(S33E02) "A Message From K-Fed": I suppose it would have been tough to avoid covering the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children to K-Fed, but was it really worthy of a cold open? The sketch managed to make me crack a smile, but I didn't even come close to laughing, which is disappointing because K-Fed is already inherently hilarious."Monologue": Seth Rogen shared the Saturday Night Live monologue that he's supposedly always dreamed of doing, complete with Bill Hader as Steven Segal. It was cute but, again, didn't get huge laughs. I could tell that Rogen wasn't going to be one of those guests who lose all sense of comedic timing and rhythm on live TV, though. Honestly, I would have been crushed if that was the case. Oh, and speaking of Rogen and Hader, I totally expected more of them working together. I was pretty disappointed by Superbad (sorry, Michael Cera, I still love you), but Rogen and Hader were great as a team, with or without McLovin.
"Veritas Ultrasound": Great idea, well executed. Any sort of Jason Sudeikis/Kristen Wiig pairing is almost guaranteed to work. They just play off each other so beautifully.
"2007 National Douchebag Championship": Hilarious idea, fairly well done. All of the named products, activities, and people were spot-on examples of douchebaggery, so nice job. I liked how Amy Poehler's Sharon Osbource briefly turned into Edith Bunker at the beginning and Fred Armisen's weird Gene Simmons glare actually managed to give me the creeps. In other news, Ferret Bueller is the coolest pet name of all time.
"MacGruber: Mine": MacGruber! I can't help but love him. It's so ridiculous and pointless, but it's short enough that I don't mind. This week's mid-life crisis theme was fantastic as well.
"Kids": I think this was the only time that I seriously laughed out loud during the entire episode. The facial expressions were good, Wiig and Rogen's kids clothes were nice, but the performance of "Rehab" was what really got me. Oh, and Wiig's spastic robot dancing was beautiful. She moves like a blade of grass in the wind... but only if the wind was rapidly changing directions and varying in force.
"MacGruber: Desert Tower": Ahh, creepy collagen lips. They seemed to fit Will Forte a little too well.
"Fred Thompson 2008": Oh, Darrell Hammond. Are you only around to play old guys in political skits? Yeah, this was all right. Fred Armisen's Sam Waterston was excellent. Just that slight facial shift into a half-scowl was enough to identify who it was. I think it wasn't until I saw Armisen's funny-eyebrow'd Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from last week did I realize that that is Armisen's biggest strength.
"MacGruber: Monastery": Not much substance, but I still liked it for some reason.
"Weekend Update": A decent "Weekend Update" this week, thanks to Poehler's slight hair change. Okay, not really. It was lovely to see Chevy Chase again, throwing out that good ol' "I'm still, and you're still not", but it was also a little uncomfortable. His part dragged on a bit long and he didn't have that classic snappiness and confidence to him. I think the last time we saw him was when he did a Land Shark thing for Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey on "Weekend Update". See, that worked because it was quick and a proper cameo. This time it was just a little awkward. Also, a quick note to Poehler: Damn it, Amy! It's not "George Ta-kigh", it's "George Ta-kay"! Come on.
"America's First Colonists": Seeing as how most of Seth Rogen's fan base consists of teen stoners, it wouldn't have been right unless they did something like this.
"Rowlf and the Swedish Chef": Okay, this was awesome. I didn't understand what the point was and I had no idea what was going on, but I just liked seeing the cast dress up as Muppets. Is that so wrong? Rogen's Rawlf voice was unusually accurate and I was suprisingly unfazed about seeing Maya Rudolph as Janice. Perhaps it's because she's already played Donatella Versace and the two look virtually the same. Yeah. Donatella Versace is possibly a little more Muppet-like than Janice.
"Mad Joe": This seems to be a recurring technique among the SNL writers... Simply take some charming Southern country characters and make them say horrible things about genitalia and bodily functions. Doesn't anyone remember Christopher Walken's Colonel Angus skit?
Spoon: Yay for Spoon! I kept expecting to see that dancing yellow thing on the side of the stage, but it never happened. Needless to say, my heart was broken.
Next time: Jon Bon Jovi (whaaa?) and the Foo Fighters.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-07-2007 @ 2:14PM
Chris said...
I really wasn't too impressed with this weeks episode.
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10-07-2007 @ 3:16PM
Raul said...
I was really let down by Seth Rogen. The McGrubber skits are really funny though. I always look forward to seeing what he asks for from the people around him (like the paperweight and bottle cap).
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10-07-2007 @ 3:50PM
Ryan said...
I missed anything before midnight and it seems I missed a bunch of Wiig skits. Too bad. She's really the only reason I tune in now. You're right though, she and Sudeikis do work really well together.
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10-07-2007 @ 5:22PM
Aberdeen said...
I was pretty meh about this weeks episode. Athough Amy Poehler did a kick butt Sharon Osbourne, and yes, Gene Simmons was very creepy.
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10-07-2007 @ 7:29PM
Bill said...
MacGruber is the best recurring sketch they do, just because it's so short. They move on to something else before you can get sick of it. But this was a really weak episode. Those kids probably were the best sketch, but "I said we" was old by the second time, and I'm pretty sure they did it forty times by the end of the sketch.
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10-07-2007 @ 8:19PM
ac said...
Fred Armisan did a perfect Gene Simmons. The best sketch had to be the rolf and sweedish chef singalong.
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10-07-2007 @ 11:07PM
Jim said...
I'm usually critical of the show, but I thought this episode was pretty solid. The only low points were Hammond (both characters) and Chevy Chase.
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10-08-2007 @ 8:58AM
doug said...
didnt anyone notice how in the opening credits they said a cartoon by Robert Smigel, but it never aired. I rewatched to see if aired and it didnt. What happened there? Just a normal cut for time or MAYBE something a little too imflammatory
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10-08-2007 @ 11:09AM
MJBUtah said...
It was okay, but the Rolf thing was awesome. We decided that it was creepy how much Maya actually looked like Janice the muppet. The Chevy Chase thing dragged because he seemed uncomfortable, definitely out of practice.
I wish they would bring back my favorite sketch from recent seasons, the "two A-holes at a .....". I keep hoping for Two a-holes at the airport.
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10-08-2007 @ 1:10PM
Allison said...
I thought that the ideas for the sketches were great but all had the same problem.....ran way too long. The douchebag sketch, the colonial sketch, weekend update, and even my favorite of the night, the Muppet sketch all ran too long. That is probably why the cartoon didn't make it on.
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10-08-2007 @ 1:15PM
kevjohn said...
I liked the K-Fed skit, probably more than most. The real life K-Fed and Brittany saga bores/annoys the hell out of me, but I seem to enjoy the parodies of them.
And I liked the Douchebag sketch, primarily because I've been preoccupied with pointing out douchebags and douchebaggish behavior lately. That's just a product of me living in a college town where so many of them reside. Most of the local versions are of the Fred Durst-type Douchebag variety though. So it was nice to get a bit of variety from this sketch.
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10-08-2007 @ 1:22PM
Laura said...
it was worse than last week - the only highlights were the macgrubers (because they were short), the kids and the muppet skit.
it was disappointing.
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10-08-2007 @ 2:01PM
Jim said...
kevjohn: Nice post, Brocephus!
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10-08-2007 @ 8:29PM
Dave said...
Did anyone else notice that Don pardo did the opening credits but it was Hammond as pardo doing all the other intros (Really w/Seth & Amy and Rowlf & the Sweedish Chef)
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10-08-2007 @ 8:31PM
Justin said...
This is the first time I decided to watch (well, DVR) SNL in a long time and that was all because of Rogen and Spoon. When I saw how small and young (well, not including Hammond) the cast was, I figured perhaps they'd get their shit together. Other than the Rolff and Swedish Chef skit, the show falls for the same formulaic stuff when I know Hader, Samburg, Armisen, and Rudolph are funny, clever, and inventive. This show could be hip again with this cast but I think SNL has decided they'll just cater to the lowest common denominator from now on.
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10-09-2007 @ 1:05AM
Vanessa said...
The cartoon was hilarious, it broke my heart when I realized that they had cut it.
Chevy Chase = Heavy Waste. I hate him and that blew senselessly. NO ONE was laughing during dress rehearsal. And at the ending credits, no one approached him to shake his hand so he walked off the stage asap. When I saw the gray update set, I was hoping Norm was there.
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