The season premiere was last night and featured Steve Carrell and Kanye West.
I must say, having someone who’s actually talented host the show makes the monolouge a whole lot funnier. Carrell was singing, dancing, and working the crowd. It was great. That said, SNL then wasted all that talent by having Carrell do absolutely noting in the skits. The few ones that he was in, he was just a side character to whomever the featured cast member was. What a fucking waste.
Kanye was really good. I’m not really a huge fan of his, but he had a full orchestra behind him and that really made his songs sound a whole lot better. He even trotted out Adam Levine from Maroon 5 for a duet. The best part about Kanye’s appearance is they had this bit backstage where he runs into Mike Myers and they have a really ackward exchange about the last time they saw each other (i.e., the Katrina telethon).
Tina Fey is on maternity leave and they’ve replaced her with Horatio Sanz as host of Weekend Update. At least Amy Poehler is still around to keep up the funny.
They also introduced two new featured players: Bill Hader, a Second City Los Angeles alum and Andy Samberg, an actor-writer best known for short films on Channel101.com. Hader is a pretty good impressionist and did the best Pacino impersonation I’ve ever heard. His voice was spot on. Samberg reminded me of a hispter from Williamsburg, just real chill and down to earth. He was pretty funny in his Weekend Update bit, where he and Hader had an “Impression Off” battle, but all he did was say, “Hey, I’m so-and-so. Wassuuuuup?!?!?” It sounds so stupid, but it came off really funny.
Overall it was a weak show, but I hope the season picks up a bit. Next week will be bittersweet. The host is Jon Heder, but the musical guest is Ashlee Simpson!!! It’s a good thing I tape SNL because I’ll be fast forwarding through a lot of I bet.
I thought the show last night was pretty awful. They had Carrell, a hilarious actor, and made little to no use of him. There was so much more they coudl have done, if only there were better writers on the staff. I did like Hader, but that new Samberg guy looks like he will get real old real quick. I really hope he has some depth or else he will be the worst one note person since Napoleon Dynamite.
Which reminds me, he is hosting next week. Heder did not show any depth in Just Like Heaven, his only film since Dynamite, so i really hope he has more in his bag of tricks that he has just not pulled out yet. And Ashlee Simpson as the musical guest. Come on, who honestly thought that was a good idea. Follow up a great performance by Kanye West with someone who is crappy even when she is lip-synching.
The one great moment was West running into Mike Meyers in the hall. Too bad that was the only guest they could get. When Carrell was doing his opening song I really though some of the guys he was knocking would come up on stage at some point. Sadly no.
I really hope this season picks up, or else it will just limp off into a forgetable year much like the last couple have.
I liked the skit with Seth as Anderson Cooper and the whole celebrity carpenter thing. Horatio as Aaron Neville had me laughing hard. Maybe it’s because my wife does a hilarious impression of Aaron singing.
I did like Hader’s impressions, and his turn as the pyschologist about knowing when you were going to die. I guess I didn’t see or remember Andy Samberg at all other than the impression off.
I think Samberg played Geraldo Rivera during the Anderson Cooper sketch. That was the best sketch by far. Poehler’s Sharon Stone had me laughing pretty hard. And I don’t know who played Raymond (was it Carrell?), but as soon as he walked on screen, me and my roomates knew who he was supposed to be. The flannel and hair just gave it away. The voice wasn’t good though.
Originally Posted by Diva I think Samberg played Geraldo Rivera during the Anderson Cooper sketch. That was the best sketch by far. Poehler’s Sharon Stone had me laughing pretty hard. And I don’t know who played Raymond (was it Carrell?), but as soon as he walked on screen, me and my roomates knew who he was supposed to be. The flannel and hair just gave it away. The voice wasn’t good though.
Darrell Hammond played Geraldo during that sketch. His impression was funny, but the line weren’t that great. Romano was played by Carrell.
I liked the Jet Blue sketch, but Sans looked lost on Update – I guess he’s just not that funny when he can’t fall back on the audience laughing at him flubbing his lines.
Jesus christ, why oh why do I keep tuning in hoping for some actual humor. This was as shitty as ever. It made Carrell look bad…and that takes fucking WORK to make Carrell look bad.
Honestly, does the couple that should be divorced really beg for a recurring spot on this show? Its a shit sketch and its always been a shit sketch.
There is a lot of talent in this cast, but they are all horribly misused. Maybe these guys just arent good writers but are good improv performers.
SNL needs to end…there is going to be no new renaissance lorne. You can’t save this show, you have been trying for almost 6 or 7 years now. Will Ferrell has moved on to greener pastures and now you are stuck with seth fucking meyers. please end this show.
Originally Posted by Fazer There is a lot of talent in this cast, but they are all horribly misused. Maybe these guys just arent good writers but are good improv performers.
I don’t think the castmembers get to write their own skits. But you hit the nail on head in saying these folks are really funny people in real life. There’s something with this show that just sucks the funny out of everyone.
Originally Posted by Diva I don’t think the castmembers get to write their own skits.
Huge part of the problem right there. Plus that writing staff is enormous, it’s practically an assembly line and the cast are just the guys bolting the wheels on as the car glides past. The show was never better than when it had actors who wrote (the Not-Ready days and the Crystal/Guest/Scheerer season).
if that one guy had done an adam sandler impression and said ‘hey I’m adam sandler…wazzzauppppp!!’ it would have trumped any of the REAL impressions that the other guy did.
What started as a somewhat promising episode quickly turned to crap. Never have I seen a host so underused than Carell.
I agree that there are actually a few very funny comedians on the show (Amy Poehler, Kenan Thompson) and a select few that absolutely suck (Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz) and they are all shoehorned into some very unfunny skits. The funniest and best skit by far was the Anderson Cooper/Katrina one, if only for the hilariously spot-on impersonations of various celebs. I never really thought Horatio Sanz was the least bit funny, but that Aaron Neville impression had me crying with laughter. And Bill Hader’s Pacino was freakin’ unbelievable, even if he looked nothing like him.
I was quite surprised to see that Darrell Hammond was still on the show. He’s been on the show for 10 years now. His Aaron Brown and Geraldo Rivera impersonations were solid though.
The only other thing I enjoyed was Finesse Mitchell’s story about the transvestite on WEEKEND UPDATE.
As for the music, I’ve never really listened to Kanye West before, but I dug the second song with Adam Levine from Maroon 5. And the Mike Myers cameo was quite enjoyable.
I watched this on Fast Forward but laughed more than most SNL episodes I’ve seen in years.
I think If I laugh at 3 skits then its a decent episode. The Mike Meyers Kanye West interaction was hilarious. Horatio Sans had me rolling with his Aaron Neville impersonation and Steve Carrell’s opening monolgue was great.
The Katrina skit was just lazy. “Okay, you guys do impressions? Well, let’s just throw you all together and do your thing!” The guy may have sounded like Pacino, but he wasn’t funny. What these people apparently don’t understand is that the best impressions aren’t dead-on. Chase’s Ford, Hartman’s Sinatra, Farrell’s Bush, etc. were charicatures. It’s not as important to sound or look like the person, as much as it is to be funny. The whole skit, I’m thinking what great impressions they are, but not laughing even once.
And mooveyphreak, I can’t believe I just heard someone say Kenan Thompson is a talented comedian. He’s awful. His impression of Bill Cosby (which is the only reason he’s on the show as far as I can tell) is really just an impression of Eddie Murphy doing an impression of Bill Cosby. The worst part of it is that because he does this impression, they feel the need to insert Bill Cosby into skits. How very topical!
I watch it for the cast. Poehler is so good. Unlike most, I like Sanz. I also like Maya Rudolph quite a bit. It’s just too bad that the writing isn’t up to the talent of the cast.