Saturday Night Live

Pest control sketch was the best of the night, though I'm not sure the people in the office were really necessary. Could've just been a two person sketch.

This might have been the worst episode in a couple of years. Wes Anderson thing was cute, I guess, but I didn't find anything to like in the rest of it. Really brutal.

^^

Every sketch felt like a ten-minutes-to-1:00am half-assed throwaway.

guy whose misinformed abt the news is classic & steve harvey was good, couldve been better

also i def liked the virgin waitstaff 1

whose who's

or hoos

didn't watch 12 days not a slave, got an immediate 'this will be bad and long' vibe off it. enjoyed virgin waitstaff and probably laughed most at the last sketch which could've been unwatchable but norton really sold it. thought he was a pretty great host w/ some pretty weak material, hope he hosts again. janelle monae was pretty great i thought, not sure i quite realized how 1) beautiful and 2) tiny she is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/arts/television/for-snl-cast-being-diverse-may-be-better-than-being-ready.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131030

Ed Norton episode was weird; almost every skit started out terrible and then had me cracking up halfway through while still thinking "this is pretty bad"

Faves were the pest control and stranger danger sketches, biggest laugh was "don't dance! they'll try to imitate you!" from 12 Days Not A Slave

Best done was the Wes Anderson sketch. Tilda Swinton was A+

stranger danger killed me, one of those increasingly rare opportunities for Nasim Pedrad to shine

read a passing rumor that she's working on a pilot, which explains some of her decreased presence on the show

Yeah, been missing her the last few episodes, and arguing with my girlfriend who doesn't like her. I think she stole this episode and I can't get "I'm gonna get some candy" or whatever out of my head.

Def a weird episode. I have a theory that sometimes when they make a really super elaborate digital short that the skits suffer. How much time/energy was spent on that Wes Anderson thing? I didn't hate the episode though. I liked 12 Days Not a Slave, esp Kate Mckinnon's face.

And the Ed Norton sitting in a chair halloween skit was so weird and low budget but oddly funny to me.

she worked on the mulaney pilot (costarred maybe?) which was apparently great but nbc passed on it cuz i guess it seemed too much like a 'good nbc sitcom' which is precisely what nbc isn't in the market for anymore. fox however is so they've picked it up but apparently nbc won't let nasim out of her contract w/ snl. she feels underused this season but that seems the case almost w/ every cast member (eg killiam seemed barely on it last week) somehow, the only one who seems to get consistent work in every episode is mackinnon which makes sense since she's yknow by far the most talented current cast member. anyone want to make predictions on which of the new cast members are regular cast still w/ the show in two years? i'm guessing wells, mooney, bennett, and o'brien, w/ decreasing certainty there.

I agree on three of those, torn on O'Brien. He's gotten on the show a good amount so far, but I'm not sure anyone likes that.

The two other guys, whose names I don't know, are basically indistinguishable from each other and will probably disappear.

i literally listed o'brien purely on the basis of him cracking me up w/ every 'son' in that virgin waitstaff sketch.

i thought he killed it on that waitstaff sketch and i finally found a reason to root for him.

Oh wait, I forgot Brooks Whelan is one of the guys I couldn't picture. I think it's Beck Bennett and John Milsner (?) who are the same guy twice and SNL only needs one of them.

brooks whelan is a bro, did the pest control sketch which if that takes off could be a vote in his favor (i thought it was ok but thought it was norton who sold it). milsner's the little guy, hasn't made an impression on me yet. bennett's the at&t guy, reminds me of sudeikis for reasons i can not justify so far.

One of my LA standup friends is pals with Whelan and she says he's great. I'll take her word for it, because the only things I recall him doing are the pest control sketch and that bit about his tattoos on Update.

I have no idea how anyone can tell these FIVE new white guys apart.

There's Kyle Mooney with the puffy hair
The dude who looks like Eric Copeland from Black Dice
And then three other white guys ????

I had to gis Eric Copeland, but I'm guessing that's O'Brien. Though maybe a little like Whelan in some photos. So who knows.

They're all just versions of Josh from 30 Rock.

We should be asking which of them will be asked to put on weight over the summer if Moynihan decides to leave the show anytime soon

Beck Bennett looks the most pre-disposed to adding some winter weight.

But if he's supposed to be the Sudeikis replacement, it will have to be another one.

I only recognize Bennett because of the AT&T ads. I can't put names to the others.

guy whose misinformed abt the news is classic

I love Anthony Crispino, but the character jumped the shark when Moynihan made the high-pitched voice, which he used to just inadvertently slip into, a trait to sell for laughs on its own.

but that seems the case almost w/ every cast member (eg killiam seemed barely on it last week)

Killam was actually tweeting during the show:
https://twitter.com/TaranKillam/status/394323102668455936

I seriously have no idea why a sketch show would hire three white guys that all look the same.

triplets of hellville

lol is whiney prosopagnosic?

three white guys that all look the same

This is my sketch group's name now.

16 Nov ... Lady Gaga host/musical guest
23 Nov ... Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games, et al), Haim (musical guest)

:D

holy shit if this is how they write for black performers its just as well they don't hire more.

I dunno, I cackled a few times at How's He Doing?

this is like the slushpile from madtv. i wonder if they put kerry washington into an 80s powersuit because that's when that sketch was written.

Miss Universe sketch was really cringey.

ethnic stereotypes on parade

Post-Miss Universe, this episode tanked HARD. Credit to Kerry Washington for really committing to every character she played (except whatever that was in the cartoon game show sketch), but tonight could've been so much better.

Maybe Lorne could rent some of Jimmy Fallon's writers.

i thought kerry washington's miss uganda was pretty funny, but i felt like i was being racist or something for laughing. & then i was thinking, is there any possible way for a show who's only real trick is "dumb/weird/otherwise 'other' character in whatever such situation" to be both inclusive (racially/culturally) + then also funny? and then i started thinking about that 'is all comedy inherently conservative' thread.

Well, a Miss Universe sketch is just a bad premise. Set up exotic characters and knock them all down. Der. I mean, Miss Bolivia had cocaine on her face. D'ya'getit? Hilarious.

There's no shortage of good writers out there, but SNL seems to be a magnet for the laziest shittiest coasting-est writers on the market.

Cecily Strong seems to have laid claim to that twilight zone after Weekend Update, though. Her best stuff almost always comes in the final third of any week's show.

man kerry washington was great. good episode for jay pharoah. no great sketches, enjoyed the opening, how's he doing, mooney's thing. actually laughed: jay's shaq, wondering 'is that lady sovereign?' ffwding thru eminem.

they literally had al sharpton or was i imagining that

I dunno, I cackled a few times at How's He Doing?

Yeah, I think they've done that sketch once or twice before and this was definitely the best version I recall. I laughed.

That parody of What Does The Fox Say was bizarre, like Weird Al in reverse. "Let's take a funny song and make it LESS funny!"

Liked the teeth-clacking way Kate McKinnon as Angela Merkel said "texts".

yeah the what does the fox say thing (plus the boy dance party and probably a couple of other similar things i'm forgetting) made me think that ppl have been way too hard on lonely island