Saturday Night Live

Loved Killam's speech critic on Weekend Update. Absolutely perfect. The Kimye sketch cracked me up, too. Kim is totally Kanye's "fetch," and he needs to understand that she is never going to happen.

I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe during the speech critic bit.

He brought so much sass to that character, and I loved the tone and accent he invoked. The acting camp sketch made laugh, especially Gaga doing the censored Training Day scene. That final bit of Old Lady Gaga trying to get the superintendent to recognize her was cute and charminh and also made me sad. The Empress Beyonce "bow down" part by Kenan made me crack up so loudly! I thought she really gave her all to the material even if half of it just involved her singing and actually being herself.

I really want to know what the Roosevelt joke was supposed to be, although the recovery off the blown punchline was hilarious on its own. I definitely want to see more of this character.

I liked the dancing parents sketch. Gaga looked a lot like an ordinary mom in the wig and clothes. The new guy who played the dad, John Milhiser (I had to look it up), they've hardly used him at all this season. They should bring him out more. He's a lot funnier than Mike O'Brien has been. It seems like they've been using Beck Bennett most of the new guys, and he's been fine, and has the straight man looks, and is recognizable from the ATT commercials, but so far I haven't noticed any of the others until John in this sketch. I thought there were 4 new white male cast members, but just looked it up and there's 5! (And one new white female cast member.) I know it's been discussed all over the place, but I thought I'd leave this right here.

I thought the Gaga episode was pretty good. Taran Killam is currently my fave thing about SNL. (I still occasionally re-watch Mokiki Does The Sloppy Swish!)

The new guys all kinda blend in together, with the exception of one of them that is kinda geeky looking with a big nose. Not saying he's better or worse than the other new folk, but his look is slightly more memorable to me. Not that I know his name yet.

I'd forgotten there was a new girl until this week when there was a woman who looked a lot like Abby Elliot from a couple of seasons back, and I was trying to figure out who she was.

The geeky looking guy is Mike O'Brien. I love Taran, he's by far the best thing on current SNL. But most of the rest of the old cast is pretty good, too.

I wanted to hear the punchline, too. I'm disappointed he didn't get to complete it.

Fraoch wrote:I really want to know what the Roosevelt joke was supposed to be, although the recovery off the blown punchline was hilarious on its own.

On TWOP, they had a poster who saw the dress rehearsal and this is what she (?) said about it:

Again, still haven't watched so not sure how bad he flubbed it, but I think it went something like this: "The day that will go down in infamy for me is December 8th, 1941, when FDR gave that boring speech. That was my Pearl Harbor." If I recall correctly, he laughed a little bit during that joke, too.

Oh, that makes sense since he says before that specific speech joke that he shouldn't even say the critique but he will anyway. His Pearl Harbor? Ridic to the max.

Considering how solid the cast is, how promising the characters are, and the chemistry between many of the players, I'm going to go ahead and bet on a new golden age.

Jimmy Fallon will be hosting the 12/21 Christmas episode, with musical guest Justin Timberlake.

In other words, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake will be co-hosting the Christmas episode.

And an Andy Samberg guest appearance wouldn't shock me.

Okay, so just me or was Hutcherson actually really good? Like he seemed really game and surprisingly versatile. I've always enjoyed him as an actor but was pleasantly surprised.

I thought he did fine, though he barely got to do anything in the monologue! His timing on the lip synching sketch was amazing, coming in at the perfect time. (I'm rhythmically challenged, so perhaps it wasn't *that* impressive, but it seemed it to me!)

The video short of the dancing guy's brief career was good.

My favorite was the subway dancers short: Lil Peanut holding up the flag "for reference" and the face dancing. I thought the episode was ok otherwise, but not great.

Whatever doubts I may have still had about this cast disappeared during the last episode, and not due to the quality of the better sketches, but rather because of what was (arguably) one of the worst.

The final sketch, the Thanksgiving one in which a young man brings home his date, and the family finds out that she's a turkey, was a premise that wouldn't have been out of place on an episode of The Donny And Marie Show back in the day, though they likely wouldn't have had the bit in which she deals with the bits of turkey meat flying onto her as the bird on the table is being carved. However, even given the hackneyed premise and "Crap, we have another three minutes to fill?" dialogue, Vanessa Bayer and the rest of the cast absolutely sold it. There was never a sense that they were anything less than fully committed to the material, no matter how weak it was. That's the sign of an excellent cast, and it's something that I can't even say for all of the popular lineups of the past.

puddingcup wrote:My favorite was the subway dancers short: Lil Peanut holding up the flag "for reference" and the face dancing. I thought the episode was ok otherwise, but not great.

We went to see Catching Fire last night, and I was SO GLAD we sat in the back row, because my husband and I kept making Lil Peanut jokes every time Peeta showed up on-screen.

Spoiler:

(Nothing really spoilery about the movie in there, but figured it was better to err on the side of caution.)

puddingcup wrote:The geeky looking guy is Mike O'Brien.

Reminds me of Dave Foley for some reason.

I was uncomfortable with the Barry Gibb talk show, but I felt even worse when the real Barry Gibb showed up.

Twin Bed was great.

"Twin Bed" and Kate McKinnon as Billie Jean King were the only parts I really liked.

I understood where they were going with the Network Family Feud but those impressions were horrible and made no sense. Jim Parsons isn't actually like Sheldon! Alyson Hannigan is nowhere near distinct enough to hang an impression on. It's like they thought "Justin plays Jimmy!" and then stopped.

The Dude wrote:

puddingcup wrote:The geeky looking guy is Mike O'Brien.

Reminds me of Dave Foley for some reason.

I was uncomfortable with the Barry Gibb talk show, but I felt even worse when the real Barry Gibb showed up.

Twin Bed was great.

I got Barry Gibb showing up, as he'd repeatedly stated a desire to do so as a fan of the sketch, and this was probably the last one for obvious reasons. I don't get Madonna being there at all, though. She can't even read cue cards correctly.

"Twin Bed" was amazing. This is the strongest cast they've had in years, and the female part of it is the strongest since the Fey/Poehler/Shannon/Gasteyer/Dratch heyday.

bbridges wrote:"Twin Bed" and Kate McKinnon as Billie Jean King were the only parts I really liked.

I understood where they were going with the Network Family Feud but those impressions were horrible and made no sense. Jim Parsons isn't actually like Sheldon! Alyson Hannigan is nowhere near distinct enough to hang an impression on. It's like they thought "Justin plays Jimmy!" and then stopped.

I wanted to be excited about that Network Family Feud thing but pretty much all the impressions were terrible. I also think it's really lazy when they do an impression of the character instead of the actor; it's probably also partly because they once did a Gillian Anderson impression and she was just all frowny and emotionless and suit-wearing like Scully, and I was just like, have you guys ever SEEN Gillian Anderson? She's like a drunk Keebler elf. I don't even watch BBT, but I've seen bits of it, and I've seen Jim Parsons on awards shows and stuff, and, you know. It's just lazy. Then I get that having Timberlake do an impression of Jimmy was funny to them, but it wasn't really a good enough impression to be funny to me. The funniest part was that they had Brooks Whelan as himself and nobody believed he was from SNL. Also Kenan's line about how there were so many sexier things you could do, like fluffing up your mustache. Oh also Ashton Kutcher a little bit because Taran Killam is totally my favorite thing in the world right now. Along with Kate McKinnon.

The Twin Bed thing was fantastic. And Billie Jean King.

I love Madonna but even I don't understand what she was doing there. And she wasn't in the goodbyes. Lame!

All their impersonations were lame. Didn't they also have a Christmas CD skit? It felt like a diluted, lukewarm rehash of better ones, and none of the impressions landed at all. This whole episode, except for "Twin Bed," didn't work for me. I have long wished they'd give up on the Whatever-ville sketches with Timberlake because they're boring to me -- I am the only one in the world who feels that way, though, I think -- and I used to love the Barry Gibb thing but it didn't land for me this time. The episode felt lazily cobbled together, like they could just throw in some celebrity cameos (that green room must have been insane) and some rehashed sketches and coast to Christmas.

Edited to add: I forgot about Billie Jean King; that was great.

I kinda wouldn't want to be hired by SNL right now because I'd see my being hired as a means of filling a quota because people criticized Lorne and the show for not being racially diverse enough. I hope Zamata does a great job and actually gets worked into some awesome sketches. If she's been on Amy Schumer's show, she must be pretty hilarious.

That said, I'm more excited that Bastille is gonna be on because I am OBSESSED with their music.

I still can't get over that they haven't had a female African-American regular since 2007.