Moe Dickstein wrote:I don't think she'll be doing characters Andre, as she's remaining as co-anchor with Jost.
That makes sense. I thought they were going back to the solo host, but I guess they want to keep the co-anchors. Strong started out a little rough earlier this season (that phrase sounds odd), but she seems to have figured things out now, so I guess there's no reason to change the format. I do miss her characters though.
Also, I'm in the same boat about wondering why John Mulaney never got a shot as anchor, but looks like he's doing enough stuff on his own anyway.
Mulaney did a few guest stand-up type spots on WU, but he didn't really catch fire. I think like anything you need to grow into it a bit (Strong being a great example). I'd have really liked to see JM do like a year as a featured player a few years back to just see how it went and then he might have taken over. But yeah, that ship has sailed, and hopefully "Mulaney" on Fox will be as good as I imagine.
...and the the SNL presentation of the skit wasn't very good.
This seems like a trend. On the season opener they repeated a "Tyler Perry becomes a 'grandmother'" joke that Jimmy Fallon had done (in the same building!) two nights earlier. Saturday night's show also had a skit based on the same premise as the extended promo for NBC's MARRY ME that has been showing in theaters.
As they mentioned in the updates, SNL has a long history of filching stuff. I have a friend who says a lot of SCTV material was pilfered.
One latter day sketch stands out for me. Remember that post-9/11 sketch with DeNiro, when he comes out and lists some alleged Arabic names that are all actually profane phrases in disguise? The same exact joke was done in real life by a noted comedian at an airport, well before 9/11. (Basically an unsuspecting announcer repeats these phrases over the intercom, believing they're asking an individual with a non-Western name to come pick up a courtesy phone.) A friend of mine from Germany was playing me this, as well as dozens of other recordings he had of European comedians, but I never got the name for that one.
Is it me or was this week's "Wishin' Boot" music video maybe SNL's best post-Lonely Island effort?Spoiler
It's catchy, funny, surreal, takes perfect advantage of this week's musical guest/host and actually has a lot to say about everything that's wrong with the state of contemporary country music and its relation to a certain kind of feel-good Evangelical culture.
I think I liked the concept more than the actual execution - and for my money, the best post-Lonely Island efforts have been Kyle Mooney's Chris for President campaign video and the music videos with the female cast, particularly "Do It In My Twin Bed". Not sure if they have a monicker they go by as that 'group,' but they've done a few.
mfunk9786 wrote:... and for my money, the best post-Lonely Island efforts have been Kyle Mooney's Chris for President campaign video ...
I actually really like Mooney's SNL stuff (he was also great on Sports Show with Norm Macdonald). The Inside So-Cal skater videos are hilarious cause they seem so incredibly familiar. I grew up with so many guys that tried too hard to be that indifferent to everything.
I haven't kept up much with SNL in several years, but due to being totally crushed out on Amy Adams, I watched her hosting gig back in December. The episode continued my gripe that the show no longer takes full advantage of the week's host. My favorite years of SNL are from around 1988-1993, and I feel that what helped make SNL its best was when the sketches are written with the host in mind, where the particular qualities or personality of the host are central to the sketch. Things such as George Steinbrenner's Slim Fast ad, Charlton Heston in Bag Boy, Patrick Stewart baking erotic cakes, Steve Martin as Tightwad 007, etc. The cast were much more utility players, but still found moments to shine. The famous Chris Farley Chippendales sketch works for Farley so well because he's specifically playing off Patrick Swayze. One of the things that drove me away was that now it seems like the hosts are just thrown into sketches with little regard. There was basically nothing in the episode that felt like "only Amy Adams could have played this." The sketches could have been in any episode with a female host. However, I must say the Singing Sisters sketch is the funniest thing from the show post-Tales Of Fraud And Malfeasance In Railroad Hiring Practices.
I'm so glad someone else loves that Singing Sisters sketch as much as I do - easily the strangest and funniest bit that SNL has produced in years. Watching it multiple times, knowing the denouement, makes the bizarre lines spouted by the ladies even more delightful.
Exactly! It was very funny the first time, even funnier the second, and it continues to still make me laugh with due to the stylized dialogue, committed performances, and spot-on recreation of nonsensical 1940's songs, such as (the horrifying) Solid Potato Salad
Interesting that your mind went to Solid Potato Salad. When I saw the sketch (which I laughed at a lot), I thought of this Andrews Sisters song, which makes no goddamn sense at all:
My mind went to Solid Potato Salad because it's branded upon my brain due to frequently playing as part of preshow entertainment at the Alamo Drafthouse, creeping me out every time I have to see it. I wasn't familiar with this Andrews Sisters song, but it's definitely the kind song of the sketch was parodying.
"Hold Tight, Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)" does make complete sense in the context of old sexually suggestive songs of the '30s that hid innuendo in plain sight as a seemingly innocent silly lyric and a catchy tune. The Andrews Sisters version was partly sanitized from the jazz original. Another suggestive song that was popular in the '30s was "Hot Nuts (Get ’Em from the Peanut Man)."
Similar to what the Andrews Sisters did with "Hold Tight," the "Solid Potato Salad" song seems lifted straight from Slim Gaillard, who loved the old hipster (when that meant something) word "solid" and sang many bizarre lyrics about food, including potato chips, avocado seed soup, etc., and in "How High the Moon" went off on a tangent about raising huge potatoes on the moon and making a big bowl of potato salad.
Really? I had the opposite reaction. For me his appearance typified his too-cool-school mentality of the past couple of decades. Unfunny but cool Eddie...with only a few glimpses of his past brilliance.
Then again the whole SNL40 was characteristic of the show since the 90s...too long, unfunny and so-so musical performances. The celebrity cameos and audience was pointless, and too much of the 2000s-currrent class for my taste. I never found Tina Fey funny, so the news segment was a wash for me, ditto Jane Curtain. The impressions of dead cast members were embarrassingly bad too. Steve Martin and Bill Murray did a good job, and Larry David had a few good bits...but it was just a bloated mess, with everyone licking Lorne Michael's taint.
In contrast - the rebroadcast of the first one the night before was fun - particularly the Muppets portion. It seemed that with SNL 40 it had become what the original SNL set out to parody.
Really? I had the opposite reaction. For me his appearance typified his too-cool-school mentality of the past couple of decades. Unfunny but cool Eddie...with only a few glimpses of his past brilliance.
Then again the whole SNL40 was characteristic of the show since the 90s...too long, unfunny and so-so musical performances. The celebrity cameos and audience was pointless, and too much of the 2000s-currrent class for my taste. I never found Tina Fey funny, so the news segment was a wash for me, ditto Jane Curtain. The impressions of dead cast members were embarrassingly bad too. Steve Martin and Bill Murray did a good job, and Larry David had a few good bits...but it was just a bloated mess, with everyone licking Lorne Michael's taint.
In contrast - the rebroadcast of the first one the night before was fun - particularly the Muppets portion. It seemed that with SNL 40 it had become what the original SNL set out to parody.
So, to sum up your three major points here:
1. New show bad. Old show good.
2. Man funny. Woman not funny.
3. You have fantasized about the licking of Lorne Michael's taint.
bearcuborg wrote:For me his appearance typified his too-cool-school mentality of the past couple of decades. Unfunny but cool Eddie...with only a few glimpses of his past brilliance.
Agree with you there, but all the rest..... Emma Stone was spot on. Melissa McCarthy's impression was less so, but the ending was the main payoff anyway. And Kanye was sharp.
Program of the year.
Really? I had the opposite reaction. For me his appearance typified his too-cool-school mentality of the past couple of decades. Unfunny but cool Eddie...with only a few glimpses of his past brilliance.
Then again the whole SNL40 was characteristic of the show since the 90s...too long, unfunny and so-so musical performances. The celebrity cameos and audience was pointless, and too much of the 2000s-currrent class for my taste. I never found Tina Fey funny, so the news segment was a wash for me, ditto Jane Curtain. The impressions of dead cast members were embarrassingly bad too. Steve Martin and Bill Murray did a good job, and Larry David had a few good bits...but it was just a bloated mess, with everyone licking Lorne Michael's taint.
In contrast - the rebroadcast of the first one the night before was fun - particularly the Muppets portion. It seemed that with SNL 40 it had become what the original SNL set out to parody.
So, to sum up your three major points here:
1. New show bad. Old show good. (Am I in the minority here?)
2. Man funny. Woman not funny. (When did I say that?)
3. You have fantasized about the licking of Lorne Michael's taint. (Yawn, you should write for the current show)
4. You have nothing to add.
Another thing that sucked, the clips of the short films didn't play anything long enough to get a feel for anything shown. It would have been better to play certain mini films at full length and add behind the scenes info.
I think it would have been interesting (but a pipe dream) to have select members of the 70s cast run the show for a week, then 80's, 90's, 00's...
flyonthewall2983 wrote:It's too bad about McCartney's voice, having an off night in front of such a huge audience. Same thing happened to him at the London Olympics too.
I don't think it was an "off" night. He's getting too old to sing the songs he wrote when he was young.
They tried hard to fix it with echo but it didn't work.
Regarding Murphy...i don't think he's funny anymore as well.
But I think Tina Fey is funny.
Anyways, SNL has always ripped off pioneers like SCTV even to the point of importing some characters like Ed Grimly. Even before SCTV there was Monty Python where they first spoofed obnoxious performers.( a comedy staple)
Last edited by Koukol on Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
