SNL After Party 3/14/26 - S51 E15 “A Lie For Shame, Trousers Aflame!”
Host: Harry Styles
Musical Guest: Harry Styles
Every now and then, Saturday Night Live has a host who gets huge applause and reactions simply by showing up. And so it came to pass that this week's host and musical guest was Harry Styles. Indeed, this was one of those occasions.
But, did Styles do more than simply show up? Was this episode worthy of the instant adulation from the audience? Let's find out on this week's after party!
Cold Open
This week's episode opens with a sketch involving a group of friends stopping at a gas station, bemoaning the high cost of gasoline. Quickly, however, they freeze in place as none other than Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) appears to do one of his rants.
He points out to the frozen cast members that he ran on a platform of lower gas prices and no wars. And then says “Psych!” Trump then adds, "A promise is just a lie that hasn't happened yet." He takes a moment to look to the cast, and he notes that Marcello Hernandez is still playing kids on the show. He says, "He's SNL's little chihuahua." It sounds racist, because it is.
Colin Jost's Pete Hegseth then bursts out of the car, covered in cans, which he calls "road sodas." He then points out his comically oversized Florsheim shoes. He attacks the media for making a fool out of him, simply on the things he says and does.
While the Trump cold opens can be tiresome, this one was not particularly egregious. It does front load the show with the inevitable Trump material so that the rest of the sketches don't have to dwell on current events. Besides, we got a little bit of a break last week, so I'm not going to complain about this one. It just goes to show that as long as these aren't done all the time, they can still be funny.
Monologue
The crowd does go absolutely wild as host Harry Styles appears for his second time, taking the helm in Studio 8H. He says he's simply a guy who likes writing songs about fruit that other people think are about sex (presumably referring to his hit "Watermelon Sugar"). "I just really like fruit guys," the British musician stated.
He leans into what he claims is actually his boring persona, noting that he's recently taken up jogging and that he enjoys the jogger's high. He then adds, "If that doesn't do it for you, I also like ecstasy."
He then proceeds to say that he doesn't want to go around kissing people all the time, giving reasons why he would not do so, which immediately caused Chloe Feynman and Sarah Sherman to leave the stage. However, when Ben Marshall appears on stage, he appears to meet Stiles' criteria, and he gives him a kiss, much to the delight of the audience. (And as homage to Day kissing Ryan Gosling last week, maybe?)
This was a decent monologue. It at least included actual material, as opposed to the mild anecdotes or song numbers that some hosts have relied on. This was a fully formed bit that did seem to be a crowd pleaser.
Sebastian Maniscalco: New Lawyer
Kenan Thompson is the judge, and Harry Styles is a prosecutor in a criminal case. They are awaiting the appearance of the public defender. Turns out the public defender is - inexplicably - stand-up comic Sebastian Maniscalco, portrayed by Hernandez. This is a recurring character by Hernandez, and for the life of me, I don't know why it's returned. The bit is an over-exaggerated caricature (you can't really call it an imitation) of the comedian, and it simply did not warrant a return to the show. Certainly not up to top. Marcello's energy is very strike that. Hernandez's energy is good, and he certainly puts the effort into it, but it's just not that funny a bit. There was a bit of fun as Jane Wickline, playing the court stenographer, who had to read back some of Maniscalco's nonsense.
The hinge on the bit was when Stiles' prosecutor saw how successful Maniscalco was with the jury, he adopted the same mannerisms and style. I did not enjoy this, but I have to admit the studio audience at least seemed to. Hernandez - who I generally like - is quickly becoming the king of recurring characters that I wish would stop recurring.
MAHAspital
This pre-taped bit was a parody of HBO's show The Pit. However, in this alternate show, so-called liberal wokeness has been replaced by RFK Jr.'s views on medicine. An example is one of the doctors earnestly states: "My parents died of the COVID vaccines. I found out they got it and I shot them."
J.A.J. shows up as RFK Jr., bringing a bear into the ER. He is not hoping that it will be treated; he just wants it converted into jerky. It's a pointed and somewhat obvious sketch once the premise is laid out, but it was something different and it was well executed. It also had some genuine laughs.
Sparkle of the Sea
Welcome back, Chloe Feinman!
In this sketch, Feinman and Stiles portray Lieke and Goose, European promoters of a European cruise. The two have a great deal of fun doing Ridiculous cruise-style dancing while introducing potential acts or acts that will appear on the cruise. These include Croatian rockers Da Rowdy Boyz,
Jurgen Sexy Mueller (JAJ), and Felix Flourish, the magician (Mikey Day), who, through the course of his show, only performs one magic trick but with endless flourishes. But The most exciting guest on the cruise is none other than French comic Jean K. Jean (Thompson). This character - Europe’s Def Jam Comedy winner - used to appear fairly regularly on Weekend Update, With his last appearance being an incroyable 13 years ago. It was great to see him again, and it made me shout out, "Zut “Alors!”
The sketch ended with Guus and Lieke pointing out that “a cruise is just like being in a hotel, but you can drown.”
This sketch absolutely had the feel of one of those bits with Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig as spokesmodels, but still, it was fun and was a good format for several quick hits.
Best Buy: Mr. Pooty
Day is a manager explaining a new point system to Best Buy employees. One employee, Mr. Pooty (Thompson), is concerned that the meeting is actually to address rumors that he has been approaching men in the store, and that he might get arrested.
Mr. Pooty points out that fellow employee Stiles "has a very strong bisexual magnetism" and that his presence makes him think "he was sent by Lucifer himself to awaken a demon in me."
Frankly, that's really the whole sketch. Thompson has a funny name, he does a funny voice and they play around with sexuality. It's kind of a meh, but Thompson doing a funny voice is often enough to carry an entire sketch.
Weekend Update
The expected stories populate this edition of Weekend Update, starting with the war in Iran. The story points out that the United States has managed to get rid of an 86-year-old Ayatollah and replace him with a 56-year-old one who wants revenge. He then says, "Hey, remember how much better we were doing when we had a young Muslim leader?" as a photo of former President Obama is displayed.
There's a story about a new school being renamed Trump Elementary, which Che says has a sports slogan of "Home of the Fighting Allegations." There is also a discussion of the special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Green. Che states that she was replaced by a Confederate He-Man doll.
Shay also discusses that the winner of the annual wife-carrying contest was Finland this year, while the winner of the husband-carrying contest was Scarlett (showing a photo of Jost's real-life wife, Scarlett Johansson).
The first desk guest this week is Jeremy Culhane, doing an impressive impersonation of Tucker Carlson. Whatever he repeatedly says, "That's the rule. That's the goal now." Such as While discussing the movie "Hamnet," he claims that the L was taken from Hamlet and given to LGBTQ, because “That's the rule. That's the goal now.”
The second dataset included Hernandez and Day as the most and least used emojis. Hernandez is a heart, while Day is the aerial tramway. Hernandez points out his friends include thumbs up, crying-laughing, and 100 with three lines under it. Meanwhile, he points at his girlfriend, the dancing lady with her arms out.
On the other hand, aerial tramway States his girlfriend is the word "on" with an arrow pointing both directions over the word. His friends include An orange square, a division sign, snorkeling gear, and his quote "goat”, building with a horn on it
This should not have been funny. However, it was absolutely hilarious. Hernandez and Day had a great time with this and put perfect energy into it. We don't need to see these characters again, but I'm glad we got to this time.
White Castle Drive-Thru
Well, this one was interesting.
Harry Styles plays a White Castle employee while Veronika Slowikowska and Jane Wickline continually circled through the drive-through trying to get up the nerve to ask him out. They are extremely awkward (and are the only members of the school's Quidditch team) or, as they put it, "the deal would be great, would be perfect, as Styles is a 10 and they are both fives." However, once they manage to get the nerve to ask him out, he notes it would be a great deal because he is a 10 and they are both sixes, much to their delight.
This was a weird sketch that wasn't particularly funny, so much as it was odd. Still, it got to play on Styles' popularity and let Slowikowska and Wickline lean into the oddness with which they are both great at.
She’s a Dancer
In this music video, various characters are placed in romantic situations or seductive situations only to Have them take an international flair. For example, in the first part, Feinman approaches Styles in a nightclub, saying she's a dancer. When Stiles expects a seductive dance, she and several other cast members break into Irish dancing. In another segment, Sloakowski brings Hernandez home and offers him a delicious home-cooked meal. However, it turns out she is making various Irish dishes, And Hernandez points out that he "likes that you don't have to chew." Wickline, in speaking to J.A.J. in a club, says that she's not good with her words, but she is good with her hands. When J.A.J. says he'd like to see that, she proceeds to play the harp. Finally, the men in the sketch join with Stiles as he proceeds to take on the role of the Lord of the Dance.
This is a fun St. Patrick's Day weekend sketch, and kudos, particularly to Feinman, for her insanely manic energy in her dance.
Harry For Him
The final sketch of the night has Styles plugging his “Harry for Him" line of clothing at Target. The gender-bending clothes that work for Harry do not work for the average gent as shown in this sketch.
For example, J.A.J. wears an outfit that Styles wore at the Met Gala because his wife is a fan of the singer. He informs us that his wife told him, the look is good for Styles, but “When you wear it, you look like a serial killer who's wearing the clothes of a woman he killed.”
The sketch really is an excuse to do old-school cross-dressing humor (a la Milton Berle and Benny Hill), but Styles' good-natured and self-aware approach to his bold fashion choices makes it amusing.
The Goodbye Wave:
Best sketch: I don't normally like to use something from Weekend Update in this slot, but the emojis bit far and away made me laugh more than anything else in the show this week. I think I'm going to have to start finding ways to use the air tram emoji. Guy needs a break.
Worst sketch: This one. There were a couple that could have fallen into this category, including the Best Buy and White Castle sketches; however, the clear winner of this spot is the Sebastian Manacalsco courtroom scene. I don't know why they insist on doing this again. Someone needs to show this sketch the light. (That one was for the stand-ups.)
Random Notes:
Ryan Gosling returned the favor for Styles appearing last week when he hosted, by introducing the singer's first song. There was a second high-powered cameo when Paul Simon introduced Styles' second performance.
Looks like they decided to give Ashley Padilla a break this week. She was barely on the show. Perhaps there's some concern that she may be taking over.
Okay, who played the magician's assistant in the sparkle of the sea sketch? Was it just some random person, or am I that bad at facial recognition?
This show was primarily powered by Harry Styles' appeal and charisma. He is a solid host and integrates well into the sketches. He feels very natural in this milieu (how often do you get to use the word milieu? Not often enough. Well, perhaps you should never use it. Do what you want).
The sketch quality this week was fairly average. Even the clunkers weren't absolutely terrible (well, for the most part). On the other hand, there weren't that many apex moments. Still in all, the audience absolutely loved Styles, and he does seem to have a good sense of humor and understanding of comedic timing. Not bad for a guy who sings songs about fruit.
Grade: B-
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