Cold Open: Obama Asian Press Conference — Oh we knew where this was going as soon as we saw who (Hu?) was on stage. “I like to have the lights off … when someone is doing sex to me!”
Monologue: Scarlett Johansson — Alright, I’m doing pretty poorly on my host picks so far. I guess I should have picked people who’ve been on the show before too. Anyway, was it just me or was Johansson barely recognizable in her hair and makeup? I almost wondered if they had the guest host wrong (not really). Also, not a great monologue.
MTV: Maternity Television — So frighteningly true, isn’t it? Obviously these shows exist and strive for one reason: akin to guts spilling out of a car crash vistim on the side of the road, people can’t help but not look away.
The Millionaire Matchmaker — I guess it would take watching Millionaire Matchmaker to know how well this sketch poked at it, but I’m guessing it was pretty close to dead on. In fact, it’s pretty close to any of these matchmaking shows. Also: “You look like a visible fart.”
The Manuel Ortiz Show — The only thing meant to be funny about this recurring sketch is the dancing for each entrance. But damn, it’s old. Time to retire this one.
Unstoppable — Anyone getting the the feeling that Jay Pharoah is a one-trick pony, and we’re just going to see a lot more Denzel Washington impressions each and every week? Not that he doesn’t do a damn good job at it, but enough already?
Hollywood Dish — The best part of this sketch was Wiig and Hader losing it toward the end. Hell, it’s always the best part of the episode when one of the cast cracks up … unless it’s Horatio Sanz.
Musical Guest: Arcade Fire — It’s funny; I thought for sure this would be music I’d be into, and it just wasn’t. Especially that last song, which sounded like Bjork singing … badly.
Weekend Update — Your usual run-of-the-mill stuff this week, though that cruse ship couple bit went on a bit too long.
St. Katherine’s Middle School — Funniest sketch of the night. I loved the after-school-special-like rantings by Kenan Thompson’s character the most.
Model U.N. — In the words of the last line of the song: “What was that?!”
Paula Deen’s Big Ol’ Soakems — It’s not often we see a commercial not previously recorded these days, so this was a treat. I mean, what is with the recorded stuff anyway? This is Saturday Night Live, right? Anyway, I liked this sketch, even though I knew what was going to happen when she put that big ol’ biscuit on the 8-ply Soakem towel.
Stars of Tomorrow — I’m not sure I really got this one. Were they making fun of how young girls typically act on the theater stage?
Ceramic Busts — This one reminded me of the sketch with the custom doorbells … only I’m not sure which one was less funny. Even the audience barely cracked a peep of a chuckle.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Nov 14, 2010 @ 01:05 EST5EDT
I was peeing my pants when Hader threw the Slushee in Kristin Wiig’s face and they both lost it. That was freakin’ hilarious! The Paula Deen bit was pretty funny too. The ceramic busts was a variation on the continuing bit Scarlett does when she hosts which started out with the Roman Columns (or Cawl-ums, as they would pronounce it) store. She even popped in for a cameo once when they did that bit when her husband hosted. If anything, the doorbell bit came out of that.
And “which sounded like Bjork singing … badly.” made me laugh out loud! I kind of made that horrified face that Hader made during the Hollywood Dish skit when that song started!
- Scarlett Johansson’s looked like she time traveled in from an office in the 80s to do the monologue.
– Jay Pharaoh should replace Armisan as the resident Obama after seeing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkZgHjmBlvE
– Keenan on the floor looking like he was either cracking up or in pain screaming at the other kids was the funniest moment of the night.
– Of course Arcade Fire chooses the two songs from The Suburbs that I didn’t like. I thought the girl sang that 2nd song bad on the album, but her singing it while playing with streamers made it so much worse. I wish they went with Ready to Start or one of the Half Light songs from their new album or just played stuff from Funeral.
The musical act.
It did get me saying to myself, “What happened to all the cool people?”.
I guess I’m must be getting older, but it used to be fun when the singers could sing well, were attractive (even in an understated sort of way), and seemed like they were fun to be around.
I don’t know what that was about last night.
I’ve gotten so sick of the Unstoppable commercials, so the spoof was nice revenge for my frustration.
The Millionaire Matchmaker skit was 80% there. I begrudgingly watch that show and they could have gone so much farther.
Porcellain Fountains!
I’ve been doing that sentence for months and months. It’s just like it is with everything that’s been awesome, you just should just go out when you’re on top and that’s why I won’t watch this week’s SNL. To keep the fun alive for me :-)
I thought SNL was excruciating this week – I don’t know who was worse the host or the new cast member that they seemed to be really highlighting -that actress who was the other girl in the “Stars of Tomorrow” skit, who was also the “ugly” millionaress, and was the old woman in the Update skit about being on the cruise…she seemed to be the major female actor in most of the skits (besides Wiig) and she didn’t seem to get much laughter from the audience either. Scarlett has the habit of just yelling her lines at the cue cards – she lost me during the catholic school skit and her monologue was off pace. I don’t think Scarlett’s ever seen an episode of “Millionaire Matchmaker” -what the hell was the accent? It was like they showed her a picture of Patti and said, “make faces and make sure your lips look big.” I’m sure I’m just being picky but all-in-all, I thought it was an off night.