SNL review

[Guest bob_barron]

SNL Review- Robert DeNiro/Norah Jones

 

Greeting and or saluations. I hope you had a good thanksgiving, while for my fellow Canadians- I hope you had a good Thursday

 

Sports Report-

Devils- They’ve been playing very well recently and with the Flyers’ loss of John LeClair and the Rangers’ loss of should be able to stay on top in the Atlantic Division. I’ve really been impressed with their play and despite my love for two other offensive minded teams- I like a team that preaches defence over offense.

 

Leafs- Well hello there. Many of you who have of read these sports reports know that they have pretty much involved me bitching and moaning about the quality of play, or lack thereof, of the team from Toronto. Well apparently my profanity laced rant from November 9th must’ve worked cause the Leafs and Eddie Belfour in particular have played fantastic since then and finally have climbed to 8th place in the Eastern Conference. Solid work fellows.

 

Canucks- Did someone tell these guys Christmas was over or something??? Cause holy lord they have played fantastically. Ten wins in a row????? That is too sweet. Keep up the awesomeriffic hockey and maybe we can finally end the Avalanche’s run before they catch up to the Braves’ record of 11 in a row.

 

Nets- Despite the loss of Dikembe Mutumbo they’ve been playing just fine as the K-n-K connection has been over like rover and K-Mart continues to show why he is my favourite basketball player. They’re in a dogfight with the Celtics and the 76ers for top of the Eastern Conference and hopefully we can keep pace.

 

Saints- That win against the Bucs reeked of slamoriffocicty and it seriously was one of the highest emotional highs I’ve ever had. They’re 8-4 and their schedule isn’t too bad and with the Giants slumping- they have a great shot at the playoffs.

 

And now I must post my tribute to Tom Glavine-

 

I look at my Braves 'Armed Forces' poster with a bit of sadness tonight as Tom Glavine signed with the Mets. I never really liked Glavine too much due to his association with the Players Association and cause I always was a Maddux fan. Still, he pitched the greatest game in Braves history with a one-hitter over Cleveland so I will miss him a bit and the fan in me is disappointed that he signed with the arch-rival Mets.

 

Despite him blowing both games this year, I will miss Glavine a bit.

 

Cya Tom- and thanks for Game 6 of the 95 World Series.

 

Mailbag!!!-

 

Hugh Delony writes-

 

Hi Bob,

 

Thanks for sending it in. It has been added. Keep visiting and keep

reviewing!!!

 

Hugh

 

Hugh is referring to the fact that my reviews can now be seen at his website as well which is- saturdaynightlive.tv. It’s a pretty nice site so check it out.

 

[email protected] writes-

 

Hi. I read your reviews on Saturday-Night-Live.com, and I am writing an article on SNL and I was wondering what is your fav. cast. Do you think SNL has gotten suckier? Just kind of your views on it. I would really appreciate a reply. Thanks.

 

Emily Rogers

 

The ‘oops’ in me thinks I was supposed to reply on the 18th when this person wrote it. But no precedents in the mailbag!!

 

My favourite cast, I guess will coincide with my favourite year being 96-97. Everything, with the exception of the Neve Campbell episode, seemed to click- Norm was rocking on Update and it had everyone at their prime. Well except for Chris Kattan but come on- you knew that already.

 

I don’t think SNL has become suckier at all. It’s not as good as it was in 96-97 but they’re still putting out some damn good shows and still have a damn good cast.

 

Chad Ruffner writes-

 

Hi Bob,

 

 

Raw this week was another mixed bag.

Nothing particularly outstanding, yet nothing overly

bad either. The highlight of the show for me was the

angle involving Christian/Jericho and The Dudley's.

Christian and Jericho have really good chemistry

together, much like the Christian/Edge Team of 2000.

I was kind of disappointed In the HBK/RVD Title Match,

but then again expectations were very high going In.

It really didn't help matters to have Triple H end It

on a run In. Something Is still missing though, and I

hope they find whatever that Is soon.

 

Happy Thanksgiving,

Chad

 

God- that RAW was a long time ago. Anywho that RAW was pretty good- the angle between Chris-tain and the Dudz didn’t particularly amuse me but the match was pretty good. I enjoyed HBK v. RVD and the ending didn’t bother me for the reason that I knew the ending was coming. The something that is missing is Booker and RVD not being pushed and idiocy like jobbing Booker in Texas.

 

Wanna be in the mailbag??? Email me anything at [email protected]

 

 

Tom Ridge

Cast- Robert DeNiro, Darrell Hammond, Maya Rudolph, Jimmy Fallon, Jeff Richards

Thoughts- Wow- DeNiro right out of the gate blows me away by appearing in his third consecutive **** skit. Congrats Mr. DeNiro. This was really funny as I always love skits like that. DeNiro’s apathy towards saying LFNYISN wasn’t cool in my eyes but other then that the skit was pretty kick ass as a lot of the names here were really funny. ****1/4

 

Monologue

Cast- DeNiro

Thoughts- Wow- the monologue was well a monologue. I sense this was just DeNiro being DeNiro and that’s alright with me. Not as great as I hoped and a little on the short side but I enjoyed this to a point. **3/4

 

Big-n-Tasty

Thoughts- Global cut this off and I flipped to the Canucks game but then flipped back and it apparently had restarted. Weird. This was a spoof of the ridiculous McDonalds lawsuit that was filed- here’s your funny tidbit of the week- The Smoking Gun posted the lawsuit and it has the plaintiff’s addresses. So if you wanna drive by their apartment and scream: PUT THE BIG MAC DOWN!! well go to the smokinggun. Anywho- I found this to be pretty funny and good enough for a rating of- ***

 

Thomas Jefferson

Cast- DeNiro, Fallon, Amy Poehler, Rudolph, Chris Parnell, Tracy Morgan, Will Forte

Thoughts- Robert DeNiro was hilarious in this skit because well he seemed to be missing his cues, trying not to laugh AND looking at cue cards all at the same time. This was hit and miss with the slave jokes being really funny. It was odd they picked Maya Rudolph to be a slave in this skit since she didn’t really look like she was black. Tracy’s monologue at the end helped save it. **

 

Peter Pan

Cast- DeNiro, Chris Kattan, Poehler, Seth Meyers, Richards

Thoughts- God: I have decided to step down as God. You’re new God is Wesley Jamison. Thank you. Yes that’s right folks- Wesley Jamison is the man!!! He’s so much of a man that Steven William Regal went: Wow- he’s a man. Such a man. He’s a real, real man’s man. This skit was hilarious and reeked of tons of awesomeness. DeNiro just played it so cool that I felt like I was watching Casino, Goodfellas and Godfather: Part II back to back to back. Anywho a few minor flaws with this skit but overall it was pretty awesome and right up there with McCain sings Babs for awesome skits this year. ****1/2

 

Santa Clause

Cast- DeNiro, Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Parnell

Thoughts- This skit started out really funny but two things bothered me

1) The skit well stopped being funny

2) What does DeNiro see in Maya Rudolph? I mean Tina and Amy are RIGHT THERE!

 

Anywho- this skit had great potential to be on the level of Peter Pan but it took a nosedive midway through and really hurt the quality of the skit. **1/2

 

UN Weapon Inspectors

Cast- DeNiro, Fallon, Fred Armisen

Thoughts- Well shizzam. Even though it was only like 40 seconds the one joke in it was hysterically funny. Of course I can’t give it ***** so to be fair I’ll give it- ***1/2, even though it was extremely funny.

 

Judge Horace

Cast- DeNiro, Horatio Sanz, Morgan, Forte

Thoughts- This was spoofing either Judge Joe Brown or Judge Greg Mathis. One thing about Will Forte- his voice is friggin’ annoying so like in order for him to be on my good list he should only be in skits where his voice being annoying is the funny part. Make him Jacob Silgh’s son or something. Aside from that this had its moments of hilarity, moments of mediocrity and moments of suckery. But of course Tracy Morgan in drag is always good for a laugh. **1/4

 

Nora Jones

Thoughts- The song is good but the presentation was boring. **1/2

 

WU

Cast- Tina Fey, Fallon, Morgan, Rudolph, Kattan, Dratch

Thoughts- Keep Team Black Hole of Suck off of my Weekend Update. Tracy as the sweat induced Bobby Brown was hilarious while team Black Hole of Suck well sucked a huge black hole. The jokes were pretty good this week- as a Canadian I especially enjoyed the jab at curling. Jimmy had his usual clunkers but we’ve grown to expect that. I wish I could say that’s part of his charm but well it isn’t. Still- good stuff from the Update crew. ***1/2

 

 

Versace

Cast- Keitel, DeNiro,Rudolph, Sanz, Poehler

Thoughts- You know what I realised- Maya Rudolph sucks and has a lot of horrible recurring characters. Granted that isn’t saying much but Wake up Wakefield, Subway Fred is now named Reggie and Versace all suck huge. I fail to see the appeal in the Versace skits as they always seem to be the low point. Versace sucks so much that it even managed to suck in the Hugh Jackman God like show where everything was awesome. Anywho- the Harvey Keitel cameo was pretty bitching and Horatio as Ozzy provided a chuckle or two and Amy in a British accent will always make me happy. Sadly the rest of the skit made me want to reach for the remote control and watch Hockey Night in Canada. *3/4

 

Buying a Car

Cast- DeNiro, Poehler, Meyers

Thoughts- Amy and Seth in a skit together! As much as I enjoy Seth, the fact that he is a Boston Bruins fan made me enjoy seeing him get slapped around like a little bitch and had me enjoying this skit a lot. You gotta wonder about this guy’s word of mouth though. ***

 

Dad with Son

Cast- DeNiro, Kattan

Thoughts- The Mets pennant greatly angered me but the story DeNiro told was pretty funny and made the skit work. This skit reminded me a lot of the baseball players skit in 1997 but sadly- no cameos by Pedro Borbon or Gerald Williams. Still good enough. **1/2

 

Nora Jones

Thoughts- Again, she was good and all but she needed like some pyro, some dancing girls and maybe an explosion or something.**1/2

 

Radioactive Bear

Cast- DeNiro, Parnell, Fallon, Hammond

Thoughts- Not bad for the last skit and it kept the episodes run of mediocrity alive.

 

Dean Edwards: Will Forte’s hazing is having a bear do him in the ass while mine is having to have Chris Kattan’s balls in my face?

Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton: A dis is an outtarage

 

Like I said- good stuff especially for the last skit. At first I thought this was going to be the bear from the Winona Ryder episode and then someone told me they thought it was going to be the Christmas Song but it ended up just being a bear doing Will Forte in the ass.

 

Brian Kinney: Not that there’s anything wrong with that. **3/4

 

The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.8 stars which makes this episode a thumbs up. This episode benefited from having like a skits in the high ** range and no real awful skits while similar shows like this have a Jack Handey and a DUD at the end to really drag down the average. I wish there had been some funnier stuff but I was satisfied with this episode and the Peter Pan skit rocked my world.

 

Thumbs Up

[Guest MDH257]

The show was average to good. Nothing was bad, but nothing was great. Norah Jones needed pyro and dancing girls? Do you want her to be like everyone else?

[Guest bob_barron]

At 12:50 in the morning- yes.

 

I mean the music was good but it's just not interesting at all especially when I was really tired

[Guest starvenger]

Dancing girls and pyro for a jazz singer? Well, if it worked for Shania Twain...

 

I think Jones was hampered by the time constraints imposed on the musical guest. The breaks where you'd expect some lenghty instrumental solos were kept very simple.

 

On the plus side, maybe they'll now consider having Diana Krall as a musical guest.

 

Also, if they had let DeNiro ad lib the lines a bit more, I think he would have looked less stiff. Then again, maybe all he needed was some Mattitude...

 

Big-n-Tasty is strangely reminiscent of Happy Fun Ball from years ago. Big-n-Tasty also confused the hell out of me when I started working in Houston since it's called "Big Xtra" in Canada.

[Guest godthedog]

eh...i wasn't impressed with it. de niro was totally out of his element, i kept wanting to scream "stop looking at the teleprompter! stop it!" also, since he was lost without it, it screwed up his timing & in general wasn't nearly as funny as he could've been.

 

plus the writing has sucked nonstop since 1994, but that's not his fault.

[Guest GeneMean]

Norah Jones was excellent if nothing else than for the fact that you know, she was actually playing her own damn instrument and not making up crap over the top of someone else's old song, all the while having some other 'featured' musician appearing alongside. I too would LOVE to see Diana Krall on the show someday.

 

Fun show overall for me. The open was grand and Peter Pan owned on so many levels.

 

The bear skit at the end though .. ugh .. I don't know what is worse having Forte being on the receiving end or having Armisen in that suit (i thought i spied him after it was over anyway) being the giver.

 

DeNiro did seem awful stiff throughout and in a couple of places felt like he just wanted to get the show over with.

[Guest Nevermortal]

Maya Rudolph is the hottest chick on SNL right now.

 

If you disagree with me, YA DIE

[Guest LooseCannon]

Thomas Jefferson

Cast- DeNiro, Fallon, Amy Poehler, Rudolph, Chris Parnell, Tracy Morgan, Will Forte

Thoughts- Robert DeNiro was hilarious in this skit because well he seemed to be missing his cues, trying not to laugh AND looking at cue cards all at the same time. This was hit and miss with the slave jokes being really funny. It was odd they picked Maya Rudolph to be a slave in this skit since she didn’t really look like she was black. Tracy’s monologue at the end helped save it. **

I think part of the humor of this skit was supposed to be that DeNiro himself has a reputation for dating black women. But I think it was over most of the viewing audiences heads.

 

Overal a few great skits, while the rest were crap. The santa claus skit was well worth the tedium just for Chris Parnell's "Oh well, you're loss line." If they had ended the skit like that, it would've been well more funny. Peter Pan was probably the best.

[Guest bob_barron]

Nevermortal- Do we agree on ANYTHING????

 

Maya Rudolph is not the hottest women on SNL- I'd rank her #3. She's decent all but I wouldn't do her.

 

For Jefferson- I was thinking that but Maya Rudolph really isn't black.

 

GodtheDog-

SNL doesn't use telepromptors, they use cue cards. And yes he was looking at them a fair amount.

[Guest The Electrifyer]

"I was thinking that but Maya Rudolph really isn't black."

 

Yeah, I thought they would have played up on the fact that Maya wasn't black. Oh well, Tracy Morgan was pretty, as always, in the end of that skit.

[Guest MDH257]

I was thinking that but Maya Rudolph really isn't black.

Her Dad is a music producer named Richard Rudolph, her Mom was was the late singer Minny Ripperton, who was black.

 

She's half Black, half Jewish.

 

My Dad is white, my Mom is hispanic, I have dark skin, and a German last name. But, when I'm asked to identify my racial background I answer hispanic (if mixed isn't an option), because that's how I'm going to get judged.

 

Look at Tiger Woods. He has at least 5 different ethinc bloods in his background (including his Mom being Asian), but people identify him as Black.

 

Maya's skin is light enough that she can impersonate white celebities on the show, but in the end she's considered Black or at least mixed.

[Guest bob_barron]

I always just considered her to be mixed cause I've met her in person and yea- she's like 50/50

[Guest MDH257]

I consider myself mixed as well, but the papers you fill out when you enroll at school or apply for a job hardly ever give you that option.

[Guest bob_barron]

Yea- I've never seen the mixed option either.

 

Is anyone looking forward to next week's show?? I mean I have no idea why Gore is hosting and even though McCain kicked ass- he isn't boring as fuck.

 

I'm gonna be at SNL Friday and if I can get some skit spoilers- I'll post them up on the board

[Guest godthedog]

Yea- I've never seen the mixed option either.

 

Is anyone looking forward to next week's show?? I mean I have no idea why Gore is hosting and even though McCain kicked ass- he isn't boring as fuck.

 

I'm gonna be at SNL Friday and if I can get some skit spoilers- I'll post them up on the board

did you catch gore recently on letterman? he was quite animated & really really funny.

[Guest bob_barron]

I saw him on Letterman and I didn't really find him to be too funny- then again I'm pretty biased.

 

I will try my hardest to keep an open mind and give Gore a fair review- hopefully he'll be willing to do anything and isn't scared about his image or anything- cause the show could be a lot of fun

[Guest The Electrifyer]

I'm looking forward to Gore, although I'd rather just see Darrel Hammond just immitate Gore for 1 hour 30 minutes.

[Guest bob_barron]

I always found Hammond's Gore to be quite overrated. He was too into being Al Gore (boring) then being funny. (good)

[Guest treble charged]

Gore was sort of funny on Letterman. Bob, you even admitted you liked the restaurant joke (even if that wasn't really funny because of Gore).

[Guest bob_barron]

Wow- he had one joke that was funny!

 

He could always suprise us and I hope he does.

[Guest hardyz1]

Hammond as Gore was damn funny. Remember the episode a little after the 2000 election when he was explaining how complicated the Florida ballots were? Good stuff.

 

Hous bin Farteen