(S35E06) There was a strange moment of nodding recognition at the end of the night, as I watched Jason Sudeikis and January Jones in the cloud-gazing sketch. Throughout, the man pauses to consider the woman's weird behavior and then concedes, "Ohh, you're a very pretty, pretty woman." Yup. That's pretty much how I reacted the entire night, especially during really bad sketches like the farting Grace Kelly (take a moment to think about that: Farting. Grace. Kelly.)
Jones was kind of a stiff host with not particularly daring material, but, goodness gracious, her real-life 50s Barbie prettiness was mesmerizing. Her performances in the mid-century instructional video and the aforementioned cloud-gazing sketch were the best of the evening, but that's not saying much since the rest of her appearances were strange and wooden. Even her good night felt like it had been programmed in and auto-tuned for maximum polite insincerity.
I knew we were in for trouble even as I watched the monologue. Was it live television nerves? Was she just not comfortable with so little rehearsal? And in case you guys aren't aware, Fred Armisen's "I like Peggy" during the monologue was extra-great because he recently married Elizabeth Moss. Didn't know? Well, now you do.
It's been over a year and Jason Sudeikis's Joe Biden impression still hasn't progressed much. I like the character that they've created for Biden, but the accuracy just isn't there. It's similar to Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton, who was funny but just sounded like an upper-class white lady archetype.
Also, his Jimmy Stewart actually started off kind of cute and then it turned into a bastardized Nic Cage. On that note, I spent a great deal of the episode trying to come up with reasons why this week's installment suddenly became so Sudeikis-heavy. Maybe January Jones is secretly a complete nightmare to work with and Sudeikis drew the short straw, forcing him to be in just about every sketch with her. I imagine most of SNL's backstage stuff works by drawing straws.
Also, they're letting Jenny Slate speak again, so we're finally going to get to see what she can really do. She didn't have much to work with this week as Hoda Kotb, but it will be interesting to see how she works with a character that Michaela Watkins previously perfected.
Weekend Update was okay this week, with my favorite line being Seth Meyer's half-chuckled "Come down to Rockefeller Center to watch a tree slowly die." Darrell Hammond once again stopped by to play Lou Dobbs, because I guess they still haven't found an impressionist half as strong as Hammond. Did you know that Hammond actually lives in Studio 8H on an old Coneheads living room set, specifically set aside for him?
The Digital Short this week was slow but had a fantastic punchline. I didn't laugh as much as I cringed out of my seat, but it was hilarious just the same.
Here are some clips from the evening:
Next time: Joeseph Gordon-Levitt and the Dave Matthews Band. I feel like this line-up could have existed in the late '90s. Anyway, I like JGL quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to this.
[Watch episodes and clips of Saturday Night Live and other shows over at SlashControl.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-15-2009 @ 1:06PM
Dave said...
January Jones on live TV was a big FAIL. Her best skit was the pre-recorded and her playing her 60's housewife character...surprise!
Whispering on camera which camera she should be looking towards?
Butchering her lines in nearly every skit? Seriously one of her beginning lines in the cloud sketch had both my fiancée and I wondering what the hell she just said.
Wasn't at all surprised that the Black Eyed peas were given a third song, even if it was planned ahead of time.
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11-15-2009 @ 1:13PM
Iris Pangburn said...
My sense was that January Jones was discovered during rehearsals to be so incapable of comedy, or even line-reading, that the SNL cast had to scramble to find ways to cover for her: she didn't have to do an opening monologue (Mad Many took over); she didn't have to leave the brittle 50s-wife world to do her period sketch; she sat in a chair & failed to react during the Jekyll/Hyde sketch; she weirdly failed to react when Kristen Wiig verbally raped her in an interview (how hard could it be to mime alarm & shock?); she could barely deliver a line without quaking, stuttering & mistiming. How disappointing to learn that she isn't acting wooden & stiff as Betty Draper - - she just can't act. Finally the cloud-gazing skit was a little mean, basically underlining that well, dear, you really are very pretty, but you are about as smart as a can of soup. I pitied the SNL cast & writers being saddled with this incapable actress.
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11-15-2009 @ 1:25PM
Lisa said...
Haven't watched it yet but not surprised... I love Mad Men madly but I think this season has highlighted JJ's lack of acting skills (don't boo.) i think her wooden style works for Betty's character but even at that some of her delivery this past season has seemed passionless, maybe by design but the coldness seemed to me to mask a lack of real emoting skill.
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11-15-2009 @ 1:41PM
Bob said...
Come on , Farting Grace Kelly was pretty funny. I mean, fart jokes are always funny. I don't care how highbrow you pretend to be, fart jokes are ALWAYS funny.
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11-16-2009 @ 10:50AM
Chas Winterbottom said...
I don't know. I think fart jokes stink. See what I mean?
11-15-2009 @ 1:57PM
miller980 said...
I'm so tired of hearing about how bad Sudeikis's Biden and Armisen's Obama are. Chevy Chase made no attempt whatsoever to sound, or even look, like Gerald Ford, and audiences found it hysterical. They certainly made an attempt to have him look like Biden; as soon as you saw the bad plug scalp cover you knew who it was.
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11-18-2009 @ 6:47PM
jaggerandrea said...
You may have a point, but Chevy Chase was a part of SNL over 30 years ago, and had a lot of other parts he played very well (especially his weekend update anchor man). Since then, SNL developed a history of having actors who specifically impersonated current presidents/presidential candiadtes extremely well (Dana Carvy doing Bush senior AND Ross Perot seamlessly, Phil Hartman first doing Clinton-- he had the accent down spot on, Will Ferrell later with his uncanny George W., etc.), so maybe the standards have now been set higher.
11-19-2009 @ 7:21PM
AngelaTC said...
The biggest part of Chase's Ford was slapstick. That's what made it funny.
11-15-2009 @ 1:49PM
MJL said...
"And in case you guys aren't aware, Fred Armisen's "I like Peggy" during the monologue was extra-great because he recently married Elizabeth Moss. Didn't know? Well, now you do."
It still astonishes me how little credit you (and the rest of the writers) give your readers. Don't you think most readers of a TV blog would know this? Seriously, stop patronizing us.
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11-15-2009 @ 2:01PM
Annie Wu said...
I thought about not putting that in there. And then I realized that if I didn't, someone was bound to put it in the comments. Plus, it's not like everyone watches Mad Men or knows who these people are. As a non-viewer at the time, I had no idea Moss and Armisen were together when she appeared during Hamm's episode.
Also, did you know that "patronize" also means "to do business with"?
... Kidding.
11-15-2009 @ 2:08PM
Brice said...
I had no idea that Fred Armisen had gotten married, that joke flew right by me. I personally found it helpful. I just started watching Mad Men, and I still don't know all of the actor/character correlations.
11-15-2009 @ 2:08PM
MJL said...
Well I do have to give you credit for responding to criticism; usually Joel acts as everyone's big brother around here. I agree it was worthy of mentioning, just maybe in a slightly less condescending way.
By the way, I thought that was the best line of the night - the rest of the episode was a train wreck.
11-15-2009 @ 2:48PM
jDub said...
The whole episode was hard to watch, but I did enjoy the Black Eyed Peas kicking Kathie Lee's ass. Very enjoyable. I don't watch Mad Men, barely knew who January Jones was, and see no reason to care more now. She was out of her depth.
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11-15-2009 @ 3:29PM
Eldritch said...
"MJL said...
Well I do have to give you credit for responding to criticism; usually Joel acts as everyone's big brother around here. I agree it was worthy of mentioning, just maybe in a slightly less condescending way."
Not all of us spend every waking moment tracking the personal lives of TV stars. Her comment didn't strike me as arrogant, condescending, or rude at all. Yours, on the other hand ....
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11-15-2009 @ 6:55PM
Edward said...
which sketch did she ask the camera which one to look into?
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11-15-2009 @ 9:30PM
Dave said...
It was the Today show sketch when they first switch to her as the zoo lady.
See http://www.mediaite.com/tv/january-jones-snl-which-camera/
11-15-2009 @ 7:10PM
S. Kay said...
I think the casts of both shows got drunk at Elizabeth and Fred's wedding and someone made the horrible mistake of asking January Jones to host a show.
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11-15-2009 @ 7:26PM
Mike said...
From the start, I was thinking o lgendary hosts who set the tone for the evening. And she did the opposite. Sort of a Mary Hartman retrospective.
Sometimes, Lorne just grabs the latest greatest and cashes in celebrity for viewers.
Yes, the tired old (bad) mimics show us we are in another SNL downcurve. when the creowd goes wild for the secon-tier performers of their day (last week on Update), it hows how bad it is.
There are hundreds of great impressionists ready to step in for only one night stand. I think that is the way SNL needs to go. Not cast members, just players of the week and if the tryout goes well, we'll have you back.
as for the Peqas, I really watched the first number for a couple of minutes thinbkinbg it was a lookalike group making fun of the songs. Another sad moment for me. At the start, we saw new and almost-discovered groups having a breakthrough. Now we get recycled comeback covers.
And annie, we asked you weeks ago to stop talking down to us. If we are reading the site, we know about celebrities and their marriages.
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11-15-2009 @ 7:43PM
Annie Wu said...
Well, at least one commenter in this post had no idea about the marriage and found the note helpful.
It was just a tiny Fun Fact. Not meant to be a source of frustration. Sorry if that's the way you feel about it.
11-15-2009 @ 7:59PM
Jimmy said...
With few exceptions, the episodes I have high expectations for (like last night’s) fall flat, and the ones I have no expectations for (Taylor Swift, Ryan Reynolds) end up being pretty good.
January was surprisingly bad, and the material was worse.
A couple of random thoughts:
* I like Jason Sudeikis, but I OD’d on him last night.
* Hasn’t Darryl Hammond left the cast? And didn’t his Lou Dobbs sound exactly like Ted Koppel?
* The Kim Kardashian impression was probably the best moment of the night.
* Please retire Jon Bovi.
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