Saturday Night Live October 17th, 2009

Saturday Night Live
October 17th, 2009
Host: Gerard Butler
Musical Guest: Shakira

Cold Open.
The return of The Rock Obama was surprisingly enjoyable. I think I smiled through the whole thing.

Monologue.
There was something very early 90s about this bit. I mostly liked when Kristen Wiig screamed "take your shirt off!"

Urban Champagne.
I'm not sure I buy Kenan Thompson as "gangsta," but this was still funny.

SNL Flashback/promotional gimmick.
Felt like a random DVD extra. The Jason Sudeikis intro made it sound like there wouldn't be any other commercials thanks to Bud Light, but it was followed by a car commercial.

Game Time with Randy and Greg.
I spent most of the sketch wondering if Greg the alien was a character created while Bill Hader was drunk at a party.

SNL Backstage/promotional gimmick.
Tim Meadows in "Perspectives" still cracks me up.

First time I've ever seen Comedy Central advertise on NBC.

Beauty and the Beast
Follow up to the Aladdin sketch? For the most part this was a really strong sketch. But for some reason by the time Bobby Moynihan showed up as the clock it ran out of steam.

SNL Backstage/promotional gimmick.
I was surprised I didn't remember the Harvey Keitel episode.

Musical Guest: Shakira.
Her performance came across as surprising shy and awkward. The stretching came across like she was trying it out for the first time. The howling was also borderline cheesy.

SNL Backstage/promotional gimmick.
Blooper reel.

Weekend Update.
Return of two guys from NJ. Bill Hader and Fred Armisen make a cute couple.
The balloon from Colorado sounded like a character from Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Kristen Wiig as Tamara Parks was funny, but I hope they don't make her a reoccurring character more than once more.

SNL Backstage/promotional gimmick.
More assorted blooper reels.

300 Parody.
Gets credit for being timely. Had some funny bits to it.

What Up With That?
The most amazing sketch so far this year. Kenan seemed to be channeling Eddie Murphy's classic "James Brown's Hot Tub" but made it totally his own. Everything about it made me laugh out loud. I couldn't take my eyes off Jason Sudeikis dancing in the background. And the randomness of the James Franco cameo added to the greatness.
Best line of the night: "ET likes Reese's Pieces."

SNL Backstage/promotional gimmick.
That robot eats old people's medicine for food.

Trina.
Kristen Wiig certainly has her share of brilliant performances, but this wasn't one of them. Not exactly as painful as her Gilly character, but still pretty bad.

Musical Performance: Shakira.
I liked this song better. Good use of the taiko drums for a hip hop beat. Not sure the Beyonce hairstyle works on Shakira.

Daveheart.
Started off a bit lame, but actually got better!
"Whew! It's just a goat. I thought it was a dragon!"

Closing thought.
A fairly consistent episode. I've never seen a Gerard Butler movie, but I was impressed by his effort. He certainly threw himself into as many different characters and sketches as possible.

CLIP: