(S33E01) "All-But-Certain-To-Be Next President" (Cold Open): This was a funny piece, but it didn't pack the punch I would have expected for a season premiere open. Oh! Hi, Darrell Hammond. Still here, huh? No, it's not a problem, man. It's just that you've been crashing here for a while and, well, you haven't really been doing much to contribute. And we've kind of been wondering when you'd be moving out -- Yeah, I guess your Bill Clinton voice is still pretty funny and I guess it'll come in handy some time in the near future. Okay, I suppose it's okay if you stay for a little while longer. Just try not to creep out the younger folks, okay? With the announcer not cutting in until about halfway through the cast, it must have sucked to have such a slip-up this early in the episode. Was that even Don Pardo doing the voices for the cast intro? At first, it sounded like someone doing an impression of him.
Monologue: LeBron James, dressed like an Edwardian giant, clad in velvet, delivered a fairly weak monologue. With a pre-taped crazy piece like that, things could have been pushed so much further. It stopped just short of "hilariously wacky". I can't remember the last time I was super-satisfied with the performance of an athlete host, so I wasn't expecting much from Mr. James.
"Angry Dog Food": First new commercial of the season! Unfortunately, it wasn't much. I did, however, like the vicious German Shepherd seeing-eye dog.
"Penelope": See, this is the kind of formulaic sketch that works. Penelope always delivers some great lines, and Kristen Wiig does great things with the character. My favorite was probably "I was at the first Thanksgiving, so... Brought maize, so..."
"High School Musical 3: Return of the Seniors": This was great, but it could have been so much better if they had just pushed a little bit further. Andy Samberg didn't gay it up quite enough to make a Zac Efron, unfortunately. The choreography was funny, though, as was Fred Armisen's crazy Corbin Bleu hair.
"SNL Digital Short": I was a bit disturbed by how much Fred Armisen looked like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he scrunched up his eyes like that. It was a smart move, because Ahmadinejad has one of those weird Rumer Willis facial situations, where the eyes are really tight in the center of the face. Anyway, this song wasn't particularly catchy or as memorable as some of the other Digital Shorts, but it was great to see Maroon 5's Adam Levine and two seconds of Jake Gyllenhaal.
"BET's Lyle Kane Show": Oh, my word. Will Forte's hair looked spectacular.
"Weekend Update": Bless the hearts of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers for not making fools of themselves while pronouncing "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" correctly, unlike a disturbing number of members from the proper press. Fred Armisen's reappearance as Ahmadinejad was interesting. Again, I loved his scrunched up eyes. The rest of the jokes were all right. I quite enjoyed Seth's bit about Austria trying to legally consider monkeys human ("The one remaining obstacle? It's not").
"Best of Solid Gold": Ahh, C. Micah Kring. Nice. I actually Googled "Micah Kring" to see if anyone else had made that joke before and all I got was one result about NBC's Heroes, in which someone wrote about the character Micah and show creator Tim Kring. Fun Fact. Anyway, the choreography for this piece was just as great as the High School Musical 3 sketch. James' introductory dance was so subtle and hilarious, I choked a little bit. Whenever Wiig, Poehler, and Maya Rudolph get together and dance in a sketch, good things happen. Doubly so if it's 80s style.
"Saturday TV Funhouse: Ambiguously Gay Duo": AHH! I've missed these two so much! Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell are such big-shots now, I was worried they'd never have time for poor ol' Ace and Gary. But with such a wonderfully weird scandal like the Larry Craig foot-tapping situation, I guess Rob Smigel had no choice but to go back to the Duo.
"106 & Park": I think this was one of my favorites from the night. The sketch was so simple and yet so effective, mainly because Kanye West is ridiculously charismatic and can make anything look or sound fabulous. Mr. West needs to host. Please. Someone make this happen. Also, I loved that he wears glasses and carries his own microphone everywhere.
"Read to Achieve": SNL seems to love doing PSA sketches, which totally isn't a problem with me. Jason Sudeikis' expressions were great and James did a super job of playing the straight man.
"Great Moments in Guidance Counseling": Damn, the cutting for this sketch was really awkward. Someone was asleep in the control room. Jason Sudeikis' rant about college was really good, but James didn't do much.
Kanye West: I've never considered myself a huge fan of West's work, but he always seems to deliver such strong performances. I actually stuck around to watch him instead of making myself a snack like I usually do when musical guests do their thing.
Next time: Seth Rogen and Spoon. I think I may be sick of seeing Rogen. Gosh, that almost feels un-American of me.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-30-2007 @ 12:15PM
O said...
i think u forgot the "Read to Achieve" PSA which i thought was lebron's only funny sketch. . he was a really weak host, and needed more practice for almost all of the sketches. it looked like he would pause read the card say, what was on it, and then pause again. he had no flow on the show.
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9-30-2007 @ 12:49PM
Cincinnati Mike said...
I believe I read somewhere that Darrel Hammond has impersonated Don Pardo on a number of occasions in the past few years. Don has to be 110 by now!
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9-30-2007 @ 12:54PM
Annie Wu said...
Thanks, O! I've added it.
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9-30-2007 @ 1:21PM
khamel said...
what a terrible show this has become. i loved the peyton manning episode but i was home on saturday and watched the episode with my mom who agreed it was so un-funny she kept telling me to change. and the 'penelope' sketch is by far the worst sketch i have EVER seen. Its worse than all the bad Studio 60 sketches combined. I can't take a person seriously who likes it. I guess unless they have another athlete on the show i wont be watching it again.
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9-30-2007 @ 1:23PM
lucyfan62 said...
There was some good material but I don't think I actually laughed once. A smile here and there, but I did love the SOLID GOLD bit. LeBron looked kinda hot in that gold lamé and spandex outfit with the jerry curl wig! Other than that it was a pretty weak season premiere. Glad Maya stuck around though!
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9-30-2007 @ 1:27PM
Nick said...
Are they just going to use the same cast members for the next ten years? Come on! I have nothing against the current cast (well, most of them anyway) but I think the show needs some fresh blood. It also wouldn't hurt to have another black cast member because I just can't see Keenan Thompson doing Barack Obama.
Also, I found the Angry Dog sketch funny because I just got a new puppy who has been a major hassle, so that reminded me of her.
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9-30-2007 @ 1:33PM
David said...
My God, isn't Kenan Thompson AWFUL?
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9-30-2007 @ 1:34PM
R.L. said...
Peyton Manning set the standard for athlete appearances on SNL. That was one of the best episodes of last season. Better than some comedians. In fact, I think it's safe to say Peyton Manning is funnier than Dane Cook.
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9-30-2007 @ 1:46PM
Melissa said...
I love the Penelope sketches because I know people who actually do that! My grandma does it all the time (not as extreme though).
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9-30-2007 @ 3:05PM
A Viewer said...
It was an OK episode. The "High School Musical 3" part was pretty funny in some parts, although I agree that it was not exaggerated enough. LeBron was not very good as a host. Still, it wasn't so bad overall. His acting wasn't bad, especially in the Read to Achieve PSA.
The best sketch was the Kanye West sketch. Hilarious! I laughed loudly every time that West walked into the picture as an award was being presented. "Oh, HELL no!" The sketch had a lot of other funny parts too.
"He was probably talking about another LeBron James."
"Yeah, and he was probably talking about another Lorne Michaels."
"No, no...there is only one Lorne Michaels."
Oh yeah, and that guy did make a really convincing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which was kind of creepy. I thought that the SNL Digital Short fell flat, however. It failed to make me laugh.
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9-30-2007 @ 2:19PM
K said...
That was one of the weakest SNL Permiers ever.
They call THAT a Permier?
Just goes to show you that SNL should be laid to rest, and should've been laid to rest a long time ago.
This was the place where a lot of future up-n-coming comedy movie stars were developed - yet more recently where have they all gone?
And to use LeBron as the opening for a Premier? Goes to show you they've run out of ideas and can't get anyone really good or interesting. I was bored within the first "ooga booga oooo aaah hrrrr" words that he could barely get out of his mouth. Did anyone catch anything he said? He doesn't have a voice for broadcast, let's put it that way. Same goes for Shaq. Let's not make these idiot athletes' heads any bigger, please!
For a short while SNL did look promising for a major come back when they had highlights like Scarlett Johansson last season...... but alas, they're telling me again that I shouldn't have such high hopes.
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9-30-2007 @ 3:18PM
Anita said...
Kanye West Sketch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZYtdTb3D4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbossip%2Ecom%2F
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9-30-2007 @ 3:17PM
1iPete said...
To me, the scariest thing about this really weak premiere is that they had all of the stories/issues of the summer months to cherry pick for great satire and they came up woefully short.
I thought the writing was pretty weak under Tina Fey, but it looks like comic gold compared to Seth Myers' reign. He may be the single worst person on weekend update in the history of the show.
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9-30-2007 @ 3:39PM
JW said...
The only parts of the season opener was the monologue (I think Lebron did that as a few commercials once) and Penelope. The rest wasn't that funny. I was expecting something funnier with the SNL Digital Short, and including Lebron in it. I don't like Kanye since he whines all the time, but SNL doesn't really have that many performers worth watching anymore. Madtv wasn't that great either.
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9-30-2007 @ 4:48PM
Diego M said...
Wow, that was weak. i liked the admadinejad jokes, but overall it was weak. and yes they need more black people, and maybe more a-holes and less penelope
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9-30-2007 @ 4:56PM
Danny Smith said...
The problem I see is that they picked the wrong person to start the season. The Lebron episode might have worked better as a late October or March episode, once they had a couple of strong show to view. What they need for a season opener which has been for the most part lacking lately is a proven player. A Tom Hanks or someone who has proven good at being live, and not someone just because they are in the headlines (sports or otherwise). Next week's choice don't seem any better. We'll just have to wait and see.
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9-30-2007 @ 5:09PM
Jim said...
I missed the first half hour, but I take comfort in: 1. hearing that there wasn't a Deep House Dish sketch; and 2. knowing I can catch probably the rerun in another two or three weeks.
The best laugh of the night was Amy Poehler's "IT'S OVER BITCH" Word Jumble in Weekend Update! (She looks like hell, by the way.)
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9-30-2007 @ 6:55PM
screaminghello said...
the show was hilarious. the opening was good. the digital short was hilarious. angry dog, high school musical, penelope. it was all good. seth myers is great but i wish he was in more sketches. i dont what you people are smoking. it's always the cool thing to say that snl sucks. five years from now people will be saying that it's not like it used to be back in the late 00's. if you can find it, watch the martin short monologue from when he hosted back in the mid 90's. it summarizes this weird phenomena. for all the people who have posted here, stop watching the show! you don't like it. who spends their time watching shows they hate and then writing about it on the web. just wait for the few things from snl that pop up on youtube and has been approved by the masses as cool and watch those
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9-30-2007 @ 8:27PM
Allison said...
I thought it was a fairly strong episode. No, LeBron wasn't great, but athletes rarely are (Peyton was the exception). I thought that everyone else seemed confident. I liked the short, but the sketch I laughed the most at was the "Read to Achieve". Sometimes you don't need a whacky character to have a funny sketch. Solid Gold was great, but it could be that the writers are now in my age group and it reminded me of a show I used to love as a kid.
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9-30-2007 @ 9:48PM
jonathan said...
you guys are nuts, it was a good show. i laughed at everything except the last sketch which was just badly directed with weird camera switching. the Iranian president song was hilarious!
it looks like there are only 3 of the 20 comments that actually liked the episode. other 17 = might as well stop watching. the funny has to end somewhere doesn't it? for the 3 who liked it = hopefully seth rogen is just as good.
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