On his third go-round as guest host of “Saturday Night Live,” Jake Gyllenhaal presided over the 49th season finale with everything going for him. His lead role in the Prime Video revival of “ Road House ” was well-received. He’s still getting bad-boy mileage out of “ All Too Well , ” Taylor Swift’s 10-minute take down of him.
And his new series “ Presumed Innocent ” for Apple TV+ will be out next month. But is he funny? The night’s grab bag of sketches, several of which required full-throated singing from the actor, made a strong case that maybe Gyllenhaal is one of those actors who is presumed (innocently?) to have a strong sense of humor due to one-offs like his classic “Mr. Music” bit in “John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch” until it’s actually time to perform comedy in a live setting like “SNL.
” The season finale was rough , folks, and not because of giggles or any technical problems. You couldn’t blame the writing completely because there were some novel premises along the way and some decent jokes. But in at least half of the sketches where the host was driving the sketch, line deliveries felt off or flat and the audience response seemed muted.
These included a disastrous one about an uphill bicyclist interrupting a couple (Mikey Day and Chloe Fineman) mid-breakup, a filmed “Scooby-Doo” parody that was more gory and gross than funny, a customer service sketch targeting Southwest Airlines and a domestic scene about a father threa.
