You're Freaking Me Out, Man: Russell Crowe Overhosts Last Weekend's SNL

Over the years, we’ve seen a great many variations of the SNL host. We’ve seen the funny host saddled with terrible writing, we’ve seen the dramatic host who surprises everyone with his comic chops, we’ve seen the beloved sports figure host who grows even more beloved after giving his or her best, we’ve seen the music superstar host who both succeeds wildly and the music superstar host who fails miserably, and we’ve seen — more than any type — the incredibly able host given nothing great to do.

My favorite SNL archetype of host, however, is “the host who you’d never expect to really throw himself into the proceedings.” It’s always fun and strange to see someone who’s really, REALLY into it. We witnessed this last season when Empire’s Taraji P. Henson nearly broke our television screens with her effusive enthusiasm. We saw this last week when Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage seemed to have a blast with some pretty god-awful writing, but we really saw it this week when the notoriously grumpy Russell Crowe hosted the variety show for the first time.

Even though Crowe wasn’t given that many sketches to do, the aussie thesp jumped into the pool in a big, big way — so big, in fact, that it was very nearly off-putting. While it was kind of fun to see Crowe skewer his dramatic roles in a fairly bland monologue, it was during his sketches that we saw a glimpse of some sort of weird, Crowe-ian madman residing deep inside the Oscar winner. Let’s take a look at Crowe’s trajectory during the evening.

Phase I: “I’m Easing In.”

The sketch “Interactive Museum Exhibit” is the type of sketch seen fairly repeatedly on SNL through the years, in which a dramatic actor plays a character fairly in his or her wheelhouse, tweaked gently for comic effect. Crowe, in this instance, played a hologram of King Henry VIII with a realism that sees him haranguing female museum patrons into bearing him an heir. It’s not great — and certainly not “first half hour” good — but it’s a natural type of fit for an actor like Crowe, and he seems to be at least be willing to sell it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/927985

Phase II: “I’m Gonna Show ‘Em What I Can Do.”

Crowe’s second sketch, “Match Finders,” Cecily Strong plays a female game show contestant saddled with choosing from three bachelors, with Crowe playing an educated German professor skilled in the efficiency of graphic scientific lovemaking. It’s a far better premise than “Interactive Museum Exhibit,” and Crowe is charged to play a German caricature we’ve all seen a million times. What happens, then, when Crowe dials up the character further than probably needed? Things go kind of creepy — but there’s no denying that Crowe is invested in making it work.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/927994

Phase III: “I’m Going to Comedy the Hell Out of This Thing.”

If Crowe’s Henry the VIII was a little overcooked and his German professor was way past the mark, wait ’til you see him as Pete Davidson’s Uncle’s Friend Terry in the sketch “100 Days in the Jungle.” Oddly enough, this sketch is probably the most promisingly funny while being the most destructively out of control as Crowe cranks the knobs up and runs at the wall. On paper, the sketch has a great premise — a Survivor-type contestant is visited by not a loved one but instead a weird friend of the family — and it’s fairly sound. But Crowe’s “Uncle’s Friend Terry” is so bonkers and overplayed that it’s almost fascinating to watch. It’s a host ratcheted all the way up, which you don’t see often on SNL. It’s a host going for broke, which is even weirder when that host is Russell Crowe.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/927987

If we’ve seen all kinds of hosts, this past weekend showed us a new one for the field guides: a wildly eager host who outmatches even well-written material. I can’t think of another example of this in the past forty years, and I’ll hand it to Russell Crowe — I certainly didn’t think he was going to grenade this thing on Saturday. I guess that’s what happens when you get an actor known for his intensity to guest host; you gotta be prepared for some intense comedy, too.