Saturday Night Live

yeah, some of those skits seemed irresponsibly bad to me.

i agree in general that snl's gay stuff is fairly offensively dumb usually, but at a certain point it seemed like the firefighter sketch stopped being a sketch and started turning into like avant-theatre absurdity.

so this MLK Jr sketch was horrid even by right-wing comedy writer standards?

this week finally embarrassed even u guys huh

Yeah, terrible episode.

will look prescient when Beebz stars in the next has-been Broadway revival of Grease in 2024 tho.

(I saw some of it w/out sound in a gay bar)

The fucking Californians...I can't recall any other recurring sketch in this show's history that has actually made me angry with its consistent awfulness.

my father asked me if Christopher Dormer had an opinion on SNL's decline.

Worst ever. Yuck.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/9cbfaec3c6b1d6d83d3a19f59015fe00/tumblr_mhyg7feEQK1qzraqfo1_500.jpg

Bieber looks like a dying kid getting a visit in the hospital. From some old lesbian named Lauren Michaels.

didn't think this was nearly as terrible as y'all. I've definitely seen worse, even this season. It helps if you just fast-forward through Californians.

I liked the Real Housewives thing, Corey, the one black guy that's in every commercial was great. There were a few other ok bits, the Grease skit was good.

I agree that it wasn't the worst ep this season. Bravo thing and Corey both solid (some of the best characters show up in weekend update). I even laughed at the horrible 'glice' skit in the end. The Californians is the new What's Up With That in that it appears in every show. I'm tired of the Californians, but the original was one of my favorites so I can deal with them milking it.

I'd rather watch a 90-minute loop of Sudeikis' What's Up With That dancing than two minutes of The Californians.

Glice was good, though, as was the Grease sketch.

miley cyrus and ellen impersonations are like the same voice.

I liked the monologue too.

i swear to god that kid looks more like kd lang every day.

haven't seen snl all season - could someone explain "the californians" in one sentence? (i realize i could just look it up but it'll probably be more entertaining this way)

The Californians is the new What's Up With That

HUGE DIFFERENCE here, in that What's Up With That is reliably funny and The Californians is never ever funny.

could someone explain "the californians" in one sentence?

It's a soap opera sketch in which everyone is blonde and talks in valley accents and each turn of dialogue results in driving directions being given around various California highways.

...and then they all look in a mirror.

And it's hilarious

the concept is still funny. each time they do it, the execution is progressively worse.

(oh, they also give very detailed descriptions of varieties of rattan furniture)

"Have a seat in one of these mission style chairs"

what i like about it is that it's not really one homogenous accent/stereotype, pretty much every character is its own grotesque exaggeration of a different kind of Californian

The descriptions being given of The Californians in this thread are funnier than The Californians sketches themselves.

JF, just relax and have an authentic Californian avocado.

Corey, the one black guy that's in every commercial was great

Largely based on Echo Kellum, from the recently canceled Ben & Kate but before that he was on about three different commercials at once in early '12:

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Echo+Kellum+Fox+2012+Programming+Presentation+_ViNVJfAcZol.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cSSXJKe.jpg

My old roommate during college was the black guy before this Echo character -

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-42745966/meet-madison-avenues-acceptable-black-friend/

I thought of him during that sketch.

Yeah, Jamison Reeves is the acceptable black guy I think of when I think of acceptable black guys that are in a bunch of tv commercials.

This is hilarious. They pass the torch on to the next guy for a few years, like the James Bond actors.

so it seems like they only bother writing sketches one out of every four episodes or so?

the russian woman was hilarious.

and waltz is so much fun to watch, so energetic.

shame about the band being deadly boring.

Alabama Shakes are fucking extraordinary IMO

well Brittany Howard is fucking extraordinary

imho a good (even really good) voice doesn't compensate for tedious songs and a boring band.

Alabama Shakes are from the area where I grew up and I have a lot of friends who know them and are thrilled with all their success. I don't think they're the finest example of Muscle Shoals soul music ever laid down, but they're definitely the strongest representative to pop up from the area in a very long time.

imho a good (even really good) voice doesn't compensate for tedious songs and a boring band.

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking last night. If they always play like that she's pretty much carrying that band.

I liked the music, and her voice, but the lyrics were generic. That said, we watched both performances all the way through, which is unusual.

First song is great. Second song was a bit boring. Dude with white guitar has good tone, but he likes to bend the g while pinkying the b a little too much. Feel like someone should give him a slide guitar.

was surprised by their performance because all the chatter about the band led me to expect something kind of visceral and exciting, seemed pretty sleepy.

I found myself just staring at her weird mouth shapes.

Alabama Shakes is a pretty good band, but would probably be an unbelievable band if they listened to any rock record that came out in the the last 30 years

Or if they decided to finish writing any of their songs.

You can look up the fatality codes on the Internet after all

I can't decide if I dig them or if they're like a Stax-worshipping version of Wolfmother.

She has a killer voice. But the band seems kinda weaksauce

I think the repeating intro to The Californians is better than the sketches.

Also, I recently laughed very very hard at Andy Sandberg singing "This. voice. is. as good. as yours!!" to the Maroon 5 guy in the style of that one song.

moynihan & whoever this girls name is employee diss sketch is back, i welcomed it

Kate's been underused these last few episodes after being all over a bunch. Cecily's getting a ton of roles though.