Saturday Night Live: Molly Shannon’s Sally O’Malley Returns to School the Jonas Brothers — WATCH
It’s been almost 25 years since she first appeared on the scene, but somehow Sally O’Malley is still 50 years-old. Molly Shannon‘s return to Saturday Night Live this weekend as host – her third turn as headliner since leaving the show in 2001 – brought with it one of her most enduring characters.
Sally’s had her run-ins with the Rockettes and the Sopranos, but this time, she’s been brought in to bring “a more mature stage” energy to the Jonas Brothers. Choreographers played by Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang are elbowed aside as O’Malley takes center stage.
Shannon was 35 when she debuted the character; now, at 58, she actually is lying when O’Malley says that she doesn’t lie about her age (the “five-oh” really isn’t complete without the accompanying hand gestures). But there’s now a gravitas behind her camel toe, which is probably why the line, “I’ve got half a century of sizzle in my lady shnizzle,” brings the house down.
Shannon’s masterful physical comedy quickly follows, as Sally hikes up her tights. Then keeps hiking. Higher and higher the tights go until Shannon just plops her leg up on the stage monitor like she’s about to do a guitar solo for Mötley Crüe.
The Jonas Brothers – “Neil, Calvin, and John” as O’Malley calls them – get to join in the fun as well. They rip off their clothes revealing the same Little Orphan Annie jumpsuit Sally’s wearing; they’re not really ready until she goes around and hikes them all up, naturally. Sadly, Nick can’t keep up and the sketch ends with Sally replacing him as the third Jonas brother.
The return of O’Malley isn’t surprising as she’s appeared six times on the show over the years. But it’s interesting that they decided on this character rather than Shannon’s most popular eccentric, Mary Katherine Gallagher. Of course, they also brought back Jeannie Darcy (watch here), a character who appeared once in 2001 and Shannon said was only intended to make co-stars Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon laugh, so clearly SNL was looking for deep cuts this time around.
Watch the sketch above, and then grade this weekend’s episode below.
Minor quibble but wasn’t this only her second time hosting the show? She hosted in 2007 but when else?
It’s a typo…after last night, she’s hosted twice.
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First, I am an SNL fan. I even stay up late to watch it instead of recording it.
And I am not a naysayer who thinks the show was better years ago.
But this latest ep with Molly Shannon? It stunk.
There was no energy or spark. The Netflix comic bit was 10 or 20 years too late. The baby shower sketch seemed to be fun for the cast but the idea should’ve never let the writers’ room. It was inspired to use the Jonas Brothers in the Sally O’Malley skit but it landed with a thud.
Even Weekend Update seemed off somehow.
I think my favourite part was the Trump/Last Supper opening. (Now last week with Quinta Brunson? A++)
You’re just not used to seeing people with talent. It makes a huge night and day difference? Which skits of Quinta Brunson did TV Line highlight last week? Oh yeah there weren’t any.
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SNL with Molly Shannon hosting was one of the worst episodes I can remember in years. So much so that I had to turn it off even before the Jonas Brothers did their first musical number. It was just not funny at all and went from bad taste to worse. And what was that opening non monologue. Horrendous!
Worst episode of SNL in years.
.
And that’s saying something.
.
The cold open was passable, but Molly Shannon wasn’t even funny by accident.
Molly Shannon has still got it!!
One of the worst hosts/SNL’s in years.
Molly Shannon was like if they brought Cheri Oteri back to host.
Memories not actually funny but laughs come from thinking about back then. Neither was, or is, a breakout SNL’er.
Of course, what really made the O’Malley sketch was the entire cast, even the extras, breaking up as she hiked her pants higher and higher. Pretty safe bet she didn’t do that during dress rehearsal!
How on Earth did the F rating only get 5.77%? Molly is brilliant, but this was not good. I had hight hopes, but it was abysmal.