Two (!) SNL Reviews

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol

 

Mailbag!!!!!-

 

[email protected] writes twice-

 

Hey Bob-

 

Since you’ve been living in Toronto, I have a few questions for you

regarding the Toronto SkyDome (I refuse to call it Rogers Centre).

 

When is the roof on SkyDome usually open? I heard that it is usually

open during Jays games, but closed during Argos games. But is the roof

also open during non-sports events- like concerts and auto shows? I feel

that the roof on SkyDome is normally open throughout the MLB season-

all during the summer and up until October. So I was wondering if you

could confirm.

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

Later-

 

Ken

 

I haven’t been to the SkyDome since I went to a Jays game in April. They usually have the roof open when it’s warm outside, so during the summer. Argos games are usually played when it’s a bit colder out. They don’t really have concerts at the SkyDome anymore, that’s what the ACC is for.

 

And yes, the Rogers Centre name sucks.

 

Hey Bob-

 

I have more Wrestlemania-related questions for you.

 

First off, what do you think about this whole Vince-Trump angle? How do

you think Lashley-Umaga will play out at Wrestlemania? What do you

think of Austin reffing the match?

 

Thanks for your opinions, Bob.

 

Later-

 

Ken

 

I like the feud. They’ve done a good job of building up Lashley, and I’m digging Umaga. I could do without Austin but I don’t mind him. Trump is terrible as a face. I think the whole thing will end up being pretty entertaining.

 

Tim Mackie writes-

 

Hey Bob

 

I am an Australian who has just become an SNL freak. Reading your vast

archive of reviews has given me an insight into the show.

 

I would like to talk about the performance of Seth on WU. Whenever I

read

one of your reviews from Season 30, you would always devote a sentence

to

how Seth should have been picked for the Update desk when Jimmy left.

Personally, I agreed with the decision to pair Amy with Tina, but their

Updates were somewhat disappointing. I've only seen the first 5 eps of

the

current season, but I've noticed three things about Seth on Update:

 

1) He does not seem to have a lot of control over his voice - something

that

Update anchors should do.

 

2) He can't keep his head still - it wobbles from side to side

 

3) He seems to have an slight anti-Muslim political agenda - the London

joke

from the Hugh Laurie update is an example of this.

 

Does Seth get better as the season goes on?

 

T-Mac

 

Good to see the mailbag having an international flavour. Koala bears are pretty cool.

 

1) I haven’t had a problem with Seth’s voice. He screws things up a bit- witness the Manning Update and mispronouncing the polar bear thing and the fact that he can’t pronounce vaginal, but his voice is fine.

 

2) That I haven’t noticed.

 

3) I don’t think he’s anti-Muslim, he just thought it was a funny joke. Which it was. I have no problem with offensive humour, and just because you make an offensive joke, doiesn’t mean you believe what you say.

 

Seth and Amy do get better as the season goes along.

 

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

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Chris Rock

Thoughts- This was originally a commentary in Weekend Update, and Rock called Seth “Dennis”. I laughed. His commentary was so well received that I guess they decided to move it up. It’s a shame because the cold opening originally in place was hilarious. Except for stumbling over lines a few times (which he didn’t do in dress), this was great, and Rock was his usual great self. I just love how he can basically make all these statements where you know he’s right, while still laughing your ass off. The last line about electing a retard was the clincher. Great stuff. ****

 

Monologue

Cast- Julia Louis Dreyfus

Thoughts- I’m wondering whether Julia had a boob job, a boob lift or just has really nice breasts and we didn’t know about it until now. I’m also glad she decided to come back and host, since her episode was my favourite of last season. This was a fun monologue, and I enjoyed Dreyfus’ hating on America Ferrera and thought the Britney spoof was funny too. I was hoping for a Michael Richards reference, but you can’t win them all. ***1/2

 

Oprah

Cast- Dreyfus, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Kenan Thompson

Thoughts- Maya’s Oprah is ANNNNNNNNOYING. People seem to only laugh because she’s doing Oprah, not because it’s funny. Amy was a bit lazy here, basically doing her Sharnon Osbourne impression. Julia was funny here and I liked the bit with Kenan at the end. But no more Oprah please. **1/2

 

Gold

Cast- Kristen Wiig

Thoughts- This needed a cameo by Kenny Bania or something. In dress, this got barely any response so I’m baffled as to why they put it on the air. There were skits that were much funnier that could’ve been put in its place. The Goldie Hawn thing was pretty funny. ½*

 

RPS

Cast- Dreyfus, Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Thompson

Thoughts- This had potential, and I don’t think it delivered. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as funny as it needed to be. I don’t think this really got going until the end with the fake commercial with Julia suddenly changing her tune and Jason going “That’s not part of the deal.” The people in dress got the beat it line, it doesn’t seem like the live crowd did. **1/2

 

Italian Talk Show

Cast- Dreyfus, Hader, Fred Armisen, Forte, Rudolph

Thoughts- A time honoured tradition of SNL: The skit in a foreign language! Reading the cue-cards for this was quite the mindtrip. I’ve never been a fan of the foreign language skit, since a guy talking in another language is never really that funny. This also had some parallels to the Chris Farley “I don’t speak Japanese!” skit. I love Bill’s Kramer impression and the Christine dubbing, but there was a lot of dead space here. Maya spoofing the Godfather did nothing. **1/2

 

Snow Patrol “You’re All I Have”

Thoughts- The fact that they had a Northern Ireland band that’s based out in Glasgow playing on St. Patrick’s Day is hilarious. Probably the funniest thing on the show. Previous bands include- Aerosmith (alcoholics, so they fit the bill), The Pogues (Irish), Al Jarraeau (Okay, that’s an odd pick) and the Chieftans (Irish!). That Al Jarreau pick really sticks out like a sore thumb. I liked this song- had a nice fast pace and was enjoyable to listen to. But come on- a Northern Irish band playing St. Patrick’s Day is so so wrong. ***1/4

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Seth Meyers, Poehler, Armisen

Thoughts- Someone should tell SNL that everyone is over the whole circus that the Anna Nicole Smith death was. So stop doing the crying judge! It’s not funny, and wasn’t funny the last time either. It befuddled me watching Seth and Amy laugh during dress, since I sat there stonefaced. The jokes were really good, and made up for the atrocity that was the judge. I LOVED the Anne Frank joke. With as hard as I laughed, I made sure that made it on the air. Seth’s so awesome with the offensive jokes, I love it. ***1/2

 

Deephouse Dish

Cast- Dreyfus, Samberg, Thompson, Sudeikis, Poehler, Wiig, Rudolph

Thoughts- Ooooooo weeee Teeshane- they just DID Deephouse Dish. Stop doing it! I liked it a little more being there live, but it still wasn’t that good. Sudeikis was awesome though, and I liked Andy suddenly wanting to fight him at the end. But the other two songs were stupid, even though Julia looked pretty hot. **

 

CBS Cares

Cast- Dreyfus, Sudeikis, Hader

Thoughts- Dreyfus’ breasts were so prominent tonight, that they had to do a skit about breast cancer. This was a nice little skit, and I really enjoyed Sudeikis snapping back at poor Dreyfus. The payoff at the end was funny too. ***3/4

 

Homebots

Cast- Dreyfus, Forte, Armisen, Hader, Sudeikis, Wiig, Thompson

Thoughts- Nothing warms my heart like good ole fashioned robot sex. In dress the setup was different. Dreyfus and Sudekis hadn’t won the lottery and bought a robot, they were just two people who wanted a robot. And I can’t review a skit about a robot, without bringing up the most famous robot in robot history, the robot in Rocky IV that the Balboas bought Paulie for his birthday. They should’ve programmed that robot to kick Drago’s ass to save Rocky all the trouble. This was your standard bizarre Will Forte skit and it was very funny with everyone doing a good job in their roles. I thought the third robot was overkill but the stuff Armisen and Forte was gold. ***1/2

 

Snow Patrol “Chasing Cars”

Thoughts- This boring song is their big hit? It’s not a bad song or anything, I’m just surprised that they would catch one with that song. I don’t know why they switched the order. Chasing Cars is too slow to be shown at 12:45. I’ve always stressed that the slow song should go first, and the second song be the faster song. **1/4

 

Pussycat Dolls

Cast- Dreyfus, Samberg, Rudolph, Poehler, Wiig

Thoughts- I have not seen the Pussycat Dolls show, though I heard SNL did a pretty accurate portrayal. This was really stupid, and by the look on the girls’ face during the skit, I think they agreed. I thought Julia was hilarious though, that was my favourite part. Bonus points for one of the extras wearing a Toronto Raptors Vince Carter jersey. **1/4

 

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was **.7 making this a thumbs up show. While this show was a stepdown from last year’s awesome episode, I still enjoyed it, and thought that Julia did a great job as host. The show hit a bit of a lull from the first skit-Snow Patrol, but it got better after Update. And Chris Rock’s cameo was awesome. I’d like to see Julia come back to host again, she makes every skit funnier by her presence and comedic acting.

 

Thumbs Up

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood

 

Mailbag!!!!!-

 

[email protected] writes-

 

Hey Bob-

 

Well, it’s that time of year again. Just like last March, I’d like

for us to swap Wrestlemania predictions. From what I’ve seen, the

current Wrestlemania 23 card looks like this-

 

Cena v. HBK

Big Dave v. Taker

Lashley v. Umaga

Money in the Bank 3

Melina v. Ashley

Benoit v. MVP

ECW Originals v. New Breed

Kane v. Khali

 

Benoit will probably retain, but I don’t watch SD! enough to have an

opinion on MVP. The ECW Originals will win- otherwise what would be the

sense of the feud? Kane-Khali will suck rocks, so I don’t care.

Melina-Ashley will be a trainwreck, and it’s obvious WWE hadn’t learned

from Trish-Christy from 2 years ago.

 

MITB 3 sounds like one huge mess in the making, and it’s a total

waste of Edge. Even so, I’m putting my money on Edge winning to keep his

streak alive.

 

I don’t give a shit about Lashley-Umaga. I’ve never gotten into the

Vince-Trump angle. And it’s pretty obvious that Vince is gonna get

shaved and that Austin is gonna stun a bunch of people.

 

Taker is gonna go over, but the match will probably be a chore to

watch.

 

As for Cena-HBK, it’s all smoke and mirrors. Cena retaining last year

was a bit of surprise. Given how Cena isn’t as hated as he was last

year, and how HBK has been built up over the past few months, it’s

hard to pick a clear-cut winner. Should be a fun match, though.

 

Honestly, I’m not really excited about Wrestlemania this year.

They’ve only announced 8 matches, and only the world title matches seem at

all interesting. The undercard seems whatever, and the feuds have been

weakly built up. But the possibility of Taker winning the title and the

unpredictability of Cena-HBK should make the show fun at least.

 

Your thoughts, Bob?

 

Later-

 

Ken

 

I think Benoit will retain. A lot of people are picking MVP to win, but I just have a feeling Benoit’s going to win. I think the New Breed are going to win too, I hope they make it Extreme Rules, because if it’s a straight up tag then it’s going to suck. I think Melina will retain and it will be hilariously awful. I also think Khali will beat Kane and it will also be hilariously awful.

 

MITB I think will be good- Edge and the Hardyz know how to do ladder matches. CM Punk is willing to kill himself, which is good. Finlay can just kick some ass and use the shillelagh. Kennedy seems like a guy willing to take some bumps too. Booker and Orton will be deadweight. Edge is going to win, I think that’s obvious.

 

It’s been shoved down our throats too much, but I like the Lashley-Umaga feud, I think it should be a fun match with tons of extracurricular activities to keep it interesting. Trump does suck as a face though.

 

Taker will beat Big Dave, if they want to they can make it a decent match. It should have good heat.

 

I think Cena-HBK is going to be awesome, with Cena retaining.

 

I think this year’s Wrestlemania looks really good. They usually end putting out a good show, and this should be no exception. And it’s CM Punk’s first Wrestlemania- that’s awesome!

 

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

 

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Jason Sudekis, Fred Armisen

Thoughts- Awww boo, they should’ve just reran the cold opening from last week that was cut from dress, it was much funnier. This was still good and I thought Fred was very funny as the sleazy attorney general. ***

 

Monologue

Cast- Archie Manning, Eli Manning, Olivia Manning, Peyton Manning

Thoughts- That Patriot joke was really funny, well done random Patriot fan veteran. It was cool seeing the Manning family, especially Archie. To the best of my knowledge, he is the first New Orleans Saints alum to appear on SNL. So congratulations Archie. Hopefully Drew Brees will host SNL one day. It was also funny seeing Eli Manning, even though they didn’t mock the fact that he’s horrible. Olivia Manning was a random cameo, and I wish they had mocked Cooper, since he has spinal stenosis and legit can’t play football. I was hoping this would go somewhere, but it was just Peyton introducing his family. **1/4

 

Peyton and the Kids

Cast- Manning

Thoughts- Awesome, nothing warms my heart like Peyton yelling and cursing at a bunch of kids. I loved that they mocked his elaborate yells at the line of scrimmage, and him telling the kid to go to the porta potty. I thought they went overboard with the bleeps but this was very funny. ***1/2

 

Bronx Beat

Cast- Manning, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler

Thoughts- Oh for the love of God- I hate Bronx Beat so so much. They’ve done this skit in three times and in like 6 episodes. It’s so horrible. DUD

 

NCAA Pool

Cast- Manning, Poehler, Sudeikis

Thoughts- I don’t get why they were talking up Arizona as a contender, since Arizona was an 8 seed and not expected to do much. Well they were the last team to beat Memphis before they shit the bed against Ohio St. Also, Butler over Maryland isn’t much of an upset, given that I also had Butler over Maryland. Not because of the Bulldogs, but because I hate the ACC. A lot of people had VCU over Duke so again, not much of an upset. I do wonder what reasons Amy’s character had for picking the Tigers to go to the elite 8. The skit was going along fine until they decided to mock Peyton for no real reason. Then it went downhill faster then Rex Grossman’s QB rating in the Super Bowl. **

 

The Bragger

Cast- Manning, Kristin Wiig, Rudolph, Poehler, Hader

Thoughts- This was like something out of the UK Office where David Brent would talk over his employees. Except on the UK Office, it was actually funny. Peyton trying to stump Wiig was funny though. *1/2

 

TV Funhouse

Thoughts- I’ve never seen Dora the Explorer so I guess some of this was lost on me. I thought this had a lot of very funny moments, but it also dragged a lot. Way too many deadspots. Smigel’s been lacking this year. **1/2

 

The Dancing Motivational Song

Cast- Manning, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Armisen

Thoughts- Hmmm, it’s a bit too early for Will Forte to be in this type of skit. I usually expect this at 12:40. This was ridiculously stupid and I didn’t want to like it, but Forte dancing was awesome and Peyton joining made it even moreso. Peyton really likes using the f word or variations thereof when he’s out of his NFL safety net. ***

 

Carrie Underwood “Don’t Cheat on Her”

Thoughts- You know why I wouldn’t cheat on Carrie Underwood? So she wouldn’t write a shitty song about it. Carrie should be like Tammy and Hillary Clinton and stand by her man. Faith Hill was right. **

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Dan Aykroyd, Seth Meyers, Poehler, Forte, Wiig, Armisen, Samberg

Thoughts- Thank you Tim Calhoun. That saved this Update from being the worst of the Poehler-Meyers era. Amy’s jokes were especially awful, while it seemed like Seth was also a bit off. The guy couldn’t even pronounce a polar bear’s name correctly! He did get one to two offensive jokes in which is always good. Tim Calhoun was probably my favourite Update commentary of the season, I love that character so much. It’s a joyous occasion whenever Forte decides to bust it out. I don’t watch American Idol, so the Sanjaya thing did nothing for me. I do know that Howard Stern seems to be a fan of the guy, so he’s got something going for him. Tim Calhoun was amazing, the rest was eh. ***1/4

 

300

Cast- Manning, Armisen, Sudeikis, Wiig, Thompson, Forte

Thoughts- Why didn’t Peyton throw the boulder? I don’t get it. This had a few funny lines, but the overall stupidity of the skit brought it down for me. I also think a better ending would’ve been Peyton totally killing Fred with the boulder. **1/4

 

Carrie Underwood

Thoughts- Thumbs down on Carrie’s outfit choices tonight. First was the way too short miniskirt and then there was the ugly dress in the second song. She’s a virginal country gal; she looks out of place wearing outfits like that. This was song was better then the first at least. **1/2

 

Bill Brasky On the Porch

Cast- Manning, Wiig

Thoughts- As much as I dislike Brasky ripoff skits, I enjoyed this one. Some good lines thrown back and forth and for something this late in the show- I dug it. ***

 

Meatloaf Car

Cast- Manning

Thoughts- No idea what this was supposed to be, but I give Peyton credit for only playing himself in two bits. ½*

 

Shoes

Cast- Hader, Samberg, Thompson, Armisen, Sudeikis, Forte

Thoughts- I think they’ve run this commercial at the last 34 dress rehearsals. I’m glad it finally got on the air, so next time I go to a dress, I don’t have to see it again. This had white guys sucking at basketball which is always funny. Fun fact: The Memphis Tigers have no white people on the team. **1/2

 

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was **.25 making this a thumbs in the middle show. Nothing really stood out here, and that horrible Bronx Beat probably brought things down. Peyton didn’t embarrass himself, but I don’t think he did a great job. At least his episode was better then the recent string of bad episodes hosted by athletes. Considering I expected an Andy Roddick sized debacle and ended up getting a mediocre show, I can’t say I’m too upset by this episode.

 

Thumbs in the Middle

[Black Lushus 0]

trust me, the Dora mocking was hilarious, coming from a parent who's had to stomach that horrible show.

[razazteca 0]

TV Funhouse was *****

[King Kamala 0]

I liked The Peyton Manning episode. Maybe it's because I had horrendously low expectations for the show, but I enjoyed. I'd say it's borderline Top 5 for the season (It's definitely behind Timberlake, Baldwin and The Hugh Laurie episode. Probably on par with The Rainn Wilson show)

 

 

Julia Louis Dreyfuss was almost the opposite- I was expecting a decent episode and got a Bottom 5 episode. The only things I liked was The Chris Rock cold open and The Italian talk show sketch.

[muzz 0]

"That's gonna be there forever."

 

Manning was great from what I saw.

[KingPK 0]

A lot of the Manning skits just went on too long (NCAA pool, motivational dance) and weren't all that funny. After the United Way piece, it was all downhill. Can't believe I'm saying it, but they probably should have given Peyton MORE to do instead of the usual "athletes aren't funny, so let's protect them as much as possible" routine.

[King Kamala 0]

Was I the only one who really liked The Motivational Dance sketch? Then again, I just love any sketch starring Will Forte (Probably my favorite cast member of the post Ferrell era) .

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

The Dora The Explorer sketch was my favourite sketch on the show. I laughed the hardest when she said, "Do you know why my daddy left me?"

[MDH257 0]

Um, Bob... If your gonna make two refrences to how awesome the dress rehersal opening to the Julia Louis Dreyfus was, would you mind letting us in on what it was about?

[bob_barron 0]

Sure-

 

It was George W. Bush deciding what the biggest problem in the US was right now bracket style. The Taco Bell health scare was the Cinderella and ended up making it to the finals, where it won.

 

It was very funny, and I think Seth had a hand in writing it

[Vern Gagne 0]

That sounds funnier than callling Bush a retard.