Nikki Glaser pulled no punches for her stint hosting the latest episode of Saturday Night Live's 51st season. The comedian stepped into the role for the first time in her career, which reached all new highs this year after her stint as the host of the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, from costume changes to very topical jokes. And she didn't stop there, bringing her same roast-style stand up to her SNL opening monologue, throwing out jabs left and right about healthcare, rape, race, sex trafficking, Jeffrey Epstein, and a lot more hot button issues.
After a season high 7.1 rating on IMDb for the previous episode, hosted by Miles Teller with Brandi Carlile as the musical guest, the 41-year-old comedian's turn currently sits at a 5.8, the second lowest of the season so far, only above Bad Bunny and Doja Cat's (which was likely tainted by review bombing).
While some of the skits earned a few eyerolls (like another cold open featuring a moment from Donald Trump's oval office, or Pete Davidson's surprise SNL return), it was her opening monologue that divided fans the most. The comments section on the YouTube clip of the nine-minute monologue reflected fans' opinions, many of them praising Nikki for not holding back, while others saying it went "too far."
"Laughing at human trafficking. Some of you defending this, encouraging it. OK, this is now ON YOU. We'll see how funny it is for you," one commenter wrote, with another also adding: "Those ten people laughing, that's staff being forced to participate. This monologue sucked," and a third saying: "I think she bombed. Barely funny."
Although, many more enjoyed the monologue as a whole, also chalking up the seemingly low energy to the crowd's discomfort with her brazen comedy. "Love that she goes there – so edgy! I think some of her jokes were a little too deep for this audience…," a fan reasoned, with another similarly saying: "What a lame audience, but they'll make more noise for a cringe 3 min non comedian monologue."
Also on the receiving end of some of her jokes was her longtime boyfriend Chris Convy, with Nikki joking about his height, saying she could "never get his face on a taller model." The popular celebrity roaster recently spoke with People about including jokes about her boyfriend and their relationship in her sets, and he's on board with them – as long as they're good, of course.
"The hardest part is talking about your relationship on stage or injecting jokes where you're upset about something, and you bring it to the stage before you bring it to him," she explained. "So maybe that's where tension arises, but not really anymore," gushing that her partner, who is also her executive producer, is "so cool."
"He's given me permission. He said, 'You can talk about anything on stage about me as long as it's funny. The second it isn't, if it bombs, then we have an issue. If you're just venting up there just to get it off your chest and embarrass me, not good, but if you're up there and you're making a solid joke, you can do whatever you want.'"