SNL Review

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Janet Jackson

 

Sports Report-

 

Leafs v. Senators: Eddie Belfour is God. Seriously- the fact that I ever doubted this man’s ability in net makes me feel stupid and I wish I could apologise to him since he has been nothing but spectacular in net. The Leafs don’t deserve to have a 2-1 lead but I’m not going to complain. I just hope the Leafs don’t think they can rely on Eddie’s God-like abilities for every game since their luck may run out soon. Viva la Eddie.

 

Devils v. Flyers: I know I picked the Devils in 6 and that prediction is looking pretty stupid. I thought Scott Stevens would be ready for the playoffs and I didn’t expect Martin Brodeur to be as shaky in net as he has been. They won last night so hopefully they can bounce back and salvage the series.

 

Canucks v. Flames: I don’t know whether to jump for joy or get more nervous now that Cloutier is out and Hedberg is in. I get nervous everytime Cloutier has to make a save and part of me is thinking: Well now the goalie in net…is worse then Dan Cloutier. But then again Johan Hedburg was great in 2001 so we’ll see what happens. I’m very cautiously optimistic about this series and at least they took back home ice.

 

Nets- This past week has been pretty pointless for them. They’ve had the #2 seed for a long time so every game is meaningless. K-Mart and Kidd seem like they are healthy so everything looks to be fine for the Nets. I hope the Knicks end up with the seventh seed because a Nets v. Knicks series would be a lot of fun to watch.

 

Braves- The season has not started off on a good note for the Braves as they are 3-4. John Smoltz and Mike Hampton have gotten off to an awful starts. But it’s very early and the Braves never play that well in April anyway. I’m just nervous since I really want to see them win the division title again and prove everyone wrong.

 

 

Mailbag!!!!!!

 

Nothing again this week. I think Emily Spivey scared everyone away.

 

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

 

 

I noticed Sean forgot to post my Ben Affleck review so if you haven’t read it you can read it here-

 

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=52656

 

And now the review….

 

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Janet Jackson, Darrell Hammond

Thoughts- I must give kudos to Janet as she did a great Condaleeza Rice impression. Almost as good as her performance as Charlene on Diff’rent Strokes. I’m very glad that they had Darrell do Dick Cheney since his Cheney is actually pretty funny while is George Bush is cringe inducing. This was very funny and I enjoyed the impressions and the political jokes. I’m glad they got the boob jokes out of the way since you know they were going to make them- you just had to hope they were funny. I thought the skit started to drag when they got to the boob jokes but the rest of the skit was very funny and this was a great cold opening. ***3/4

 

Monologue

Cast- Jackson

Thoughts- I really don’t see the point in making another boob joke since the incident is two months old and no one really cared about it when it happened in the first place. I in fact remember when I first heard of this controversy:

 

Global Newscaster: Controversy at the Super Bowl!

Me: Huh- that’s odd. I don’t remember any controversial calls during the game. (sees clip of Janet) Ohhhhhhh

 

Plus it wasn’t even that funny. If they were going to do a Jackson Home Movie skit they might as well have tried to push the boundary of good taste by having footage of their abusive dad or Michael getting too close to one of the skits. Seeing a wardrobe malfunction at a young age is just lame. *1/2

 

Brian Fellows

Cast- Tracy Morgan, Jackson, Will Forte

Thoughts- Nooooooooooooooooooo- I thought Tracy leaving meant the end of this skit but alas. I know he’s disappointed that his attempt to rip off the Bernie Mac Show failed but that’s no reason to have to subject us to this crap. This was an okay Brian Fellows- I really thought the 9.11 joke with the squirrel was hilarious and some of his interaction with Forte was alright. The rest of the skit was the usual Brian Fellows junk that was never funny in the first place and isn’t funny now. **1/4

 

Stahkisha

Cast- Jackson, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, Fred Armisen

Thoughts- Another bad recurring character. Is that the theme of tonight’s show? This was decent but the whole Stahkisha character is just not funny. Just like it wasn’t funny in the Halle Berry show nor was it that good on Update. The Parnell-Kenan interaction was pretty funny and I thought Amy’s attempts to fit in were cute. Fred’s random cameo at the end was well quite random. Janet poking fun at herself was alright but the burn zings weren’t really that burnful. Like, Brian Fellows- I hope we don’t see this ever again. **

 

An Easter Treat from SNL

Cast- Simon Cowell, Chris Kattan, Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz

Thoughts- YES!!! THE CHRISTMAS SONG RETURNS!!! This is one of my favourite recurring characters and the Christmas Song never gets old in my opinion. This was the perfect way to use Simon and I’m glad they didn’t stick him in any skits. And as much as I hate Chris Kattan but if they were going to bring him back then this is the perfect way to use him. Simon Cowell calling the guys out on the whole absurdity of the Christmas Song was great stuff and it was fun seeing him go back and forth with the guys. My one complaint is that they challenged Simon to sing and he ended up not doing any singing. What’s the deal with that? This was great and I loved seeing the Christmas Song one more time. ****1/4

 

Janet Jackson

Thoughts- I don’t really recall her actually singing during this set but this was a pretty decent song to listen to and it didn’t give me much to make fun of which is either a good thing or a bad thing- I’ll let you make the call. **1/4

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Tina Fey, Fallon, Rudolph, Mitchell

Thoughts- Not to worry. Weekend Update’s one week of suckery was just a one week thing. Thankfully no objects fell on anyone’s head but unfortunately, Maya was back at the Update desk. But you know what? I actually thought she was pretty funny here and it looks like SNL was 2-2 on the Condaleeza Rice impressions. I thought Finesse’s Kevin Eubanks was also pretty funny. As someone who has had to suffer through many a Tonight Show it was nice to see someone finally take a shot at the worst bandleader ever. At least Max Weinberg is funny. The jokes were really funny with only a few clunkers. I really loved the Jewel teeth joke and the Alabama spirit joke.. Of course Jimmy had to turn the Jewel teeth joke into a stupid song that wasn’t funny and kind of ended Update on a downer. This was MUCH better then last weeks and I’m glad to see that they rebounded from it. ****

 

The Prince Show

Cast- Jackson, Rudolph, Thompson, Armisen

Thoughts- Decisions, decisions. Do I flip over to the Mean Girls trailer on ShopTV or do I watch SNL? This skit made my decision a lot easier as I didn’t feel guilty about flipping over and catching the trailer and skipping a few seconds. I remember they did this in the Barrymore show and it was okay. This really wasn’t very funny and I don’t think this needed to be a recurring character. Janet as Paula was not very funny and added nothing. Kenan as Steve Harvey was pretty funny and I wish they had given it more time. The Prince stuff wasn’t funny at all. No one even remembers the Grammys so I don’t even know why they did this is again. *1/2

 

Corksoakers

Cast- Jackson, Parnell, Sanz, Fallon, Hammond, Seth Meyers, Dratch, Rudolph, Armisen

Thoughts- Oh man- this was just awesome. Now people who know me know that the word ‘cock’ is one of my favourite words in the English language and I also believe it to be one of the funniest. It just rolls off the tongue and it’s just so so funny. So I was very happy to see SNL make a skit out of one of my favourite words. I’m not going to come down on Janet for laughing since I’m sure she was afraid of pissing off the FCC again with a slip of the tongue. This had so many great and hilarious quotable lines and I just couldn’t stop laughing the whole way through and almost every double entendre was just awesome. SNL needs to do more piss off the censor skits like this because they always seem to be tremendously funny and I just like watching them play beat the censor. A great skit and kudos to everyone for that one. ****1/2

 

Janet Jackson

Thoughts- I didn’t necessarily care for the song (and the guy with the cowboy getup seriously freaked me out) but kudos to Miss Jackson- that was one SEXY performance and it was very nice to watch. Janet, thankfully, did not violate one of my rules for female musicians:

 

If you are a hot piece of ass with not a lot of talent, you must compensate by showing lots of skin and deliver a performance that will attempt to turn me on.

 

Yes I know that’s incredibly sexist and somewhat politically incorrect but all I ask is to be entertained. And if you can’t entertain me via music- show off what else you got. Thankfully Janet did that and I was quite the happy viewer. **1/2

 

Good Times

Cast- Morgan, Jackson, Parnell, Mitchell, Thompson, JB Smoove

Thoughts- Couldn’t they have just gotten Jimmie Walker? A quick check of his imdb bio reveals that he recently has made guest spots on ER and George Lopez. He also was in Home Alone 2! Now that’s dy-no-mite! I don’t really know much about Mr. Smoove but occasionally he does the warm-up and is apparently not very funny. A quick check of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, Seventh Edition reveals had this been an actual episode of Good Times it would’ve taken place around 1977 since Penny and Mr. Bookman didn’t come on until then. I’ve never seen an episode of Good Times, I just know it’s a spin-off of the Jeffersons and it airs early in the morning on TBS. A lot of the jokes were lost on me here but I was still laughing so I think I’m going to have to bust out the Tom Green rating. The Tom Green rating was invented during the Tom Green/David Gray show when the skits were so absurd and just so out there that I had no way of rating them. So I decided to just cop out and slap **1/2 and move on. The fact that they did a full length Good Times parody when they knew it’d be lost on most of the audience is very admirable and SNL deserves a gold star. It’s just a shame I never watched Good Times (Well not really- it sounds like a screwed up show) cause I’d like to give this a higher rating. Still kudos for the effort and for being the first skit in a very long time to earn the Tom Green rating. **1/2

 

Boom Boomer

Cast- Jackson, Dratch, Meyers, Poehler, Parnell, Mitchell

Thoughts- Don’t really get what the heck this was supposed to be but it was the last skit of the show so you might as well just go out there and see if you can do anything to get a laugh. I did laugh when Parnell came back with coke on his nose but the whole Boom Boomer game was pretty much lost on me and I didn’t really see the humour in any of it. Better luck next time. ¾*

 

The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.6 making this a thumbs up show. There was a lot of great stuff here (three **** skits) but the mountain of mediocrity brought it down quite a bit. I was disappointed that once again Seth and Will did not get a lot of airtime but they were funny in their limited roles and the show was able to compensate with the Christmas Song and Corksoakers. Janet didn’t really add anything to the show aside from her great performance in the cold opening so I’m glad they were able to work around that since last week they were stonewalled by Donald Trump and his black hole of suck. A good show and hopefully they can end the season on a high note with a good last three shows.

 

Thumbs Up

[razazteca 0]

Worst.Host.Ever. All Janet did was laugh in every single skit she did.

[bob_barron 0]

Worst.Host.Ever. All Janet did was laugh in every single skit she did.

I think you missed last week's episode. Or the Andy Roddick show.

 

I didn't notice Janet cracking up that much- well except for Cork Soakers when it was blatantly obvious.

[Ripper 0]

You shoudl be kicked 12 time in each nut individually then one more really REALLY hard kick to them both while catching just a little bit of the cock for never watching good times.

 

Thats all I got.

[bob_barron 0]

You shoudl be kicked 12 time in each nut individually then one more really REALLY hard kick to them both while catching just a little bit of the cock for never watching good times.

 

Thats all I got.

In my defence- the only time it's ever on is at 7 am.

 

Do you expect me to get up and watch it?

[Ripper 0]

You shoudl be kicked 12 time in each nut individually then one more really REALLY hard kick to them both while catching just a little bit of the cock for never watching good times. 

 

Thats all I got.

In my defence- the only time it's ever on is at 7 am.

 

Do you expect me to get up and watch it?

well...yeah.

 

You should be up anyway going to work. That the american way, Commie.

[bob_barron 0]

You shoudl be kicked 12 time in each nut individually then one more really REALLY hard kick to them both while catching just a little bit of the cock for never watching good times. 

 

Thats all I got.

In my defence- the only time it's ever on is at 7 am.

 

Do you expect me to get up and watch it?

well...yeah.

 

You should be up anyway going to work. That the american way, Commie.

I live in Canada bitch.

[2GOLD 0]

Worst.Host.Ever. All Janet did was laugh in every single skit she did.

 

 

So, she was the host version of painfully unfunny Jimmy Fallon?

[RepoMan 0]

Whats with all the Brial Fellows hate?

[razazteca 0]

Worst.Host.Ever.  All Janet did was laugh in every single skit she did.

I think you missed last week's episode. Or the Andy Roddick show.

 

I didn't notice Janet cracking up that much- well except for Cork Soakers when it was blatantly obvious.

Janet laughed in the opening skit when she did the Condelza Rice character at the time when she was on trial and shown here nipple ring again.

 

Janet laughed when she was on the Brian Fellows skit discussing how the squirrel glides and does not really fly.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Whats with all the Brial Fellows hate?

It got horribly overdone despite running out of proper jokes a long time ago to the point of happening twice this season when Tracy Morgan isn't even on the cast anymore. At least the Al Sharpton one was a BIT different with Sharpton as Ryan Fellows.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Cold Opening

Cast- Janet Jackson, Darrell Hammond

-Janet was good. Darrell was good. Didn't go on too long. **1/2

 

Monologue

Cast- Jackson

-Yeah yeah, 2 book jokes in 2 skits, we know already. The only funny part was Janet talking about her other 3 siblings who's names she didn't remember. 1/2*

 

Brian Fellows

Cast- Tracy Morgan, Jackson, Will Forte

-Lay an egg Barron! Brian Fellow's Safari Planet owns your ass! While not even close to the best Fellow's bit, it wasn't bad. These always make me laugh. Although I would have much rather seen Astro Jones. ***

 

Stahkisha

Cast- Jackson, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, Fred Armisen

-Finesse Mitchell is not funny. I'm sorry, but the one random time he does something alright he does 5 things this bad. Kenan's bit was good, but not enough. I like that Janet will make fun of herself, but it just wasn't funny...except Kenan. He keeps it from DUD! 1/2*

 

An Easter Treat from SNL

Cast- Simon Cowell, Chris Kattan, Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz

-As far as SNL goes, this is a guilt pleasure of mine. I would rather just see it at Christmas, but the Simon twist was a very good one, and I'm glad the guy will poke fun at himself. ****1/2

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Tina Fey, Fallon, Rudolph, Mitchell

-Maya wasn't bad. Mitchell wasn't awful. But Jimmy's song sucked good and just wasn't needed. Overall a good WU. ***1/2

 

The Prince Show

Cast- Jackson, Rudolph, Thompson, Armisen

-Beh, I get it. Prince is a weirdo, while I like Fred's take on it, it's just not a funny bit. Although I did like the look of shock/scare Prince got after Kenan said something (can't remember what it was though) *

 

Corksoakers

Cast- Jackson, Parnell, Sanz, Fallon, Hammond, Seth Meyers, Dratch, Rudolph, Armisen

-I'm all for toliet humor. Everyone was good enough...although Parnell just bugged me. Janet's laughing was ok, she's not a regular like Fallon or Sanz, so I'll give her a pass. I was thinking this was going to be a rehash of the wine spitting bit, but it was a good turn. Hope they can keep turning these skits into something new. ***1/2

 

Good Times

Cast- Morgan, Jackson, Parnell, Mitchell, Thompson, JB Smoove

-That was more or less a legit good times ep. Something good happens, and something worse happens, and evil whitey is there to ruin the day. Decient enough skit. "Is this a bad time to tell you I've got sickle cell?" got a good laugh. **

 

Boom Boomer

Cast- Jackson, Dratch, Meyers, Poehler, Parnell, Mitchell

-Ok, I get it. The guy likes coke, enough. 1/2*

 

Three 1/2* bits, but the rest was good enough. Better then the Trump show.

[bob_barron 0]

Janet laughed in the opening skit when she did the Condelza Rice character at the time when she was on trial and shown here nipple ring again.

 

Janet laughed when she was on the Brian Fellows skit discussing how the squirrel glides and does not really fly.

 

Hmmmm- I didn't notice it but I will take your word for it. I think I was so happy to have a host not named Donald Trump that I overlooked Janet's flaws.

 

Whats with all the Brial Fellows hate?

 

It's one of those skits that has never been funny yet they keep doing it over and over again.

 

I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!

 

That's great, now shut the fuck up and move on to the next skit.

 

It's never appealed to me and it expaserates me that they keep doing it. Also- for some reason SNL ALWAYS does Brian Fellows and Versace whenever I attend a dress rehearsal and it pisses me off.

[bob_barron 0]

Monologue

Cast- Jackson

-Yeah yeah, 2 book jokes in 2 skits, we know already. The only funny part was Janet talking about her other 3 siblings who's names she didn't remember. 1/2*

 

I agree here- I did get a big laugh over Janet not knowing the names of her siblings. The rest was the usual shitty monologue.

 

Brian Fellows

Cast- Tracy Morgan, Jackson, Will Forte

-Lay an egg Barron! Brian Fellow's Safari Planet owns your ass! While not even close to the best Fellow's bit, it wasn't bad. These always make me laugh. Although I would have much rather seen Astro Jones. ***

 

Brian Fellows Safari Planet will never ever own my ass. I've never ever gotten the appeal of it. Tracy Morgan has so much good to offer the world- yet this is the one character people focus on. It's a shame.

 

Stahkisha

Cast- Jackson, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, Fred Armisen

-Finesse Mitchell is not funny. I'm sorry, but the one random time he does something alright he does 5 things this bad. Kenan's bit was good, but not enough. I like that Janet will make fun of herself, but it just wasn't funny...except Kenan. He keeps it from DUD! 1/2*

 

Damn you Kenan Thompson. I was so close to getting a joy of a DUD! but he had to ruin for it. I'm still not that big of a Finesse Mitchell fan. Kenan is smoking him in the funny black guy department and I wonder if they will bother to bring him back.

 

An Easter Treat from SNL

Cast- Simon Cowell, Chris Kattan, Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz

-As far as SNL goes, this is a guilt pleasure of mine. I would rather just see it at Christmas, but the Simon twist was a very good one, and I'm glad the guy will poke fun at himself. ****1/2

 

I love the fact that they now do it at the most of random of times. Like the time they did it during the finale etc. Who knew that something featuring Chris Kattan would become a guilty pleasure of mine?

 

 

Corksoakers

Cast- Jackson, Parnell, Sanz, Fallon, Hammond, Seth Meyers, Dratch, Rudolph, Armisen

-I'm all for toliet humor. Everyone was good enough...although Parnell just bugged me. Janet's laughing was ok, she's not a regular like Fallon or Sanz, so I'll give her a pass. I was thinking this was going to be a rehash of the wine spitting bit, but it was a good turn. Hope they can keep turning these skits into something new. ***1/2

 

When I first saw the outfits I remembered the wine spitting skit from Jack Black and wondered why the heck they were doing this again. Parnell was so out of place in that skit. I guess he was supposed to be with Janet- but it seemed like he was gay. I'm not going to pick apart a skit that uses the word cock as a humour device.

 

Boom Boomer

Cast- Jackson, Dratch, Meyers, Poehler, Parnell, Mitchell

-Ok, I get it. The guy likes coke, enough. 1/2*

 

I have to ask YNA- How did this not get a DUD!?

[Vern Gagne 0]

Good Times was a spin off of Maude who spun off from All in the Family.

 

The sketch itself was mediocre but every serious dilema did happened on an episode.

[bob_barron 0]

All in the Family is actually the most spun-off show ever.

 

All in the Family spun off Maude, the Jeffersons and Gloria.

 

Some people call Archie Bunker's Place a spin-off of AITF but the TV book I referenced in my review lists AITF and Archie Bunker's Place as one series.

 

Maude spun off Good Times.

 

The Jeffersons spun off Checking In.

 

The show Hanging In was originally supposed to be a new version of Maude where Maude was a congresswoman. The series eventually got changed around and the star ended up being Bill Macy who played Maude's husband.

 

There's also 704 Hauser which came out in 1994. On this show a black family lived in the Bunker's old residence. Maura Tierney was on that show.

 

Thanks for the Good Times info Verne. If I'm ever up for it- I'll check it out