- Had Justin Timberlake first emerged as a star as a cast member of Saturday Night Live rather than via 'N Sync, he'd have been one of the biggest breakout stars in show history on a level, at least, with Dana Carvey. And it's only with his next visit that he joins the Five Timers Club.
- It's time for Fred Armisen to go. He's the second longest-tenured member of the cast (since 2002; Seth Meyers joined a year sooner), and I feel like we've seen everything he can do on the show. The Prince Show feels like it was a lifetime ago, and his Barack Obama remains sub-awesome. It's time to make that trip to Portlandia a more permanent one.
- Tracy Morgan was underappreciated in his day, and the Brian Fellow's Safari Planet below the fold is genius. Was that squirrel scared to fly after 9/11?
Sunday, May 22, 2011
BRING IT ON DOWN TO LIQUORVILLE: Three noncontroversial opinions following last night's SNL finale with which no right-thinking person can disagree:
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That was about as close to a perfect SNL as you're going to get, at least from a skit perspective (YMMV with Lady Gaga). The only downer was the Secret Word game show, which A) Trotted out a terribly overdone Kristen Wiig character and B) Had no chance of living up to the first game show only a few minutes earlier. (Why are you doing two game show skits?!)
ReplyDeleteDo you think Samberg and Fallon fight over who gets to spend more time with J-Tim when he's in 30 Rock for the week? That was the worst of the three Timberlake/Samberg collaborations, but that's praising with faint damnation, as the bar was set so high after the last two.
Can Seth Meyers leave, too? Just let him go host things that aren't Weekend Update.
Agree this was about as close to all-good as an SNL episode has gotten in this century... that was the first political cold open I can remember actually being funny.
ReplyDeleteI loved the opening number. JT is simply a phenomenal performer with incredible charisma. I never worry that he'll flail or sputter- he's sharp as a tack. The "What's the name?" game show was also excellent- his facial expressions/reactions were hilarious.
Gaga may have seemed stiff at times but I came away feeling like she was great sport and fully committed to the show. "Edge of Glory" at the piano was powerful and made me want to hear more. She sang live in all her numbers while dancing full-out, plus did 2 skits. I was damn impressed.
Even "Update" was good. And the icing on the cake (for me) was the Barry Gibb Talk Show, which many hate but I adore. To see Fallon spin around in full chest merkin was awesome.
The short? Gaga was a perfect Chrissy, was she not??
Allegedly, when you ask cast members/writers "who's the funniest?," Fred consistently is the top pick. He's not going anywhere. The real question to me is Wiig. Does she think she can move on to movie stardom or does she wait for another year or two?
ReplyDeleteJust finished watching it on DVR. Loved JT. Gaga did a great job as well -- not everyone can have the comedic timing that JT does, but she was willing to go for it, so props for that. My one beef (aside from "Secret Word") was the girls in the audience screaming so there were times I couldn't hear what Justin was saying/singing.
ReplyDeleteI've been ready for Armisen to leave for several years now.
This was a decently funny episode, but somewhat disappointing in that aside from the cold open and monologue, every other sketch was a repeat of a particular premise. And some of those premises, like Secret Word, were never funny, while others are simply tired. What's My Name was very effective the first time it ran, but somewhat less so in this episode. It's not surprising that they're going to revisit Liquorville, the Dick in a box/motherlover characters and the Barry Gibb Talk Show with Timberlake, but the writing on the show seems so lazy.
ReplyDeleteOops, I was that Guest.
ReplyDeleteI think there may be a pretty major housecleaning this summer. Wiig would be smart to leave while "Bridesmaids" is reminding people that she doesn't <span>have </span>to be annoying. Sudekis can probably maintain a career on his own at this point. Seth Meyers should either strike out on his own, or retire back to the writer's room, letting someone else take over Update. And working on Portlandia hopefully has convinced Armisen that he can have more fun with something that gives him more freedom.
ReplyDeleteI also think that it might be time for Lorne Michaels to either retire, or step back further and allow someone else (maybe Meyers?) to run things. Allow a top-to-bottom review of how the show is done. I recently read the Tom Shales Oral History, and one of the things that come through really clearly is that the culture of pulling all nighters and the cult of personality around Michaels is a lot of what's wrong with the show. Even the fact that everyone feels compelled to come in to the offices and do their writing there doesn't really make sense in today's world. I think one of the reasons the Lonely Island digital shorts are so good is that they allow them to get out of 30 Rock. (Except for Laser Cats. I think that supports my position.)
Am I the only one who found the cold open slightly racist? I'm usually not the PC police, but did they HAVE to make both the inmates black? If they had had one white inmate, it could all have been about "ha ha, the inmates have mastery of global finance," but instead there was also a whiff of "ha ha, these black dudes have mastery of global finance!!"
ReplyDeleteBTW, I totally agree about that particular Fellow skit. Cracks me up every time.
ReplyDeleteI thought Gaga may have been lip synciong on "Judas". It looked like she lost her place at one point.
ReplyDeleteAnnd was there a nipple slip in that "Liquorville" bit?
I have always loved Brian Fellows, and it is a point of pride that I loved it when people were like "WTF is that? Get rid of Tracy Morgan." Incidentally, I also loved Tim Meadows's Ladies' Man, and I am confident that if you go back and watch it again, you will too. And I always laugh at Secret Word.
ReplyDeleteAs for Armisen, it's not that I mind him, usually, but the show would improve immeasurably if 80% of its cold opens were not his terrible Obama. They still can't write a funny Obama (the only funny one was the first Hulk one) and there's a guy on the current cast who is light years better than Armisen at the guy.
<span>I have always loved Brian Fellows, and it is a point of pride that I loved it when people were like "WTF is that? Get rid of Tracy Morgan." Incidentally, I also loved Tim Meadows's Ladies' Man, and I am confident that if you go back and watch it again, you will too. And I always laugh at Secret Word.
ReplyDeleteAs for Armisen, it's not that I mind him, usually, but the show would improve immeasurably if 80% of its cold opens were not his terrible Obama. They still can't write a funny Obama (the only funny one was the first Hulk one) and there's a guy on the current cast who is light years better than Armisen at the guy. </span>
Great, now I have to go freeze-frame it.
ReplyDeleteA great impression requires either remarkable accuracy or a winning angle on the subject; Armisen's Obama has neither.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that a great impression requires a winning angle but not necessarily remarkable accuracy; one can achieve a mediocre impression with superior accuracy alone, but that impression is never going to be great without the angle. It doesn't matter -- you, me, and seemingly everybody except Lorne Michaels agree about Armisen's Obama.
ReplyDeleteIdentifying "great angle, bad accuracy, great impression" is easy: Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery; Dan Aykroyd's Jimmy Carter. Hell, I have no idea if Armisen's David Paterson is accurate, but I know it's funny.
ReplyDeleteThe other one is harder to think of -- Dana Carvey's Johnny Carson, outside of the one Carsenio skit, was one that I think was funny and accurate without having much of an angle.
agreed -- also not sure why prison rape is supposed to be funny. and if the DSK character isn't going to talk, why not have Lorne play him? He's a thick-set man with receding white hair.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think most of Pharoh's impressions that we've seen fall into that category, though that may be due to the fact that they've mostly been during Update and he hasn't gotten to build sketches around them.
ReplyDeleteHe needs to hook up with an experience writer who can build sketches around his impressions and shepherd them through the process of getting them on the air.
Yes! I rolled my eyes immediately when I saw that it was two black inmates. There are hardly any people of color on the show and of course that is how they are being used.
ReplyDeleteYes there was.
ReplyDeleteArmisen has GOT TO GO. I fast-forward every time he comes on the screen at this point -- life's too short.
ReplyDeleteWe wondered, too, but I don't think the whole nipple was ever exposed, was it? Coincidence that it was JT dancing with Janet Jackson during her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" ?
ReplyDelete(See, I would normally say the punctuation belongs inside the quotes, but there it didn't seem right.)
I guess I thought it was referencing the fact that the victim is black, but now that you mention it, I can see what you mean too.
ReplyDeleteAn interpretation question--I think there's an argument to made that Timberlake is already a 5-timer. Even excluding his occaisional cameos, he's got two appearances as host/musical guest and two appearances as host alone, but also one appearance as musical guest alone (as part of NSYNC)
ReplyDelete<span>If you haven't seen it yet, watch this delightfully meta sketch that made the dress rehearsal but was cut from the final episode. Still much better than most of what SNL does. http://www.hulu.com/watch/243622/saturday-night-live-mozart-dress-rehearsal</span>
ReplyDelete