Two horrificially late SNL Reviews

[bob_barron 0]

Apologies for both of those reviews being so horrifically late, but I didn’t watch the Rogen show live, went away the next two weekends, and have been just so insanely busy.

 

But here it is!

 

SNL Review- Seth Rogen/Spoon

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Andy Samberg

Thoughts- A non-political cold opening with Andy Samberg? What’s causing all this? Even though I usually don’t like Andy outside of the Digital Shorts, this was a very funny way to kick off the show with lots of good lines. And he makes a good point- who would’ve thought that K-Fed would’ve destroyed her in that divorce? That’s a bigger upset than Appalachian State over Michigan. Lots of good lines here, especially the stuff about Poison Control. ***3/4

 

Monologue

Cast- Seth Rogen, Bill Hader

Thoughts- Nice to see Evan Goldberg get some love. I thought this had a funny concept, but it went way too long and I think the stuff about Jessica and the alien war really killed some of the momentum. Bill showing up as Steven Seagal was a nice touch. **1/2

 

HD Baby

Cast- Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis

Thoughts- I always like the commercial parodies for products that I would actually buy. This was pretty funny, and I liked the interplay between Jason and Kristen, especially about the part about having a baby not being fun. ***1/4

 

Douchebag of the Year

Cast- Rogen, Will Forte, Sudeikis, Hader, Amy Poehler, Samberg, Armisen

Thoughts- This is a great idea for a skit, and everyone played their parts well. Since Andy always seems like a douchebag, him playing a former douchebag of the year winner just seemed natural. It really bothers me that MS Word doesn’t recognise douchebag as a word. Fred’s Gene Simmons was great, and I loved Seth’s character. I felt this went on a bit too long and I wasn’t feeling Forte’s character, but this a good way to kick off the show. ***1/2

 

Macgruber

Cast- Rogen, Forte, Maya Rudolph

Thoughts- We’re still doing this? This has replaced Falconer as Forte’s most grating character. And they didn’t do three Falconers in a single show! DUD

 

I Said We

Cast- Rogen, Hader, Poehler, Forte, Rudolph, Wiig, Sudeikis, Armisen

Thoughts- For some reason this was much hilarious in dress, but it didn’t translate totally in love. The I Said We line killed me everytime, and it took me a second to realise they were singing Rehab, but that was great. This went too long, but I Said We might be line of the year. ***1/2

 

Macgruber

Cast- Rogen, Forte, Wiig, Rudolph

Thoughts- Seriously, stop Macgruber. I know a lot of people like this, but it’s grating. ½*

 

Fred Thompson

Cast- Darrell Hammond, Armisen

Thoughts- Watching Darrell just die out there is always a sight to see. His Fred Thompson isn’t even that good. The Howard Stern Show mocked Fred Thompson’s entering the election speech, and it was 100000x funnier than whatever Darrell was trying to do here. And I think Fred’s Sam Waterson is one of my least favourite impressions of the show. He just doesn’t do it very well. *

 

Macgruber

Cast- Rogen, Rudolph, Forte

Thoughts- Kill me, please. DUD

 

Spoon

Thoughts- As someone who knew nothing about Spoon before this show, except that they allowed to make me a lot of jokes involving spoons, forks, knives and other utensils, I was pleasantly surprised by them and actually liked this song. ***1/4

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Chevy Chase, Poehler, Meyers, Hammond, Thompson, Armisen

Thoughts- Chevy!!!! I was so excited when I heard he was going to cameo, and I gave him a big ovation when they cut to him. Having him sit at the old Update desk was a nice touch. I know that he didn’t get a great response, and his delivery needed work, but it was just great seeing Chevy on Update and I loved some of his jokes. The joke about Rudy re-enacting 9/11 was awesome. Chevy still has it, and he’s one of those guys who always makes me laugh. They also busted out a REALLY, which is one of my favourite Update bits and this one was no exception. Darrell’s Lou Dobbs bit was Darrell being Darrell and no one caring. The Mets bit was funny, and the jokes were the usual good mix from Seth and Amy. ***3/4

 

Pot Colony

Cast- Rogen, Forte, Hader, Wiig, Poehler, Thompson, Armisen

Thoughts- I bet Rogen had a hand in writing this one. And kudos to the cast for having to act stoned, I’m sure that must have been a stretch for them. This was amusing and I especially liked Kenan’s walk-on cameo to buy the weed. Not all the drug humour worked, but it was good enough. ***

 

Rowlf and The Swedish Chef

Cast- Rogen, Samberg, Hader, Sudeikis, Armisen, Rudolph

Thoughts- Being there live, I was just cracking up seeing Rogen dressed up as Rowlf. I liked this, especially Bill as Animal, but I was disappointed there was no Statler and Waldorf cameo. ***

 

Spoon

Thoughts- This wasn’t a great song or anything, but I love any musical guests that makes their second song 10 seconds long. Kudos to you Spoon for knowing your place as the musical guest that no one cares about! ***

 

Mad Joe

Cast- Rogen, Rudolph, Wiig

Thoughts- Typical filler as a late in the show skit. It really pissed me off, that they cut three hilarious skits, yet kept this one in. I liked this show, and I know a lot of people didn’t, but I promise that dress was worlds better. *1/2

 

The Bottom Line- The avg. skit was **.5 making this show just barely a thumbs up. Macgruber really killed the average skit rating, as I thought this was a pretty good show. Nothing stood out, but I thought Rogen was a really good host and this was a fun show. Dress rehearsal was much better as unfortunately, they cut some great material, but that’s the nature of the beast.

 

Thumbs Up

 

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- Jon Bon Jovi/ Foo Fighters

 

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Jon Bon Jovi, Amy Poehler

Thoughts- Two non political cold openings in a row? What the hell is going on here? This was a pretty funny way to kick off the show, and it’s always cool to see the host participate in the cold opening. I felt it went a bit too long, and Amy’s attempt at a Bahston accent could’ve been a little more inspiring, but there were enough good lines to make me like it. And hey, anytime they make jokes about Amy Poehler’s chest is a good day for me. ***

 

Monologue

Cast- Richie Sambora, Jon BonJovi, Steve Higgins

Thoughts- I would mock Richie Sambora for making Robert DeNiro look good when it comes to reading lines, but the dude banged Heather Locklear and then got Denise Richards so I really can’t hate. The bit with the audience members was hilarious, and definitely made this a fun monologue. ***1/2

 

Bon Jovi “Lost Highway”

Thoughts- Could to see that Sambora was able to coax Bon Jovi into performing, or the other band members would’ve just looked stupid sitting there without anything to play. I’ve never been a big Bon Jovi fan, and them going to country music isn’t going to make me any more interested. This was okay though. **1/4

 

Ohhhhhhhhh

Thoughts- Bon Jovi, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, Kristen Wiig, Armisen

Thoughts- I think this was the one skit where Bon Jovi didn’t play himself. And of course in the one skit where he doesn’t play himself, he plays a stereotypical Jersey boy. No wonder his acting career has gone nowhere. This skit was alright, and some of the ohhhhs were funny, and Darrell as a James Gandolfini impersonator made me laugh. **1/4

 

Al Gore

Cast- Hammond

Thoughts- Wow, Darrell was in more than one skit tonight. It must be his birthday. A quick check of wikipedia reveals that his birthday is October 8th, so one could consider this his birthday show. The problem with Darrell’s Al Gore has always been that it’s just him being Al Gore, and Al Gore is a boring person. I did laugh at the bit where he talked about the Oscar, since Gore technically did not win an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, yet he accepted the award anyway. This was another solid mediocre skit in a series of them. **1/4

 

SNL Digital Short

Cast- Bon Jovi, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, Armisen Andy Samberg

Thoughts- I think we have another classic digital short on our hands. People getting punched in the face is always funny, and while eating…even moreso. The bits with Forte were the best, and I loved the Bon Jovi full recovery. And the double punch on the Foo Fighters was classic. As was Andy’s funny dance. I felt the zombie stuff was a bit overkill, but this was so awesome. ****1/2

 

Dane Cook

Cast- Sudeikis

Thoughts- I initially found myself surprised at that I didn’t hate the Dane Cook baseball ads, but I think that was partially because one of the ads mentioned the Braves winning the World Series in 1995, which as we all know is the greatest moment in baseball history. But now they’re just annoying and repetitive. I mean really Dane, I don’t think there will be some amazing baseball moment in a World Series featuring the Colorado Rockies. This, like the Al Gore skit, was almost too real, but Jason did such a good job with the impression that I liked it. ***

 

La Revista Delle Televisione

Cast- Bon Jovi, Hader, Armisen, Forte

Thoughts- This seems like one of those skits that you do when you have a useless host who can’t do anything. Bon Jovi might as well be the textbook definition of useless host. La Revista is an okay skit, it’s just the same thing everytime and I don’t think the jokes are funny enough to do it for a third time. Bill was really good as usual, and any airtime for him is a positive. **1/4

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Seth Meyers, Poehler, Armisen, Samberg, Maya Rudolph

Thoughts- Whoa, Weekend Update before the musical guest, that’s awesome. I always prefer that to doing musical guest and then Update, because Update is the signature segment of the show and should be showcased accordingly and not buried. The commentaries were really weak, which was unfortunate, since it tampered what I thought was a great Update joke wise. Seth was awesome as usual, and Amy did her usual good job. The only commentary that cracked me up was Fred’s, and even that wasn’t that good. Thank God for Seth. ***1/2

 

Foo Fighters “Pretender”

Thoughts- The Foo Fighters are one of my favourite musical guests on SNL since everytime they’re on, they’re guaranteed *** sets. It pisses me off that Bon Jovi got two songs and got to host the show and for various reasons, the Foo Fighters only got one song. That’s BS. This is a really good song, and it made me wonder how much better the show would’ve been had they been able to play twice. ***3/4

 

Fun in Outer Space

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

Thoughts- Thompson must be counting the days until The Rock hosts so he can get actual airtime on the show. This was Kristen playing a standard Kristen character. This was pretty flat, but at least she found her purse! *1/2

 

Dane Cook

Cast- Sudeikis

Thoughts- The Colorado Rockies were a hockey team in the 1970s, and they were coached by Don Cherry in his final season as a coach. They eventually became the New Jersey Devils. This was the same as the first one, and I enjoyed the Rocky III reference and the superfinger. ***

 

Notre Dame Football

Thoughts- Ironically, one of Notre Dame’s biggest problems is that NBC contract since it forces them to keep playing a tough schedule to justify the TV deal. But seeing Notre Dame fall flat on its face is always funny. This commercial, was not. *

 

What to Call the Band

Cast- Bon Jovi, Sudeikis, Samberg, Forte, Armisen

Thoughts- I always thought it was weird that the band was called Bon Jovi but sadly, wikipedia provided no answers. This had some ufnny moments, but was typical late in the show filler. **1/4

 

Iconoclasts

Cast- Wiig, Thompson

Thoughts- Sadly, I have not seen Iconoclasts, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of the skit. A skit with Charles Barkley meeting Bjork has tons of potential, but this suffered from lame writing and just never went anywhere. This could’ve been a fun bizarre last skit, but alas. *1/2

 

Bon Jovi “Who Says You Can’t Get Home”

Thoughts- Remember when U2 closed the show with that amazing performance of I Will Follow that might have been the best performance ever? Well BonJovi is no U2. I did laugh at them dragging Jack Nicholson on stage to introduce them. And of course it led to me all week doing my Jack Nicholson impression all week. You want the tough guy sweetheart? Well here I am! This was really long and Bon Jovi does merit getting to perform over the goodnights, especially when the Foo Fighters are on. **

 

The Bottom Line: The avg. skit was **.56 making this a thumbs up show. This wasn’t a great show by any means, but it didn’t have much crap, and almost everything was in the **-**1/2 range, which pads the average. Bon Jovi was a useless host, but I think it shows how good the cast of SNL is getting, when they were get good episodes with him and LeBron James. And the digital short was my favourite skit of the year so far. November has a good lineup as well, so maybe SNL can go 6 for 6?

 

Thumbs Up

 

[Brett Favre 0]

I really liked Douchebag of the year. I need to find that video.

[Black Lushus 0]

boooo Bobby, Iconoclasts was great!

[bob_barron 0]

It really wasn't. It could've been, with better writing, but they just put Barkley and Bjork together and left them there. It's lazy

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I die a little on the inside every time you hate on Macgruber. Is there any chance of the Dane Cook stuff being available online?

 

EDIT: Found one. Loved it.

[bob_barron 0]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AV8GV2LIknY

[King Kamala 0]

I die a little on the inside every time you hate on Macgruber. Is there any chance of the Dane Cook stuff being available online?

 

Was on NBC.com a week or two back.

 

I guess I'm in the tiny minority that is incredibly indifferent to MacGruber. It is starting to wear on me a bit though.

[Mik 0]

I gotta agree. Iconoclasts had me DYING.

 

They were both mediocre episodes, though. I liked the digtal short; it wasn't as good as Iran so Far, but it was still pretty sweet.

[Black Lushus 0]

I still think the Bon Jovi episode is the best so far, which isn't saying much since we're only 3 eps in.

[Craig Th 0]

Since I love Rogen, I actually watched that episode. I was waiting to hear what Bob thought and it took a little longer than I wanted since most of the skits had already left my head.

[bob_barron 0]

Yea, I feel bad that it took me forever but this month has been insane, last night has been the first night where I could watch it and write it up

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Rowlf and The Swedish Chef was great, but would have been better had they used all of Electric Mayhem (they skipped Dr. Teeth & Floyd).