SNL--It's been a bad year, but even a stopped clock...
Posted by
B. Martin
on Sunday, November 22, 2009
SNL has been garbage this year. It really was a good season last year, grinding out the last of the comedic juices from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, while catapulting supporting cast members to moderate heights.
But this year, the show just feels like its running on fumes (Kenan Thompson, interestingly enough, has emerged as the best player on this 35th SNL season). NBC's inflated expectations, after the success of last year's prime time specials and Tina Fey's brilliant Sarah Palin, led the network to air repeated back-to-back-to-back live shows as well as several live primetime specials....all of which have drained the talents of the writers and players. Furthermore, the hosts have been unimpressive. The January Jones-hosted episode last weekend has become a universally mocked episode: lots of squinty line reading, uninspired monologue, loads of fart jokes, and because the comedic content was missing, 3 songs by the Black Eyed Peas to fill up the episode's 90 minutes.
Which is why I enjoyed the absurdity of last night's Andy Samberg/Kenan Thompson sketch. original, absurd, and funny, it is what SNL can do best and why it can fill a very different spot in the late night hierarchy than The Daily Show or Conan O'Brien. Here's to more of that in 2010.
7 comments:
I'm not as down on SNL as Bmar but I will admit that the JanJo episode was garbage. That said, I thought that Taylor Swift's episode was pretty good (great Twilight parody, hilarious Scared Straight skit and Bunny Business which flew under the radar) and the JGL episode this past weekend had more than a few laughs. To be honest, I thought "What Up With That?" was one of the funniest things I've seen all year. Watch it again and try not to laugh. It's impossible.
I'm not as down on SNL as Bmar but I will admit that the JanJo episode was garbage. That said, I thought that Taylor Swift's episode was pretty good (great Twilight parody, hilarious Scared Straight skit and Bunny Business which flew under the radar) and the JGL episode this past weekend had more than a few laughs. To be honest, I thought "What Up With That?" was one of the funniest things I've seen all year. Watch it again and try not to laugh. It's impossible.
JanJo was bad. The Gerard Butler episode was awful, too...the only funny jokes revolved around how gay Sparta was. In fact, I think Block has tagged the only two episodes where the host was funny: Taylor Swift and Joseph Gordan Levitt. Megan Fox just dragggged and demonstrated that she really is, simply, talentless. The January Jones episode, though, that was crushing; we all know she has the chops to do a good job, but she just flopped.
Yes! Block! Finally someone who could appreciate a "They're the Franks" joke. I've tried time and time again, only to fall flat. I guess the issue with quoting SNL these days is that nobody watches it. But I thought that spoof was pretty spot on.
Let me tell you one more story. This weekend, I had made some eggs. But I made too many and I got the egg burp something terrible. And if you ever had egg burp, you know it's FONKAY!
(sits down)
Looks like we're out of time!
If your best player is a guy from All That, easily the least funny show ever produced on tv, you've got some serious issues. And if you think, "Wait - I liked All That!" go find an old episode on youtube and try watching more than five minutes; it's absolutely brutal.
By the way, BMar... what's with the name change to the significantly less playful B.Martin? Does this have something to do with your email signature?
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