I used to have a huge crush on Kerry Washington. She totally reminds me of my ex, but in
a very cute way. Like, in the
perfect way possible. Ok, so I
still have a crush on Kerry Washington.
Basically I’m excited to see her hosting SNL.
It makes sense that she’s hosting for a couple reasons. First, she’s on a pretty popular show
that you may have heard of, Scandal.
Secondly, Saturday Night Live has gotten a ton of negative attention
from their lack of diversity, specifically the lack of Black women on the cast
for the past few years.
Oh, also Eminem is there, so there’s that.
Here’s our rating system
Phil Hartman – Comedic gold
Chris Farley – Definitely funny, but
kinda messy
Norm MacDonald – Funny, but not for
everyone
Kristen Wiig – So-so premise saved by
performer.
Tim Meadows – Didn’t hate it, didn’t love
it, dripping with adequatulence
Darrell Hammond – Funny, but overstayed
it’s welcome
Jim Breuer- Crowd pleaser, but a bit
obvious
Robert Downey Jr – Brilliant performer,
not a lot to work with
David Spade – Trying too hard
Janeane Garofalo – Weird weird, not weird
funny
Meta Cold Open – Wow. Nicely played Lorne Michaels and SNL
writers. Way to attack the
controversy head on. And very
ballsy. They poked fun at
everything they’ve been called out on.
Plus it was genuinely funny.
Having her play Michelle was a great start and then bringing Oprah in
was great. And having Al Sharpton show up was a very nice touch. The writing was really
well done with this one.
Rating: Phil Hartman
Monologue – While I’m glad that Kerry Washington wasn’t
forced into a musical monologue, this was pretty lame. Ooh, look; the cast can’t differentiate
the actress from the role she plays.
It didn’t really give her anything funny to do, which is sad.
Rating: Robert Downey Jr.
Career Week – Two weeks in a row we’ve had the lead off
sketch be an attempt to launch a Nasim Pedrad reoccurring character. Last week’s was better. Heshe Al Fahid (I’m guessing that’s the
spelling) is probably a character that killed at the table read, but doesn’t
work well in practice. Maybe it
would have worked better later in the show? The best thing about this sketch was Kerry Washington in
that outfit, because she wasn’t given much to do.
Rating: David Spade
What Does My Girl Say – I dig how Kerry’s totally game. I don’t get the whole fascination of
the original, but the parody seems spot on. Still, I respect Kerry’s commitment. Unfortunately in their attempt to
provide a balance of the female perspective, it dragged this on way too
long.
Rating: Darrell Hammond
How’s He Doing – This is a great premise. I’m sure some people will say that this
treading familiar ground with the whole “Black people/white people” bit, but I
liked it. The talk about The Wire was so spot on. Like so real. Still,
I recognize that this isn’t for everyone.
But it worked.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Miss Universe Moscow 2013 – I spoke with Jay1 about this one
and we disagreed. He really
enjoyed it. I felt it was just an
excuse to trot out accents. It
wasn’t even thinly veiled. Kerry
had zero to do in this sketch. On
the plus side there were seven women in this sketch.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Eminem Performance #1 – Let’s just start with the obvious;
apparently you can rent out Rick Rubin to promote your album. First Jay-Z did it for Magna Carta Holy
Grail, and now Eminem does it for MMLP2.
There are two ways to think about this song. First that it has the vintage Rick Rubin sound. The second is that Rick Rubin, producer
of the latest Los Hermanos Avett album, is milking a decades old sound and that
Eminem is brazenly trying to conjure up memories of the Beastie Boys. No sir, I don’t like it.
Weekend Update – McKinnon’s take on Angela Merkel was
interesting. I liked the idea of
the character more than I found it funny.
Even though Pharoah needs to work on his Shaq voice, I still found Shaq
and Barkley pretty enjoyable.
Beyond that Update was pretty lacking in the quotables, for a second
week in a row.
Cartoon Catchphrase – Man, that heartbreak was
hilarious. This sketch wasn’t
perfect, but had a pretty good bunch of components; Diane’s horrible marriage,
the cluelessness of the contestants and Melanie’s light snark. Of course the real surprise was that
the sketch had an actual ending.
Huzzah!
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Fall Carnival – Unless I’m mistaken, this is the earliest
this sketch has appeared in the show.
It’s usually in the five to one spot. Principal Frye is always welcome. Yeah, this sketch is as formulaic as they come, but I still
enjoy it because while it’s a reoccurring sketch it’s not run into the
ground. And Kerry’s first year
teacher was awesome. Her Long
Island accent is no joke.
Rating: Chris Farley
Eminem Performance #2 – Speaking of “formulaic as they come”
here’s Eminem standard “very aggressive” single. Which brings up a point about mic levels. Last week during her first performance
I could barely hear Janelle Monae through her band. This week, Eminem’s second performance levels were so low I couldn’t
make out a word he said. He’s a
spitter, which means he needs the sound to be crisp so there’s clarity. That was not the case.
Date Or Diss – The best part of this sketch were the digs at
MTV. From Hatfish, which “started
at a typo” and became a show, to the lack of budget for a second location, to
Bitch Apartment. Those were the
laugh aloud moments. Beyond that,
I was wonder what Noel would have done if she were in this sketch.
Rating: Jim Breuer
Ice Cream – Again, for the second week in a row it’s a five to
one that is perfect. I’m not even
100% what was going on, other than I really liked it. I loved how Killam popped into Mooney’s attempt to unravel
the joke. I really enjoyed this
one.
Rating: Norm MacDonald
Final Thoughts: I thought Kerry did a commendable job. I'm sure she felt a ton of pressure, but she handled it very well. Overall the episode was a solid outing. Everyone's taking next week off, and given the last two episodes I think they've earned it. I'm very curious how the Lady Gaga episode is going to play out. It's safe to say that I can't wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment