SNL Review

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Hugh Laurie/Beck

 

Sports Report-

 

Leafs- That game tonight- my God. Easily one of the best hockey games I’ve ever seen in my life. And they got the win too! Screw Raycroft, it’s all about the Aubin.

 

Canucks- Had an up and down week and they really shouldn’t need a shootout to beat Washington, but they’re in second place, so I’ll take it.

 

Saints- I’m not going to say anything too positive, but I am pleased with their progress this season.

 

Mailbag!!!!!-

 

[email protected] writes-

 

Hey Bob-

 

I don’t know if you watch a whole lot of Comedy Central and Fox News.

But I was wondering what you think about the on-air feud between

O’Reilly/Geraldo and Stewart/Colbert. Apparently, O’Reilly and Geraldo have a

problem with Stewart and Colbert making fun of Fox News.

 

In case you haven’t been keeping up, Geraldo took offense to Stewart’s

jokes about him, and went on The Factor to say how Stewart and Colbert

“count for nothing.” When Stewart went on The Factor, O’Reilly told

Stewart that TDS’s audience are “stone slackers.”

 

I’ve watched Stewart have fun with things like Cavuto’s overuse of the

question mark, Chris Wallace’s interview with Clinton, and the War on

Christianity. I’ve never gotten to watch The Colbert Report.

 

So what do you think of Comedy Central targeting Fox News (especially

O’Reilly and Geraldo) more often than not? And do you think Fox News

should retaliate?

 

Just in case you need a refresher, here are a couple of YouTube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNDvaCG5eA4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17NQWW7Lb4w

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

Later-

 

Ken

 

I actually don’t get Fox News where I am. O’Reilly isn’t feuding with Stewart he was just joking around and trying to be funny. Geraldo’s just pissy b/c he’s Geraldo. I mean, he’s famous for a moustache. It’s like he’s Jason Lee, only Jason Lee is funny. The Daily Show picks on everyone. Stewart’s a smug bastard at times, but they attack CNN just as much.

 

And you should watch the Colbert Report. It’s great.

 

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

 

And now the review

 

Cold Opening-

Cast- Lorne Michaels, BORAT SAGDIYEV

Thoughts- Oh. My. God. I had been hoping for Borat to host SNL, and this was perfect. From the audience applauding before we even saw him and then Lorne mispronouncing Kazakhstan and then it just got awesomer. Borat was his usual hilarious self, I was dying at all of his lines. Loved his talking about women being in cages and giving blowjobs, referencing Madonna, and just being Borat. It should be noted that aside from Borat, the most famous Kazakhstani is Nik Antroprov. Throwing in that anti-Semitic line at the end was just the icing on the ***** cake. This was tremendous, and the funniest thing on SNL in years. *****

 

Monologue

Cast- Hugh Laurie

Thoughts- You know, when I first watched House, it was a bit weird hearing Hugh Laurie without the British accent. Now, it’s weird to hear him with the British accent again. He was really good here and I loved him talking about saving a puppy from the microwave and all the other bizarre non-sequiturs that he had. And it was hilarious hearing him explain British humour and how a lot of the skits would be about bad teeth. House is great. ***3/4

 

Most Haunted

Cast- Laurie, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler

Thoughts- Come on, you have Hugh freaking Laurie and the best you can do is a fart skit? Seriously. As usual, I laughed a few times in spite of myself, especially when they showed the gas coming out of Laurie’s ass. But the rest of this was lame. **

 

TV Funhouse

Thoughts- This was disappointing, especially since it was Smigel’s first cartoon of the season. Hillary popping out of the stomach did scare me though. Mocking these commercials has been done to death, and this was just lesser Smigel. Hopefully next time Smigel will be ready to offend soon. **1/4

 

World Series

Cast- Jason Sudeikis, Hader, Maya Rudolph

Thoughts- Hey, did you know that Maya Rudolph has some vocal ability? Why did 20th Century Fox have to dump Idiocracy, and thus force Maya to come back another year? You know, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are so awful, that you could easily do a skit just mocking them. But Maya Bleedings Gum Murphying the National Anthem? Lame. Nothing is ever going to top Carl Lewis, so why even try? They should’ve done a skit mocking all the articles about David Eckstein. And for the record, Billy Ray Cyrus sang the anthem for Game 5. I was hoping he would use his line dancing/mullet powers to give the Tigers to win, but alas. *

 

The Queen is Coming

Cast- Laurie, Kristin Wiig

Thoughts- I always like these good little skits that they put out from time to time. Hugh Laurie was very funny here, and I thought some of the requests were pretty funny, especially about the midget security guards, dubbing over the American TV, and calling the Queen “Hominia Homina”. Good stuff. ***1/4

 

Hardball

Cast- Darrell Hammond, Andy Samberg, Sudeikis

Thoughts- Odd placing for a Hardball. I have a feeling this was supposed to be the cold opening, but Borat changed all that. This was ok, though not up to the level of usual Hardballs. The bit about the Republicans getting killed in the polls was funny, the bit about the TCBY killer…not so much. It did make me hungry for some yoghurt though. According to MS Word, yoghurt is spelled with an h, which I did not know. Weird Anyway, Sudeikis’ Howard Dean was pretty funny, especially him threatening to kick Melhman’s ass. Poor Melhman, I miss Gilliepse. **1/2

 

A Protest Song by Hugh Laurie

Cast- Laurie

Thoughts- This was another funny skit and a good performance by Laurie. I enjoyed the concept and loved the gibberish he threw in there, and he’s actually a pretty good singer too. The harmonica bit at the end- nice. Another nice little bit, House really is awesome. ***1/4

 

Beck “Nausea”

Thoughts- Beck’s the man, probably one of my favourite musical guests. This was too short, but was awesome while it lasted. The Beck puppets were just icing on the cake. Seriously, that’s like the coolest thing a musical guest has ever done. And I’m someone who criticises everything the musical guest does, so you know it’s serious if I’m praising something. But I can’t get enough of those puppets. ***1/2

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Seth Meyers, Poehler, Will Forte, Armisen, Hader

Thoughts- Congratulations to Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler for having their first kickass Update. Seth’s London joke was incredibly tasteless given what happened in London last year, but that’s what made it so awesome. That joke topped the Schiavo joke for sure. Amy was good too, and this was her best performance at the desk. The jokes were very good, with only a few clunkers. And to make this Update even better- TIM CALHOUN RETURNS! I’ve been waiting so long for another dose of the Calhoun and Forte was the man. Calhoun is my favourite of Forte’s characters and it was great to have him back. Loved the line about child porn and wanting to bang a female Kim Jong IL. Finally, SNL scores with a North Korea joke. Fred and Hader as Andrew Dice Clay if Dice was a homo was also pretty funny. Loved Seth referencing it in a later joke. And the tribute to Red Auerbach at the end….nice. Great Update, and it’s great to see the desk rocking again. ****1/4

 

Pimps Up Hos Down

Cast- Laurie, Kenan Thompson, Rudolph, Forte

Thoughts- When I saw Will Forte and it realised it was late in the show and Hugh Laurie was in drag I was thinking: Are we in for a bizarre skit? But no. We were in for some late skit that never had a point. They need to stop with the breaking the 4th wall stuff at the end of the skits. It just feels tacked on and is not funny. *1/2

 

Curse of Frankenstein

Cast- Laurie, Poehler, Hader, Sudeikis, Wiig, Armisen

Thoughts- I have to give them credit for not going with (insert famous horror character) is a homosexual. They actually did that with Frankenstein two years ago. This was pretty funny and a nice post 12:30 skit. Frankenstein getting pissed about the torches, them going back and forth to Dracula’s and Frankenstein’s and of course Frankenstein bringing up his spinal injury and the racism. Good stuff, and it’s nice that Halloween didn’t result in too many lame skits. ***

 

Beck “The Clapping Song”

Thoughts- Beck should be the permanent musical guest if he can come up with performances like that. This was the most fun musical performance ever basically. The clapping, bringing back the puppets, just the way the whole song flowed. Borat, Beck and House- how can anyone not love this show? ****

 

Oooooooooooooo

Cast- Laurie, Armisen, Poehler

Thoughts- It’s the last skit, we got to see Borat, so they’re allowed to mail this one in. Which they did. I laughed at some of the oooooooooos but this was a one joke setup with the one joke not being funny. *

 

The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.88 making this a thumbs up show. I can’t hate on a show with BORAT, Dr. House and Beck. I can’t. I’m sure I could complain that the first three skits all sucked, but I won’t. Seeing Borat was amazing, Hugh Laurie was a terrific host and Beck was an amazing host. Plus, we got our first **** Update in two+ years. So Yahtzee! And next time we get Alec Baldwin. You know Alec’s not going to let some limey Brit top him.

 

Thumbs Up

 

Yakshimusiz

[-DeN- 0]

I haven't seen SNL in a long time, yet something tells me that you are a weenie.

 

Cool star ratings.

[bob_barron 0]

I'm a weenie?

[snuffbox 0]

Bob Barron doesn't like me but anyobody that stays up all night on the sidewalks of NYC (the dark ones or the too-bright ones) is no weenie.

 

I was glad I watched this instead of going to State St.

[bob_barron 0]

Awww I love you snuffbox.

[SuperJerk 0]

Sounds like I missed a helluva good show.

[King Kamala 0]

It was an interesting show. The most interesting show of an interesting season (Not neccessarily good but interesting). It seems like every skit is a skit that takes place at the end of the night, not that that's a bad thing. It's just been a skit filled with bizarre skits, I feel as if the writers are just throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks.

 

 

I thought last night's show was good, Laurie was a game host and Beck was a helluva musical guest.

[Jericholic82 0]

nice review bob, I agree with you on most points there. Hugh is a very versatile actor and he got to show some of his comedy skills off here. I was hoping for a House spoof sketch but sadly we didnt get one.

[Black Lushus 0]

trashing Bob for doing these reports is sooooo 2004

[bob_barron 0]

Yea, it's almost as tired as making Black Lushus is white jokes.

 

Hugh also wrote some stuff, always the sign of a good host