Saturday Night Live

Arabella wrote:Jay Pharoah to play Obama this season

I'm so glad about this. Armisen's Obama is so bad that they couldn't have done anything with the election with him in the role.

Oh wow, I'm excited for him, I hope he does well. I love the SNL presidential debates.

Oh thank goodness. There's no way he can be worse.

Poubelle wrote:Oh thank goodness. There's no way he can be worse.

My thoughts exactly.

Interesting. On the one hand, he's been disappointing in most of his roles...good impressions, but his comic timing is way off. On the other, Armisen is almost objectively horrible in the role, and I have a distaste for blackface when African-American actors are actually available for a role, so good for him.

Honestly? There's no way Jay could do worse of a job than Fred Armisen. His Obama is terrible, so even if Jay's performance is meh it will be a step up.

Eris Rising wrote:I have a distaste for blackface when African-American actors are actually available for a role, so good for him.

My initial reaction was "oh wow, an actual black dude!" and I didn't post it because that felt a bit mean.

I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't think Fred Armisen's impression is that bad. Obama doesn't have much to impersonate, it seems to me. He talks kinda normal. The way Fred says "Hello" as Obama strikes me as Obama-y. But I also feel that he used to try harder to lower his voice and sort of imitate him, and now he just talks like Fred Armisen.

I'm glad they're going to have Jay Pharoah do it, and I'm thinking it's pretty safe to say that between the time he found out he was doing it and the opening moment of the season premiere he is going to be practicing his ass off to get it right, because this is (obviously) huge for him. So even though I've found him so-so in a lot of the stuff he's done I'm hoping he will do OK. (Although Eris is right, his issues are more with comic timing than with impressions. Maybe he'll practice that too.)

All of this news is sort of Twilight Zone-y to me because I thought Jay Pharoah was leaving, and that article also mentions that Sudeikis is playing Romney, and I thought he was leaving too. (And I assume also Biden in that case. Yay! I love Sudeikis Biden.)

I see that they also hired three new cast members. Kudos for hiring a plus size gal but seriously, are we only going to have Kenan and Jay playing all the black roles, male and female?

TiffanyNichelle wrote:I see that they also hired three new cast members. Kudos for hiring a plus size gal but seriously, are we only going to have Kenan and Jay playing all the black roles, male and female?

They'll just call Maya Rudolph over from Up All Night's set, I guess. Which is dumb for more than the obvious reasons, since Maya's a fun actress but she has a very distinctive voice that's not great for impressions.

I really feel like SNL would have gotten more mileage out of political humor if they had a good Obama. And hell, they could get mileage out of Michelle Obama if they had a black female regular.

Here's Pharoah's Obama from 2009. Not perfect, but good, and miles better than Armisen's attempt.

Pharoah's biggest problem is discomfort with the cue cards. Someone else pointed that out here and it is obvious. It makes him come across as really stiff. Some people are good at it right away but it takes practice and if you aren't on the show that often it is hard to get a lot better. Hopefully he's spent the summer practicing.

I think Obama has a very distinctive cadence that Armisen tried to match at first and gradually just gave up trying to match. Pharoah has the cadence in that clip.

TiffanyNichelle wrote:I see that they also hired three new cast members. Kudos for hiring a plus size gal but seriously, are we only going to have Kenan and Jay playing all the black roles, male and female?

Hell that's double what they usually have.

Wonder if Lorne expected Fred to retire gracifully and had Jay waiting in the wings to take over as Obama, but with the election coming had to force the issue.

I can't IMAGINE Fred Armisen is sorry to give up Obama, nor put up a fight about it. He gets excoriated for that all the time. There's no way it's that fun for him. I think he was their only person who could do it at first, and my guess is Pharaoh had to earn his stripes a little, perfect the imitation, and get better at working off cue cards.

Wow, Bruno Mars. Who knew? That Pandora sketch was awesome.

I feel like Jay Pharaoh wasn't doing Obama this time in the debate sketch. It came across more like a stand-up comic version of Obama mixed with a little of Jay Pharaoh himself.

I really liked Tom Hanks' random appearances. And I've never seen Bruno Mars in anything before but he's really charming and a good singer.

Jay Pharoah was a billion times better as Obama in this episode.

Binky wrote:Jay Pharoah was a billion times better as Obama in this episode.

It looks like he's finally comfortable in the role, and having some fun with it. Interestingly enough for me, he dropped the mic in response to the exact same exchange that caused me to post "Aaaaaaand Obama dropped the mic" on my Facebook during the REAL debate.

Can I just say, it occurred to me watching this weekend that they currently have FIVE WOMEN in the cast? Have they EVER had five women in the cast? And like, none of them suck, at least from what I can tell so far. I am loving Kate McKinnon (I don't think I've seen her hit a bad note yet), and I thought Aidy Bryant did really well as Candy Crowley, especially considering it was like the first time I'd heard her talk on the show practically. Plus I like the name Aidy. And the other one, I forget her name and can't think of a specific thing she was in, but I have a secondary recollection of giving her a mental thumbs-up as well.

Jay Pharoah has really risen to the occasion, I feel, as Obama. I have felt in the past like he comes in, does an impression, and leaves and is not engaged with the rest of the cast or with the show. But I felt like he and Sudeikis finally had some chemistry going in the debate sketch. I am pleased. I did think it was a little standup-comic-y, but I don't mind that; I don't need it to be a dead-on impression. It had some spirit in it and I liked that. Keep at it, kid.

Eris, you said something on Facebook (I think it was you) about how this is the strongest cast in years, and I kinda agree. Also I got a weird sort of sending-your-kid-on-the-bus-to-kindergarten feeling during one of the sketches (I forget which one) because it was like, all new people. And they were doing great!

I had one falling-out-of-my-chair belly laugh, and it was Stefon's joke about the black Dracula, Blacula, and the Jewish Dracula, Sidney Appelbaum. I DO NOT KNOW why this hit me so funny but it did. Probably Hader laughing (and Seth carefully writing it down) was part of it.

Instant Monkeys wrote:Can I just say, it occurred to me watching this weekend that they currently have FIVE WOMEN in the cast? Have they EVER had five women in the cast? And like, none of them suck, at least from what I can tell so far. I am loving Kate McKinnon (I don't think I've seen her hit a bad note yet), and I thought Aidy Bryant did really well as Candy Crowley, especially considering it was like the first time I'd heard her talk on the show practically. Plus I like the name Aidy. And the other one, I forget her name and can't think of a specific thing she was in, but I have a secondary recollection of giving her a mental thumbs-up as well.

Jay Pharoah has really risen to the occasion, I feel, as Obama. I have felt in the past like he comes in, does an impression, and leaves and is not engaged with the rest of the cast or with the show. But I felt like he and Sudeikis finally had some chemistry going in the debate sketch. I am pleased. I did think it was a little standup-comic-y, but I don't mind that; I don't need it to be a dead-on impression. It had some spirit in it and I liked that. Keep at it, kid.

Eris, you said something on Facebook (I think it was you) about how this is the strongest cast in years, and I kinda agree. Also I got a weird sort of sending-your-kid-on-the-bus-to-kindergarten feeling during one of the sketches (I forget which one) because it was like, all new people. And they were doing great!

I had one falling-out-of-my-chair belly laugh, and it was Stefon's joke about the black Dracula, Blacula, and the Jewish Dracula, Sidney Appelbaum. I DO NOT KNOW why this hit me so funny but it did. Probably Hader laughing (and Seth carefully writing it down) was part of it.

Yeah, that was me. I'd actually go so far as to say that it's the strongest since Tina Fey left. Also, now that I've seen the whole episode (or at least the parts that they made available online), I was far more impressed by Bruno Mars as the host than I thought that I'd be.

With Stefon, it's all in the delivery. In addition, while I'm usually not a fan of corpsing (see: Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz), Hader legitimately seems to be trying to keep a straight face while reading lines that (according to interviews I've read) he's never seen before.

The writing was a bit weak in this episode, but the strong performances made up for it.

Finally, my falling out of the chair moment was the mic drop. Pharaoh absolutely sold that, and also the strut immediately following.

Yeah I think Pharoah is integrating nicely. I think his issue was more coming from a stand up background and them never using him, so he always came off a bit awkward. But they have been using him a lot this season and I have to say hes stepping up.

I think there was a point in the early late 1990s/early 2000s where they had Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri, Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch and Molly Shannon. Either as starring, or featured players and that was a very strong period for women but this is probably the best since.

Also Taram Killam is totally the new break out. Hes the new Samberg.

Oh yeah, I think you're right: I think of the Tina/Rachel/Amy/Maya years and the Cheri/Molly/Ana years as being adjacent, but there was some overlap I guess. That was a good time.

Totally agreed on Taran Killam. I like him more every week.

Taran Killam is my favorite, as well. Anyone who can come up with something as bizarre and yet legitimately hilarious as "Les Jeunes de Paris" bears watching.

I forgot about the Obama mic drop. I did love that bit.

I love Taran Killam too. He's in everything now but I don't get sick of him because he's so good.