Saturday Night Live

i would be pretty bummed if sudeikis or hader or wiig left -- so sick of armisen but i guess they're going to keep his shitty obama on for at least 2 more seasons, and god willing hire a black man who can do a decent obama if the guy gets a 2nd term

fun fact: fred armisen is now the voice of speedy gonzalez. there really is no ethnicity that guy isn't that he won't play!

seems like armisen is on the darrell hammond track of hanging around for five years too long just so he can do two characters an episode

You've gotta admit, Armisen's David Patterson had layers. Layers like, "Did you know that blind people can't see?" and...yeah, that's pretty much it.

i don't really think armisen is terrible as obama, i just think the writing for those sketches has been really poor

the same episode w/ the soul train sketch had a cold open w/ armisen as bloomberg addressing nyc after the epic snowstorms & it was really, really hilarious

lol tarfumes

his david patterson IS hilarious

i just don't think this writing staff has ever found a way to write funnily for obama -- sudeikis' biden has always been hilarious, but it's not even a 'good' impression really, he's just an easier person to write jokes about

no, he's totally a lame obama. like, if you watch will ferrell's early bush impressions from fall 2000, he didn't quite have it down yet and was just kind of riffing on a vague idea of the guy that got more focused later on -- armisen is still like that after playing obama for 4 years

there HAVE been funnily written obama sketches where the weaknesses of the impression aren't an issue -- particularly the 'obama plays it cool' sketch -- but mostly it's the acting even if political/current event cold openings have been otherwise weak in recent years too

He still plays it so straight, which draws attention to the fact that it's a bad impression. If he'd put a little character on the president, he could get away with being a white guy who simply ends his sentences on an accented syllable every time.

The sketch where he was chainsmoking on stage, saying "Instead of Obamacare, you all need to start calling it 'Guy-who-killed-Bin-Laden Care'..." was about the closest I've laughed at Armisen's Obama, but I still think The Rock owns the record for Best Impression of 44.

yeah i mean i wouldn't mind seeing some new blood there, but i think it's an overall problem xp

a year or two ago i was as adamant about a new update anchor as a new obama, but seth meyers has weirdly kind of grown on me i think?

he's a p consistent good-joke teller imo, saw some tina fey/fallon reruns and it could be kinda dire

plus he's a good foil for stefon

i think seth is great on update

yeah his interactions w/ update guests are great

there HAVE been funnily written obama sketches where the weaknesses of the impression aren't an issue -- particularly the 'obama plays it cool' sketch -- but mostly it's the acting even if political/current event cold openings have been otherwise weak in recent years too

I think the problem is that the Obama character, as Armisen plays him, is essentially a straight man -- making him the focus of the sketch fundamentally won't ever cut it. My favorite Obama sketches have been when Maya Rudolph comes back as Michelle.

yeah -- or like nasim pedrad's chinese translater screaming "DOING SEX TO ME" was a good example of obama as straight man

so consensus has been reached that solo armisen obama = not funny, obama with silly shit around him (biden, chinese lady, the rock) = ok

not the whole truth but a facet of it, yeah

*gavel*

obama and stefon could maybe be a good comedy team

am i crazy for thinking that a stefon movie would be good

feel like the character is at a good point b/w being developed & underdeveloped that might lend itself well to being expanded into movie format

a hundred times more than the macgruber movie at least

DC's hottest new club is K Street's FNKK. It's got everything: Chandra Levy dancers, a dwarf dressed as a flat tax proposal, gary hart selling pubic wigs in the men's room...

xxp

sry 2 custos

haha

feel like stefon bits have to be the most fun to write for

stefon works behind the desk in front of an audience doing that particular schtick over and over -- can't see it retaining that in any context

i didn't love the macgruber movie but there was a certain kind of sense about them totally bucking the sketch formula w/ that movie

loved macgruber with the force of 1000 gales

but its success was def from not being like the sketch (how could it have been)

i just want hader to have a leading role in something, he's too funny not to

yeah i dunno -- i love him but he's such a 'character' guy, it might be my lack of imagination but i feel like he'll only ever star in something high concept w/ him playing something wacky, or playing it straight in supporting roles like in super bad/sarah marshall etc.

Hader's first starring role.

Someone watch that clip and tell me if it's actually funny or Tim & Eric "funny" please.

i think that soul train thing was like the perfect little gel cap of everything i hate about the show, j0rd4n. the fact that it was sort of clumsily put together, and it was fucking COMEDY SONG PARODIES. i guess i could forgive that but the material just felt sort of hackneyed, and it felt like there was no particular investment in the premise or whatever.

soul train disco comedy song parodies. fuck.

i think stefon is really funny.

yeah, that soul train thing was bad.

Season premiere: Alec Baldwin/Radiohead. FYI.

Also, Lorne sez all cast members are returning.

what an improbable victory for the paul brittain preservation society

I actually wasn't sure at first if the comment extended to "featured players," but it seems like that's how people are treating it.

Brittain is the nephew of actor Bob Newhart, who hosted Saturday Night Live in its fifth (1979–1980) and 20th (1994–1995) seasons, making Brittain the second SNL cast member to be the nephew of a celebrity who hosted SNL more than once (after Jason Sudeikis, whose uncle is semi-frequent 1990s host George Wendt).

I just found out about the Sudeikis/Wendt thing last week on WTF, and now I read the Newhart thing. Weirdness.

Also, seems like a greater funny disparity between Brittain and Newhart than with Sudeikis and Wendt.

well i love Wendt but Newhart obviously has bigger comedy shoes to fill

I dunno man, "pussy cancer" ftw

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/broadway-video-enterprises-and-ben-jerrys-unveil-new-saturday-night-live-inspired-ice-cream-2011-09-07

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr6a9hitay1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg

zomg that looks amazing

gtfo

would eat

ate tonight. would recommend.

;_;

ate tonight. would recommend.

― Gukbe, Thursday, September 8, 2011 12:06 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a punless post is not really in the spirit of the ice cream tbh