Shane Gillis returned to Saturday Night Live as host, opening the show with a monologue that touched on politics, history documentaries, and self-deprecating humor.
He began by addressing the audience’s political leanings. “Look, I get it, you’re pretty liberal here,” he said before joking that being liberal makes people feel “powerful like a Sith.” When the response was muted, he added, “All right, now I’m going to lose you even more, for my next trick…”
Gillis then moved on to commentary about both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. He called Trump’s leadership “funny” and referenced the former president’s past suggestion about acquiring Greenland. Switching to Biden, he imitated him mid-speech, saying, “My favorite thing about Biden was, anytime he was giving a speech, in between teleprompters his face would go back to being dead.”
He then introduced a bit about “a thing white guys do, and it is racist,” before revealing that he was referring to men asking their partners about past relationships with Black men.
The latter part of the monologue focused on Ken Burns’ The Civil War documentary. Gillis described it as “kryptonite to women,” saying, “If you put that on, they will fall asleep immediately.” He went on to reference historian Shelby Foote, suggesting that Foote “clearly cheered for the South” throughout the documentary.
Later in the episode, Gillis starred in a sketch alongside Heidi Gardner, playing a man struggling through a tense photo session with his girlfriend during a winery tour. Gardner’s character, Tessa, spotted an orange tree and became fixated on capturing the perfect picture.
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“Oh my god. Is that an orange tree? Oh my god, I love those. Wait, baby, take a picture. Take a picture of me,” she said before quickly posing.
After multiple takes, she remained dissatisfied. “You think I look hot?” she asked. “I look like Michael Cera.”
James’ attempts to get the right shot only made things worse. When he pointed out that she wasn’t giving him clear instructions, she snapped, “So the direction is: be a man. You’re not a baby boy anymore. You’re a big man.”
Her directions became increasingly nonsensical. “Get the top of my head. Not my shoulders. But then my legs.” When James questioned how that was possible, she gave no further explanation.
By the time she turned the camera on James, her instructions continued in the same style. “Baby, act like you have an egg in your mouth,” she said. “And smile with your nose.”
The episode featured musical guest Tate McRae and marked SNL’s latest installment following its 50th-anniversary special.
