Named For: Chris Farley (Saturday Night Live) Awarded To: The best sketch show performer 2010 Winner: Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)
Place. Nominee (Series) Points (My Vote)
5. Jason Sudeikus (Saturday Night Live) 4 points
4. Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live) 6 points (2nd)
3. Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) 7 points
2. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) 11 points (1st)
and the Poolie goes to...
1. Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live) 12 points (3rd)
This is Bill Hader's second Poolie nomination and second straight win for best sketch show performer.
Bill Hader can really do no wrong on Saturday Night Live for this group of voters. As I think back on the season, I can't remember any sketch that really stands out for him, but he is always strong in everything he does. Some may not enjoy his Stefan, but I certainly do. He also was the man responsible for bringing this Charlie Sheen parody to life...
When I have the time, I will sit down and give my thoughts on a given episode of Saturday Night Live. With all of the shows I'm reviewing for TV Fanatic (Chuck, One Tree Hill, Justified, The Office, and 30 Rock; come back for weekly reviews) on hiatus until next week, and the return of the great Jim Carrey, I thought this was a perfect time to post on it.
I heard more people who don't normally watch Saturday Night Live talk about watching this week's episode because it was Jim Carrey hosting. This guy was a legend for my generation back in the 90s, and although he really has fallen off recently, his days of Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, The Cable Guy, In Living Color, and even his previous stint hosting SNL, really got a ton of people excited for the first Saturday Night Live episode of 2011.
Did it live up to expectations? No, I don't think so. Was that Jim Carrey's fault? Again, I don't think so. It comes down to the writing of these sketches. As always, I put most of the blame on head writer Seth Meyers, even though I really have no idea how the bureaucracy of backstage SNL works. This cast has a lot of players I find hilarious, but the show can never manage to really put together a slate of well done sketches, and that leads me back to the writing. Was Jim Carrey really given enough to do in his wheelhouse to make this return an absolute success? I don't think so. But read on for a more detailed look at what went down last night.
Spoiler alert...Below are more in depth thoughts on last night's Saturday Night Live hosted by Jim Carrey. So before reading any further, watch the episode, let me use your hotel room key to go to the bathroom, then read what I have to say.
Cold Open- What a surprise, a political cold opening! I thought we were off to a great start with this though, because like in the fantastic Wizard of Oz sketch from a couple months ago, Fred Armisen said "apartment" with a New York accent. Other than that part, it was pretty standard, and of course boring.
Monologue- There was a lot of excitement in the air for this. I seemed to be smiling throughout Carrey's monologue, and I don't know if it was because it was Jim Carrey on the SNL stage, or because he was making actual funny comments. His bit about 2010 being a "nightmare" was good, and proposing to the woman in the audience wasn't bad, but overall it was nothing to write home about.
Bosley's Hair Transplant- Man I hate repeat commercials, especially when they are as unfunny as this one. If you're going to bring back commercials that have been used before, why not just go all the way back to Schmitts Gay?
Black Swan- The dude as a chick bit has surely run its course, but Carrey pulled it off, especially when they first cut to him and he was smacking his gum with the best of them. His ridiculous ballet moves were nice, but it was Hader's thumbs up/thumbs down bit that stole the show here.
Finding Your Power- I'm assuming this didn't work the way they thought it would. It was a nice idea just couldn't figure out how to execute it. The only part I enjoyed was Carrey falling down in the snowy woods. The dude's physical comedy never disappoints.
Grady Wilson- I never enjoy this recurring infomercial, no matter how many times they try it. I'm sure there are plenty out there that find an old fat man doing weird sexual positions funny, but I'm not one of them. Jim Carrey's baboon in a tree did have me going for a bit though.
Worst of Soul Train- So many moments in this sketch were not funny. In fact everything other than Jason Sudeikis screaming to "get in the trunk!"
Weekend Update- While still strangely liked by many, I continue to hate Weekend Update. There is a decent joke once in a blue moon, but all it does is take up 15 minutes of time that could be put on three sketches. Those three sketches would probably bad so what's the difference right? The Pelosi/Boehner and the Bird/Fish things did nothing for me, but Bobby Moynihan's second hand news guy was worth the watch. Him looking behind the desk to see who's listening never fails to crack me up.
Maryville Brothers- As a fan of dark rides and audio-animatronics, I enjoyed this. It was nothing special, and they continued to limit Jim Carrey's abilities, but it was pleasant enough.
Psychic Reader- Finally! Hilarious. Definitely the best of the night. I really don't know what was better in this sketch, Jim Carrey's impressions and pretending he was actually channeling the given spirits, or Sudeikis's excitement every time Carrey did a new character. It worked all the way through, even with a nice ending bit as the psychic impressionist didn't do Brando. Who doesn't have a Brando?!? Good stuff, but too little, too late.
Taste of New York- Another good idea that just didn't prove to be that funny. This band needed help from the crowd they were playing for in New York, and the songs were kind of humorous I guess, but it didn't go over all that well.
All in all, a disappointing return from Jim Carrey. He was fine in his performances, but the episode didn't live up to the hype. Although I am down on the writers of SNL, I am back on the side of whoever chooses the hosts, because this season has been a vast improvement over last year.
Six of last year's first 11 hosts: Megan Fox, Drew Barrymore, Gerard Butler, Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, Taylor Lautner.
Six of this year's first 11 hosts: Bryan Cranston, Jon Hamm, Robert De Niro, Paul Rudd, Jeff Bridges, Jim Carrey.
Looks like someone realized getting hosts with actual comedic talent was a good idea. Now if they could only get some talented writers.
Spoiler alert...Below are some thoughts on last night's episode of Saturday Night Live. So watch the ep, send a bottle of sparkling apple juice to my house, then read what I had to say.
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.
Named For: Chris Farley, Saturday Night Live performer from 1990-95 Awarded To: The best sketch show performer from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010 Last Year's Winner: no award
Place. Performer (Show) Points (My Vote)
5. Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live) 3 points
4. Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live) 8 points
3. Kenan Thompson (Saturday Night Live) 12 points (1st)
Runner-Up 2. Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) 14 points (2nd)
and the Poolie goes to... 1. Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)
23 points (3rd)
Here with his thoughts on Bill Hader is Poolie voter, T-time...
Last year, Bill Hader was just one of a young ensemble cast. This fall, like Aykroyd in season two, Hader emerged as the star of SNL. He began popping up everywhere, impersonating James Carville, hosting an Italian talk show and displaying alarming reactions on Hollywood Dish. He sold the small bits, such as his acceptance of being bumped yet again by D'Andre Cole. He nailed the signature skits like Greg the alien. The highlight is his impression of Dateline's Keith Morrison who becomes overly interested in the news stories and attempts to delve deeper into irrelevant details.
It's a sad state of affairs when my favorite Saturday Night Live episode of the season so far did not have a single sketch with Andy Samberg in it. Zach Galifianakas brought comedy to the SNL stage last night in a ways that no other has done here in season 35. When you think about it, it makes sense because he's actually a comedian. Stop putting on famous people just because they're famous. There are enough famous funny guys out there to fill an entire season of the show.
It didn't start well, as they again bored me to death with a political Cold Open. Things quickly turned around as Zach killed his Monologue as he went straight to what seemed like his stand up act. It was very jokey but it worked great, especially after some of the disaster monologues we've seen. Now don't get me wrong it wasn't nearly as good as Joseph Gordon Levitt's dance number, but not much could be.
Throughout the ep we got three SNL recurring sketches that didn't disappoint. The Vogelcheck kissing family moved the side show to a funeral home this week and the make out session between Fred Armisen and the dead grandpa was both disgusting and awesome. What Up With That? once again showed that Kenan Thompson is the best man in the cast this season. Kathy Lee was back with the fourth hour of the Today Show and Zach dropped by to spice things up.
Then there was the Bidet sketch that was good and all but the highlight of the night was definitely Zach Drops by the Set. The idea of somebody dropping by all these different tv shows is funny on its own, but when you make that person a fat bearded man it gets that much better. They started you off slowly with Zach just being in the background of Brian Williams, but they slowly made him more infused with each tv show he visited. Hard to beat him asking "You guys doing a tv show or something?" to Jenna and Kenneth of 30 Rock, but the fat man managed to when he came up behind Anthony Anderson on Law And Order, takes a picture of him and then hands him the phone and says, "It's my aunt Louise."
The rest of last night's episode was rather dull in my opinion. Sure there were little snippets here and there that gave me a chuckle, not excluding the addition of the Brendan Fraser Special Clap in the Cold Open, but everything was just obvious and not very funny. 1920's Party, New Senator and Court Stenographer were pretty pointless sketches in which they chose to just put Hamm in a familiar situation and failed to find a place for jokes in any of them.
The only other sketch of the night that got me going was Bar. Not for the fact that they brought back the Closet Organizer commercial from earlier in the show, (although I did really like that they did that) but for Will Forte's response to Jon Hamm's statement, "Gin & tonic, hell of a drink."
How terrible was that? Right up there with Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner for worst host of the season. As a matter of fact there have only been two good hosts out of the 12 we have had this year. SNL has really dropped the ball on finding people that will be funny or interesting to host the show.
The 12 people that have hosted this 35th season of Saturday Night Live have been Megan Fox, Ryan Reynolds, Drew Barrymore, Gerard Butler, Taylor Swift, January Jones, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Blake Lively, Taylor Lautner, James Franco, Charles Barkley and Sigourney Weaver.
Is this a joke? This is the group of a dozen celebrities that you think will make your show funnier? Gerard Butler was the only one that added anything comedic to an episode, and Joseph Gordon Levitt's monologue performance was worth the entire hour and a half of running time. The rest were brutal and mostly detracted from the performances of Hader, Armisen and company.
Not counting the Avatar sketch (which I skipped 'cause I haven't seen it yet) Weaver was the main player in at least four sketches and she was God awful in all of them. Grady Wilson is always bad, but she just made it worse. Ladies' Darts seems to be what they like to do when they have a terrible female host. Dress them up in old clothes and have them look stupid. Not funny. Kenan tried to help out in Disco Booty Junction, but Sigourney and even Wiig were brutal in this one.
Finally we had maybe the two worst near the end. Internet Buzz was all up to her to be funny and she failed miserably. Then there was her as a singer on a piano. As she butchered this sketch, I imagined Will Ferrell singing on top of a piano and acting like he was terrified of the height, and I almost started laughing during the sketch. Maybe from now on, when SNL chooses to put an unfunny host in the lead role of a sketch, I'll just imagine Ferrell or Chris Farley doing the sketch and I'll be able to find humor in it.
Top 5 Sketches
5. Riley- It was really slim pickings last night. At least every time he said B*ITCHHHHH I enjoyed it.
4. Update: Larry the Goose- There is just something about clever names that are a play on words that I enjoy. My favorite was President Quackery Taylor.
3. Ting Tings: That's Not My Name- I had heard their music before, especially Shut Up & Let Me Go, but there was something about watching these two perform that was very interesting. It was the exact opposite of when I first saw Lady Gaga perform on the Idol stage last year. In that case I was perplexed that this was an actual performance. With the Ting Tings, I was intoxicated by their little quirks that I had to watch the entire performance (usually on SNL I skip by the music after a minute or so).
2. Laser Cats 5- I always love Laser Cats, and 5 didn't disappoint. Not as good as the first two, but the James Cameron twist was nice. Speaking of the Avatar director...I was watching my Colts beat up on the Ravens last night and I watched SNL this morning and I thought James Cameron and Ravens' offensive coordinator Cam Cameron should be brothers. Their last names are the same and they both have white hair...thoughts?
1. Larry King Cold Open- Just fantastic. Too bad the rest of the episode was mostly downhill from this great start. Darrell Hammond's Jay Leno was great and when Sudeikus broke out his Letterman, I lost it. To me there are not many things in this world funnier than an outlandish David Letterman impression. Over the top and inaccurate, but hilarious.
As Al Donnelly's chief of staff would say, do you know what people should call me when I'm not around? The idiot! My inability to realize that the late football game was going to push the local news back and therefore move Saturday Night Live past my DVR recording makes me quite an idiot. As I was only able to watch half of last night's episode on the television, it became a bit confusing to me about how good the ep actually was.
After I finished watching individual clips from the second half of the episode, my first impression was that Charles Barkley delivered the best episode so far in this 35th season of SNL. That's not to say that his performance was that fantastic, but he delivered his parts well and didn't detract from what were finally a good group of sketches.
Top Five Sketches of the Night
5. Basketball Commentators- Definitely not as good the original "That'll move the chains!", but this "Nothing but the bottom of the net!" version got the job done.
4. MacGruber- No matter the situation, I always enjoy the MacGruber clips. Although all of the MacGruber being a racist stuff was funny, they could've done the exact same thing with Kenan in Barkley's place.
3. Barkley Golf- Here Sir Charles showed his ability to do some physical comedy. Every time he showed a hitch in an every day activity it was great.
2. Reel Quotes- This was the one sketch that Barkley was the major source of the comedy. His deadpan delivery as the Block Busters manager who knows nothing about movies was great.
1. Scared Straight- Once again Scared Straight is on its way to going down as my favorite recurring sketch in SNL history. This week's version did not disappoint. Charles's ability to play Lorenzo MacIntosh's father made it so that he did not detract from Kenan Thompson's fabulous performance. (unlike Taylor Swift who dropped the likeability of the sketch in half).
Granted there was a lot of this given episode that was pretty bland, but nothing made me want to kill myself this week like Taylor Swift did last time. January Jones messing up her lines was actually an improvement over Swift's dry, terrible acting. Jason Sudeikis was all over this ep, which is always a good thing, but Fred Armisen was noticeably absent, which is not. The digital short was not funny. I kept on waiting for it to change gears, but they just kept going with the same bit the entire time. The whole episode I was waiting for my boy, Josh Duhamel to pop in a sketch, but it never happened. Oh now you stop bringing people's famous boyfriends on! Highlight of the ep was definitely Kristen Wiig's Kathy Lee Gifford. She is always fantastic. Jenny Slate is no where close to as good as Michaela Watkins was as the sidekick, Hota Kotb.
I knew that this was a bad idea as soon as it was announced, but then I thought maybe the people at Saturday Night Live knew something that I didn't. Maybe this singer, who had done one episode of CSI, was a perfect choice to host this weeks show. Alas my original thought that she would be terrible was correct. That's not to take anything away from this week's episode, because everyone was else was terrific, and there were some great moments. Taylor Swift was bland, boring and definitely couldn't act. On the positive side for Taylor, I liked her music. Both songs were good, the first one I had heard before. By the way, how do they think to go with a young singer as musical guest/host and not pick Miley?!? She would be fantastic on SNL...I'm just saying. Also it was funny that one guitarist in her band had the Kate Gosselin haircut, and they played shortly after the jokes about Gosselin's hair on The View sketch.
The View sketch was decent as always, with Fred Armisen killing it with the "Who cares?" "So whats", but why did they bring Andy on as Nic Cage for like two seconds?
There were three recurring sketches this week. Penelope and Nicholas Fehn both have run into the same problem. I enjoyed them the first couple times they were on, but the same thing over and over again has worn out the comedy. The exact same format every single time they do it just gets tiresome. Now you may want to call me a hypocrite, but Kenan can do the exact same thing every time he does Scared Straight, and I would fall to the ground laughing each and every time. Without a doubt it is climbing the charts as my favorite recurring sketch of all time on SNL. Don't get me wrong the addition of Taylor Swift greatly hurt this week's rendition, but anything Kenan said was solid gold.
Other parts I hated...Roomies. Sometimes annoying doesn't come across as funny. It comes across as annoying. New cast member Nasim Pedrad and Swift were brutal in this one, as Andy Samberg was relegated to sitting there with no good material. Swing and a miss. And then we had the always terrible Really with Seth and Amy?! How are they still doing this? Hasn't every person on the street gone up to every SNL castmember and writer and told them that this makes them want to throw up every time they see it? No? Some people actually like this? What a joke.
Last two sketches that I enjoyed a good amount. The Firelight trailer. We all know I love a good fake trailer. This was funny just from seeing commercials and previews for Twilight. I imagine it must have been even funnier if you had seen the movie. Am I right JJ? (boom!) And then we had the Swine Fever commercial. Just watch below and enjoy.
I really didn't think it could get any worse than last week's dud of a season premier, but I believe it did. This Saturday's show was nothing but blah, blah, blah for me.
Let's see what garbage we had last night...Obama, Monologue, Celebrity Family Feud, Porcelain Fountains, Deep House Dish, Weekend Update, Crime Dancers, International Masterworks and the Bubble Dresses. Wow that was almost every sketch of the night!
There were only two sketches that would not have been cut by Matt Alby if he were the head writer at SNL.
First: Mostly Garbage. Jason Sudeikis was fantastic in this commercial parody for dog food that was made of, you guessed it, mostly garbage. Just like Will Ferrell's Dissing Your Dog, back in the day, Mostly Garbage was fueled by the comedic value of people thinking that dogs are human. Sudeikis promotes the fact that dogs will eat most everything, including garbage. While he laughs at the disgusting stuff his dog eats, I laughed with his performance.
Second: Digital Short- On the Ground. Now this was a classic Digital Short! We are back to where we need to be with these things, taking something ridiculously small and turning it into an epic event. Andy slow-raps his way through his daily events. All of which end with him throwing something on the ground in a demeaning fashion. The absolute best part was at the kid's birthday party..."Some poser hands me cake at a birthday party. What you want me to do with this, eat it? Happy birthday to the ground! I threw the rest of the cake too. Welcome to the real world jack ass..." Unbelievable.
Finally: A few words on Lady Gaga. After her first performance, I felt the same way I always have about her. A complete freak that doesn't have good songs. Then came the second performance. She began by posing as Saturn, the planet, and singing (can you call it that) some terrible song. But then something very strange happened...she sat down at a piano, with her giant rings getting in the way, and broke out a fantastic ballad. Was it some sort of combination of completely new material and Poker Face? I don't know, but her voice sounded great. And she seemed really normal in that moment (if you ignore the huge silver rings hanging around her body).
What a completely lackluster season premier of Saturday Night Live. I guess when I saw Seth Meyers with his laptop in a private room at the ESPN Zone, he was not working on the show. Instead, he must have been conducting a fantasy football draft, because this premier episode was nothing to write home about. It was something to write on the internet about, but not write home about. As we all know, an SNL ep can only go as far as its host, and Megan Fox isn't funny.
Cold Open- boring.
Peeing Commercial- good idea, not executed that well.
Airplane Scene- this was a good sketch. Funny idea, and of course, Kristen Wiig was at the head of the thing. When she said, "I'm gonna try and sneak you guys some pretzels" I lost it.
Russian Girls- Two good ones in a row...it can only go down from here. Will Forte was great in having a tough time deciding between Megan Fox and Fred Armisen as his wife. It reminded me a lot of the Patrick Swayze/Chris Farley Chip 'n Dales sketch. It is very sad to know that both of the guys from that classic sketch are now gone.
1st Digital Short- What? Not good at all. Pick your game up Akiva. Burn Up the Bedroom- Blahh. U2's 1st Song- garbage. Weekend Update- per the usual, I will make a comment on how Seth Meyers is awful and weekend update is terrible. Now that we got that out of the way, I will now get to the important part of Update, the guests. This week we got two classic recurring characters, Jean K. Jean and Judy Grimes. Both of their shticks are thoroughly enjoyable for me. Kristen Wiig's talent is immeasurable in my opinion. When she just pointed at the chart and said just kidding...unbelievable. Live Lounge- not good. U2's 2nd Song- better song, but Bono's intensity is insane. Is he serious with this? Maybe if he softened up a bit, I could believe anything he was singing. A little too out of control.
Biker Chick Chat- This is why you don't give someone the lead of a sketch on their first night. F BOMB. What a joke. It would've been one thing if she was actually funny and slipped up, but she was God awful in her first SNL sketch ever, and threw out the F on top of that. Kristen Wiig (obviously) and Megan Fox both destroyed her at this character. It's only her first night, but I don't think I'm gonna like this new girl.
2nd Digital Short- Now we're talking. Quality digital short here. Anytime you combine Andy Samberg, Transformers and The BAG, I am going to love it.
Talking to Megan Fox- What was it again? Kristin Wiig. Decent sketch. Kristen's face after she made a comment was classic.
