There are two ways to look at last night's second episode of Saturday Night Live. Firstly, it was much better than the season premiere. On the other hand, it could have been a lot better with such a great host. As Jackie Boy tweeted me this morning: "they wasted brian cranstons' talents more than jimmy T's last night." Of course, if you don't watch Survivor you don't get the joke, but the point is that Cranston can be hilarious and he did not show that much of it last night.
Having said that, there were a couple of great sketches that made it a big improvement over Amy Poehler's show from last week. Knowing me the way you do, you're not at all surprised to hear that What Up With That? was absolutely fantastic. I don't care how many times it comes on, when that snare drum starts up in the background and Kenan's eyes bug out like crazy, I crack up without hesitation. To go along with the fantastic Floydster doing his red jump suit dancing, and Lindsey Buckingham getting bumped once again, we had the great Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine as the other guests. I'm not sure if Borgnine had never seen the sketch before, or if he just loves it as much as I do, but you could not wipe the ear to ear grin off of his face during that sketch if you tried.
Grade: A
Can they do the Miley Cyrus Show without Cranston as Billy Ray? I hope so, because this could be one of my favorite recurring sketches. As a Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana fan, this sketch was great because this new castmember's impression was spot on. It wasn't really making fun of her though. It was basically just exaggerating all of the things that make her so funny in the first place.
Grade: B+
Looking back at my notes, I realize there wasn't much else that was that great. My next favorite was probably Cranston's monologue. I guess anything mixing comedy with singing and dancing will put you in my good graces.
Grade: B-
The Rescue Dogs 3D Digital Short was pretty good. The dude texting back "Haven't heard from you in years. Rescue Dogs 3D? Are you serious?" was pretty good. As was the pizza guy showing up and getting shot immediately. But the entire premise of the iphone not being a good way to get help just wasn't a funny idea.
Grade: C+
I'll always laugh at kids getting punched in the face, but this sketch (Basement Karate) was another waste of Cranston's talents. He could have done more with this, but instead they gave all the material to this chick playing a boy. Not great.
Grade: C
Black Noise Machine. Short and sweet. Racial stereotypes are funny.
Grade: C
The Sparkling Apple Juice song was good but nothing to really talk about here.
Grade: C
Another political cold open. Sepinwall, and I'm sure many others, are complaining that Armisen is still doing O'Bama now that they have this Pharoah guy that is really good at it. The problem is that Armisen is like their head player. You can't just rip that away from him. And I don't think he's that bad at it, but that's just me. Anyway, this sketch was boring and not funny.
Grade: D+
Pepto Ice Commercial. Mehh.
Grade: D
Kid Smartz. Cranston was good here as the game show host that is inappropriately affectionate with his kid contestants, but the problem was that it wasn't as funny as the actual show it was making fun of. If you have seen this video of the show, Just Like Mom, you know exactly what I am talking about.
Grade: D-
Shanna. This will never be funny to me. It's gross and uninteresting. Stop making this come back. Please.
Grade: F
Just a couple quick notes on Kanye before I go here. Of course I fast forwarded through all but the first 30 seconds of each song, but seriously? What was he doing in that second song with that little machine with the noises? Pushing buttons to make voices come out? Definitely something I could have done. If you're going to be an artist, be an artist. Don't do something any joker off the street could do.
Finally, last year I mentioned how they were picking such terrible hosts. This year's first three; Amy Poehler, Bryan Cranston, and Jane Lynch are exactly the type of host I said they should be getting. They're famous, yet they're all comedy actors. Keep hosts like this, and no more Taylor Swifts or Taylor Lautners, and this season will be much, much better than the last.
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