SNL Review- it's finally up!

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review: Tom Brady/Beck

 

TOP 20 MOMENTS IN SNL HISTORY

 

4. Lock Box

 

When the Monica Lewinsky scandal made big news, Darrell Hammond was getting lots of critical acclaim for his Bill Clinton impression. SNL got some fairly good press for their take on the scandal, even releasing a book. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and with Clinton’s presidency ending, SNLers had to bust out new impressions. Darrell turned to Al Gore, the likely Democrat nominee, and soon had the man down perfectly. In fact it would become almost too perfect, and Darrell’s impression would become as boring as the man himself. With George W. Bush gaining momentum as the Republican nominee, it was Will Ferrell who ended up perfecting the impression. While Ferrell didn’t look much like Bush, he captured Bush’s “deer in the headlights” look perfectly. He played Bush as this loveable idiot who doesn’t know what he got himself too and tries to fool everyone. Accurate or not (depending on what you believe), it was really funny and was starting to get some positive attention. The SNL season premiere took place the week of Bush and Gore’s first presidential debate. Gore had been knocked for looking stiff and wooden and rambling on about protecting social security via a lock box, while Bush tried not to embarrass himself. It was now SNL’s time to spoof the crap out of it.

 

THE MOMENT:

 

Jim Leher introduces the candidates and reminds everyone that the Bush campaign has given free pay per view to certain battleground states while the debate is going on. This isn’t really that funny but it’s a good way to set the debate up. While Leher is telling about the movies the camera cuts to Al Gore doing one of his trademark sighs and Bush doing one of his confident ‘I AM smart’ nods.

 

Al Gore gets asked about tax relief and starts sloooowly talking about the differences in their tax plan. He brings up the fact that he would put the surplus money in a lock box. Bush (without a Southern accent) doesn’t know what went on but has some words for Al Gore:

 

Don’t Mess with Texas. We are then greeted to another cocky grin by the governor.

 

It’s established that Gore did not mess with Texas and we move on. Gore interrupts Bush’s question and continues to ramble on about the lock box. The lock box would have two different locks! Gore keeps rambling on, constantly interrupting everything.

 

Leher reads Bush a nonsensical quote that he said and asks him to clarify. Bush’s response?

 

Pass. We get the cocky grin again.

 

They put it on the monitor but a confused Bush passes. Gore interrupts and clarifies his statement for him which Bush agrees with. Gore goes back to rambling about the lock box. Darrell Hammond totally captures Gore’s stuffy I’m better then you attitude here that he had in this debate.

 

Leher preps Bush for a question on foreign policy, which has Bush worried. Leher asks him a complicated question about Yugoslavian politics. Bush gives a stupid answer while trying to dodge the question and sound smart. Gore keeps rambling about the lock box.

 

Leher asks a question about Medicare and Gore blatantly interrupts. Gore tells a story about some poor woman with every disease known to man. This is EXACTLY what Gore did in the first debate and SNL was dead-on about this. While Gore is rambling about this, Bush is staring off to space. Leher tries to cut Gore off but Gore ignores and keeps rambling on. According to Gore under Bush’s plan, “Her house would be burnt to the ground.” Bush questions Gore’s math which causes Gore to talk about an attack on his character. Somehow he ties this in with the lockbox.

 

They wrap it up but not before Gore asks to make two closing statements. They are so short on time however that they are asked to sum up their campaign in one word.

 

Bush: Strategery.

Gore: Lock box.

 

How accurate were the impressions? Well, Al Gore’s campaign team showed this skit to Gore as a way to prep him for the second debate.

 

That’s pretty impressive.

 

Sports Report-

 

Nets- It’s been a magical month for Nets fans. Vince has just been insane, Kristic is coming into his own, Kidd is getting triple doubles like it’s no problem and even Scalabrine is no longer sucking at life. The fact that they are one win away from the playoffs is something I never thought possible, especially after that horrible start.

 

Braves- The Braves have been plagued by offensive troubles. It seems like everyone but Chipper Jones is hitting the ball. Thank God they have amazing pitching or they would be getting blown out like it’s nobody business. I just wish they would stop wasting quality starts by Hampton, Smoltz and Hudson.

 

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

 

Chad Ruffner writes-

 

While It wasn't exactly a show of the

year canidate, I actually enjoyed Monday's Raw for The

most part. Although It did have It's slow spots and

gaps of logic at times, (Raw GM Bishoff can't "In good

conscience" allow Michaels to face Hassan/Daiviari In

a Handicapped Match, yet allowed HHH to take on The

Hurricane/Rosey just an hour before? WTF?!?), The

good actually outweighed The bad this week for a

change. The question Is can they go for 2 In a row

next week? I have my reservations.

 

 

What Did You Think?

 

Chad

Watching Davari beat HBK was hilarious and pretty much made the show for me. Christian and Benoit also had a really good match and well, Christian winning is always a shock. Sadly they couldn’t keep it up for a second week in a row as Monday’s RAW was abysmal. At first I was pissed I would have to miss an MSG show but man- that show was awful.

 

hayashikm@ optonline.net writes-

 

Hi Bob,

 

It's Ken Hayashi from Voy yet again. I have a quick question about

people's dissent on SNL's humor.

 

I have this friend who is a firm Republican down in New York State. He

is a big fan of Bill O'Rielly and Rush Limbaugh. But he has been

greatly opposed to SNL since Norm left. He says that he's incredibly miffed

by the anti-conservative vibes on SNL, especially since Tina Fey started

doing the news. He would always come down on the show whenever he would

catch me watching it. He are some of the comments he would make:

 

1. "Tina Fey is a communist."

2. "If Tina Fey is trying to express her opinion on the Bush

administration, can't she do it with a punchline?"

3. "Why would anyone want to see a generic teenybopper movie like Mean

Girls?"

4. "Weekend Update- laugh-free since January 1998."

5. "Give SNL ten years to get better. Meanwhile, America can watch

MadTV."

 

There was once this pro-conservative cartoon called This Just In that

would air after RAW on Spike TV. They did an anti-SNL segment that

pretty much summed up my friend's thoughts.

 

Anyway, as a registered Republican, what do you think of the balance in

SNL's political humor during the Tina Fey era? Do you think my friend

is being to harsh on SNL? I'd like to hear what you have to say.

 

Later,

 

Ken

 

1. Tina’s not a Communist, she’s just really anti-Bush. She’s a registered independent but she’s a liberal. I don’t think she’s that far to the left.

 

2. Tina’s Bush jokes used to be funny but when you do the same joke every week for 5 years it starts to get really stale.

 

3. Mean Girls isn’t a generic teenybopper movie. That’s the point and the reason why it was successful. Unlike stupid crap like She’s All That, Mean Girls was really smart, witty and everything most teen comedies are not. It wouldn’t have been half as good if Tina didn’t write it.

 

4. Colin’s underrated and never had a chance to get going because of the Norm backlash. Tina and Jimmy were a great duo.

 

5. SNL just needs to improve the writing and redo WU and these crappy shows would stop. It’s really that simple.

 

And SNL isn’t some commie liberal writing place. Jim Downey, a registered Republican, writes a lot of the political skits. Remember, the Republicans are in power, so they’re in a position to get mocked more. Like when Clinton was president, he got mocked a lot. Tina’s jokes lean left, but I thought SNL did a fair job attacking Kerry like they did Bush. Tina’s Bush jokes suck but I don’t think SNL has a huge political bias or anything.

 

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

 

And now the review....

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Chris Parnell

Thoughts- I once again somehow missed the first couple seconds of this. I swear I left my friends house when the clock said 11:29. It was good to see Parnell getting to trot out a new impression and for the most part I think he did a good job. The skit was a little too short to really get going but I enjoyed it for the most part. ***

 

Monologue

Cast- Tom Brady, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Finesse Mitchell, Kenan Thompson

Thoughts- Tom Brady may have won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years, but boy did this monologue suck big time. Watching this monologue was worse then listening to ESPN’s Sunday Night Crew or having to hear Cris Collinsworth rip people apart on Fox’s games. You have to feel for Troy Aikmen knowing that he probably wants to punch that prick right in the mouth but can’t. I should probably be analyzing the monologue instead of going off on the football commentators I don’t like but this monologue was really really bad. Watching Tom Brady sing about his talents while the cast fawns all over him? Not that funny. DUD

 

Throwing the Pigskin

Cast- Brady, Maya Rudolph, Dratch, Meyers, Armisen, Poehler, Forte, Riggle

Thoughts- I admit that ‘Football player can’t throw football’ is a really lame premise for a skit so I was prepared to not like this. Coupled with the fact that it was painfully obvious Brady was intentionally screwing up his throws and I was prepared to REALLY not like this. But I’ll be damned if this didn’t turn into a nice a little skit. Will Forte was hilarious as the carnival guy, speaking in the monotone voice of his. I also loved Seth and Fred’s ridiculously over the top gay characters, that was great. I was also happy that in the end Tom Brady’s character was finally able to hit something and win a prize. This was much better then I expected it to be and a good way to start the show. ***1/2

 

Dr. Phil

Cast- Brady, Darrell Hammond, Dratch, Poehler, Meyers

Thoughts- I’m a fan of the Dr. Phil show. I mean the Dr. Phil families he has on the show truly kick ass. I wonder who is living this horrible life with tons of family conflicts and thinks, “Things are so bad right now that the only person who can help us is that crazy Texan on the TV.” I do have to give props to Dr. Phil for getting Kelsey Grammer to read The Night Before Christmas at his Christmas party. That was bad-ass. Anyway, I thought this was okay. Darrell did a pretty good Dr. Phil impression and I liked the interplay between him and Brady. The skit seemed to run out of gas towards the end and Dr. Phil’s nonsensical Dr. Philisms weren’t that funny. I wouldn’t mind seeing them try this again as with some better writing this skit could really be a winner. **1/2

 

Falconer

Cast- Brady, Forte, Sanz, Thompson

Thoughts- I have never seen the appeal in the Falconer skits and I really wish Forte would stop doing them. It’s like the only blemish on an otherwise sparkling SNL resume. It’s just not very funny and doing Freaky Falconer didn’t help change this. Confessions of a Teenage Falconer is the way to go if they’re going to start spoofing Lindsay Lohan movies. Plus I’m sure Confessions of a Teenage Falconer would probably make more sense then Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen did. Again, I know I should be discussing the actual skit but I really don’t remember any of it since it happened on Saturday and the skit sucked anyway so there isn’t much to get into. And I’m not really a big fan of Snickers bars either. DUD

 

TV Funhouse

Cast- Brady, Armisen, Poehler, Fey

Thoughts- It always seems like whenever Smigel has a great TV Funhouse they always rush another one the very next week. I remember when they did Saddam and Osama and then the next week cobbled together something about Ben Affleck and J-Lo. This was funny but really short and I didn’t find the big joke to be all that funny. I don’t know, I just expected Smigel to do something daring or offensive and we got this. Hopefully he can deliver something shocking in May. **1/2

 

Tom Brady’s Falafel City

Cast- Brady, Rudolph, Meyers, Horatio Sanz, Thompson

Thoughts-

Tina: Lorne- we have a problem.

Lorne: What is it Tina?

Tina: Donald is terrible at acting. All we can really write for him are skits where he plays himself. And we've written enough of those.

Lorne: Hmmmm- I got it! Let's write a skit where Donald Trump owns a funny restaurant! It'll be brilliant.

Tina: But we did that with Al Sharpton and Derek Jeter.

Lorne: Even better. At the end we'll reference the two previous skits we did and people will think we're hip and clever for being able to make fun of ourselves. It'll be fantastic.

 

Tom Brady was a better host then Donald Trump and at least didn’t play himself in every skit, but pretty much the same thing applies. This idea was never really funny in the first place and just doing the exact same skit over and over again just exposes how stale SNL is and how weak the writing staff is. I laughed at a couple of the lines so this wasn’t a total DUD but this just isn’t a funny concept. I could demonize Horatio for cracking up again, but it seemed like there was some problem with the blocking or the cue cards so I’ll let him off the hook. I wonder how Paris escaped the celebrity restaurant thing. *1/2

 

Beck ‘El Pro’

Thoughts- Thank you Beck! I’m a big Beck fan and the guy always seems to kick major ass on SNL. I know a lot of people thought his songs on the Garner show were too slow and boring but I liked it a lot. I just wish he had done Golden Age. I don’t remember hearing this song before but this was just awesome. The song is great, the beat is great and Beck’s performance was so full of energy that I was clapping along to the song at the end. It’s weird. SNL may be flailing skit-wise but they have had some really good music this year. So while the writers do not deserve any credit for this season, whomever books the musical guests really does deserve a gold star. ****

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Martin Short, Fey, Poehler, Forte

Thoughts- OMFG IT’S MARTIN SHORT!!! Okay not really but I was still kinda cool seeing him back at the show. His hosting job in 96-97 was amazing and it’s still one of my favourite SNLs of all time. You also have to respect the guy for being in Clifford AND A Simple Wish, yet still having the ability to do a show where he mocks celebrities and make them squirm. He also apparently got Tom Green really pissed off at him and is now feuding with. Apparently on the Glick show, Short mocked his cancer and Tom Green got really pissed off. And Tom Green is now REALLY pissed off that Short brought this up in another interview. No offence to Tom Green but when you do a movie making light of child molestation, masturbate a horse and an elephant (in the same film no less) you really don’t have any right to be offended by someone joking about your cancer. I’m just saying. Plus a feud between Tom Green and Martin Short is really really gay. ANYWAY, I thought the Glick-Michaels thing was pretty funny. Glick had some good one liners (Why are you so boring?) and Will did a good job of mocking Lorne. I thought it went on for a bit too long and really dyed off at the end but at times it was hilarious. Like other people I do wish Short could’ve done Ed Grimley in another skit or done Jackie Rogers Jr. That time he humped Miss Piggy was really funny. I do think the Jimmy Glick movie is going to be pretty bad since 90 minutes of Glick sounds like it’d get very old after a while.

 

Tina and Amy were their usual Tina and Amy selves. I don’t really remember much of the joke portion of Weekend Update. They had a couple of good ones but the constant laughing by Tina to Amy’s jokes just makes me dislike her more and kills any goodwill I had towards Amy jokes. This was the usual blah Weekend Update and it once again needed the commentaries to save it. Pretty much the story of WU this season. **1/2

 

Rick! Rick! Rick!

Cast- Brady, Sanz, Poehler

Thoughts- Yea it REALLY is time for Rick! Rick! Rick! to go the way of the dodo bird and Cleveland’s playoff chances. I mean Horatio can barely keep a straight face when she does it and it’s just so old. I mean it was really good the first time and was cute the second time but now it is just annoying. I mean it seems like they do one every episode and it’s just beating a dead horse. This is just a common case of SNL overdoing a recurring character and killing any chance that it might have to be funny and or appealing. Sorry Caitlin but your time has come. *

 

Super Bowl Shuffle

Cast- Brady, Sanz, Thompson, Mitchell, Riggle

Thoughts- It disheartened me to know that there are SNL fans who don’t know of the Super Bowl Shuffle. I mean, do you people ever go outside or anything? I immediately laughed looking at Tom Brady rocking the Jim McMahon headband and the dig at where Refrigerator is now. There really wasn’t much to this skit besides that. I didn’t like Sanz’s Ditka at all. And the other songs were really bad. This had a lot of potential, as all skits involving Jim McMahon wearing a headband usually does, but it was doomed by lame bit after lame bit. **

 

Beck ‘The Girl’

Thoughts- Man, Beck is so awesome. I don’t really remember much of this performance since it was on Saturday but it was really good and Beck kicks ass. ***1/2

 

Charlie Coffey

Cast- Brady, Rudolph, Dratch, Thompson

Thoughts- Well it’s after 12:30 + Maya sings + celebrity host with no sense of timing=

 

Really bad idea.

 

It feels like they’ve done this skit approx. 9000 other times and every other time it’s really really sucked. Again- not much to add here as I wasn’t expecting anything remotely funny and got just that. DUD

 

Peyton and Donovan meet Tom

Cast- Brady, Meyers, Riggle, Thompson, Mitchell

Thoughts- Given that Seth is a Steelers fan, he probably wasn’t too happy about Tom Brady hosting the show. I wouldn’t mind Ben Roethsligberger hosting either but given how he gagged in Pittsburgh’s two playoff games, I don’t think he’d be an appropriate choice. Plus he cost me $5 since I bet on the Steelers. Seth was hilarious as Peyton Manning, I laughed the minute he came on screen. Kenan always cracks me up playing black woman. This was a short, sweet and to the point and a good way to end the show.

 

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was ** making it a thumbs down show. Tom Brady was game and he tried hard, but it is just very hard to write good skits for a guy with no experience in comedy. NBC or SNL, whomever keeps getting these non-actor hosts really needs to understand this. In the hands of a guy good at comedy, this might have been a better show. Brady was better then Satan the Race Car Driver or Roddick so I’ll give him that. May 7 sees Johnny Knoxville. I’m a HUGE Jackass fan and think he’s a naturally funny guy, so that could be a good show. It was great seeing Martin Short as well, but when he’s just doing WU, he can’t save the show.

 

Thumbs Down

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Christ, the song is E-Pro, not "El Pro", don't you watch The OC???

[MDH257 0]

I wonder how Paris escaped the celebrity restaurant thing.

 

Acording to this site, it was one of the skits she rejected.

 

Paris Hilton was not as open to making fun of herself as the writers had hoped. She rejected a number of sketches, including one called "Paris Hilton's House of Crabs." Similar to "Al Sharpton's Casa de Sushi," it featured Hilton advertising her own crab restaurant, and one of the lines was "Hi, I'm Paris Hilton, and I have lots of crabs."

[bob_barron 0]

Christ, the song is E-Pro, not "El Pro", don't you watch The OC???

No- I watch Survivor instead

[starvenger 0]

Weekend Update

Cast- Martin Short, Fey, Poehler, Forte

Thoughts- OMFG IT’S MARTIN SHORT!!! Okay not really but I was still kinda cool seeing him back at the show. His hosting job in 96-97 was amazing and it’s still one of my favourite SNLs of all time. You also have to respect the guy for being in Clifford AND A Simple Wish, yet still having the ability to do a show where he mocks celebrities and make them squirm. He also apparently got Tom Green really pissed off at him and is now feuding with ... Plus a feud between Tom Green and Martin Short is really really gay.

I remember that hosting gig mainly because No Doubt was the musical guest and Gwen was looking really good that night. I think I also remember the Ed Grimley skit just not being that great.

 

Short vs Green? Ed Grimley vs the guy who sang "Check the O.R."? Scary.

[bob_barron 0]

The Ed Grimley skit had some awesome random cameo by Chevy Chase and the monologue is one of the best ever.

 

And kudos to Paris Hilton for that. Who knew she had a modicum of brain?

[Beast 0]

Except it wasn't Paris thinking, "Wow, they use this sketch a lot, I'm a huge fan of this show, and every time a non-actor hosts, they do a sketch with a restaurant, I don't want to do it again."

 

It was, "I'm only hosting this show because I'm rich, I'm not talented, Hey there's a possiblity of a funny joke about me having crabs? No way, I'm too cool for that. I'm Paris Hilton. I do what I what I want."

 

Best part of the Paris show - Her walking in front of the camera at the end of the Marv sketch

[bob_barron 0]

Either way, she said no to a skit involving a celebrity restaurant. Good enough for me.

 

The best part of the Paris show was Merv the Perv.

[Slayer 0]

While Ferrell didn’t look much like Bush, he captured Bush’s “deer in the headlights” look perfectly.

Frank Caliendo as Bush >> Ferrell as Bush

[starvenger 0]

While Ferrell didn’t look much like Bush, he captured Bush’s “deer in the headlights” look perfectly.

Frank Caliendo as Bush >> Ferrell as Bush

Haven't seen it, but then again, it's Mad TV. I can't be bothered sitting through tons of crap to see a couple of Caliendo impressions.

[Slayer 0]

I've only seen a couple of his MadTV sketches here and there (because I'm not a fan of MadTV as a whole), but his Bush is dead on

 

I also saw his stand-up act live a couple months ago and it was fucking great

[starvenger 0]

Haven't seen his standup either, but I've heard him on radio interviews, and he is indeed quite funny.

[strummer 0]

Caliendo is the only guy in the history of MAD TV that I find to be legit funny. He's hilarious and is wasted on that amateur hour show

[Jericholic82 0]

I agree Bob snl was really lame this week.