Archive for the SNL tag

SNL: Kristen Wiig

I had some concerns going into the Kristen Wiig SNL. It seemed too soon for her to come back and that such a short time away might lead to falling back to a lot of her characters. While I enjoyed her on SNL, I really didn’t like any of her recurring characters.

The monologue started off alright, I was relieved when Gilly (my least favorite) showed up and was gone so quickly. I hoped that was how the rest of the show would go. But then Lawrence Welk showed up with the doll handed sister (my 2nd least favorite). Then Garth and Kat, and finally the Target Lady (a great one time sketch that has no purpose recurring).

Disliking them means that I think they could do better by trying new things. Just throwing those characters out there leads to an average show. That averaged was boosted with The Californians along with a few other sketches that were good (and I hate myself for laughing at the Second Hand News Guy). Subtract points for the odd Double Date sketch and Vampire Weekend and that totals out to an average show.

My favorite sketch of the night: Acupuncture. It went just about exactly how you’d expect it to go, and it was still great.

I’ll be honest, with any good leak situation (be it water or blood), you can’t go wrong trying to use some chewing gum to plug the whole. It was the only thing missing.

Finale next week with Ben Affleck and Kayne West.

SNL: Seth MacFarlane

A strong opening to the SNL season. Not too surprising. I expected Seth to be excellent. I thought his monologue did a decent job of showing off his many skills.

Not as good:
– Not sure about Jay Pharoah as Obama. Not that Fred Armisen was particularly great at it.
– Weekend Update is always a little flat when the season starts. But I forget every time. There is just too much time to figure out which jokes to tell. I also imagine with changes for the new season, those get more attention than Seth Meyers back for another year at the desk.
– Someone explain Frank Ocean to me. I tried to listen to his new album when it came out, I didn’t get far into in before giving up.

There were a lot of good sketches (including this great one with Amish guys trying to give their web address for their wooden spoon business), but I think this was my favorite …

Now I liked the sketch itself, but I love the concept. You could do this multiple times a season. Starting with the host as the teacher, there is nothing tying it to a single cast member. You can go a million different directions with teachers, students, puppets, and puppet personality. Please SNL, make this recurring.

Next week: Joseph Gordon-Levitt with Mumford & Sons

First few SNL hosts for this season

September 15: Seth MacFarlane
September 22: Joseph Gordon Levitt
October 6: Daniel Craig

Saw this on HitFix. Can’t really complain about any of the hosts. Seth MacFarlane surpringly hasn’t hosted before but as all the tools. Joseph Gordon Levitt has all the tools as well and I remember him being good last time. I’m curious to see Daniel Craig because I only know him from being serious in the Bond movies.

I’m surprised SNL isn’t doing Weekend Update Thursdays like they did for the election in 2008. NBC doesn’t have a lot going for it, I’d think a handful of half hour slots being spoken for would be a no brainer.

Oh, the musical guests are Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, and Muse. No big deal, I usually skip through the musical acts. Mumford & Sons are the only ones I’ll listen to for a minute.

SNL: Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger was very good. No surprise, he’s a performer. Not just a musician. Note: actor does not always equal performer these days. However, none of the sketches stood out as good or bad.

The clip of the show is, no surprise, Stefon.

The Hulu Playlist.

I might lose your respect, but I didn’t know it was Kirsten Wiig’s last show. The good-bye segment was very sad. I’m not surprised, she’s a big deal now, even if I didn’t think Bridesmaids was very funny. I’m not sure how they replace her, she seemed to be able to do anything.

It’s getting close to time for a whole new cast. There seems to be a bunch who have been on for a while: Samberg (05), Hader (05), Sudeikis (05), Kenan (03), Armisen (02), Meyers (01). All of them have to be thinking about going. Except Kenan, I think he’d stay forever if they let him (but they shouldn’t much longer). I didn’t realize how long Seth Meyers has been around, how has he not written at least 3 hilarious movies during the last decade?

I still don’t know why SNL breaks for the summer as a traditional show. Spend the summer doing a few episodes with whatever cast is around. Showcase some potential new talent. Don’t waste the chance of the spotlight with all the news stories that break.

SNL: Will Ferrell

My favorite clip from the show doesn’t even include Will Ferrell. Not too surprising after watching, he felt sort of absent most of the show.

All of Weekend Update was solid, I thought Seth hit on every one of his jokes. There was a lot of good stuff throughout the episode: The 100th Digital Short, The Loud Sneezing Ad, Funkytown Debate (which I thought was half as good as it could have been, but the idea made up for that half), and the return of Greg Stink for some ESPN Classic.

Saturday is the finale with Mick Jagger. I have no idea how that will go but they usually have some strong material in the finale.

Show Playlist

My least favorite part of SNL

Every week, without fail, this image drives me crazy.

It’s just an image they use each week heading into an early commercial break. It starts out ok, then they blur the image. That’s when the image looks like this and it says WONDER WHFFL. Before the blur, you see WONDER WHEEL just fine. I get the artistic blur effect, but when E’s turn into F’s, that’s too much blur!

I haven’t a clue why it drives me so crazy, but it does.

I was watching this week’s show on my iPad via Slingbox so I was finally able to get a screen cap without too much effort.

btw, this week’s show, with Sofia Vergara was pretty bad. I think I laughed more at the Lindsey Lohan one.

SNL: Jim Carrey

I had high hopes. My favorite SNL of all time was when he hosted and it included the hot tub lifeguard skit, a family favorite.

None of the skits killed me, there were laughs here and there. I am curious how much, if at all, they let him write or make up during the week.

This bit from Weekend Update, with Cameron the Blackbird did kill me. Whenever Andy Samburg comes on WU dressed in a ridiculous costume, I’m all in. Sometimes I hate myself for it, but it always gets a laugh.

I died as soon as I heard the accent. Pile on the bad puns and the fish. It’s called the surface! All in. Should have made this the whole show, just this. All 90 minutes. I’m sure they could be the musical guests as well.

SNL – Gabourey Sidibe

Another average outing from SNL. This sketch with Steve Harvey hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire was the only thing that really got me.

One other good bit: During weekend update one of the writers talked about how crazy the idea of girl scout cookies is.