42x18 Jimmy Fallon with Harry Styles

[4.7/10] I hate the word “try-hard” as a criticism. It makes it seem like effort is something to be derided rather than praise and is often used to disparage people doing good work that doesn’t fit into the usual boxes. But man, Jimmy Fallon, at least in his modern incarnation, just kills me with his try-hardism. Comedy is never effortless from him. He is always squirming, mugging, doing every bit of broadness imaginable to garner a laugh, and it makes me roll my eyes over and over again.

So yeah, this wasn’t exactly my favorite episode. In fact, it’s one of the lowlights of the season, and throwing out Fallon to the show’s first coast-to-coast live show bodes poorly for the experiment, though his anodyne comedy stylings may get by just fine. That said, the more a sketch had to rely on his innate Fallon “bending over backwards for a chuckle” qualities, the quicker it sunk.

To the point, so many of Fallon’s sketches had what I would consider gimmicks to prop them up. The Time-Travel Celebrity Family Feud provided a great opportunity for Cecily Strong to bust out a great Cabaret-era Liza Minnelli impersonation, Kate McKinnon to do a great take on Kristen Stewart’s mannerisms, and Kenan to deliver the writers’ typically pithy and funny encapsulations of celebrities. But it mostly served as an excuse for Fallon to play both 1977 John Travolta and 2017 John Travolta. I appreciate the showmanship of the quick changes to make it possible, but neither take on the actor was particularly funny or well-observed, and so it had to get by on the novelty of that wrinkle.

The same goes for his “plea to ex-girlfriend” sketch. For 90% of it, it was just Fallon, as he is wont to do, doing a cheesy rendition of an old pop song (in this case “Truly, Madly, Deeply”) and hoping that the silliness of that suffices it. It didn’t. The last 15 seconds where it’s revealed that not only was Fallon supposed to be one of the guys who dragged a man of a United flight, but that the ex-girlfriend is now dating the guy who directed that Pepsi commercial, give the sketch a funny punchline. (And it’s a nice bit of continuity that Beck Bennett’s playing the new boyfriend after he was in the Pepsi Commercial sketch last week.) But that had everything to do with the writing and nothing to do with Fallon.

That was the theme for Fallon’s performance all night. His monologue was a dancing Bowie tribute that favored spectacle over any bit of substance or humor. His Civil War Soldier pop song fell back on his need to try to inject tepid riffs on music past and present into everything he does. And the “Basketball” scene was bargain basement slapstick comedy, with nothing particularly new or amusing about it.

It’s no coincidence then that the episode’s two best sketches were the ones that had nothing to do with Fallon. The sketch of the night was the “Middle School Production of Legally Blonde” pre-taped bit, which perfectly mined the disparity from the big-dreaming self-importance of middle school theater kids (I’m definitely not speaking from experience or anything) and the middling-to-terrible reality of their performance. It’s a well-observed bit that plays on the performer’s strengths.

The other bit of greatness was Melissa McCarthy returning to do Sean Spicer after his unfortunate Hitler-y slipup. Contrary to Fallon, McCarthy knows how to bring an energy to sketches and characters while bringing more character and personality to them rather than just wiggle-worm goofiness. Her Spicer is a creation all her own at this point, and her riffs on the story of Passover and the top threats to the Jews were a great combination of writing and performance as well.

But even a bit of conceptual weirdness I normally like such as “Turtle Shirt” didn’t do much for me. It’s a strange concept, but it’s another one-joke sketch that just repeats itself three times without finding any interesting places to take the bit, hoping that the oddness of it will be enough. And the political cold open, which featured warmed over bits on Trump that the Internet had long since chewed through, a weak Apprentice riff, and again, Fallon trying to get by on mugging alone, was a dud.

Even Weekend Update wasn’t immune, with Jost & Che’s material seeming weaker and lazier without any real insightful barbs for the political news or particularly good one-liners. The correspondents were repeats, and it showed a similar lack of imagination. I like Vanessa Bayer’s “Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy” but they’ve trotted it out so many times that it has little impact. The only saving grace were her interactions with Che, who brought a certain encouraging charm in his attempts to get Jacob to loosen up. Bruce Chandling is one of the few Kyle Mooney characters I like, with his weird combination of lame, well-worn jokes and earnest pathos, but again, there’s nothing really different here from any other of the character’s outings, so it comes off as fine but not particularly noteworthy.

Harry Styles seemed to be auditioning for a hosting gig of his own, but seemed to be infected with Fallon’s vibe. The most he got to do was a Mick Jagger impression in the Family Feud sketch where, like Fallon, his impression was neither particularly accurate nor amusing in its exaggeration, but he tried to skate by on moving around a lot and making exaggerated expressions. He had bit parts in the monologue dance and Civil War sketch that played to his alleged musical strengths (I’ll admit, I muted his musical performances – nothing personal, just not my style) but showed little that suggests he’s ready to host himself.

Still, oddly enough, Fallon’s best sketch of the night was the one he revived from his days as a castmember. I was never a huge devotee of his Bostonian Sully character, but his return succeeded by finding new places to take the character. Whether it was Sully and Zazzoo (a pleasant cameo from Rachel Dratch) learning not to say the R-word, embarrassing their kid, of having to have their Southy patois translated for her, it was a fond revival that didn’t just repeat the old sketch’s familiar beats.

Overall, it was a dull installment of SNL, one that was dragged down by a host who, given his history on the show, should boost it to higher highs instead of act as an anchor with his typical brand of over-exerted comedy. At least it’s proof I’m not missing anything by skipping out on his version of The Tonight Show. Bring back Conan as host – that goes for both SNL and The Tonight Show.