SNL Review

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Jason Bateman/Kelly Clarkson

 

Next week’s review is going to be a little late. I’m going to be at Ring of Honor while SNL is on and since I won’t have a VCR near me- I won’t be able to watch it on a tape. My hope is to find a torrent of it online and watch it that way. The worst case scenario is that I won’t have a review up until the end of February, but I’ll do my best to get a review up as soon as humanely possible.

 

Tribute:

 

Johnny Carson: I totally forgot to pay tribute to him last week, which is my bad. I was too young to watch him on the Tonight Show but I’ve always enjoyed the clips I’ve seen on TV and hey- without Johnny there’d be no SNL. And the jokes he wrote for David Letterman were pretty funny. He’ll be missed.

 

SNL MOMENT #9:

 

9. Mr Subliminal and a cliffhanger cap off amazing Update

 

People met the announcement that Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon would be anchoring Weekend Update with great scepticism, myself included. No one knew who Tina Fey was and many people thought Jimmy was better suited for skits. Fallon and Fey managed to prove everyone wrong and by December they were churning out ****+ Updates week after week. They were very close to the elusive ***** but for various reasons they never got there and even hovered at ****3/4 a few times. The Christopher Walken Update was a culmination of all of this great work throughout the season and it all came together in a memorable WU- an WU that saw Tina and Jimmy finally achieve perfection, with the help of some outside friends.

 

THE MOMENT:

 

The jokes start off fast and furious. One of the earlier lets you know you’re witnessing something special as it would become my favourite joke Tina ever told. The crowd seems to really like it as well.

 

At a South Dakota school this week, a police officer roamed the school with an unloaded gun to test the response. The school past with flying colors when concerned students spotted the gun and shot him.

 

Chris Kattan shows up and does a terrible re-enactment but not even he can kill the momentum this Update is building up and his terrible re-enactment is in fact pretty funny.

 

They go back to the jokes with Tina getting a memorable quip on Bill Clinton that takes Jimmy a second to get. No bad jokes yet, all of them have been funny. Even Jimmy’s Old Timey Joke Corner works. Jimmy gets set to introduce the commentary, which can always kill a good Update. Not this one. Doing the commentary is:

 

KEVIN NEALON AS MR. SUBLIMINAL!

 

Nealon gets a pretty big ovation from the crowd as they give the old time Anchor some love. Nealon is here to give a friendly reminder to people that he is not on the show and that fans who think he is are just watching reruns on Comedy Central. Nealon is hitting on all cylinders here as he calls Tina Fey a lesbo and mentions Molly is doing porno(subliminally of course). The crowd gives a nice OOOOOOOOO on the lesbo remark. He even gets a dig on Jimmy. (He gets called a lesbo as well)

 

Jimmy shakes his hand and thanks him and it’s back to more jokes. I’m waiting for one of these jokes to not work but it’s not happening- they’re all funny and all of them are working- can they can keep this up?

 

And then the part that puts the Update over the top: THE WEEKEND UPDATE CLIFFHANGER!

 

Jimmy is now wearing glasses which vexes Tina and they wonder- will he wear them next season? And when did he get those glasses anyway?

 

Out of nowhere Winona Ryder walks in and announces she’s pregnant and one of them is going to be the father of her baby. Tina and Jimmy look at each other stunned and both say ‘Oh my God I’m going to be a fath’ before they are cut off by a To Be Continued. Jimmy, Tina and Winona both have stunned faces but Winona loses hers and starts laughing at the absurdity of it all and the audience is laughing along with them knowing they’ve witnessed history.

 

The Update ends. All the jokes were funny, including some truly hilarious ones, and the two commentaries rocked. They had been working at this all season getting so damn close on several occasions that it was painful not to give them *****. But in their last Update of the season, it all came together and they finally achieved what they had been reaching for all season.

 

Sports Report-

 

Nets- They had been on a really good run but they’re coming off two bad losses to the Lakers and Spurs. Both games saw them blow leads and were games they could’ve conceivably won. They have some tough games coming up but if Vince can keep shooting lights out like he has been- I see no reason why they can’t at least be competitive.

 

Mailbag!!!!!!!!!!-

 

Chad Ruffner writes-

 

Raw this past Monday Night was an average, middle of The Road show, IMO. I didn't like It as much as some people did partly because I expected the actual wrestling factor to be turned up a notch since they were broadcasting from Japan. But what we actually got for the most part was O.K. Benoit and Jericho had a solid Submission Match, actually better than their previous effort 3 weeks ago. I'm actually Intrigued to see where this Randy Orton Post Concussion Storyline Is headed. However, knowing The Creative Team for The past 4 years, I'm not going to get my hopes up to high. There Is a lot of T.V. between now and W.M.21, so I'm not going to be too hard on them this week,though. What did you think? Later, Chad

 

I thought RAW was a really good show on Monday. Benoit-Jericho was a very good but too short match and I really enjoyed HHH v. Edge. The Batista-HHH build-up continues to be very well done and I’m looking forward to the eventual turn by Big Dave. Any show where Regal and Tajiri win the tag titles is good enough for me.

 

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

 

And now the review….

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Seth Meyers, Maya Rudolph, Horatio Sanz, Chris Parnell, Will Forte, Fred Armisen

Thoughts- I know Horatio’s done Kim Jong before and it wasn’t really that funny. Seeing all the cast in Korean get-up with the Korean accents was pretty funny and I liked the pandering to Kim Jong. Seth did a pretty good Brian Williams even though he really doesn’t look anything like him. This skit dragged a bit too much and Horatio really didn’t have any good lines. I would’ve liked to have seen them focus more on something like Howard Dean, that would’ve been easier to get laughs out of. **1/4

 

Monologue

Cast- Jason Bateman, Amy Poehler

Thoughts- This was quite the shameless plug for Arrested Development. I mean it’s not like the show’s ratings are that bad. I wonder if Amy became attracted to Will when he was on the very short lived TV series, the Mike O’Malley show. Amy and Bateman had good chemistry here and they played off each other really well. Even though I don’t like her on WU, Amy can still make me laugh when she’s not at the desk and I thought she was very funny here. I thought the teasing of GOB!~ was very cruel and really not nice. As was the fact that there were rumours of ADers cameoing on the show and then a grand total of 0 cast members were on. But this was funny so I shouldn’t complain too much. ***1/4

 

Me-Harmony

Cast- Rudolph, Sanz, Forte, Meyers, Kenan Thompson, Rob Riggle

Thoughts- I don’t really know exactly what they were spoofing. I think they just used this as another excuse to get Kenan Thompson in woman’s clothing since Kenan in drag is always funny. Other then that this was pretty pedestrian stuff- seeing the other castmembers in drag really wasn’t that funny. I did laugh at the two gay Seths though. **3/4

 

Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities

Cast- Bateman, Parnell, Forte, Darrell Hammond, Meyers, Poehler, Thompson

Thoughts- So you have Jason Bateman who has a great mind for comedy and can play straight man to almost any bizarre situation. So you put him in a skit involving poop? Seriously? What the hell? Darrell’s Sean Connery was really off and the whole:

 

Sean: The monkey is going to throw poop at me!

Host: No he isn’t.

 

::Repeat for 20 minutes::

 

well it got really old pretty fast. I guess I was supposed to laugh when the monkey finally threw the poop at Connery but by that point I had given up on this skit and it was blatantly obvious the monkey wasn’t throwing the poop. I loved the ending with three of my favourite impressions- I wish Seth’s Carrot Top would get more exposure on the show since I think it’s great. The impressions at the end weren’t enough to make the skit good or anything but it did save from DUDsville. *1/2

 

Important Black History Moment

Cast- Bateman, Forte, Meyers, Finesse Mitchell

Thoughts- I marked out for the retro hairdos and it had a clever premise. I don’t think the punchline at the end was as funny as it should’ve been but I’ll give them credit for trying. **1/2

 

TT and Mario

Cast- Bateman, Poehler, Rudolph, Thompson

Thoughts- At first I was worried they were bringing back Ashford and Simpson but thankfully we got to see SNL play Beat the Censor again. Jason Bateman was awesome here and I was laughing at everything he was doing. The songs themselves were pretty hit and miss. I laughed at the implied anal sex and the more raunchy material but a lot of it was just way too generic and they used the word booty too much. Maya bugged me as usual but I thought Kenan picked up the slack. The ending made no sense and killed some of the good momentum this skit was building. Still, passable raunchiness and Jason Bateman’s awesomeness made this good. ***1/4

 

Subway

Cast- Kelly Clarkson, Bateman, Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Armisen, Sanz, Forte, Parnell, Riggle, Thompson, Mitchell, Assclown

Thoughts- I’ve encountered the Mexican mariachi band before on the subway. They’re pretty hit and miss. I’ve never seen the blind homeless singer, the faux homeless barbershop quartet or the people who sell M&Ms and then break dance. Usually people sell batteries instead of M&Ms but they never sell batteries/M&Ms and then break dance. I guess I should be talking about the skit, but it was pretty terrible, so talking about riding the subway is more entertaining. A couple of funny lines by Rachel and some good ones from Bateman (the Cabbage Patch thing) but the majority of the skit was weak. None of the subway performers were funny even though I did laugh at the “We’re not homeless” line. Kelly Clarkson was terrible here and the ending made no sense. They tried but nothing really clicked here. *

 

Black History

Cast- Parnell, Mitchell

Thoughts- This was the best of the three black history skits they had even though it was kind of racist. Parnell trying to explain the benefits of direct deposit was actually pretty funny. I wonder if Black History Month is the reason why Finesse got all this airtime? ***

 

Kelly Clarkson ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’

Thoughts- I don’t really know what was up with Clarkson’s voice but I admire for not taking the low road (or I guess I should call it ‘the Ashlee Simpson road’) and actually singing live. The musical accompaniment was way too loud and kept overshadowing her voice. Still, I like this song and she was having fun out there so I won’t be too hard on her. This could’ve been so much better had her voice been up for it or had they done the song more low-key. **1/4

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Tina Fey, Poehler, Meyers, Armisen, Thompson

Thoughts- This Weekend Update was extremely hit and miss. Believe it or not there was actually a lot of stuff I actually liked in this Update. Tina had some really good jokes and at times she seemed very much on her game. So good for her and I’d like to see her continue to improve and be 2000 Tina and not 2005 stale Tina. Seth and Fred were hysterical as Prince Charles and Camilla. Seth just brings so much energy to the desk and the constant making out was gross but funny. Fred had great timing and lots of good facials as Camilla. I hope that when they do get married we do get to see a skit about it since I think it would be really funny. Now this wouldn’t be me commenting on WU without a bunch of negativity so hear goes. The opening series of jokes were just horrible. Amy had nothing and Tina did stale Bush joke #533,211. It was pathetic to see her reach so hard to try to make fun of the President. If you don’t have anything funny to say, don’t say anything at all. The fun bits Amy and Tina do together never work. Tina and Jimmy had this chemistry that Tina and Amy just don’t have. It could be that the underlying sexual tension between the two made it funnier, or it could be the fact that Jimmy is and has always been funnier then Amy ever will be. Amy’s Cosby impression was so bad that I think Ennis Cosby turned over in his grave. Kenan’s bit was funny but it would’ve been funnier if he didn’t do Cosby earlier in the show. The other Tina and Amy thing was pretty bad as well. This was your typical WU overall. It had some good moments and some potential but in the end was bogged down by the usual problems a Tina-Amy Update has. **1/4

 

Gays in Space

Cast- Bateman, Rudolph, Armisen, Parnell, Dratch, Fey, Thompson, Pell

Thoughts- I’ve never really found Trio to be the gay channel- Bravo is more the gay channel while Trio is more the ‘off-beat show anything’ channel. I do like that they show reruns of Late Night with David Letterman though- I heard the network maybe ending soon which is kind of sad. ANYWAY, this was awful. The fact that they had Jason Bateman hosting and this was the best skit they could come up with is really sad. I mean wow generic gay stereotypes- welcome to 2005 where that’s not original and doesn’t get an automatic laugh anymore. I found pontificating on the fate of Trio and where they find those random movies to show in the afternoon a lot more interesting then this crap. DUD

 

Bill Curtis

Cast- Bateman, Hammond, Rudolph

Thoughts- Finally! It took until around 12:30 but we FINALLY got the standout skit that I was waiting for. I figured with Bateman hosting we’d get the good stuff all show but apparently God and/or the SNL writers were just teasing me. This was really funny and although it took me a few moments to get into the skit- once they had me hooked and I got the joke I laughed the whole way through. Bateman and Hammond were both great here and I thought Darrell did a good impression. The feces to chocolate part and just the whole thing was really funny. I also liked that SNL paid tribute to the man who makes a boring Saturday afternoon entertaining with those addictive A&E shows. This rocked- and not to take anything away from this skit- but there should’ve been a lot more great skits like this one tonight. ****

 

Black History

Cast- Meyers, Poehler, Forte, Mitchell

Thoughts- The joke was dead by the time they got to number three. For some reason SNL has never been able to figure that out with its commercial parodies. You have to think that Dave Chappelle could’ve written a skit better then all three of these in his sleep. *1/2

 

Kelly Clarkson ‘Breakaway’

Thoughts- Breakaway was written by the esteemed singer/songwriter/drummer Avril Lavigne so you know I thought this was great. Kelly’s voice was much better here and she delivered a kick-ass performance of a song with terrific lyrics. Okay I’ll stop blindly praising Avril but it is a good song. Kelly made sure to not let the band overshadow her this time and I just thought this was a really good performance. I didn’t like the outfit though. Kelly Clarkson to me is naturally attractive- she looks good when she’s just being casual. I don’t like her when she’s wearing revealing outfits and the like- it just looks unnatural and it’s off-putting. I also think she should undye her hair and go back to her original brunette hair colour. She’s a good singer though. ***3/4

 

Rap Night

Cast- Clarkson, Bateman, Sanz, Thompson

Thoughts- This was really bad in the Winslet episode so I have no idea why they would bring it back here. Kenan played a good straight man as always. Kelly Clarkson made it 0-2 tonight as she once again wasn’t that funny. Horatio was his usual terrible self and not even Bateman could save this one. And we get fart jokes too! Yay for great smart writing! (Yes I know I’m the guy who liked Baby Fart but seriously- we shouldn’t have fart jokes when Bateman is hosting!) I really hope this was the last that we see of this and that it goes the way of Chicago Sons. *

 

Public Speaking

Cast- Bateman, Poehler, Parnell, Rudolph, Meyers, Riggle

Thoughts- Good to see Riggle getting to show off his versatility by playing a loud drill sergeant type character since that’s really the one thing he’s good at. This was kind of a weird skit but certainly passable for the 12:50 skit. The bit with Bateman and Amy really didn’t work and I didn’t understand where they were going with Seth’s character. Parnell’s gesture dyslexic character was really funny. I still consider Parnell to be ‘that guy’ or when I’m in a really caring mood ‘that guy who got fired’, but I think he does deserve some more airtime on SNL since the guy is very underrated- hell even I badly underrate him too much. He was the highlight of this skit. He couldn’t put it over the top or anything but it was just a performance I enjoyed. The rest of this was pretty crappy though. **3/4

 

The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.3 making this is a thumbs in the middle show. Given who the host was I cant call this show anything other then a massive disappointment at best and a huge disaster at worst. They had a great host at their disposal who’s known for his great timing and the guy who holds the glue of the funniest show on television and they completely dropped the ball. Skits involving monkey poop, farting, lame black history month jokes, and dumb gay stereotypes may have a place when you have a host with limitations but they are inexcusable when you have a host the level of Justin Bateman. Bateman did a great job with the material he was given, and I don’t know what was in dress, but I have to wonder why he would allow some of this stuff on the air. I forgave the Paris episode since whatever, but this is really just not cool. SNL very easily could’ve and should’ve put on a terrific show that would’ve contended for show of the year. Instead they wasted a great talent and put on an extremely forgettable show. I had high expectations for this show and they most certainly were not met.

 

Thumbs in the Middle

[MDH257 0]

I missed Kelly singing Breakaway and Rap Night, I liked what I saw though.

 

Kelly Clarkson is good looking, I always roll my eyes whenever I read or hear someone talk about her having a weight problem.

 

Bob, the commercial was a parody of e-harmony.com. It's an online dating site that says if you sign up and take take their compatibility quiz, they'll find your soul mate.

I was dissapointed that they didn't parody the site's founder. On the real commercial I always thought he came across as a minister or cult leader who was trying to get you to sign up. The guy is an old man with white hair and glasses, so Will Forte wasn't even trying to play him.

 

Bob, not a week after you said Darryl Hammond never comes out for the good nights. He was out there.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I thought Clarkson was good in the rap one, it just sucks to see someone try really hard with shitty material. She does the Avril schtick much better than her...well... whatever it was she did before.

 

How could they not parody Teen Wolf, AD, or shitty 80's family shows? Was it beneath them to do such obvious skits and instead went for the overdone gay skits? I mean shit, a lil Will Arnet and a lil Michael Cera, and they could have done something special.

 

Bateman and his endless attempts to get the band to follow his lead was the highlight of the show IMO. Of course, I only saw like 3 skits, but whatever.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I know it was pretty low-brow, but damn if I didn't crack up when the poop stuck to Cosby's face in that skit.

 

And somebody needs to tell Kelly Clarkson that you need a pair of tits to wear that shirt she wore for her 2nd song.

[bob_barron 0]

Kelly Clarkson is good looking, I always roll my eyes whenever I read or hear someone talk about her having a weight problem.

 

People say she has a weight problem??? WTF?? I think she's attractive- never noticed any weight problem.

 

Bob, the commercial was a parody of e-harmony.com. It's an online dating site that says if you sign up and take take their compatibility quiz, they'll find your soul mate.

I was dissapointed that they didn't parody the site's founder. On the real commercial I always thought he came across as a minister or cult leader who was trying to get you to sign up. The guy is an old man with white hair and glasses, so Will Forte wasn't even trying to play him.

 

I've never seen those commercials but a bunch of people have told me that.

 

Bob, not a week after you said Darryl Hammond never comes out for the good nights. He was out there.

 

I never comment on the goodnights- but I noticed that too. I guess it was a special occasion or something.

 

How could they not parody Teen Wolf, AD, or shitty 80's family shows? Was it beneath them to do such obvious skits and instead went for the overdone gay skits? I mean shit, a lil Will Arnet and a lil Michael Cera, and they could have done something special.

 

Will Arnett, Tony Hale and David Cross were all there. Arnett was in a skit but it got cut. I heard it wasn't very good. There was so much they could've done with Bateman instead of stupid stereotypes and poop jokes.

 

Regarding Teen Wolf Too here's an interesting tidbit:

 

Kelly Clarkson and Jason Bateman both were in movies that's in the imdb's bottom 100. The only other lineup that shares that dubious honour that I saw was Bob Saget/TLC. Bob Saget was in Dumb and Dumberer and Chili was in a straight to video flick called Ticker.

 

And somebody needs to tell Kelly Clarkson that you need a pair of tits to wear that shirt she wore for her 2nd song.

 

She was too flat to make that work- I agree

[slimm44 0]

As a fan of both Bateman and Clarkson I watched the show and I enjoyed it up until after Weekend Update. Alright show though, thanks for the review Bob

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

HALE CROSS AND ARNET WERE THERE AND THEY WERE NOT USED AT ALL OKJWQEL CDY8aoes;lmcv3cewqodsa zsdkjc !!!!!!!

[bob_barron 0]

I don't think Cross will do SNL out of loyalty to Odenkirk. Odenkirk did not have a good time at SNL and Cross stands by him on that.

 

But no Buster or GOB!~ really sucks. Will Ferrell was there too

[Guest sek69]

Kelly Clarkson seems to have lost a lot of weight from the time she first came on the scene to now. She looked almost anorexic last night.

[Vern Gagne 0]

I didn't like the blonde hair. She looks better has a brunette.

[bob_barron 0]

Kelly Clarkson seems to have lost a lot of weight from the time she first came on the scene to now. She looked almost anorexic last night.

I thought she looked fine except for the blonde hair

[Modern Man's Hustle 0]

Kelly Clarkson is the only talented American Idol winner. I want to do her so hard.

[Nighthawk 0]

I don't think Cross will do SNL out of loyalty to Odenkirk. Odenkirk did not have a good time at SNL and Cross stands by him on that.

He's also said it sucks and is a terrible show many times.

[bob_barron 0]

Can't say I disagree with him on point number two. And Arrested Development has mostly been funnier then SNL this year

[Ted the Poster 0]

Count me in as a fan of he monkey sketch. I don't know why, but monkey poop-throwing has always made me laugh. Hearing Kenan say "I gots the poo on my face", or whatever it was, as Cosby almost made me fall ot of my chair.

 

I noticed that Clarkson's upper body is not proportional to her lower body at all.

[Guest sek69]

The current SNL cast has the potential to be one of the best ever, but the writing staff is simply atrocious. They really should just let the cast come up with their own stuff and let Lorne be the crap filter.

[bob_barron 0]

The cast does a lot of write skits with the writers assisting them or sometimes writing whole skits for them. So if the writing is bad (which it is) then they are partly to blame.

 

Kenan's Cosby is always ownage

[Guest sek69]

Pretty much the only thing the cast writes that makes it to air are recurring characters. Even then, once one takes off it's usually written by one of the writers.

 

It's simply amazing how terrible the writing has become. Everything ends up being a poop or fart joke and there's nothing remotely creative anymore.

[bob_barron 0]

To the best of my knowledge the cast writes stuff with the writers. Seth wrote the bar skit last week and I know Amy wrote the Grease skit. Will and Adam McKay wrote a lot of things together. The cast and writers all pitch ideas and then they work on wittling them down and stuff. Writers also write stuff with castmembers in mind

[The Czech Republic 0]

Didn't the really good casts write the majority of their own material?

[bob_barron 0]

I'm not too sure about that- but I think it's always been writers-cast members working together. Except in the early days they were fueled by cocaine

[The Czech Republic 0]

Well Phil Hartman did a lot of writing, didn't he

[bob_barron 0]

Yes he did- Carvey and Nealon came up with Hans and Franz and wrote it as well

[MDH257 0]

Why don't the cast memmbers get credited as writers?

 

Normally it dosen't matter, but I would be pissed if I was a cast member and SNL won the emmy for best writing and I didn't get one even though I wrote as much as anyone else.

[bob_barron 0]

I'm not sure- I know that was a bone of contention with Chris Elliot when he was on the show in 94-95

[The Czech Republic 0]

Al Franken sucks. Just thought I'd throw that in

[starvenger 0]

Kelly Clarkson is good looking, I always roll my eyes whenever I read or hear someone talk about her having a weight problem.

 

People say she has a weight problem??? WTF?? I think she's attractive- never noticed any weight problem.

The problem with the image-obsessed society today is that someone like Clarkson is considered "fat" when in fact she looks perfectly normal. I'm with the both of you in thinking there's nothing wrong with Kelly.

 

I need to download this show off BitTorrent, as I missed most of it, but I did like Amy's Jason/Justine line in the monologue, because I'd do the exact same thing. It makes absolutely no sense that you'd mix them up, but it was a nice touch.

[bob_barron 0]

Where did you find the show starvenger? I need to dl next week's show.

 

I accidentally referred to him as Justin Bateman at the top of the review and had to edit it. So I do it too

[starvenger 0]

Haven't looked yet, actually. It's next on my list...