Saturday, March 14, 2009

Saturday Night Live, March 14th, 2009

Saturday Night Live
March 14th, 2009
Host: Tracy Morgan
Musical Guest: Kelly Clarkson

Cold Open.
Was this the first time they did a digital short style opening? I thought everything about it was great. I wonder if it was inspired by real events.

Monologue.
Probably the best monologue I've seen in years. Great jab about being in more sketches than his 7 years as a cast member. And tons of fantastic quotes like, "I'm not actually a ridiculous person," and images of Tracey frying chicken in his shark tank.

Commercial parody.
I guess it's better to show a repeat than cut immediately to a real commercial. But seriously, they need to make more parodies per year.

The return of Brian Fellows.
I'm glad they went right to what everyone wanted to see. I assume that was the same intro and not a new one. I wonder how much of the set was held on to "just in case." This felt a bit phoned in, but I could care less. My only complaint was that it didn't last long enough.

The View.
I guess it's pretty funny to have Tracy Morgan play a different host on The View since he was well known for playing Star Jones. I guess he could play anyone and it would make me laugh. The naivte could have been annoying if not so pitch perfect. "I know what stem cells are, but what is research?" Kristen Wiig's take on Elisabeth Hassleback is also growing on me. One of the best View sketches in a while.

Scared Straight a 3rd time.
It's nice just to see Kenan and Tracy performing together. There's a lot to like about series of sketches, even if the repetition of format still annoys me a bit. But there's more pro than con. This also seemed like the first time in a while where the cast members really cracked each other up and almost broke character.

Dateline.
Bill Hader really has something with this character. It's hard to not smile through the whole sketch.

Astronaut Jones.
The opening sequence and theme song is still one my favorite things of all time (SNL or otherwise). They could show an Astronaut Jones bit every week and I wouldn't complain.

Kelly Clarkson.
Another American Idol winner. I guess I should be embarrassed that I've still never watched that show. The song didn't do that much for me, but I'd say Clarkson has a good voice.

Weekend Update.
Good impersonation of John Malkovich. But does he really have that chin hair?
There was an inexplicable camera shot of Seth before Tracy Morgan showed up for his "Really" bit. Barbie is no Cathy. But I liked the shout out to Black Barbie. All the other jokes about the doll seemed really old though. Did they not see Toy Story 2?

Big Love.
I'm not familiar with the show, but still enjoyed the sketch.

Digital Short.
Visualizing insults for people at a party. Great execution of an idea I can't believe no one else has done before.

Suppressex.
Total Brilliance. Will Forte's "This is the wrong time for an erection" was the best use of him all year (makes up for all those MacGrubers). Anti-erection medication is another seemingly obvious idea I'm surprised I've never seen before.
Laying face down on a waterslide can be a problem!

High I.Q.
Is it wrong that Beth's dancing made me wish I had some Suppressex? It was pretty hot.
Not a lot to think about, but the sketch had the right mix of escalating randomness to win the game.

Kelly Clarkson didn't seem dressed like someone who would have that much rock guitar playing behind her.

Family Flix: Rocket Dog.
I can't really explain why this sketch cracked me up from start to end. But it got the biggest laughs of the night. It's horrible to laugh at the idea of dead dogs, but they made it work.

Gas Right.
Was this a new commercial parody? Why didn't they show this at the beginning of the episode?

A great episode. Sorry for all the Tracy Morgan fanboy gushing. But he's the best!

CLIPS:



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

no need to apologize for tracy morgan gushing! i completely agree. tracy morgan is excellent. this is probably the best episode ive seen in, hell, i dont even know when. i laughed from beginning to end with a break only during weekend update. a shame alec baldwins episode was not this funny, because i feel like it could have been. this episode really caught me off guard because ive been so disappointed in the show most of the season. it was so satisfying and refreshing to finally just laugh until my face hurt for an hour and a half.

Karen said...

Gas Right was an old one, too.

Spanco said...

I agree that Tracy Morgan is excellent so you dont need to apologize. This is hilarious and heart touching comedy show. I have downloaded all saturday night live season in my mobile and all are super gr8.