Saturday Night Live Recap: Harry Styles Loosens Up

Wow, what a month for Harry Styles! Between promoting his new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, and making appearances at the BRITs, a Netflix special, and even Brittany Broski’s podcast, you’d think he’d be exhausted. But somehow, he still managed to pull off hosting Saturday Night Live last night, and it was a big deal. The buzz started building last week with that fun cameo during Ryan Gosling’s monologue – Styles clearly knows how to steal a scene! Having hosted before in 2019, he’s comfortable at Studio 8H, and the audience was absolutely ready to eat up everything he did. They were laughing and applauding at every turn – it was a very receptive crowd, to say the least.

It was a bit unexpected, but Harry Styles seemed slightly preoccupied during Saturday’s show. He fully committed to his characters – his impression of Sebastian Maniscalco was a surprising highlight – but he appeared a little self-aware or tired, even when doing genuinely funny things like kissing Ben Marshall during his opening monologue. The episode wasn’t bad at all, and Styles definitely relaxed as the night went on. By the end, especially during the 10-to-1 sketch, he finally seemed like he was truly enjoying himself.

The show started with a sketch featuring James Austin Johnson as Trump and Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth, tackling topics like high gas prices and the war in Iran. While there were some genuinely funny moments (“A promise is just a lie that hasn’t happened yet”), a bit where Johnson, as Trump, specifically called out two cast members, causing them to laugh and break character, felt a little too forced. When cast members break character, it’s most effective when it’s unexpected and unavoidable, not when it seems like the joke relies on it. Especially after last week’s episode with a lot of similar moments, and so early in the show, it felt a bit cheap. It also seems like Colin Jost might be playing Pete Hegseth for too long, but that’s a separate issue.

After the cold open, however, the episode shaped up to be a solid one. Here are the highlights:

Sebastian Maniscalco: New Lawyer

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=UIE_yxflthY&t=1s

Hernández is back with his odd but hilarious impression of comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. It’s a little strange since Maniscalco isn’t quite a mainstream celebrity, but it’s hard to focus on that when Hernández commits so fully to the bit – he even drools at one point, prompting a noticeable reaction from the audience! Styles also does a great Maniscalco impression near the end. I’d love to know what the real Maniscalco thinks of these takes.

Best Buy: Mr. Pooty

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=xp8Hv5_yYgg

Kenan Thompson’s debut as Mr. Pooty, a Best Buy employee with a strange habit of repeatedly mentioning “manipulating the nipples,” is surprisingly hilarious, and I hope it’s not a one-time appearance. The character itself seems simple – it’s mostly just the repeated phrase delivered with a lisp – but Thompson’s comedic skill makes it work brilliantly. The sketch also cleverly utilizes Bowen Yang, whose character Mr. Pooty accurately describes as having a captivating, androgynous appeal.

Weekend Update: Tucker Carlson on Liberal Politics and the 2026 Oscars

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=cssPptEqVWE

Jeremy Culhane absolutely nailed his impression of Tucker Carlson during the Update segment. He perfectly captured Carlson’s mannerisms, especially his tendency to ask loaded, rhetorical questions like “What are we doing? What’s going on?” His comedic take on the play Hamnet – jokingly referencing restrictions on saying “Hamlet” and a connection to the LGBTQ+ community – was particularly memorable. Culhane has been a fantastic addition to the show this season, consistently delivering strong performances.

She’s an Irish Dancer

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=gxgMajEzp-M

This hilarious pre-taped sketch shows a group of women – Chloe Fineman, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline, and Veronika Slowikowska – playfully surprising their dates with their enthusiastic love for Irish culture. It’s funny how it starts with simple riverdancing and then gets increasingly elaborate, culminating in Slowikowska making Irish cabbage stew and Wickline playing the harp. Wickline’s deadpan delivery of the line, “Turned on yet, fella?” is a particularly funny moment.

Harry for Him

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=q_ARFIw-V6o

The final sketch, “Harry for Him,” was a hilarious idea: regular guys attempting to recreate some of Harry Styles’ most famous outfits. The costume designers deserve major credit – they nailed the details and made the looks incredibly accurate. My favorite moment was when Johnson dressed up in Styles’ 2019 Met Gala outfit. He joked that while Styles looked elegantly masculine in the outfit, his wife said he looked like a murderer wearing his victim’s clothes!

Cut for Time

Wickline is really shining. Her dry, humorous delivery was particularly strong in both the Maniscalco sketch and the pre-recorded segment with the Irish dancer.

I realized the recent hospital sketch on Saturday Night Live felt familiar because The Daily Show did a very similar one about three months earlier. It seems like they had the same idea, but it was a bit careless of SNL to air it.

Hernández stumbling during the show’s opening sketch hinted at how the rest of the night would go. He seemed flustered during his ‘Weekend Update’ segment with Mikey Day, and the heart and tramway emojis they used as a running gag felt a little incomplete.

The “White Castle” sketch was a standout moment and almost made my list of favorite parts. Slowikowska and Wickline have great chemistry and are really funny together!

• “Trump Elementary: Home of the Fightin’ Allegations.”

2026-03-15 21:55