Olivia Rodrigo has returned to live television not only to perform but also to host Saturday Night Live for the first time, as a host and musical guest. Her SNL appearance also served as a major promotion for her upcoming third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, which is set to be released on June 12. Rodrigo joins a long tradition of musicians who have also taken on double duties, such as Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Sabrina Carpenter, to name a few.
For most of the show, Rodrigo, whose prior experience in TV included Disney Channel shows such as Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Series, tried to shake off the rust in her acting chops. At times, the humor came out naturally, with her comedic timing landing, thanks to her background in comedy, while at other moments, not so much, especially when adapting to different sketches and characters in a live setting. Here are the highs and lows of Olivia Rodrigo’s Saturday Night Live episode.
High: New Song Featuring Weyes Blood
In one of her most intimate cuts to date, Rodrigo sat on a pink-hued swing — the same one seen on the cover art of her latest album — as she revealed the unreleased single “begged” in a live performance, delivering a strong vocal showing with a cameo from chamber pop musician Weyes Blood, who provides backup vocals. The performance created a gospel-like backbone, armed with an acoustic guitar and a dreamy string section. If there’s any indication that this album will sting emotionally like her previous releases, it’s this performance.
Low: Rough Monologue
Rodrigo mentioned throughout her opening monologue that she’ll be releasing a new album, and that’s pretty much it. Aside from poking fun at her album title being longer than her first two releases, Sour and Guts, showing a clip of herself falling through a gap on stage, and joking about her breakout single “drivers license” by altering the lyrics, the segment felt pretty uneven. Not that it’s a bad monologue, but there were some hiccups in her execution. Her confidence in delivering self-deprecating jokes about her career and personality is something she could improve on.
High: Driver’s Going Crazy
Speaking of “drivers license,” the Rasta taxi driver Rodrigo rides with, played by Andrew Dismukes, steals the sketch entirely. With perfect Jamaican house music emcee energy, Dismukes delivers a standout performance that ticks all the boxes for what makes an SNL sketch unpredictable. It continues the tradition of repertory players like Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, and many more, turning small skits into breakout moments. Rodrigo and the live audience couldn’t quite believe what they were watching.
Low: Bug Planet Shenanigans
In one of the digital sketches from the night, Rodrigo wakes up in a perfect life — the perfect bed, the perfect lava lamp, and a wall covered with posters of artists like BTS. Everything seems ideal until she reveals through song that her entire life exists inside a zoo on a bug planet somewhere in a galaxy far, far away. The sketch starts strong but quickly turns dark and overstretched, running nearly four minutes (it took forever to finish). It could have worked better if it were shorter. Not even a boxer shorts-wearing James Austin Johnson could save the sketch.
High: Jealousy at the Dinner
At one of the most fitting sketches for Rodrigo as a guest, cast members Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, and the standout Ashley Padilla spiral into an intense jealousy contest, pretending to be in relationships just to one-up each other. It escalates to absurd extremes, with Padilla and Marshall’s table stripping down, smothering each other with potato salad, and yelling “My sister is gay!” at full volume. Rodrigo holds her own as the jealous partner, but Padilla easily steals the sketch from start to finish.
Low: Busted Over Rap
In one of the night’s mid sketches, Rodrigo appears in a blonde wig after a night out, only to be confronted by her jealous husband, played by Marcelo Hernandez with a robe and an accent. The heated argument turns into a lukewarm, rhythmless rap battle, where Rodrigo visibly misses cues and struggles to land her lines. Other cast members, including Johnson, Jane Wickline, and Kenan Thompson — who is notably the only one on beat — interrupt the scene by appearing from the closet, underneath the couch, and the kitchen, where all of them break the fourth wall. Rodrigo barely stands out in this chaotic segment, unfortunately.
