Or was this last Saturday's broadcast just a fluke? Let's explore.
Sitting around last Saturday evening, I decided that I might DVR Saturday Night Live. It had been quite a while since I'd seen one and I noticed that Annette Bening was hosting so I figured I had nothing to lose. Worst case scenario, it would just go the way of so many episodes of Six Degrees and The Nine: deleted without ever being watched. Last night, suffering from a bit of insomnia, I decided to watch it.
I love Annette, but the opening was nothing special. I was mildly amused with a recut trailer for Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (FYI, Jews killed the Mayas) and a random sketch about a teacher (Bening) who sleeps with her students (the musical outburst was cute), but I was starting to feel a little sleepy and nearly shut it off when a sketch entitled "Two A-holes in a Live Nativity Scene" came on. Where did Kristen Wiig come from? Well, besides Rochester (according to IMDb)? She totally KILLED in that sketch. Playing one of the two titular a-holes, she picks up the baby Jesus doll at one point and deadpans, "This baby doesn't look like Santa." AMAZING.
That was followed up with an extremely funny pre-recorded sketch featuring Lost's Matthew Fox (featuring this magical line: "Tia, half second, my ass is in your mouth."), a cable access show sketch featuring a great Maya Rudolph riff on the Nintendo Wii, and then an unintentionally funny performance from Gwen Stefani (like her a lot but what the hell is up with the new single???). Weekend Update came next and was on point (again with my new favorite funny lady, Ms. Wiig). The sketch after that earned this rave from Freedman: "I fucking lost it in the poorly executed but funny sketch about the monster in the room, when Bill Hader came out singing "Have a holly jolly Christmas." Couldn't have said it better myself.
And it just went on and on. Alec Baldwin + herpes? Very funny. Wiig and Bening as loserish coworkers going to a bar? Awkwardly hilarious. Akon's performance? Ok, not so funny. Neither was the ending sketch about the lawyers representing rich cats. But maybe that's just because I'm sensitive to lawyer jokes. But, still! I remember watching SNL a few years ago and actually feeling a bit uncomfortable at how unfunny some of the sketches were. Last Saturday's episode was such a treat (especially while in throes of insomnia). I'll definitely be DVRing the rest of the season, if only to continue experiencing the comedic master class of Kristen Wiig.
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5 comments:
Are you kidding me? No, I'm sorry - Are you fucking kidding me??
I've always known your taste in media to be eclectic, sometimes even eccentric. But this is just bad.
Diddies Kiddies was the only decent part. And you didn't even mention it.
Yeah. SNL was really horrible. I'll admit I giggled at the "I smell bagels" subtitle, but other than Diddy's Kiddies, the show was a trainwreck.
The monologue really set the tone... "questions from the audience" aka "the host isn't funny on his/her own," coupled with references to a movie that came out six years ago... not exactly the best.
And the Alec Baldwin commercial was a re-run from a previous SNL (when Baldwin hosted).
The thirty-seven seconds of sketch comedy I saw on Studio 60 last week was better than SNL.
Tons of great posts with no comments (except for Ale) and I get a comment bonanza on a throw-away post about Saturday Night Live? Really? Fine. Whatever.
I actually half rewatched SNL yesterday (while cleaning my apartment) because I wanted to make sure that it was actually funny. True, upon a second viewing, it wasn't quite as good as I'd remembered it, but I stand by my words. Both the Nativity sketch and the "Digital Short" were still very funny to me even on second viewing.
In response to the comments:
1) Diddy's Kiddies was one of the weaker TV Funhouse cartoons I've seen.
2) I agree that the monologue was terrible (and you'll note that I didn't praise it in my post).
3) Not having watched SNL in years, I never saw the Valtrex commercial w/ Alec Baldwin so it was fresh and funny to me.
4) I'm backlogged at least 4 episodes of Studio 60 but, based on early S60 sketches, the quality of the comedy must've gone WAY up for it to have been funnier than Kristen Wiig in the Nativity sketch.
I HATE the two a holes sketch. those are the least funny characters of all time. I think it is just a way to make fun of NYC for the rest of the flyover states, and it is not funny at all.
I am seriously jonesing to see the loser co-workers in the bar" sketch again, but I did not record it. please, pretty-pretty please could you or a reader of this post it or email me a link to maybe an uplink of yours so i can see it or even download it? i thought bening was brilliant with that spooky character of hers and the rhythm of the whole sketch was very strange and humorous. -ken. kraftmusik@hotmail.com
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