But is Twitter outrage (or, heaven forfend, praise) a useful metric for audience engagement?
You want to know what is?
TikTok is its own weird little world, but its a world whose demographics are all over the shops.
The sound of Adele introducing musical guest H.E.R.
is still getting used on TikTok months later.
Mulaneys monologue got lip-synced, just likeeverything that man does.
And the fakeSoundCloud trap song performed by Chalamet and Pete Davidsonwas unironically adored by zoomers.
In fairness to the youths, that song did kinda go.
Heres howwemade sense of this senseless season: screen time ranked by points.
TheSNLpoints system was first designed byErik Vossfor Splitsider and honed into a deadly blade of evaluation at Vulture.
You get one point if youre onscreen.
Performers get two points if they deliver a joke line.
Anyone in an ensemble sketch usually gets two points, because the laughs are spread pretty evenly.
But if the sketch is written around your very funny character, thats three points, baby.
Episode three was the first one in which every Not Ready for Prime Time Player had a line.
People can kind of do whatever and still work onSNLnow.
Will this laissez-faire attitude to scheduling continue when society as a whole comes back?
Bang!Bad Bunny did two sketches as a musical guest, and hes never been more charming.
Mix it up, musical guests!
Lauren Holt: 2.5%
Lauren Holt had a pretty typical freshman season.
Hopefully next year, she can break out a little more.
Michael Che: 2.6%
Che stayed behind the Update desk all season, which makes sense.
Especially when youve got anHBO Max showto do.
You remember with Elons mom and Tish Cyrus?
But again, why should he?
Its like seeing your teacher outside of school.
What are they doing out there with normal people?
Punkie Johnson: 3%
Punkie Johnson has already carved out a unique spot in theSNLcast: old.
Thats not all she did, of course.
Johnson played Dionne Warwicks niece in the sketch seriesMiss Warwick took as a personal birthday present.
But Johnson added an interesting grounded presence to many family sketches.
Mars (andSNL) needs moms.
Let her do impressions!
If so, let him host and keep this bit going.
Andrew Dismukes: 3.5%
Andrew Dismukes showed a lot of promise this season.
It should be cured and served on a charcuterie board.
Bogart was a juvenile when he started acting.
But as a frosh in a big ol cast, Dismukes got somewhat lost among the other cast members.
Maybe next year he can break throw in and play an old wizard or something.
The intensity with which he delivers Post-it notes in theJob Interviewsketch fucking wrecked me.
Yang is one of those boys helping flip girls into the air inBring It On.He isnt Kirsten Dunst.
And the host is the key to that structure.
Theyre the metronome of comedy.
Fineman would be an interesting inheritor to Kenan Thompson as frequent game-/talk-show host; shes got the precision.
Thats what Fineman is doing with her Britney.
Then she reaches into the wine for another gobletful.
There is a look of such fear on Josts face.
Hes thinking,Oh no,anotherfull glass?
Would she?She would, and she did, and thats what Strong brings to every performance.
Somehow,Bryant became Ted Cruz.
Bryants Cruz knows hes the scum of the earth.
He cops to it almost immediately.
The sketch version of Cruz has no self-justifying narratives about why he is the way he is.
Bryants Ted Cruz definitely likes to kiss his own butt.
They ran likeAlbert Brookss short filmsfrom the early years ofSNL.But this year, Mooney was often in ensemble sketches.
But we also have to give it up for Baby Yoda.
Baby Yoda is Mooneys Mitch McConnell: somehow eternally relevant despite being the weirdest-looking motherfucker imaginable.
Then Moffat became the latest in a long line to don the Biden veneers.
Moffats Joe Biden is not offended if no, when someone tells him to fuck off.
He knows hes a handful.
Chris Redd: 5%
Chris Redd always manages to read a straight line funny.
Its a clutch skill to have, especially if you keep getting relegated to Friend No.
3 parts in group sketches.
Thats not to say Redd doesnt have a full creative life.
But Id love to see more things likeThe Herofor Redd.
Watching him spiral as it becomes clear that he is 100 percent going to die is a treat.
There were five whole episodes where no returning cast members, host spouses, or cast-member moms appeared.
This cast is (1) immensely talented and (2) friggin huge.
Let them explore the space.
Kevin Jonas had more screen time than some of the featured players inNick Jonass episode.
We need to do better.
The Old Pete would mostly stay confined to pretaped raps and Update pieces that were just stand-up.
But Davidsons got impressions now!
He played two noted scumbags:Andrew CuomoandMatt Gaetz.
And he innovated in the emo-rap space with his Timothee collab, which paid off big-time on TikTok.
It was clearly one of those impressions honed by hours of doing nothing together.
How often do you get to make fun of your bestie on live TV?
Heidi Gardner: 5.8%
Heidi Gardner has stayed in the middle of the pack for most of herSNLtenure.
The ball (basketball reference) is in your court, Emmys.
Mikey Day: 6.1%
Mikey Day has really leaned into his nasality this year.
Yes, I said it robbed!
Petes legs are ten times more shapely, and Mikeys talent was infinitely more impressive and sexually confusing.
The one thing missing from Days repertoire is a steady political impression.
Ego Nwodim: 6.2%
Ego Nwodim blossomed this year.
She gives a beautiful stank face that makes her a necessary member in any ensemble sketch about societalfauxpas.
And with the world opening back up in fits and starts, there were a lot of those.
Nwodim even managed toneg the entire concept of the male genderin the season finale.
She also had a viral moment as Dionne Warwick in the Dionne Warwick Talk Show.
What a nice thing to have happened during an otherwise bleak time.
Kenan Thompson: 6.8%
Kenan Thompson kept a comparatively low profile for his 17th season.
Yes, third place is low-profile for Kenan.
NotSNL.Kenan has been on TV for many zoomers entire dang lives.
She made comedy out of how bad she was doing in this new and inarguably shittier world.
Her new Update character, Dr. Wenowdis, only exists because our government is terrible at health messaging.
He is the personification of our national confusion re: every fucking thing.
And shehosted a cold open as herself, trying to see if any part of America still worked.
Nobody is doing great right now, but McKinnon was admitting it on live TV.
Beck Bennett: 7.7%
It was a real squeaker, but Beck Bennett is this years screen-time champ.
Beyond impressions, Bennett was the barometer in many ensemble sketches.
Hes tough aboutdrivers license,until hes into it.
Bennett plays stern high-status men that flip on a dime.
