Saturday Night Live January 17th, 2009

Saturday Night Live
January 17th, 2009
Host: Rosario Dawson
Musical Guest: Fleet Foxes

Cold Open.
Diane Sawyer interviews Vice President Dick Cheney.
One joke repeated for four minutes. I REGRET sitting through it.

Monologue.
Featuring the return of Fred Armisen's stereotype of Latin comedy. I'm not sure if I'd say I MISSED him, but it made me laugh with a mild sense of nostalgia.

North American Savings.
Not exactly hilarious, but completely accurate.

Da Learning Train.
It's a bit sad how SNL's rap culture is eternally stuck in the early 90's (except for the Kanye West glasses on the DJ). But I guess that's part of the point? Giant clock necklaces and Fresh Prince video backdrops aside, this sketch ended up being kind of okay.

Guantanamo Bay Commercial.
This sketch was all the in execution. On paper another going out of business commercial parody would have seemed pretty lame, but they managed to pull it off. Lots of great delivery and visual gags. I need some C-C-Car Batteries.

Aladdin and Jasmine.
Wow. This was like the ultimate Disney fanfic. Obviously written by someone really familiar with the movie. Lots of great lines and jabs at Robin Williams.
"I wish I was dead. But I already used all my wishes."
Probably the highlight of the episode.

Digital Short.
This sketched reeked of Will Forte's overconfident singing/songwriting before he even showed up on screen. Not even his bare ass could save this one.

Gilly.
Started off as another sketch with Will Forte's creepy mustache, then segued into an even creepier new character from Kristen Wiig. She's sort of a live action hybrid of comic strip characters Nancy and Dennis the Menace. She causes trouble, makes shifty eyes, and only says one-word responses. I found this sketch utterly painful and thought it broke Kristen Wiig's winning character creation streak.

Musical Guest: The Fleet Foxes.
I like the Fleet Foxes. They sound like they could have been on the soundtrack to The Last Unicorn This is the first band that's played on SNL all year whose album I actually own (or at least my wife does!). Great harmonies and old-timey Renaissance Faire rhythms. Beards ahoy!

Weekend Update.
Fred Armisen was good as Bernie Madoff. I'm not sure how the teleprompter can keep up with Kristen Wiig's Julie Grimes character. I loved Seth Meyer's questioning of Larry the Goose's pop culture references.

La Policia.
It took me a few seconds to get it. But it was cute.
Random thought I had while watching: Why is Bill Hader with a mustache much funnier thanWill Forte?

The View.
I'm not sure why I love SNL's take on The View, but it seems to hit all the right notes. The impersonations are heightened enough that they get more mileage compared to many of the other celebrity parody setups. It is almost enough to distract from the fact that they didn't have a point to this sketch.

Good Excuse.
Sometimes they save the most creative and original sketches for the end. This is not one of those nights The sketch had an okay premise, but the characters created by Will Forte and Kristen Wiig just seemed pointlessly weird and out of place. The only inspired part was the cut away to the cats in the audience.

GREAT CLIP: