Lindsay Lohan’s SNL Jaunt Was Just Okay

Lindsay Lohan‘s star rose so quickly didn’t it? Then as swift as its heady rise, came its fast inevitable fall. The embattled actress has been attempting to resurrect her struggling career, tackling the hosting gig for NBC’s long-running sketch show Saturday Night Live the weekend just gone.

As far as ratings go, the show was a huge success. The episode delivered SNL’s highest-scoring regular performance of the season. But as for the success of Lohan’s performance as a host is concerned it can’t really be qualified through audience numbers.

The opening monologue went as predicted: lots of references to her well publicised personal foibles (substance abuse, arrests, wasted second chances). Example: At one point Kristen Wiig joined her on stage for a pat down veiled as a hug:

Top marks to Lindsay for being a good sport but it was mostly uncomfortable to watch her on stage. A product of her own discomfort, more than likely. Saturday Night Live hosts are only successful when they completely abandon their shame and fully commit to getting laughs. In recent years, Justin Timberlake, Jon Hamm and Drew Barrymore have turned out hilarious performances as host because they’ve abandoned all self-awareness and really embraced their characters and made the most of the writing. In short: you need to “go ugly” and play the fool to succeed.

Unfortunately for Lindsay she didn’t let her hair down (metaphorically speaking – her platinum tresses were carefully groomed all night FYI). She was clearly self-conscious about performing, either because of understandable nerves, the pressure to perform live, the sub-par material she had to work with, or because she simply isn’t a very good actress?

NBC make it almost impossible to view their videos anywhere other than North America, so unfortunately we can’t include more examples from the show, but you can watch the entire opening monologue at Gawker.

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