Saturday Night Live

actually i think hamm might have appeared in all of the sketches after the cold open?

speaking of the cold open, they really need to junk the political sketches, or at least stop using them to open the show, they are routinely awful and formless. i think this batch of cast/writers just isn't built for political humor, they tend to shine best on wacky absurdist stuff, not topical satire

The political cold opens have been really bad. I haven't watched the whole episode, but look forward to Hamm joining the Steve Murphys, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks etc of the SNL universe. His last/first appearance was one of the most consistent episodes in a long time, and I still love Jon Hamm's John Ham.

I thought the political openings were good during the election campaign season. Have they changed writers since then? Or just no Tina Fey is the problem?

I liked the Hamm & Buble' skit.

I don't know what the story is with the political cold opens. I think they've been done by the same writers through several seasons/casts, and they always seem better when people are more excited about politics. I have to admit loving the Bill Clinton/Monica/Saddam era, with the telephone party line and "that guy has more tapes than Steely Dan".

the scott brown skit would have been a good cold open. i kinda liked the usage of the audience shots in the obama one (especially brendan fraser) but why was it 7 minutes long.

The Scott Brown sketch was really lol-y. Especially Byrd's vision of Brown as a flapper and Frank's vision of Brown as a hottie construction worker: "I'm about to filibust out of these jean shorts."

was everyone not freaking out at the end of sergio? i laughed very hard.

i dunno how could you not see it coming? the lonely island elevates every premise for the big finish the same way.

it was totally obvious but still really funny

Sergio's got funnier for me seeing this clip from The Lost Boys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9fH-nJi_Nc&NR=1

Sergio reminded me of this, both the man himself and the reactions he inspires:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhU1F7t6pp4

"there are also some scenes of Bill Pullman looking very natty and East Village in all black and jamming on his tenor sax in front of a packed dance floor (only in a David Lynch movie would people dance ecstatically to abstract jazz)..."

tbh i thought that was the best cold open that they've done in like... a whole year or something -- i enjoyed the 'white house in a mess' & 'jobs' gags

i think i've picked up on this thing where when kristen wiig says her first line in a skit in her exaggerated vocal tone and contorting face, people knowingly laugh because they think it's an old character but then it tails off when they realize it's a totally unrelated character that sounds the same as all her other ones

aw man, this scott brown sketch is good

what the hell is this sports radio sketch where bill hader rips off mr. bean's facial expressions?

oh that sergio

http://i50.tinypic.com/wi66on.jpg

so awesome

Jon Hamm is the new Justin Timberlake.

that Kristen Wiig "don't make me sing!" sketch had me on the ground, though

I think being around too many self-satisfied think-they-are-much-better-than-they-really-are vocal divas has left me completely wide open for that type of skit; also I full-on lost it when she was over by the window.

I appreciated the cats on the balcony rail, swaying in time with the music. It seemed like the kind of detail that would never be overlooked by past eras of SNL but is routinely overlooked by the current show. That + the callback sketch at the end + the presence of Jon Hamm make it the best ep of the season by far.

Yes, I was impressed both by how full-on funny pretty much the entire show was and the callback sketch.

The closet organizer thing was fucking amazing

"don't make me sing" was a pretty stock wiig character but the sketch worked because of the timing/tension aspects

The closet organizer was absolutely hilarious. "Pies.. Pies.... PIES!"

I think Hamm was really interesting too because a lot of the sketches derived humor from him being scary and assertive, which is an aspect of his acting that's used a lot in Mad Men but it was cool to see them use it from a comedic perspective

that was not phrased well, sorry

his testimonial in the closet organizer sketch was amazing

basically everyone talks about how handsome and suave he is, and those are the aspects that were exploited in his 30 rock appearances and (iirc) his first SNL hosting stint, but there's also something uh tough and scary about him and it was neat to see them use that this time instead of just talking about how pretty he is (except for the scott brown sketch)

I was terrified his monologue was going to be terrible but I was totally sold by the second cutaway.

I preferred Hamm on Def Comedy Jam personally

yeah that was absolutely the best, just saying that my misgivings were gone by the second cutaway

Even if the rest of the show had been crap (which it wasn't), it would have been redeemed by the presence of Sergio.

The closet organizer thing was fucking amazing

― struck through in my prime (HI DERE), Monday, February 1, 2010 11:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, best fake commercial in a while

marbles! additional water!

ALSO sharon jones fuck yeah

you guys are almost convincing me to start watching this show live again, though cherry-picking the sketches praised in this thread are working pretty well

man this open is dogshit

i gotta say, i've totally turned from a bobby monoyhan hater to totally loving him -- i think it was his snooki that did it for me

lol monoyhan

what is ashton kutcher doing there for the FOURTH TIME
um also he is 32 y.o.?
who knew
why am i watching this show

The band might be good.

this skit is amazing

Aside from jpj this is also totes eye candy ep

crabs rangoon

You read my mind

Soviet hives

i love when they do the view

this skit is great too!