Bill Hader-related stories
Posted Nov 22nd 2009 12:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews
(S35E07) I imagine it played out like this: Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at home last week, trying to mentally prepare for his first go as
Saturday Night Live host by watching
January Jones. Her performance turned out to be wooden and incredibly low energy and, consequently, the laughs were minimal. This struck fear into Mr. Gordon-Levitt's heart, and, terrified, he dropped the pint of Phish Food that he was eating in my imagination. "I won't let this happen to me," I bet he said. "I'm going to eat two fistfuls of Pixi Stix at 11:25 p.m. Saturday night and have someone inject me with a near lethal dose of adrenaline. I'll also wear a lot of vests."
And that's how Joseph Gordon-Levitt managed to exhaust a seated audience through sheer enthusiasm and volume alone. Maybe.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Dave Matthews Band
Posted Nov 8th 2009 9:40AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Celebrities, Episode Reviews
(S35E05) I had to talk myself through being allowed to criticize Taylor Swift. Ever since Kanye West VMA outburst turned everyone in America into Swift's over-protective mom, she's been shown even more as an innocent country-inspired sweetheart. Every time she messed up in this episode, I felt the need to hold back any not-super-great remarks because, well, she's a teeny-bopper! Teeny-boppers are just kids goofin' around!
And then I have to pause and remind myself that she's almost 20-years-old, around the same age as Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Page when they first hosted and Abby Elliiott when she initially joined the featured players. Screw it, there's no need to hold back. Swift is a musician, so we can't expect her acting skills to be super-good, but the fact I keep thinking she's only 14 shouldn't affect anything else.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Taylor Swift
Posted Oct 18th 2009 2:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E04) I remember sitting down and staring at Gerard Butler as he made funny, smarmy faces at the camera. And then I blinked, only to see Butler was thanking the cast and viewers for a wonderful show. I looked on the computer screen. There were half-remembered notes haphazardly tapped out at some point.
Somehow, I had jumped forward ninety minutes. Had I finally mastered short-term time travel? Or did I just watch an incredibly forgettable episode of
Saturday Night Live? Probably the latter. However, I vaguely recall a destructive robot adorably struggling through a wall. If that was actually a dream and not real life, please don't tell me.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Gerard Butler/Shakira
Posted Oct 11th 2009 10:29AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E03) Drew Barrymore is energy. Pure, almost-scary energy. It's disorienting to watch when one is bleary-eyed and staring at a tiny TV in the wee hours of the morning, but this trademark makes for consistent television-viewing. While the quality of
Saturday Night Live's writing may waver from episode to episode, every time Drew Barrymore returns, one can safely expect absolute enthusiasm and a palpable willingness to step back and laugh at herself.
All right, little Ms. "I Extra-Love Female Empowerment," prepare for me to work that ego.... Especially when one compares her to the typical "hot girl" host (see: Megan Fox's
SNL premiere), Barrymore doesn't box herself in and offers a lot more opportunity for fun characters. Would someone like Fox ever be willing to bolo it up to play Nina Wilkes Booth? I doubt it.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Drew Barrymore/Regina Spektor
Posted Oct 4th 2009 2:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
(S35E02) After that Jenny Slate f-bomb nonsense and Megan Fox's not terribly original hot girl material from the
season premiere, it was exciting to see a really solid episode (and a star-studded one, at that). Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job as host (snaps for his wavering voice during the porcelain fountains sketch and accent in
SYTYCD), though he didn't have any major stand-out roles. Did I miss the memo that Lady Gaga wasn't just musical guest but co-host as well? Such a role is normally left up to Ryan Reynolds' giant biceps.
It's been a while since we've seen such consistently enjoyable writing in an episode. Usually, there's a distinct lull during the course of the 90 minutes, but I didn't feel it this time. Hopefully, this is a good indication of the rest of the season.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga
Posted Sep 27th 2009 3:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
Yes,
Saturday Night Live new girl Jenny Slate's f-bomb was the most thrilling part of the show's otherwise bland 35th season premiere. It's not like we've never heard that word before, and it's not like accidental verbal naughtiness has never happened on
SNL (I still distinctly remember my extra-young self watching Cheri Oteri cringing as she contributed to the swear jar), but the pain still felt fresh with hot embarrassment.
This was partially due to the fact that it's just a generally bad thing to have happen on a player's first show (and in such a mediocre sketch, at that) but mostly because of this face that she made after she caught her boo-boo.
Twitter exploded with people's camera phone pics of this one moment.
Jenny Slate, welcome to the big time.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Megan Fox/U2 (season premiere)
Posted Aug 26th 2009 5:04PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Adult Swim, Reality-Free
Season four of
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! has been over for months, and "Season Cinco," as season five has been dubbed on
the pair's Web site, has not yet started. But fans can bide their time with the
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! S3ASON THR33, which was out earlier this month.
In season three, Tim and Eric took a step up. The shows got funnier and tighter, without losing any of the scattershot, what-the-hell-am-I-looking-at feel. They upped the ante on creepy and uncomfortable with the "Child Showcase" sketch, featuring Patton Oswalt and Rainn Wilson as children singing inappropriate songs while an approving host looks on. It's an immediately unsettling image (though nothing really tops Chippy for that so far), a seamless special effect that puts Oswalt's and Wilson's heads on a kid's body.
Continue reading Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! S3ASON THR33 on DVD
Posted May 17th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E23) Wow. Way to go, Will Ferrell. Maybe they should just bring back
Saturday Night Live alumni for season finales from now on, because this episode was spectacular. Ferrell brought back some old favorites and a slew of famous faces, from the familiar to the inexplicable, including Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway and Artie Lange. Here are some video highlights from the evening (Hulu vids are US only. Sorry, kids... you can also watch these videos
at NBC's website).
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Will Ferell/Green Day (season finale)
Posted May 15th 2009 5:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Reality-Free
On Sunday night/Monday morning, [adult swim] premiered something called
Snake 'N' Bacon. What is
Snake 'N' Bacon? Well, I'm not entirely sure, actually. But I liked it. I think. Yes. Actually, I really liked it.
Like most [as] shows,
Snake 'N' Bacon is a fifteen minute program with its own distinct aesthetic, presenting an interesting mix of animated sequences with live-action bits. I never thought there would be a way to translate creator
Michael Kupperman's stuff on the small screen, but there we go. Weird, extra-funny, weird.
Continue reading Have you experienced Snake 'N' Bacon?
Posted May 11th 2009 7:07PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Video, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Sure, that awful
Twilight move is probably gonna sweep the next MTV Movie Awards, but the show will be
loaded with Hollywood stars and comedians. People like Denzel Washington, Cameron Diaz, Jonah Hill and Ryan Reynolds are slated to present awards on the show, which airs May 31. Andy Samberg will host.
I don't really care about who wins or about MTV's silly categories ("Best WTF Moment?" WTF?), but the Movie Awards are known for delivering pretty funny comedy shorts featuring some pretty funny people.
This year will be no different, and now you can
watch some of the shorts online at MTV.com. That means you don't have to sit through twenty "thank you" speeches by the likes of Robert Pattinson to watch some funny skits featuring a few great comedians and famous faces.
Continue reading Watch the MTV Movie Awards skits online
Posted May 10th 2009 3:32PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E22) Justin Timberlake returned for his third turn as host and it was tough not to keep expectations pretty high. I mean, if an vengeful warlock were to suddenly put a crippling curse on his music career (like they do), Timberlake could definitely fall back on being a professional
SNL host. Yes, this would become a real profession, just for him.
As usual, some sketches fell a bit flat, but Timberlake's over-confident, hammy swagger made things a little more interesting. This particular episode also gave us another legendary musical Digital Short with Timberlake and Andy Samberg and a couple of all-around MILFs. It's tough to top a surprise appearance by Leonard effin' Nimoy, but "Motherlover" was certainly the highlight of the evening. Here are some other notable video moments!
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Justin Timberlake/Ciara
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 11:04AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Bill Hader and Seth Meyers (the latter of whom is the head writer for
Saturday Night Live) will be writing
Spider-Man ...
the comic book, not the next movie. Their single-issue story is called "The Short Halloween" (which I presume is a parody of a Batman comic story called "The Long Halloween") and will be in finer comic book shops on May 13.
This isn't the first time a comedy writer has written a comic book. I recall Gilbert Gotfried helping out with an issue of
Superboy and Patton Oswalt writing a one-shot
Justice League special, among others. While I don't think this will get the same level of publicity as
Barack Obama being on a Spider-Man cover, it's kind of cool to hear about. I wonder if Spider-Man will sing his own rendition of "Dick In A Box".
In short, comedians are huge nerds. But this is nothing you didn't know before.
[via ComicMix]Posted Apr 12th 2009 12:35PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E21) When it came to everything unrelated to jazz hands, my expectations for Zac Efron were pretty low. Then again, there was part of me that kept thinking back to Justin Timberlake's first time hosting; he was just another song-and-dance good guy but the enthusiasm and craziness he brought to his performances blew everyone away. Okay, so Efron didn't do as well as Timberlake, but as the evening progressed, Efron seemed to get a little more comfortable and delivered a not-too-cingeworthy performance. Consider that a massive victory.
Here are some video highlights from the evening.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Zac Efron/Yeah Yeah Yeahs - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 10th 2009 12:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
At one point or another during this latest season of
Saturday Night Live, every viewer has wondered, "Who is this new guy, and why does he wear so many giant cat costumes?"
While I can't answer the second part of this question (it will remain one of the great mysteries of the late night universe), I can offer a little more information on
SNL's resident new guy and rising star, Bobby Moynihan. Despite appearing as a featured player in only twenty episodes so far, Moynihan is fast becoming one of my favorite cast members on the show, right up there with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.
Fellow Moynihan fans, prepare to love him even more!
Continue reading Bobby Moynihan: In the Limelight - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 5th 2009 1:44PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E20) Seth Rogen returned to host for the second time to promote his new mall cop movie (yeah, I know). Unlike
last time, when there were one or two stand-out sketches, this episode didn't have any particularly memorable moments. However, there were Muppets, Mogwai and a thinner Seth Rogen involved, so maybe things weren't too horrible.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Seth Rogen/Phoenix - VIDEOS
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