After a pretty decent post-holiday start, SNL really fumbled with its second show of the year. Host Daniel Radcliffe was game to poke fun at Harry Potter a couple of times, but a lot of the comedy just fell flat. Here’s a recap of the show, and be sure to come back for the clips.
Cold Open: A Message from Mitt Romney — Trying to make light of Romney’s “firing” comment, the sketch fell so flat that not even the audience could muster up a few laughs. And Sudeikis just stumbled over his lines a few times. Not a good start to the show.
Monologue: Daniel Radcliffe — Dan waded into dangerous territory by poking fun at adult fans of the books, but I’m surprised they didn’t make him sing something. It was a decent, but not memorable monologue.
Ricky Gervais Hosts Everything — Ricky Gervais hosting various awards show, including the Philadelphia Flower Show and the BET Awards. Sudeikis was much better as Gervais, and most of the jokes probably aren’t that far off from what Ricky would do himself.
Target Lady — I love the Target Lady, but this sketch was just weird with a ponytailed Radcliffe as an employee with the hots for her, and Hader as a manager with an uncomfortable attraction towards Radcliffe’s character. A few chuckles, but the only part that really makes me laugh is when she runs off to get an item.
You Can Do Anything — A talk show about people who have false self-esteem because of the internet. Again, not that funny because, well, it was too close to the truth instead of being absurd.
Spin the Bottle — Funniest bit so far as Dan’s character keeps spinning the bottle to various hobos (sorry, homeless bozos) who show up out of nowhere. And he has to kiss them because that’s the rules. Ick!
Delaware Fellas — Funny spoof of Jersey Boys, this show is for people who can’t afford tickets to that show. Kristin Wiig as one of the “fellas” and Keenan Thompson with a phony Italian accent made the sketch.
Hogwart’s Castle 2020 — There had to be a Harry Potter sketch. Harry just won’t leave, even though he graduated 10 years ago. Paul Brittain makes a great Malfoy. Hader also does a great Rickman. I kept expecting Hugh Jackmand or Rachel Dratch to show up as Harry since they were mentioned in the monologue.
Musical Guest: Lana Del Rey — I never heard of her until a friend in Italy posted the video for “Video Games” this week on Facebook. She reminds me of Sarah Paulson, and I love that four guys sound like a full orchestra (I kept looking for the harp). Something haunting about the first song that I really like. Second song was okay, but the band was overpowering her. And would it kill her to smile during the applause?
Weekend Update — Kim Jong Un’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up stopped by. They were amusing the first time, but I hope they don’t keep making this a recurring bit. They were followed by Casey Anthony’s new dog (Radcliffe). There’s a fine line between satire and slander.
X27B Theater — A 2112 play looking at life in 2012. Loved the audience reaction to things like bathrooms and email. And Taylor Swift apparently will assassinate someone this year! Didn’t hit it out of the ballpark, but there were some ridiculously funny moments.
Glenda Okones for Mayor — Wiig as a politician launching a series of attack ads on herself. Good platform for Wiig to do what she does best, but I like her Christine O’Donnell better. A few more ads popped up throughout the rest of the show.
The Jay Pharao Show — They finally give Jay a spotlight sketch and it’s just terrible, not to mention another excuse for him to break out his usual impressions. I think the audience was confused by Jay playing “Jay.” The whole thing was awkward and uncomfortable.
New Hampshire Exit Poll — Near the end of the show, and we get Radcliffe and Wiig in the funniest sketch of the night. Unusual. Loved the questions asked that had nothing to do with politics.
Headz Up from World-Tel — Another funny sketch, this one was an ad for an app that tells you what’s going on around you while you’re glued to your texts. There were some funny situations and a not bad way to end the night. Almost made you forget how forgettable the rest of the show was.
So what was your favorite sketch of the night? Vote — twice! — in the poll below.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Jan 15, 2012 @ 01:52 EST5EDT
I’m not sure we were watching the same show. I thought the sketches that Daniel Radcliffe were in were some of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Well, except the Target one. I’ve never been a fan of those.
The Harry Potter sketch was hilarious. The Casey Anthony dog bit — loved the costume and was full of laughs. The Sarah McLachlan line was perfect. The You Can Do Anything skit was a nice take on today’s give-every-kid-a-trophy environment.
The musical guest was horrible, but overall, I enjoyed it. I hope he comes back to host again.
*POST AUTHOR*
It’s not that there weren’t funny moments, there just weren’t any that made me laugh out loud until the Exit Poll sketch. And the Sarah McLachlan line. I laughed more during last week’s show. Radcliffe certainly gave his all, but I just don’t think the writing was quite on this week.
Totally agree with you-most of the show was awkward and uncomfortable. Even Weekend Update was pretty blah. I did like the New Hampshire Political Poll skit the best.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, it’s weird that the best sketch of the night was almost the very last one. That’s usually the “we need to fill three minutes” spot. That was the one sketch that made me laugh out loud.
stupid stupid episode!
i think dan made a great host. it just could have done with better writing. i think this just shows how good of an actor he is outside of harry potter that he’s able to pull off the crap that he was given, and for the most part, he made it work.
Yeah Radcliffe seemed to put in more effort than the cast members and writers. He even didn’t just blankly stare at the cue cards the whole time like most of them do or he just did a better job on concealing it. The Casey Anthony’s dog bit and Bill Hader as Snape were the only bits that fully worked and that was because Hader and Radcliffe (and Sudeikis who tried, but couldn’t make up for the bad writing unlike the other two) seemed to be the only people actually trying.
Someone I know was at the rehearsals and Daniel was told he could use the cue cards. He said that he preferred to memorize his lines. So, I don’t think he used them. Or if he did it wasn’t often.
I’m not surprised considering he’s been on Broadway for what, at least a year? I was also very pleased to see he could pull off a good American accent (although I think it was a higher tone than his normal voice). His chemistry with Wiig really shown through.
That Jay Pharao sketch was just a bad rip off of the old “Chris Farley Show” sketches.
. . . . .
I appreciated DrunkHulk’s takes on Lana Del Rey:
“DRUNK HULK PREFER DRINK TO BE LIKE LANA DEL REY! TALL! AND STIFF!”
“THOSE TWO LANA DEL REY SKETCH ON SNL LAST NIGHT WAS HYSTERICAL!”
*POST AUTHOR*
OMG! That is too funny!