SNL Review- Topher Grace/The Killers
Tribute:
Jerry Orbach: I’ve watched way too many Law and Order reruns for one lifetime and I loved Lenny Briscoe like everyone else. From his wisecrack remarks to him turning up the heat when need be- he was the perfect character for the show. I was really looking forward to watching Law and Order: Trial by Jury as well. He’ll be missed.
SNL Moment #12:
12. McCain sings Babs
John McCain was an interesting pick to host SNL since he was just known as that Vietnam veteran who everyone seemed to like but nobody voted for in the primary. (Well after New Hampshire) SNL was coming off the heels of two disappointing episodes that fuelled speculation that the show was screwed without Will Ferrell. But somehow a 66 year old Senator managed to prove everyone wrong with two unforgettable skits- one that will be profiled this week, another next week.
THE MOMENT: The skit begins with a voiceover and then it cuts John McCain singing the Barbara Streisand song ‘Evergreen’ horribly off-key and then after a promise of him signing more beautiful love songs we get McCain warbling to ‘People Who Need People.’ Then McCain gets in one of the lines of the year with: I’ve been in politics for over 20 years. And for over 20 years, I’ve had Barbara Streisand trying to do my job. So I decided to try my hand at her job. Check out this classic. This segues into him butchering ‘The Way We Were’. McCain then predates Seth Meyers by a year by getting another beautiful burn zing slam snap on Streisand with: Do I know how to sing? About as well as she knows how to govern America!
McCain continues the awesomeness by just delivering one funny quip after another and he finishes with what would’ve been the line of the year had Hardball not been on the same show. McCain: And a special added bonus, just for Babs - a portion of all sales will be used to damage Alaskan wildlife preserves.
This was one of my favourite skits of the year and is one of my favourite skits of all time as not only was the skit very funny- it also made a statement within the skit and it all worked really really well. From McCain’s delivery to his hilarious off-key renditions of everything- it was one of those magical SNL moments where everything clicked. The John McCain show was one of those shows that told SNL fans that everything was going to be okay and that the show could not only survive without Will Ferrell, but still manage to be hilariously funny at the same time.
Sports Report-
Nets- Well with R-Jeff’s injury this season is officially a lost cause and you might as well play for the ping pong ball. Trading for Vince now looks even dumber now since they’re not going anywhere. I hope that they give Kristic and Planicic lots of playing time and just let a lot of the young guys develop. It sucks but the Nets have had three really good years so they were due to have a Nets like season.
Mailbag!!!!!!!!!!!!!-
Maya Lessov writes-
Hello! Do you know the date of the show in which the Axis of Evil skit(s) appeared? All the reference I have is that there were skits - or one skit - called Axis of Evil. I work for a production company and need to find the date for this skit so that I can reference it in my request to NBC. I see that your commentary on http://www.saturday-night-live.com/snl/rev...yder/bob-b.html is organized by date, but I can't figure out what the date on Axis of Evil is. Thanks in advance for your help
That would be from the Johnny Moseley/Outkast episode. I remember that episode was so unnoteworthy that I just went off on tangents for every skit. What did happen to Johnny Moseley anyway?
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Cold Opening
Cast- Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Finesse Mitchell
Thoughts- So was Dana Carvey washing his hair or something? I mean I’m happy Fred got the chance to do another impression, I’m just surprised they let someone else do it. As usual it was a welcoming sight to see Darrell bring back Bill Clinton and I loved the interplay between W. and Clinton and Clinton making all of W.’s talking points make sense. I wish they had let H.W. get a word in just so we could see how good it was. I also like Forte’s W. since I think he gets a lot of W’s ticks down and he does a good job of showing some of the things that bother me about W. The only thing that didn’t work was Clinton’s undressing of the female reporter. Other then that this was awesome as Darrell’s Clinton can seemingly do no wrong. ****
Monologue
Cast- Topher Grace, Jason Sudakis, JB Smoove, Paula Pell, other writers
Thoughts- Kudos to whichever writer decided to add the line about the Jets since it was very nice to be reminded that the Jets blew it yesterday. Even though I think his warmup act is worse then playing defence for the Rams I like JB Smoove’s monologue character. I thought the exchange between Sudakis and Topher was really funny. This was a better monologue then most and I always like when they take questions from the audience. ***1/2
Trucker Talk
Cast- Grace, Chris Parnell, Hammond, Armisen, Rob Riggle
Thoughts- Well we know they were going to mock Brad and Jen somehow so I guess doing a skit with a bunch of truckers was the way to go. This was okay- I enjoyed Darrell as Skeeter and this had some funny lines but it started to badly die off towards the end and the bit with Fred felt very tacked on and stupid. Considering some of the stuff they had later on- this in no way should’ve been the first skit of the night. **1/4
Paramedics
Cast- Grace, Poehler, Meyers, Horatio Sanz, Armisen, Kenan Thompson, Riggle, Mitchell
Thoughts- Now this is more like it- as I always enjoy skits about Martin Luther King Day. Going to school in Canada has made me wish that Canadians had a history of being horrible racists to black people as well. I mean a day off is a day off. While Finesse flubbing his lines hurt the skit a bit, the guys playing the race card and mixing up Rodney and Martin Luther King was really funny. Some of the skit did seem lifted from Chris Rock's bit about black people only being taught about Martin Luther King and not learning about anyone else that had anything to do with black history. And I was kinda hoping that when Grace mentioned Booker T. Washington that someone would bring up Booker T, the wrestler, but alas it was not to be. Horatio trying to act black and get out of working was pretty funny as well. This was good, it probably could’ve been a bit better had they pushed the envelope more but I’m not complaining. ***
CBS Evening News
Cast- Hammond
Thoughts- Was Darrell sober free for the first time ever or something? I mean surely there must be some reason he’s getting so much airtime this week. I kept hoping they would let bust out Darrell bust out his Dan Rather and I was glad to see they finally did. There were lots of funny lines here- especially the part about CBS’ ratings and him being a licensed bikini inspector. I also liked when he said there was no reason for him to talk the way he talks. Like most skits that are like this, it did go on a bit too long and there were some lines that just didn’t work. But I’d like to see Darrell do this impression again- maybe before Rather’s last newscast? ***
Beaver Ranch
Cast- Grace, Meyers, Forte, Poehler, Rudolph, Dratch
Thoughts- Hey look everyone! Rachel Dratch is playing a crazy old person! I’ve never seen that one before. This was pretty bad and I was disappointed to see Seth and Will wasted in a skit like this. Grace had a couple of funny lines but Rachel was horrible here and this skit just didn’t seem to go anywhere. Also- how was Rachel able to breastfeed her grandkid if she wasn’t pregnant herself? Don’t think I don’t pay attention to this stuff because I so do. The ending to this skit was also really weak and it didn’t seem like they were trying to be funny. *
The Killers ‘Somebody Told Me’
Thoughts- The Killers are a Hilary endorsed band so that’s where I first heard this song and the band. I didn’t understand why the lead singer had a flower pinned to him. This was a fun song and a good performance- the band seemed really into it and the lead singer (Mr. Killer?) seemed to be having a good time. Good stuff here. ***
Weekend Update
Cast- Fey, Poehler, Thompson, Rudolph
Thoughts- Oh lord- where do we start here? Good job ripping off the Daily Show SNL- I’m glad to know that Tina thinks she can liven up her stale Bush jokes by stealing from another show. It was really pathetic trying to see Tina act like Jon Stewart and just completely failing in every sense of the word. You know how Jon Stewart can pull off the smug asshole mock thing Tina? Well you can’t. So don’t. Now onto Amy. Her delivery is still terrible and causes the jokes to be rushed, and the jokes themselves aren’t funny. The Angelina bit? Already covered in the truckers skit. I can’t really remember any of her other jokes- but I do remember that they sucked. Tina had a couple of good ones (The Brad-Jennifer joke) but the girls still have no chemistry and still have horrible jokes. Weekend Update shouldn’t be a chore to sit through- but it is. And that’s really sad. I’ve said it before but after Updates like this it’s worth mentioning. Is people being compared to Jimmy REALLY that bad? I mean is having to hear people whine about how so and so is not Jimmy worse then watching Amy stumble through another Update? I’m not even talking about Seth here- I’m talking about anyone. The fact that SNL has let Update sunk this low just to pander to critics and go: Look at us! We have two women! is really sad. Anyone who still thinks picking Amy was the right choice really is in denial. At least Jimmy could deliver a joke. Oh and it was great seeing Kenan bring back his Bill Cosby impression but did we need to see Maya butcher Phylisha Rashad and almost kill what could’ve been a great bit? Kenan was amazing here but everytime the skit started to gain momentum with Kenan it seemed like Maya would cut him off at the knees. I’ll give this Update a better rating then I probably should because I loved Kenan and Tina had a few funny jokes but I lost patience with Update after Jude Law and I’ve seen 0 improvements. **
Art Dealers
Cast- Grace, Armisen, Dratch, Rudolph, Parnell
Thoughts- This is one of those skits that probably sounded funny at the pitch meeting and then may have sounded funny in the read-through but on the air this was painful to watch. The pronunciation of the name thing didn’t go anywhere and while usually I enjoy Fred acting like an oddball this was just didn’t work. Not even Chris Parnell could save it. And the thing where they used the telephone didn’t make any sense. Just one of those skits where nothing works. DUD
Hardball
Cast- Hammond, Forte, Riggle, Thompson
Thoughts- What the hell? Seriously- what the hell? You have Hardball, probably SNL’s most popular recurring character, and you stick it at 12:40 am after the worst skit of the night? Who paced this show? Hardball should be the first skit of the night or the cold opening, not regulated in the death slot. If you’re going to do that then just cut the skit and do it again next week. And on top of that, this skit, which was really funny, was like 10 seconds long! What a waste of effort and I feel for Will Forte. This guy has an amazing impression that scares the crap out of me and instead of making it a big part of the show SNL cuts him from Weekend Update and then regulates him to the death slot. This is why I would never want to work for SNL- you just watch your best stuff either get cut or be treated like garbage like Forte’s Zell Miller is. I know I sound really negative because it did piss me off- but I really enjoyed this skit a lot. Rob Riggle playing Howard Dean must’ve really stung Jeff Richards, whose firing is still funny. Kenan was also funny but Will Forte carried this skit. This was just too short and I think if given a better slot on the show and more airtime- it could’ve been a classic. We’ll never know I guess. ***1/2
Down and Out Dollar
Cast- Grace, Poehler, Meyers, Sanz, Rudolph, Forte
Thoughts- I could point out that a weak dollar isn’t really the worst thing in the world for the US but I don’t think anyone who writes for the show is an economist and they just thought the cast dressed up as dollar bills would be funny. Amy was okay- I loved Seth as the pound whacking Amy with the cane. I was disappointed that we didn’t have an appearance from a Canadian dollar given the fact that the Canadian dollar is like the most mocked dollar ever so I was happy when Will showed up as the Lumberjack Loonie. Will and Seth were funny, Amy singing really wasn’t. **
The Killers ‘Mr. Brightside’
Thoughts- I have to say that the lead singer wearing pink brought back memories of the Scissor Sisters only Mr. Killer was not as gay. I like Mr. Brightside a lot even though the song is a bit too long and would be a lot better if slightly trimmed. I’m glad we got a good musical guest and hopefully Ludacris and Sum 41 will at least be interesting and if it’s bad- hopefully I can mock them. ***
Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.5 making this a thumbs up show. I know my review sounded negative but this was a show that while good, could’ve and should’ve been so much better with a little bit of tweaking and I hate when that happens. Topher was a good host as I expected him to be- he was a lot better then Jennifer Garner probably would’ve been. Except for the cold opening, nothing was truly great and there were only a few clunkers which helped out the average. I’m very excited for next week’s show. I love Paul Giamtti (the guy was Pig Vomit!) and I know he can deliver a good show.
Thumbs Up
