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« Saturday Night Live
Jonah Hill Hosts; Mariah Carey Performs
Hello! I'm back for the fourth week in a row to recap SNL. I have high hopes for tonight... I'm not sure why, but let's go with it. Wait! Now I remember why... Spitzer-gate! They must be drooling over this story at SNL. I also think Jonah Hill is a funny guy. You might be saying, "Who the heck is that?" Well, anyone under 21 already knows he's the chubby guy from Superbad, which this 31-year-old thought was super awesome! Hopefully, he'll fare better than Seth Rogen did last year. Oh! And, also, Mariah freakin' Carey is performing. They've been trying to nab her for 10 years, so I think her performances will rock the house (again, I'm trying to be positive).
On with the show....
Cold Opening
Hee heeeee, it's a Spitzer skit with Kristen Wiig as his stone-faced wife, and Bill Hadar as the former governor. Kristen's reactions are priceless. She's nailed Spitzer's wife. Spitzer's advertising his new services as a lawyer for humiliating cases only. The number to call if you "slip and fall in a gay bath house," is 1-800-T-A-W-D-R-Y. Hahahaha. This actually made me chuckle a few times, but I was hoping they'd go for the jugular more.
Roll opening credits....
Monologue
Aw, he genuinely looks thrilled to be there, including a twinkle in his eye. Oh no, they're making him do a musical opening?!?!? WHY! It's like Guys and Dolls, and is all about how "fancy" he is underneath his sloppy veneer. I'm actually looking for the funny under the veneer of this opening. I appreciate the effort... A for effort... but it's just an odd opening for this guy.
MacGruber Sketch (more of a bit actually)
Ha, Will Forte plays a MacGyver rip-off in a returning sketch. The '80s cheese is spot on, but MacGruber isn't that funny... he's so concerned with his reputation that he lets the bomb he's trying to defuse explode. On the positive side, it was only a minute long!
What’s Your Situation Sketch
Jonah plays the host of the game show "What's Your Situation?" He asks the contestants (all attractive women) real questions, and then follows it up with "What's Your Situation?" so he can see if they're single. When Casey says she's married, she's kicked off the show. Then Kristen gets to the second round, which means she has to go to the isolation booth with Jonah. It's just kinda icky.
Benihana Sketch
Jonah plays a precocious 6-year-old who is trying to pimp out his divorced dad to some single girls. He's playing up a Jewish-yenta accent, and it's actually funny— especially if you've ever had the pleasure of sitting next to an obnoxious Dakota Fanning-scary smart kid with too much sugar in his system and not enough parental boundaries. I actually laughed a lot at this one.
MacGruber is back... Isn't he dead?
This time on MacGruber, he's bitching about not being able to trust anyone. He buckles under the pressure and cries, then tells Jonah's character to try to defuse the bomb, but it blows up again. I wish this sketch would blow up.
(Side note: Christopher Walken is hosting next time on April 5th!!! How awesome is that?)
Suze Orman Show Sketch
Wicked... Kristen Wiig is playing Suze (who was in dire need of some mocking for a long time now). She nails the impersonation! Yay! She's mocking Suze's awful jackets, and says she spends 85% of her gross income on them. She then advises a multi-millionaire to not go to Europe and go to Epcot Center instead. Then Jonah comes on as Kenny who wants to buy a hospital on the San Andreas fault. She tells him not to, and to listen to her "tan face and pale body." Again, I mildly chuckled a few times! Improvement!
SNL Digital Short
Jonah tells Andy he needs to chat before the show about meeting Andy's family last week... uh-oh... where is this headed? It can't be G-rated. And there it is! Jonah admits to Andy that after meeting his dad, they have begun to date. Andy is confused. A flashback explains how they bonded, when... HOLY MOTHER OF #*@(#!!!! They're now showing Jonah and his dad fully French kissing!!! It just gets more disturbing, yet I'm totally cracking up. Ew…hahaha…EW…hahhaah.
Mariah Carey performs
Damn, she looks good. Thin, healthy, sexy…oops, the camera gets a shot of her knickers! Ratings will soar! Seriously, Mariah, could that skirt be any shorter?
Weekend Update
It begins with a Spitzer joke: "Turns out the whistle blower was having his whistle blown." Ha. They are really on tonight. They really go after Spitzer and I'm loving it! In the section called, "Really?!" they just let all of their pent up jokes fly. Go Seth and Amy! Well, look at who we have here! Tracy Morgan does a cameo! He's talking about racism in the country saying, "We are a racist country America! How else did we convince everyone in Ohio and Texas that Barack can't answer the phone at three in the morning?" Tracy is crazy and not all there, but still funny. In conclusion, Tracy feels that Barack would be a qualified president, and that even though he loves his girl Tina Fey, he disagrees with her statement, "Bitch is the new Black!" He says instead, "Black is the new President, Bitch!" WOW. That was kinda hostile. And that's coming from my cranky ass. This week's update rocked. Bravo.
Target Lady Sketch
Kristen plays her old character "Target Lady," which is such a great bit, but the sketch is kinda lame considering how funny she can be. Jonah plays a gross, greasy brace-face who likes a girl but can't tell her. It's kind of a mess, but I did laugh at Kristen.
Brian Williams Sketch
Will Forte does BW well. He's announcing that Senator John McCain is "old." How does the Senator respond? (Darrell Hammond plays McCain stunningly well... the voice is so close, it seems like they dubbed it). He says he's not old, yet Brian shows him in line at Bob Evans for dinner... at 4:30pm. Ha. I'm way more fascinated by Hammond's McCain impersonation than by the sketch. Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen appear "via satellite" as old people on Long Island to confirm how old McCain is. They ask if he watches Wheel of Fortune, has a jar of hard candy in his house, and steals Sweet & Low packages from restaurants. He says yes, and they confirm that indeed, he's old. Just like this sketch is now.
Country Singer Sketch
The best part of the sketch is that Jonah is cracking up. It's making fun of bad self-produced country album commercials. The songs all mention beer, spaceships, Model Ts and toddlers. It's funny because of how committed they are to the sketch.
Date Sketch
Casey and Jonah are on a date where Jonah's character has lied a bit about who he really is. She asks if he was in the movie biz, and he says yes, he works at Netflix in envelope receiving. She reveals that most of the things he said were really references to his junk. Kinda funny. Mercifully short. Yay.
So, do we all agree that this week was better? What was your favorite sketch? How did Jonah hill do?
That's all for this week kids! See you for Christopher Walken on April 5.
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Mar 16, 2008 1:13 AM
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What has bothered me about Jonah Hill is that he's often typecasted at the chubby nerd in movies. It's appropriate, then, that he was also typecasted here.
Kiersten Wiig was working overtime in these sketches. However, I think she is a little overrated. She does stotic well, but she's a one trick pony. That's basically all she does.
Cold Opening: It was 2-3 minutes; that has to be a record. It was way too safe at first, mainly because they were saving the Spitzer jokes for Weekend Update.
Monologue: What has bothered me about some SNL monologue is that they are completely irrelevant to the host. Tina Fey talked about being a writer/comedian. Ellen Page talked about Juno. Amy Adams talked about Broadway. (with a musical she apparently was not in) And then Jonah Hill...with a completly irrelevant dance number. Okay...
I believe that the hosts have some influence in the monologue, because that was way too non-sequitur even for a writer to approve.
MacGruber Sketch: The first MacGruber Sketch, which aired last year while Julia-Louie Dryfus hosted, was hilarious, since it actually parioded the inane nature of MacGyver (get me those pliers, the hand grenade, and bee sperm!) These...do not.
What’s Your Situation Sketch: No comment. Casey actually had a speaking role.
Benihana Sketch: If I wanted to watch an annoying 6-year old, I'd watch Stewie on Family Guy. While it did have funny jokes, Jonah Hill didn't convey them very well.
MacGruber 2: See above. Note that the previous shows always had 3 MacGrubers, so the downside is interesting.
Suzy Orman Show Sketch: No comment.
SNL Digital Short: For SNL, this was quite inane. Even for MadTV, it would be inane. OMG GUYS FRENCH KISSING LOLOLOLOL. I was not surprised to see that it was created by Lorne Michaels, because the short, like the rest of the show, appears to be relying on shock value alone.
Weekend Update: Ok, this was good. Spitzer jokes were spot on, and Morgan had some good lines. It's interesting what happens when Weekend Update bring an actual comedian...
Target Lady Sketch: When was this sketch ever funny?
Brian Williams Sketch: If age is now a stereotype, then SNL needs to be put off the air, because it's been going on for far too long.
Country Singer Sketch: No comment.
Date Sketch: Casey actually had a major role in a skit! She kinda sucked, though. Again, I thought SNL was above gratitous innuendo.
Weekend Update alone put this episode above the rest this "season." Hopefully Christopher Walken can make some improvements.
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Mar 16, 2008 2:31 AM
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Yes, it was better than last week's -- but there was really only one way to go.
I'm not a big Jonah Hill fan -- talk about people making something out of nothing -- but I'll give him credit -- he wasn't a complete disaster as host.
Cold Opening
I must have been disappointed, too, because I was more focused on the fact that 1-800-TAWDRY doesn't have enough digits to be an actual phone number. This was a tepid way to go with this.
Monologue/Song
Better than last week's lame faux-song, but it reminded me of those songs that they break out into on Family Guy which only frat guys with super-sized bongs find funny. Oh, wait -- for a minute there, I almost forgot the apparent target audience for SNL nowadays.
MacGruber
Does anyone still really doubt that the writers of SNL have complete disdain for their audience now? Look no further than this umpteenth version of the same MacGruber skit for proof.
That wasn't produced by people striving to entertain. That was produced by people striving to make it an early day because Snakes on a Plane was on Cinemax.
What's Your Situation?
Is there anything more dependably bad than a recent-vintage SNL game show skit? Almost without fail, they are the polar opposite of funny -- and this predictable idiocy was no exception.
Benihana
The sheer audacious crassness of Jonah Hill made this semi-funny. An obnoxious 6-year-old -- finally, a role tailor-made for him.
Suze Orman sketch
Eh.
Digital Short
This was actually pretty funny -- and, not coincidentally, came dangerously close to embodying the daring old SNL mentality. You know, back when people actually still remembered the skits over the watercooler on Monday morning.
Weekend Update
This was really funny this week. I loved the "Really" segment (always do) and the Tracy appearance was funny (I loved that look he and Seth exchanged at one point).
Target Lady
OK, I used to think this was funny, but enough is enough. This is another recurring skit where it's pretty much the same thing every time.
Brian Williams/John McCain
I actually found this kind of funny. Yes, there were a lot of dusty gags in this -- old people eat really early! -- but, having experienced some of those things with my 80-something-year-old aunt and uncle, I laughed.
And Hammond's McCain voice really was amazing.
Spaceships, Toddlers, Model T. Cars and Jars of Beer
 I agree with Zinger314 -- what can one really say about this?
Date Sketch
There's a common assumption that the last skit of the show is going to suck, but actually...this did nothing to cure people of that belief.
Regarding Christopher Walken -- look, he was responsible for some great SNLs. I still remember his wonderful performance of "Let's Face the Music and Dance." But seems like his last few appearances haven't been so hot. And isn't The Continental just going to seem sad at this point?
We'll see.
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Mar 16, 2008 4:17 AM
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Please, please retire the MacGruber bits...they were kind of funny the first time but now they're just painful.
Kristen Wiig was terrific as Suze Orman but the writing just wasn't there. Same with the Target sketch. The "What's Your Situation" game was lame.
Best line of the night was Tracy Morgan's counter to Tina Fey's "Bitch is the new black" line.
I was really hoping to see a bit with Kenan Thompson as Obama's preacher.
I know they were very proud of doing 4 shows in a row but maybe they should have just taken a week off.
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Mar 16, 2008 10:34 AM
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Meh. You know SNL is getting tired when the actual event (Client 9!?!) made me laugh more than the skit mocking it.
And thank you, Tracy. I have to wonder what kind of tension is on the set of 30 Rock after that rebuttal lol.
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Mar 16, 2008 12:02 PM
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I wanted to like Jonah Hill...but, at least towards the end, he was hard to watch. In the Target skit I wasn't sure if he was off on the lines or was trying to have some sort of affectation. If you can't tell which--it's not good, either way.
The Suze Orman sketch(and can I say that I hate that her name is pronounced Suzy and spelled Suze) was not awful because Kristen's impersonation was so dead on! But what it wasn't was funny--though it was better than usual. At least it had a more popculture vibe to it. This is why I can appreciate Mad TV (though I don't find it hilarious either). But they do those music videos and make fun of other popular culture phenomena that makes it (almost) relevant...
...Unlike "What's the Situation." What the hell was that!!? When that was the first live sketch after the monologue I knew it was going to be a rough week. I would have considered that to be an end-of-episode sketch. Really? The first one? REALLY? Really. How I miss seeing The Rapist taken for $200.
I will admit to laughing at the Model T., Toddlers, Spaceships, & Jars of Beer sketch--but I think it was because he was trying not to laugh. I do miss that! I know many people hated it (laughing during a sketch), but I always liked seeing them crack up. It's hard not to laugh at people laughing themselves. Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz always made me laugh (even though maybe too often for Lorne Micheal's liking...)
I can remember many skits that would have been unmemorable otherwise...but when you add the cast trying to keep from laughing it becomes more memorable. I don't want laughing in every sketch but I wouldn't mind seeing it more often. Makes me think they actually are having a good time (usually I wonder how long people will stay on the show)...
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Mar 16, 2008 12:11 PM
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I actually thought Jonah Hill was much worse than Amy Adams... I loved last week's show... This week I only enjoyed The Weekend Update... The 90210 spinoff, One OC Gossip Tree Creek?!  And the best line of the night was, obviously, "Black is the new president, bitch!" I LOVED that
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Mar 16, 2008 3:29 PM
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Overall, Yes, I thought the show was better than last week.
However, thumbs down to Jonah Hill.
The So-wrong and Dance number was cringe-worthy.
And he only added to his stereotype of being loud and obnoxious with his "attempt" to dispel it.
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Mar 16, 2008 5:03 PM
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I liked the Cold Open, some of the lyrics in the Monologue, SNL Digital Short with staff writer James Downey as Samberg's father, Mariah looking hot, Most of "Weekend Update" especially the "Really?" segment and Tracy Morgan's commentary, and the last sketch. The rest was "eh?" Seeing guest host Jonah Hill laugh in that Country Music skitch was pretty amusing though he seemed all over the place much of the time. I actually thought the previous 3 shows (especially Tina Fey) was better. Can't wait to see Christopher Walken next time! Oh, and I'd like to note that last week had a couple of former SNLer's celebrating their birthdays: Robin Duke turned 54 on March 13 which was the day Billy Crystal fullfilled a longtime dream to play for the Yankees. Too bad he didn't hit a home run but it probably made his 60th birth the following day more exciting. And yesterday, previous SNL guest host Jerry Lewis-he hosted on November 19, 1983-turned 82.
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Mar 17, 2008 2:35 AM
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Cold Opening-I thought it was funny.
Jonah Hill-Could see how excited he was to be on the show. He really tried to make the material work.
Suze Orman Show Sketch-I hate Suze Orman, but loved Kristen Wiig's take on her.
MacGruber Sketches-So not funny.
Weekend Update-I really did laugh at a lot of it. Amy screwing up the name of Brita made me laugh. Love the "Really".
Tracy Morgan's "Black is the new President, Bitch!" has me howling. Crazy he may be, but funny.
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Mar 17, 2008 9:42 AM
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Oh no, there making him do a musical opening?!?!?
Erin, Erin, Erin - I know this is a blog...but you're writing for TV GUIDE. It's a major publication. Please learn the difference between THERE and THEY'RE...otherwise it makes you look like a hack whose opinion means nothing. Set a better example for this increasingly illiterate society.
Additionally, you setup how much you were looking forward to Mariah Carey's performances and you only critique the first one. Come on - - you can do better.
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Mar 17, 2008 3:36 PM
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Erin, I corrected your singular there/they're typo. Remember, don't miss your 4 pm appointment to be tarred and feathered by H.R. - MWM
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Mar 18, 2008 1:18 PM
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