Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday Night Live February 28th, 2010

Saturday Night Live
February 27th, 2009
Host: Jennifer Lopez
Musical Guest: Jennifer Lopez

I was caught off guard, not expecting a new episode till after the Olympics. But here’s what I did catch. I’ll watch the rest on DVR later.

Romance Commentary 2
Second time out, I was ready to write off this reoccurring sketch as semi-stupid, semi-guilty pleasure. But Kenan found new ways to really sell it, and kept it from being a total repeat of last time. I found myself laughing several times, so I guess I’m a fan. I even liked Jennifer Lopez as the weird ventriloquist.

Smashmouth in the Closet.
Totally ridiculous in the best possible way. Surprisingly pitch perfect. I’ll never hear those songs the same way again.

Custom Car Horns.
I’m still not sure what nationality this racial stereotype is supposed to be. I guess Puerto Rican, because of the Jennifer Lopez connection? The car horns are a bit funnier than the doorbells but still not as genius as Scarlett Johanson in the chandelier sketch.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Saturday Night Live February 6th, 2010

Saturday Night Live
February 6th, 2009
Host: Ashton Kutcher
Musical Guest: Them Crooked Vultures

Cold Open.
Moderately funny! I like the idea of random "attractive blonde lady," and there were some decent lines including Karl Rove only having a problem with gay men, not gay women.

Monologue.
I can't believe he's hosted 3 other times. Not sure I remember any of those episodes. I didn't catch who was dressed as the old lady break dancing. I liked the set up of Ashton trying not to react to the "awesome" stuff in the audience. And most of the examples were good up till Mark Twain getting punched in the nuts. What's he have against Mark Twain?

Pool boy at reading of the will.
The only thing the sketch had going for it was "gross out" humor, and yet it felt surprisingly tame. Even the STD names weren’t very imaginative. “Foreigner’s Cough”?

The View.
Second sketch to address "Don't Ask Don't Tell." I guess Elisabeth Hasselback likes to repeat things for emphasis? I don't remember that from previous View sketches, but I’ll roll with it. I did like Kenan/Whoopie's complaint about not liking to go to the movies because they play at different times. Overall, this was another decent View sketch, one of he more reliable repeating bits.

Commercial Parody: Cialis for threeways. Almost made me smile, but mostly made me roll my eyes.

Rome/Grapes
Will Forte seemed to be playing a villain in a Hanna Barbera cartoon. I’ll give them credit for doing an old-fashioned style sketch.

Musical Guest: Them Crooked Vultures.
I usually like Dave Grohl’s various bands, but this song didn’t really do anything for me.
Didn’t sound so great and the lyrics were pretty unintelligible.

Weekend Update.
Fairly long segment this week.
Andy Samberg’s new character “Liam, the teenager who just woke up” was surprisingly funny (and real).

Game Show: What is Burn Notice?
Snarky! But accurate!

Access Hollywood/Oscar Nominations.
Also accurate?

Statement from Rahm Emanuel.
More of a rant than a sketch, but it felt fresh and different! Kind of amazing, actually.

Wedding Band.
Crisis of Conformity rocked it. Worked because the song “Fistfight in the parking lot” was actually pretty good and Fred Armisen is a good singer. And of course Dave Grohl on drums. Nice live moment where his mic didn’t work.