(Season 34, Episode 13)
I thought that last week’s episode was one of the best of the seasons, and even wondered if Neil Patrick Harris was the best host of the season. I was curious to see if the cast and writers could pull off another great show. I like Rosario Dawson, but she isn’t really known for her comedic chops. I thought she did well with what she was given, but overall the episode was pretty uneven. There were a few laughs, and it certainly wasn’t the worst episode of the year, but I think in retrospect that nothing will really stand out from this installment when put up against some of the superior episodes from this season.
Let’s break it down…
The final guest was Andy Samberg playing a goose survivor from the big plane crash. It was a pretty funny bit, particularly the Top Gun reference: “A plane went down and goose died.”
So what did you guys think? I have high hopes for Steve Martin next week.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 18, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Skits like ‘Gilly’ would be funnier if they didn’t add those corny intro/exit songs to them. SNL’s done that to a few skits, possibly even ones they never return to. Cut the unfunny theme songs and just show this weird character doing weird shit.
Think about it. You’re watching a TV show about a TV show (Gilly). Maybe subconsciously you’re thinking it’s just not funny because even SNL is telling you Gilly’s a completely unreal, fictional character. I dunno.
The problem with the show isn’t just in the writing, it’s that they have basically have reduced themselves to about four templates for sketches and everything is just a variation on one of them.
There’s the completely random digital short, started by Andy Samberg but now sometimes showing up more than once an episode with other cast members trying it. More often than not it’s just some generic techno song with wacky pop culture references thrown in. And they also throw commercials in at least twice a show now.
There’s the political skit. These used to very effectively parody personalities and issues, now they just choose one or two obvious targets and keep repeating them over and over. Your review of tonight’s cold open is the perfect example of this, or go back to the parodies of the debates where they just had McCain repeating Joe The Plumber over and over and talking about how he is a small man who lives in his pocket.
There’s the celebrity impersonation TV show sketch. Have most or all of the cast show up doing their best impressions of any random person they look or sound like. It doesn’t matter if it makes no sense, look at things like this season’s Lawrence Welk and Vincent Price sketches.
And there’s the Kristen Wiig as another character who talks in an annoying voice and makes wacky faces sketch. There’s about 50 variations on this: the Target lady, Penelope, Gilly, the brother and sister performing at dinner, Judy Grimes, Aunt Linda. All of them are exactly the same: Everyone else is the straight person while Kristen does something.
*POST AUTHOR*
I agree. So many of the sketchs seem to come out of the same mold, but isn’t that a writing problem? ;-)
-Opening: Not funny. We get it Cheney is a dick, thats why he isnt known as Richard.
-Monologue: Only this that made me laugh was the Yale/jail joke.
-Bank ad: Didnt find this one funny at all.
-Learnin Train: Too damn long.
-Guantamino Bay Sale: This was actually funny and I agree rather clever.
-Aladin: I liked this one. Especially the jokes about Robin William’s genie and the songs.
-Digital Short: This was just plain stupid and unfunny. One big wtf isn’t always funny. And I need to wash my eyes after seeing Forte’s ass.
-Gilly: sucked
-Musical Guest: put me to sleep
-WU: I liked it better with Amy Poeler. The Goose interview was funny though.
-La Policia Mexicano: Anyone that took basic Spanish classes has to laugh at this a little.
-The View: When I did the review for this show I thought her impression of Hasselbeck was ok. This time she was much better. The Gervais impression was spot on. The Walters was good too. The rest were once again below average.
Da Learnin’ Train was a parody of this awful kid’s show on the Disney Channel, Choo Choo Soul, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX4WfD13nCw, a pretty funny parody of a show that my son hates and I could never understand
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks for the link, it’s good having some context for that skit. I never thought being childless would be me at a disadvantage to review SNL.
You are right, but I saw it more as a parody of all of the hip-hop educational kid’s shows currently on that seem to emphasize style over substance: Choo Choo Soul, Hip Hop Harry, Yo Gabba Gabba and probably others I have never heard of.
Judy and i actually liked good excuse, i like how they made it seem like a game show when they just rambled off the excuse. but all together this week was pretty weak, lets bring back neil patrick harris =]
If this wasn’t the worst episode of the year, which one was?
It wasn’t Diane Sawyer…it was Kathy Lee Gifford. No wonder you didn’t like a lot of the skits. They’re too smart for you.
Leslie, I think you’re getting your episodes mixed up. Wiig played Kathie Lee Gifford in the previous episode, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.
I embedded the video for the Diane Sawyer skit in this post.
I recommend fact-checking before flaming someone. Otherwise, you might end up looking a little silly.