Saturday Night Live

only watched the last episode through weekend update but don draper's guide to picking up women was classic

be glad you missed the MAd Men skit, akm. It had Roger and Peggy and SNL still ruined it (with slight redemption at end). Sigh.

yeah it wasn't funny, I saw that one. guy doing Sal was the only really funny thing in it.

otm. the guide to picking up women had me cracking up. first time i've actually watched snl in maybe 5 years!

"blow people away everytime you say anything / take six hour lunches / disappear for weeks at a time"

Actually yeah, Sal was pretty great in that skit. Everyone was great except the "inventors" and it was just so over the top and terrible in true SNL form. I cheered when I saw Peggy and Roger.

It was the first time I even bothered to watch the show in ages and one of the few times when I've seen anything from it where I genuinely laughed.

That was my favorite part. Although Forte as the sex offender was also kind of lulzy, he's good at playing creepy guys.

Horrible, horrible episode. They obviously blew their load with the W sketch on Thursday night. I did chuckle at the Vincent Price skit though.

that picking up women sketch was weak sauce. i've seen enough of Mad Men to 'get' the joke, but there really wasn't much of a joke there, wtf is the big deal about it. i kinda love those Vincent Price sketches, as dumb as they are.

It would be easier to hearken unto Perrin's complaints about other writers, if he could write a decent phrase or two himself. Merciful Zeus? Fiftysomething Repub??

the last two episodes have been two of the worst in the past three or four years. the michael phelps episode was in that class, too. i think the thursday weekend updates are taking their toll.

It's not like SNL was that fantastic before the thursday weekend updates, though.

took their toll, past tense, last week's was the final Thursday WU. anyway I don't see it, those episodes were as hit'n'miss as any other.

I'm sure it's been discussed but why is Kenan on this show?

Because he's a good character actor and funny and has lots of experience doing sketch comedy.

i thought the point of the Palin rap was that it was a bad idea for a sketch and Palin was sitting it out. It was making fun of jokey white-rap sketches because it was extra retarded.

the vincent price skit was pretty funny.

i thought the point of the Palin rap was that it was a bad idea for a sketch and Palin was sitting it out. It was making fun of jokey white-rap sketches because it was extra retarded.

― Whiney G. Soundgarden (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 27, 2008 3:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you can't actually be serious, right

Palin was all "I'm not gonna do this" and Amy Poehler played it WAY WAY WAY up. And then eskimos came out. You were supposed to imagine Palin doing this idiotic sketch in rehearsal.

I'm not saying it was funny, but I'm saying it was at least smarter then the Honeymooner's Rap or whatever you guys think it is

i really, really don't think you are right about that, at all. amy poehler was selling it hardcore because it's not like the palin camp was going to agree to do anything worthwhile so do the best with what you've got. like, seriously, i don't understand how you'd even get this idea about this amazing meta-joke.

i'm not saying it's amazing.

This is going to be "Sleep, that's where I'm a viking" pt. 2

i really, really don't think you are right about that, at all. amy poehler was selling it hardcore because it's not like the palin camp was going to agree to do anything worthwhile so do the best with what you've got. like, seriously, i don't understand how you'd even get this idea about this amazing meta-joke.

he just described the premise, and then you agreed that that's what the premise was but acted as if you were disagreeing.

haha

Because he's a good character actor and funny and has lots of experience doing sketch comedy.

Any time I see him I hit fast-forward on my DVR.

so you're not familiar with his work enough to speak about it, is what you're saying.

There was a time when I didn't have a DVR, and that was when I decided that if I ever got one, I would adopt this crucial policy.

Aimless, "Merciful Zeus" is a decent W.C. Fieldsism to my eyes. And it's a fucking blog, how good does it have to be?

he just described the premise, and then you agreed that that's what the premise was but acted as if you were disagreeing.

― some dude, Monday, October 27, 2008 3:21 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was taking issue with him putting the word "amazing" in my mouth.

I just saw Lorne Michaels summarizing the joke as something like "let's think up the absolute last thing Palin would agree to do on this show," so yeah, I think Whiney's description is accurate, along with his assessment that it wasn't particularly funny.

I know I kinda said this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how totally divergent people's estimations of this show's funniness are, even from weak to weak -- I thought this weekend's was as funny as it's been thus far this season. Draper's hula-hoop pitch totally got me (and NB maybe its creators are funnier if you've seen them as recurring characters); the guide to picking up women got me; and I feel bad for anyone who turned off after the news and missed out on "Jon Hamm's John Ham."

I'm also appalled that anyone would see Kenan as anything other than terrific in this cast...

Hahaha I meant "week to week"

i was referring to schef pretend-disagreeing with you, whiney, not vice versa, i realize you never used "amazing" or any other superlative.

and I feel bad for anyone who turned off after the news and missed out on "Jon Hamm's John Ham."

I dunno, that felt to me like they just threw up their hands and said "well, the host is only famous for one thing and we've already written 2 sketches about it, so let's just spitball some kind of extended pun on his name and hope for the best."

I think Whiney's description is accurate

http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/jean-k-jean.jpg
Zut alors!

I couldn't find the gif of him celebrating, so imagine he's me celebrating my OTMness.

Surprised how funny most recent one was. Ras-Trent and Don Draper's guide to picking up women probably the high points for me. I wish they had Kenan in more things, he is the funniest person besides Amy Poehler in the current cast.

Did they let Coldplay play THREE whole songs because the first two were like wtf and Lorne Michaels was all "yeah, can you play a song on regular instruments guys?" or is it because they are having to fill the gap left by chunks of their writing material going to Thursday nights?

Or do they just really like Coldplay?

they are a really famous band. it's not unheard of.

Might be Amy Poehler having her baby so they had to cut her sketches.

coldplay = musical version of snl. kindred spirits they are.

xposts

Yeah, I'm assuming a lot of the weird organization in this one had to do with Poehler's baby.

P.S. I don't much care about the creative origins of Jon Hamm's John Ham, I care about dude eating a slice of ham off a toilet-paper roll

xpBecause he's a good character actor and funny and has lots of experience doing sketch comedy.

― Whiney G. Soundgarden (Whiney G. Weingarten), den 27 oktober 2008 18:58 (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I could possibly agree on the experience part.

nabisco, you mean he fits in with an overall mediocre cast?

and I feel bad for anyone who turned off after the news and missed out on "Jon Hamm's John Ham."

It was funny, but not as good as Peter Sarsgaard's SARS guards. Also, put a Finger in Butts.

Dudes, it's bad enough to even discuss SNL on the internet; I am not going to argue with you about Kenan being hilarious. This is totally your loss.

guys the ras trent thing was so bad what are you talking about?

and i am basically in love with andy samberg.

yeah Poehler was supposedly rehearsing the day of the show before she went into labor. and she has a history of being in such a ridiculous number of sketches per episode that i'm really curious how they're going to fill the gap in the future. i mean Will Ferrell was a huge sketch hog, too, but there were a lot more people in the cast when he left at least.

xpost I liked the rasta thing, but is Samberg even appearing in any live sketches any more or is he just cordoned off to his little "digital shorts" (i.e. fancy name for the pre-taped sketches the show's been doing since 1975) world?

Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals was a live skit.