(S32E16) I know nothing about football. I know nothing about Peyton Manning. He's an athlete, right? Okay. I didn't expect much from him, since the majority of sports-related guests of the past have done poorly. To my surprise, Peyton did relatively well. I think this was partially due to the fact that the writing did not demand too much from him. Although this was a smart move to not make Peyton look like an idiot, it resulted in a mediocre episode.Cold Open ("Message from the President"): This was funny, but not a particularly strong opening. The way Fred Armisen kind of squished his face gave him an uncanny resemblance to Alberto Gonzalez, though. Weird.
Monologue: Throughout the entire family introduction, I was waiting for one of the SNL players to stand up and do a joke, but I guess Peyton was really trying to be sweet. This was a very, very straightforward monologue. A little sports joke here, a little sports joke there, just to excite the football-lovers in the place.
"Peyton Manning and Kids": Haha, I found this hilarious... but then again, I'm a sadistic psychomaniac.
"Bronx Beat": I still fail to find this really funny, but others seem to enjoy it. Not my cup of tea, I suppose. More footage of kids getting hit with footballs, please!
"ESPN's NCAA Tournament Pool Party": I think the whole reason why they did this sketch in the first place was as an excuse to do those jabs at Peyton. What a good sport that guy is.
"Penelope": Oh, my God. I know a Penelope -- no, I know multiple Penelopes.
"Saturday TV Funhouse: Maraka": This was such a wonderfully weird take on Dora the Explorer. My favorite lines included "Can you tell me how to check for a hernia?" and "Can you tell me if this person's a girl or a guy?" and "Do you know why my father left me?" I also loved the existentialist touch at the end.
"Locker Room": This was good, light-hearted fun. Peyton's dance out of the room was quite adorable.
"Weekend Update": Senator Tim Calhoun! We haven't seen this fellow in ages. That voice gets me every time. I've made that "Jack Abramoff? I hardly know Abram" joke! Now I'm going to have to stop doing it because it's been on TV. Sigh. There was a problem with the "Zoo News" bit. Fact-check, kids! It wasn't a sloth that was euthanized, Seth, it was a sloth bear. Huge difference. Also, I'm probably a little late in noticing this, but every time that they need to start doing a news piece that will be interrupted by a skit, like in the American Idol bit (Dan Akroyd cameo!), they start talking about a tree frog study.
"300": Oh, come on. I can't believe they devoted an entire sketch to that one joke. They must have been desperate to fill time.
"Coffee on the Porch": Despite the fact that this was pretty much a straight-forward sit-down recitation of jokes, I liked it because of its weirdness.
"Mercedes 550": A meatloaf oven in a car? What a random commercial to make. I didn't really care for it.
"Nike Air Force One": I like to think that all of the SNL boys really play basketball like that.
Carrie Underwood: Her music's not really my scene, but I think she did okay. What was that gold, metallic thing she was wearing? Was it an obscenely short skort? Or a headband?
April 14: Host Shia LaBeouf! Ahh! I'm so excited! I used to watch him all the time when he was on the Disney Channel's Even Stevens. As for musical guest Avril Lavigne, I've never been a fan. Actually, I kind of hate her. Actually, I kind of started bleeding from the ears when I saw her name. Actually, I kind of want to kill myself.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2007 @ 12:48PM
Scott in LA said...
And one more little thing: when did SNL lose its ability to draw real stars????? Many of them are pretty f-ing funny and lately we're seeing only C listers and sports guys I never heard of (sorry, Great Manly Sports Brotherhood) - and don't tell me Lorne is now trying to be all "indie" and alternative. Or is he?
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3-25-2007 @ 12:57PM
Clint said...
Better than the last episode, however, if they had just had the SNL logo up for an hour and a half, that would have been better than the last episode.
The commerical with him playing football with the kids was by far the best part of the show.
http://www.tvdeuce.com
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3-25-2007 @ 1:14PM
Nate said...
Episode was decent except for Peyton blatantly staring at the Q Cards the entire episode. Though I still thought he did well since he isnt an actor.
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3-25-2007 @ 1:37PM
smashthesymbols said...
Better than average episode. The United Way commercial and Maraka were the high points. The Tournament Pool Party, Locker Room and Coffee On The Porch sketches all had their moments. I always like seeing Tim Calhoun too.
On the other end of the spectrum, 300 was just awful, Bronx Beat was even less funny than the first time they did it, and Penelope was pretty bland.
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3-25-2007 @ 1:38PM
Bill said...
I actually liked the episode, but apparently I'm the only football fan around. But like Annie, I spent the whole episode wishing they'd go back to Manning hitting kids with footballs. Seriously, a whole episode of that would've been fine.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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3-25-2007 @ 1:54PM
MrsEldubya said...
Knowing Peyton Manning more would have made this episode more interesting for you. Peyton Manning is one of the best QB's in the NFL and won the Super Bowl this year. Plus he's done some of the best commercials for Visa the last couple of years.
The basketball bracket skit was hilarious. Do you know how many women win their office pools because they go by the uniform color or the teams mascot? It drives so many men crazy when someone who knows nothing about sports wins. The guys I work with spend hours studying up on who the teams have played, the trends, the stats and think they have the perfect sheet (Peyton's character in the skit) only to get beaten by the receptionist who filled her bracket out 10 mins before the deadline just for the fun of it. Adding in all the jabs at Peyton Manning just made the skit even funnier.
If you are not sports minded, you can't appreciate a sports host. Also, Peyton is not a C-list person, he is A-List all the way. I thought the episode was average for SNL but then I think most episodes now are below average. I fast forward through the Bronx Beat usually. Weekend Update just hasn't been up to par anymore since Tina Fey left. But the Dan Akroyd cameo was worth it. I figured he was supposed to be David Hasslehoff from last years AI finale.
Once in a while SNL will have some great skits or digital shorts. The only problem is you have to suffer through 60 - 75 mins of the rest of the show. I grew up on the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. SNL was appointment tv for me all through HS and college. Now it's something I Tivo and catch on Sunday morning so I can avoid the bad skits and enjoy the few gems.
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3-25-2007 @ 3:09PM
ac said...
Except for the Malaka and Jack Abram off joke the show was "meh". Hitting children with a football was funny, but they overdid it with the carjacking.
Thank you for sayng who Shia Labeulf is though I still dont know who he is since I dont watch Disney Channel.
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3-25-2007 @ 5:13PM
Scott in LA said...
oh yeah - forgot to mention:
MARAKA: probably the slyest thing Robert Smigel has ever done - just brilliant, the way the faux Dora goes from Spanish to Zulu to German in like two words.
PENELOPE: man, if I wasn't already getting a Kristen Wiig-crush, this woulda done it. Not much writing in this sketch, but damn some of the most seamless, weirdly realistic character work I've ever seen. yay Kristen.
so yeah, a few really high points in a kind of lackluster epi.
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3-25-2007 @ 5:30PM
kel said...
The star of the championship team in the biggest sport in the US is a C-lister? WTF?
I laughed so hard at Maraka, but why didn't they just call her Dora?
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3-25-2007 @ 5:56PM
Jim said...
Andy Samberg's Sanjaya was the best part of the show.
I liked seeing Tim Calhoun again. He definitely had a different vibe this time around -- very uncouth.
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3-25-2007 @ 5:59PM
Jim said...
P.S. Carrie Underwood looked and sounded great. She is the only musical guest this season I have watched without fast-forwarding -- including the Shins.
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3-25-2007 @ 7:00PM
Georgia said...
I liked watching Peyton (huge Manning fan here). I loved his monologue and thought he did well.
I wonder what Olivia thought of some of the jokes!! A pig's vagina??
I forgot it was Peyton's 31st birthday.
On SNL, their jokes seem to have a constant refrain on bodily functions. Do many people in high school watch SNL? Surely, that's the only age group that would find toilet jokes funny.
BTW, from a post above, I did not know the host picks the musical guest.
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3-25-2007 @ 9:11PM
Bryan Price said...
I haven't watched SNL since... college it feels like. Although it has to have been sooner. 25 years is a long time. Probably close to the same for my wife.
Even though we both knew the alarm was set for 7AM, we watched the whole show and enjoyed it. I don't remember the host being in so many skits, but it's been awhile as I've said. I thought Peyton did a very good job, especially for an athlete. Maybe my expectations were too low. <shrug>
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3-25-2007 @ 9:57PM
Tammy said...
FYI to the poster who doesn't know who Shia LaBeouf is.... he has been in many movies, not just the Disney channel. Try movies like Charlies Angels Full Throttle, Constantine, Bobby, and I Robot. He's been in others but I figured those were movies people should know. He's an up and coming young actor that seems to be one of Hollywood's "it" guys right now. He's probably promoting his new movie "Disturbia" which is a modern day "Rear Window". I think that opens in a week or two.
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3-26-2007 @ 2:35AM
Paul Little said...
Yeah, "Disturbia" opens in a few weeks, and Shia LaBeouf is also one of the main (human) characters in the new "Transformers" movie. He's also been rumoured to be playing Indy Jr. in the new "Indiana Jones" movie, but nothing's confirmed on that one.
I was a little surprised by how many fake commercials there were in this episode. Usually you'll see one after the monologue, and maybe another one near the end as a time-filler, but three?
Of course, the funniest part of the show was the first commercial, and it's always good to see Calhoun (it hasn't been that long since we've seen him, though -- he was on just before the fall elections, running for "Senator of America"). Again, there wasn't much Andy in the live stuff. Either he's too busy working with his Lonely Island cohorts on digital stuff, or he's just always in the sketches that get cut after rehearsal.
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3-26-2007 @ 4:57AM
Janni said...
Seriously no mention about the sweet 16 party?!
http://colts.aolsportsblog.com/2007/03/08/peyton-manning-says-it-wasnt-a-sweet-16-party/
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:ILptlmTSXsUJ:deadspin.com/sports/nfl/peyton-mannings-sweet-16-party-cameo-241661.php%3Fmail2%3Dtrue+peyton+party&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=ca
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3-27-2007 @ 3:18PM
Curtis said...
Regarding Shia LaBeouf I would think he's best known for his leading roles in "Holes" and to a lesser extent "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
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4-16-2007 @ 5:02PM
sara said...
does anybody know where i can see the penelope video?
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4-25-2007 @ 2:39AM
Missy said...
Kristen Wiig is SO funny in her Penelope character. I hope that is a recurring character. I was laughing out loud and I had the stomach flu!!
And I know nothing about sports, but Peyton Manning was one of the best guest hosts I've seen in a long time. The guy is a football quarterback, right? But he is a fantastic actor and comedian! I was totally impressed with him.
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