Fired in 2019, Hosting by 2024: Shane Gillis's SNL, Ranked

The man SNL let go before his first episode has now spent more time in Studio 8H than some actual cast members, so let's grade the homework.

Entries
13
Category
TV
Updated
  1. A bare game-show floor of glowing squares with one lone podium and a countdown clock.

    13. The Floor

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024), game show parody · 2024

    On a parody of the Fox game show, Gillis's contestant draws a category of famous Black historical figures and blanks on every face. The joke is squarely on his panic, but it's a well-worn shape and the room felt it.

  2. A smartphone face-up on a dinner table with a giant cartoon ear rising out of its screen.

    12. They're Listening

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024) · 2024

    Everyone at the table gets uncannily on-target phone ads after talking near their phones. Gillis, the skeptic, gets ads so specific they amount to a confession. A strong idea, though critics thought the live execution got messy.

  3. A small brightly painted island church with sandals lined up at the door and a tambourine on a pew.

    11. Church on Vacation

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024) · 2024

    A devout dad from Ohio drags his family to a church service in Jamaica and gets very swept up, accent included. The joke is all on how much he's enjoying himself, and reviewers mostly agreed it was a good premise that never took off.

  4. A vineyard at golden hour with a phone on a stretched-out arm and a pile of discarded wine glasses.

    10. Winery Tour

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025) · 2025

    A boyfriend on a vineyard trip with his girlfriend's family becomes her unpaid, endlessly corrected photographer. Heidi Gardner does the heavy lifting as a deeply unbearable person, and Gillis is a perfect sad tripod.

  5. A pharmacy prescription bottle sitting between two open beer cans on a kitchen table.

    09. CouplaBeers

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025), commercial parody · 2025

    An ad for a new anxiety medication called CouplaBeers, which is exactly what it sounds like. Gillis gets friendlier with every dose and also harder to be around. The side-effects list is a real-life biography for a lot of people.

  6. Three debate podiums on a stage, a red beret resting on the one at the end.

    08. NYC Mayoral Debate Cold Open

    SNL S51E4 (Nov 1, 2025), cameo as Curtis Sliwa · 2025

    Not a hosting gig, just a surprise walk-on: Gillis as Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, next to Miles Teller's Cuomo and Ramy Youssef's Mamdani, playing the third guy who seems to want the job mostly because he needs a job.

  7. A conference table with a policy binder, a stack of vacation-request forms and a nervous paper cup of water.

    07. HR Meeting

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024) · 2024

    HR (Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman) says you get to ask a coworker out once. Gillis's employee decides that one ask is a benefit he can bank, roll over and accrue interest on, like PTO. It's a lawyer's brain in a guy who has never met a lawyer.

  8. A sparse apartment with a mattress on the floor, two kids' backpacks by the door and a single sad houseplant.

    06. Dad's House

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025) · 2025

    A gentle PBS-style kids' show, except it's set at the sad, half-furnished place where a newly divorced dad gets his kids every other weekend. Gillis plays it with total Mister Rogers calm, which is what makes it sting.

  9. A smartphone on a bar counter showing glowing betting odds, next to an empty wallet and a pile of losing tickets.

    05. Rock Bottom Kings

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024), commercial parody · 2024

    A sports-betting ad that goes one step further: take prop bets on exactly how your degenerate gambler friend hits rock bottom. Gillis, Kenan and Marcello sell it with straight faces. Sports-betting people online said they would download it, which is either praise or a warning.

  10. Four big red swivel judges' chairs turned away from a stage where a mobility scooter and a pair of flip-flops sit under a spotlight.

    04. The Sound

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025), Please Don't Destroy · 2025

    A Voice parody where the judges spin around for a gorgeous voice and spin right back on seeing its owner, Reggie T., in a wig, flip-flops and a mobility scooter. Tate McRae joined in, the first musical guest in a Please Don't Destroy short since Travis Scott in March 2024.

  11. A high-school reunion gym with a banner, a punch bowl and a white box of chocolates left on a folding table.

    03. Gump

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024) · 2024

    Gillis plays Forrest Gump's old high-school bully at a reunion, learning one wildly famous Gump life event at a time and taking each like a punch. It was the sketch that leaned hardest on him, and his slow, dumbfounded recalculating is the whole joke.

  12. A local news desk with four empty chairs, coffee mugs and a blank lower-third screen glowing behind it.

    02. Mid-Day News 2

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025) · 2025

    A sequel to a Season 45 sketch: four local-news hosts start guessing the race of the suspects in their own crime segments and cannot stop. Gillis, Kenan, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim escalate it like a game show. At least one critic called it the best thing in the episode.

  13. A pair of gleaming gold high-top sneakers on an outdoor basketball court, a ball bouncing off the rim behind them.

    01. White Men Can Trump

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024), pre-taped trailer · 2024

    A fake Newsmax Studios trailer in which a nobody named Gordon Preyer gets Trump's gold sneakers, misses every shot, and simply declares himself great at basketball. Gillis's Trump is the episode's sharpest weapon, and the premise does the satire in one pair of shoes.

Honorable mentions

  • An emu silhouette in the passenger seat of a lowrider car at night, city lights behind.

    LiMu Emu & Doug (Training Day parody)

    SNL S49E12 (Feb 24, 2024), cut for time · 2024

    The insurance-ad mascots reimagined as corrupt cops in a Training Day riff. It was cut from the broadcast and posted online, and at least one critic said it should have aired instead of a live sketch. The internet is where great ideas go to get seen anyway.

Dishonorable mentions

  • Church aisle with flower petals and a crumpled handmade coupon lying in the middle of it.

    Wedding Interruption

    SNL S50E13 (Mar 1, 2025) · 2025

    An ex shows up mid-ceremony to cash in a very old, very personal coupon. It has one joke and no third act, and reviews called the episode's run of sex-act premises crude more than funny.

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