Just get to Shane Gillis already.
That was pretty much the sentiment over on Twitter (or X, whatever) for everybody who tuned into Saturday Night Live to watch Shane Gillis after the show started with (surprise) a cold open making fun of Donald Trump.
SNL is in a prime spot to have its best ratings in a long time with Gillis hosting. The comedian is returning to the show for the first time since being fired from SNL back in 2019, just four days after being announced as a cast member, due to resurfaced clips that were blasted as racially insensitive.
Getting fired from (or never joining) SNL was arguably the best thing that’s happened for Gillis’ career, because the comedian has blown up in the years since, and recently released his latest special Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs on Netflix.
And it seems like SNL is ready to forgive and forget…
Just kidding, you know they only want Gillis for the ratings. And the excitement for this episode was high as people (myself included) who haven’t watched SNL in years tuned in to see Gillis.
But before we got to what we tuned in for, we were forced to sit through a horrifically unfunny cold open mocking Republican senators who support Donald Trump.
And the kicker: The skit didn’t even feature Gillis, who does one of the best Donald Trump impressions in his standup that you’ll ever see.
What are we doing here, Lorne Michaels? Shane did bust out the Trump impression in a later skit, however.
But it’s not just me saying this. Scrolling through Twitter, it seems that pretty much everybody had the same reaction.
Bold choice by SNL to make the worst and most unfunny cold open in history for the most anticipated episode in years
— Campbell Smith (@CampbellsmithSC) February 25, 2024
Most eyeballs on SNL in years and they give us 5 minutes of the worst political slop I’ve ever seen to open up LMAO
— WBR (@W_B_Rick) February 25, 2024
where the fuck is shane gillis?! what is this garbage #SNL
— Ron (@MizterRonn) February 25, 2024
Regretting SNL already
— Montantè (@M0ntante) February 25, 2024
5 minutes into SNL and not a single joke.
However they did said the word “Trump” 43 times already.
— Mike (@len0sky7) February 25, 2024
the start to #SNL is absolutely fucking dogshit!!! who thinks this is even funny?
— Mark15739 (@marcuswannadie) February 25, 2024
The opening of #SNL reminds you why SNL is so hard to watch.. but here for Shane Gillis
— Adi (@adiraval) February 25, 2024
are they just doing this to get people to turn off #snl before shane gillis comes out
— Ron (@MizterRonn) February 25, 2024
SNL with its biggest appointment episode in forever and THAT'S the sketch they open with? Lmao what the fuck was that
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 25, 2024
Oh cool so #SNL starts off the Shane Gillis episode with quite litterally the worst cold open of all time…
— Adam (@ashapiro91) February 25, 2024
Watching SNL for the first time in probably 10-12 years because I want to see Shane Gillis’ monologue. This cold open is so bad it makes me want to turn it off before he even gets on there. Impressively bad.
— Drew Clark (@DrewClark5) February 25, 2024
Hey, it can only get better from here, right?
Here’s the cold open if you want to see why everybody thought it was so bad.
Republican senators celebrate Trump’s primary victory in South Carolina pic.twitter.com/RBHmmJQlQI
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 25, 2024
