SNL Review

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Jaime Pressly/Corrine Bailey Rae

 

Sports Report-

 

First of course, yay the Yankees lost!

 

Leafs- A mixed opening week. That game where they raped Ottawa was awesome, but I don’t like losing at home against the Habs. Still 1-1-1, I’ll take it.

 

Canucks- First game of the year and Trevor Linden scores the game winning goal? Awesome! I also really liked that come from behind victory against Columbus. Now if only CBC can put them on HNIC.

 

Saints- Tough loss against Carolina last week, but they’re still playing above my wildest expectations.

 

Mailbag!!!!!-

 

hayashikm@ optonline.net writes-

 

Hey Bob-

 

I have a rather layered wrestling-related question for you. I just

would like you to give your thoughts on some of the developments that have

come about in WWE over the past few months, at the same time looking

into the future.

 

I was wondering if you could comment on the following WWE returns-

 

- DX on RAW

- Batista on SD!

- Jeff Hardy on RAW

- the ECW brand

 

Plus, I was wondering if you could comment on the following WWE

departures-

 

- Angle (TNA bound)

- Trish (retired)

- Lita (due to leave WWE this fall)

 

Thanks in advance, Bob.

 

Later,

 

Ken

 

DX on RAW- sucks.

Batista on SD!- He just doesn’t seem to have the magic he once had. And that ECW match against Big Show- ouch. I do like that they didn’t give him the title. All Hail King Booker.

Jeff Hardy on RAW- So far, he’s been pretty good. As long as he stays clean, I don’t have a problem with it.

The ECW brand- It’s really starting to come together. RVD’s having awesome matches and CM Punk is getting a push.

Angle TNA bound- I wonder what the PR fallout is going to be like when he dies in the ring. I got to see his last WWE match, so yay that.

Trish retiring- Good for her. I was there for her last match and it was awesome. The Sharpshooter was great.

Lita leaving- I like her and Edge together, but I don’t think she’ll be missed that much.

 

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

 

And now the review....

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Darrell Hammond

Thoughts- Darrell’s voiced the president, the vice-president and the speaker, but I’m not sure if he’s ever done the President Pro Tempore. Theodore Fulton Stevens, scandalise yourself, so Darrell can impersonate you too. This was pretty good, and I especially loved the blaming of the Democrats. Up here, our congressman has a new ad where he’s like: “Shit, I didn’t know nothing, but still, I’m sorry!” This was better then last week, and Darrell did a good job. ***1/4

 

Monologue

Cast- Jaime Pressly, Kenan Thompson, Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph, Kristin Wiig, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg

Thoughts- A country boy can survive! I was hoping for a cameo from the Redneck Messiah, Jamie Bah God Noble, but it was not to be. All week, I was saying the best way to use Pressly is in white trash skits, and they proceed to blow it all in the monologue. Kenan rocked it as Uncle Remus and I loved Fred putting on the KKK hood. Andy sure killed this one dead, his Deliverance bit sucked and really put a damper on what was looking to be a good monologue. Still, good stuff from Pressly. ***

 

Nancy Grace

Cast- Pressly, Thompson, Poehler, Samberg

Thoughts- Amy’s Nancy Grace was hit or miss, I personally like the imitation they do on Boston Legal more. And here’s your irony of the week. (I think this classifies as irony) The Classic SNL with Rob Lowe/Eminem as a skit called Pros and Cons (the Scooby Doo skit) hosted by….

 

You guessed it….

 

Nancy Grace.

 

And either Nancy Grace didn’t have a thick accent or Ana just didn’t try to impersonate her because she doesn’t sound like Nancy at all. So I found that to be a tad odd.

 

Anyway, the bit with Andy was okay, but I really liked the bits with Pressly and Thomson. And the Kenan bit had a cameo from the FIVE SECONDS GUY!~ which was awesome. But yea, I can help you if your computer froze was one of the top lines of the night. I didn’t get the bit with the chair, but it led to a funny exchange with Kenan so it’s all good. ***1/2

 

NYC Stories

Cast- Armisen, Poehler

Thoughts- Amy’s impression of Rosie Perez was shockingly dead-on and I liked the callback to Do The Right Thing. Fred’s Martin Scorcese impression was also pretty good. Lots of good lines and I’m glad they made this bit recurring throughout the night. ***3/4

 

Jon Bovi

Cast- Pressly, Hader, Sudeikis, Forte

Thoughts- I think SNL put this skit on as a way of saying, “It’s okay. You can flip over and watch the Mets win. You’re really not missing anything.” I saw Sudeikis and Forte and got excited, but this was nothing to write home about. I mean really, a band that sings the opposite of Bon Jovi songs is a skit idea? I admit to them making me laugh with the Cats in the Cradle parody, but really, this never had a chance. *

 

Hands on a Hard Body

Cast- Pressly, Sudeikis, Wiig

Thoughts- One of the plots on last season’s My Name is Earl was Earl trying to win some money by winning a contest of who could hold their hand to a car the longest. I remember that Catalina won but since she didn’t have a SSN she ran away and Randy won. I was hoping this would be good, but Wiig didn’t play creepy well and the whole thing came off flat. They just didn’t play off each other well. *

 

NYC Stories

Cast- Armisen, Poehler

Thoughts- Amy portraying Patti Smith is a pretty random impression but I liked this, especially them rambling on what people played CBGB for and Lou Reed living in a water tower. ***

 

My Name is Ebonics

Cast- Pressly, Hader, Thompson

Thoughts- I never thought I would say this (well type it, but I’ll say it out loud to make it official), but Kenan really killed what was a promising skit. I was digging the interplay between Bill and Pressly and then in comes Kenan to do the loud black woman when it wasn’t needed. Let them play off each other and see where it goes, instead of going to something that’s tired. Plus Pressly talking ghetto was funny stuff. *1/2

 

Corrine Bailey Rae

Thoughts- This was pretty good. But seriously, Jaime Pressly/Corrine Bailey Rae??? Did everyone else on the planet say no? Who knew the chick from Poison Ivy 3 and some random Brit would be a lineup of SNL. And since no one cares about this chick, I have to give a hearty WTF to the lovely folks at Global. When the show started, the NBC feed was in High Def, but when it switched over to Global it was shown in fullscreen thus screwing up the picture a little. Yay for simsubbing! ***

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Seth Meyers, Poehler, Hader, Armisen, Rudolph

Thoughts- Seth dropped the Jim Halpert smirk and is now officially awesome. The Terri Schiavo joke clinched it- that joke owned. You have to wonder how much better the past two seasons worth of shows had been had Lorne not gone for OMG TWO WOMEN and instead went for OMG TWO FUNNY PEOPLE! Like everyone already knew, Seth is a natural at this, and the sky’s the limit. Amy’s also slowly getting there. I mean most of her jokes still suck, but she’s not as awful as she once was. Since Amy and Seth have done no bits together, you have to wonder what the point of making them co-anchors was. One anchor Lorne- go for it!

 

Bill’s commentary as Peter O’Toole was random and out there but I liked it. I do think the Mark Foley joke was beaten into the ground. Bill’s British accent was also top-notch. I enjoyed Fred as Fugly Betsy. What’s funny is they act like they have to do a lot to turn America Ferrera into Ugly Betty and well….they really don’t do that much. Maya’s cameo as Charo was unnecessary but I laughed anyway.

 

So might we be seeing the rebirth of Update? Perhaps. There’s still work to do, as Amy has a long way to go, but Seth is amazing. Bow down to the new King of Update. ***1/2

 

NASCARettes

Cast- Pressly, Armisen, Rudolph, Poehler, Wiig

Thoughts- I was hoping the joke would be Fred being the only male dancer but instead they decided to kill everyone. Kristin dancing while surrounded by cars was hilarious, the rest…not so much. Pressly did look hot, so bonus. **

 

NYC Stories

Cast- Armisen, Poehler

Thoughts- Three for three on the NYC Stories skits. Amy was funny as Yoko Ono and Fred was awesome as the poet. Yoko was probably Amy’s weakest impression of the night though, but I always enjoy some Yoko mockery. ***

 

Big Wigs

Cast- Pressly, Hader, Sudeikis, Wiig, Rudolph, Samberg, Poehler

Thoughts- See, it’s funny because they’re the bigwigs with Big Wigs. And they’re from Chicago, and Pressly can’t do a Chicago accent, making it funnier. I missed some of the Battle of Alberta for this? ¾*

 

Quado

Cast- Pressly, Hader, Sudeikis, Wiig, Samberg, Hammond

Thoughts- See it’s funny because ummmm ummmm yea, I got nothing here. I bet they were like: Well, last week we mocked Farrah Fawcett for being ditzy and that was from 1997. This week, let’s go all the way back to 1990 and do Total Recall! And we can use Darrell’s unfunny Ahnold impression and make him stay till 12:40 even though he wants to go home! High five!

 

And in a later skit, they dated themselves even more!! For the record, if they did high five each other after awesome skit ideas, that would be pretty awesome. ¼*

 

Corrine Bailey Rae

Thoughts- She sat on a stool and performed a boring second song. Now if Ms. Rae had read my rules for being the musical guest, then she would’ve known that that’s actually against the rules for being a good musical guest. For shame Ms. Rae, you had some potential. Now let’s hope that My Chemical Romance do not violate my rules of pretentious videos that recreate World War II next time they are on the show. **1/4

 

Bill Brasky has two female friends

Cast- Pressly, Wiig

Thoughts- Who knew Bill Brasky would ever befriend a woman? While this started out slow, the lines did get better at the end, especially Pressly saying that she peed in the coffee. This was definitely a Tom Green skit and an inoffensive way to end the show. **1/2

 

A Moment with the Out of Breath Jogger from 1982

Cast- Samberg

Thoughts- Oh no. This is the end of the show. I hate Andy Samberg. DUD

 

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was **.2 making this a thumbs down show. I was hoping this would be better then the Dane Cook show, but it was not to be. They didn’t do a good job of writing for Pressly and thus she added nothing. A lot of the skits just had awful premises and never had a chance to go anywhere. The show even started out fine, but once that Jon Bovi skit hit it just nosedived. The next two shows have great hosts, so that will be the time for SNL to really get into its grooves. If they can’t get good shows from John C. O’Reilly and Hugh Laurie…ouch.

 

Thumbs Down

[slimm44 0]

The Nancy Grace stuff was the only skit that I really laughed with.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Who the hell is Andy Samberg and how the hell did he get this job?

[Mik 0]

Am I the only person who likes Samberg?

[bob_barron 0]

Yes. Everyone is starting to slowly realise how awful he is

[Guest Shylock]

I thought this show was quite a bit better than last week's. Update had the best stuff it did in a while. Only difference of opinion with you was I thought the Quado sketch was funny until Darrell came in with his horrible Arnold impression and ruined it.

 

It kinda sucks that they're not using Forte as well as they could, but I do enjoy that it seems Hader and Wiig are getting some decent time on the show. Wiig's usually decent, at the least, to great in anything she does and Hader's pretty much always awesome. His O'Toole commentary bit was the standout this week, IMO.

[Nightfall 0]

Who the hell is Andy Samberg and how the hell did he get this job?

 

 

If you have 20 minutes to spare, watch this. It's from the comedy trio "The Lonely Island". The other 2 from the group are writers on SNL now, and they are the ones (as far as I know) who came up with most of the Digital Shorts. I really think that you needed to see his Lonely Island stuff before anything else to enjoy him.

[strummer 0]

Andy can't act to save his life. He might be the worst actor in the history of the show. Hardcore SNL fans tend to hate him because they mostly value acting ability over natural humor. He's going to get a big push regardless.

[King Kamala 0]

I only saw about the first 40 minutes of the show due to the fact I had to wake up early. Besides the New York City Stories vignettes and the monologue (For some reason Bill Hader dressed as Col. Saunders dancing killed me) , I thought it was pretty weak. I think if the John C. Reiley show doesn't kick fourteen flavors of ass, then I'm going to be disapointed. I feel so far this season, they've been taking more chances, sometimes it's worked but it mostly hasn't but I think they're slowly working their way out of the slump. I just wish they did more of a shakeup.

[Richard 0]

Hey they brought back the Ebersol era logo. That's the kind of forward thinking that'll make this show great again.