Saturday Night Live

Seth McFarlane hosting the season premiere. UGH.

eh

that being the episode w/ Frank Ocean as musical guest seems like not the best pairing

why?

cause seth is trying to stay in the closet

:/

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/abby-elliott-not-returning-to-saturday-night-live/

Abby Elliot is gone.

was she the one who was Bein' Quirky w/ Zooey Deschanel?

Yeah

aw that's sad, I will miss her

Aww I liked her. Hope she turns up on Eagleheart sometime.

that's too bad

She'd just gotten funny! Oh well.

Dang

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5620408/old_french_whore

a thing at the avclub on the legendary doumanian season tipped me to this clip i'd never seen before from the first ebersol era episode. not hilarious but interesting to anyone interested in this show i think - http://www.hulu.com/watch/271485

Chicago represents with two new castmembers!

I hate to pigeonhole, but I'm thinking the Aidy girl was brought in because Melissa McCarthy's hosting gig went over so well. Also, look for some Adele sketches.

I don't have a read on the Tim guy yet.

yeah that's kind of a shitty thing to say

Let me clarify—through the eyes of Lorne Michaels, that's why Aidy was brought in and I fully expect SNL to exploit her talent in those areas because that's exactly what SNL does.

i saw her in her second city show a few months ago and she was funny, definitely the crowd favorite. i'm sure she gets the melissa mccarthy stuff a bunch now but she was just good, def had the biggest star power of anyone in that show.

like... it's definitely weird, like, she gets laughs because a lot of people are just like "LOL a fat person! doing something!" but that's a general problem not connected to her specifically (mccarthy def traded on that in 'bridesmaids'). but bryant has a lot of talent.

I agree that it's odd (albeit awesome) that Lorne hired Aidy (particularly if, for example, the Casey Wilson weight rumors were to be believed). But she has been a Second City main stager for a while now, so her getting hired kinda makes more sense on that level than, say, Vanessa Bayer (who arguably wasn't nearly as high profile in the scene).

Hm, I'm pretty sure I saw Robinson at Second City a year ago (w/La Lechera!), but can't remember him.

The music network here plays reruns during the week. This morning, they had the sketch from '08 where Ferrell/Bush was in the Oval Office, ready to endorse McCain, and Fey/Palin walks in. I don't think you can say this enough: Fey's Palin was something beyond genius. "John and I have just been out travellin' around this great country of ours, talkin' about change and energy independence and William Ayers." The way she says it, the way they're all just words divorced from any meaning--she doesn't know what any of it means, she's just overjoyed to be there. Fey was so integral to why that election was so memorable.

it's a shame that they're seemingly never going to do a Tina Fey best-of DVD/special just because it would have to be at least 50% Weekend Update, but they could probably pad it out pretty well with some of those Palin sketches. even the times she's hosted since '08 have had some pretty memorable sketches.

Colonel Angus, never forget!

...and "Old! French! Whore!" (which she once said was her favorite sketch as a writer)

a collection of great sketches she wrote but didn't act in (or wasn't the star of, like COlonel Angus) would be cool but obv that stuff wouldn't be on an official DVD

And yet another Chicago performer, Cecily Strong, has been added to the cast!

And in a surprise move, Lil Durk added to SNL cast

xp she cuet

OK, Tim Robinson is also in Cook Co. Social Club at iO? Weird that I don't recognize him at all ... though I don't think I ever seen CCSC perform with all five members.

dying @ whiney

Jay Pharoah is your new Obama!

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/snl-jay-pharoah-replacing-fred-armisen-obama-video-56171

sounds about right. probably a better use for him than having him to denzel once a month.

If anything, this means less Fred Armisen. I really liked that guy once upon a time, but it seems like he's in every sketch.

well lorne did call him "the backbone" of the show, so

that's a conspicuous demotion

finalfuckingly

Yeah, it took long enough.

The thinking was probably along the lines of, "Obama's likely to be in office for another four years, Armisen's unlikely to stick around that long, we need to give Pharaoh a reason to be on the show, this seems like a decent time to make the switch."

Taran Killam will likely take on the part of Romney running mate Paul Ryan.

I just assumed that would go to Hader, but Taran Killam? Speaking as one doughy guy to another, you're too doughy to play Paul Ryan.

yeah seriously -- Hader would be a good call

already said it upthread, but they shouldn't have gotten rid of Paul Brittain as long as Ryan could have made VP
http://i47.tinypic.com/302p1t1.jpg

not crazy about Sudeikis's Mitt Romney but glad that will keep him on the show for at least half the season

I love his Romney. He gets at the the utter lack of empathy thing pretty well. I just think they haven't learned to write Romney in an interesting way yet.

yeah that's probably true. there's so much more fuel for jokes now, i could see him pulling off some great Romney sketches this fall.

his biden > his romney

anyway, jay is kinda good as obama! i'm sorta impressed

i mean i know he's solely an impressionist but so much better than armisen