While the Golden Gilda has been awarded to the best sketch of SNL season 49 - kudos to Beavis & Butt-Head - the competition for the worst sketch of the year has been proceeding apace.

Here are the brackets with the worst sketches advancing toward the Silver Segal, as the Howling Monkey Radio Network continues post-season coverage.

Final Four

There was a ruling controversy going into the Final Four. At the start of the tourney, Shane Gillis’ monologue was combined as a tie with the cold open of the show he hosted. The judges determined that this was a rules violation, and the cold open was struck from the tournament, leaving Gillis monologue - the only monologue in the tournament - in the competition. Criticism for the league has been loud, fierce, and, let’s face it, fair. But the show, and the tournament, must go on.

Here’s a recap of the Final Four sketches:

Yellow Division: USS Asperon

I don’t even know what to say about this overproduced and underwritten sketch. Bowen Yang is former crew member of a starship who visits his old workplace as the vessel is under attack.

The joke is that Yang just natters away with the crew while the ship is close to being destroyed. It feels almost like a premise was sketched out but that the script simply said “Bowen improvs for a while.”

This was a painful to watch sketch that should have been jettisoned into space long before Yang’s character was.

Green Division: What’s In The Kiln?

I feel as though I have been visited by the ghosts of Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer from Delicious Dish in this amateur potter show from Women’s Creek, Vermont.

Chloe Fineman and Heidi Gardner host a pottery show, and they are not good at pottery. Fineman shows off her hilariously terrible mug, which Gardner hoists complimenting it for how heavy it is. Pottery is praised for never looking dirty, because it never looks clean to begin with.
Stone joins as a more accomplished potter who is also terrible.

Not a lot to this sketch that came across as a little half-baked. (See what I did there, I’m Kil-n me!)

Red Division: Gillis Monologue

Shane Gillis was famously hired to join the SNL cast in 2019, and was fired days after the announcement when video of him making racist (particularly towards Asians) slurs and a history of homophobic comedy by him came to light.

So, now, the guy is hosting SNL. Why? No one knows.

His monologue veers away - largely - from homophobia, but doubles down on Down’s Syndrome material. Now, clearly Gillis wasn’t doing this from a mean-spirited place. But it felt offensive. And it’s nothing new.

Gillis flounders and stumbles through the entire monologue, repeatedly suggesting to the audience that he really thought this bit or another would get a laugh that was not forthcoming.

Gillis felt like an open mic’er who won a lottery to get to be on SNL. I swear I could smell the flop sweat from here.

The low bar set by the cold open was welded in place by this monologue.

Blue Division: Bike Trail

Mikey Day and Chloe Fineman try to have a serious conversation on a trail as a loud and slow moving bike rider (Gyllenhaal) interrupts them.

Is he channelling Jim Carrey here?

This was more of an annoyance than an amusement.

Let’s take one last look at your Final Four.

The USS Asperon is under attack by the would be delicious dish of What’s In My Kiln. While What’s In My Kiln? is derivative and not particularly clever, it manages to be better than the mess that is the USS Asperon, a sketch that is so overdone, long and not funny that it takes this win at hyperspeed.

In the Red/Blue matchup, Shane Gillis’ monologue is one of - if not the most - painful monologue to watch in the history of the show. Bike Trail is also tough to make it through, but Gillis put up such a strong fight here that he takes the so-called win.

That leaves Asperon v. Gillis in the finals.

I am tempted to rule out a monologue. After all, it is a different animal than a sketch, and just making it to the finals is statement enough. But in this case, this Shane Gillis’ monologue was so very uncomfortable and so very unfunny that for Season 49, it clinches the Silver Segal for the worst sketch of the year.

So, congratulations to all the other sketches for not taking home the Silver Segal. This year’s winner truly deserves the accolade!

For all of us here at the Howling Monkey Radio Network, we will see you as the action resumes for SNL’s 50th season. We look forward to an exciting season, and look forward to seeing you then!

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SNL After Party (S49 Sketch Face Off - The Silver Segal)