Posts with tag KristenWiig
Posted Oct 10th 2008 8:28AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Well, that was a little strange... and maybe a little unnecessary. All right, it was definitely unnecessary. I wasn't quite sure how they were going to work out these Thursday election specials, because even though they called it "Weekend Update Thursday", I didn't believe they were just going to show a twenty-some minute long "Weekend Update" segment. As it turned out, the special consisted of one cold open and the rest was "Weekend Update." This is where I got super-confused. Half of these jokes had absolutely nothing to do with the election, leaving me to wonder if there is anyone out there that could not have waited until Saturday night to hear the relevant jokes. I don't think anyone's going to forget the election or the economic crisis any time soon, let alone by Saturday.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (October 9, 2008) - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 5th 2008 2:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E04) This season so far has been more than a little iffy, but Anne Hathaway managed to make things slightly less painful. Even though the writing still wasn't quite spot-on, Hathaway's enthusiasm brought a light to the show that made even the most irritating sketches a bit more bearable. Honestly, I had my doubts about her hosting abilities, mainly because her good girl giddiness clashes heavily with my black-hearted bitchiness, but I didn't mind her. I'm sure she could even easily make the jump from "pretty good" to "absolutely spectacular," given the right material. Also, she managed to read the cue cards without looking like a complete idiot, which most other hosts have somehow turned into a massive ordeal lately. Mmm, literacy plus natural reading: a combination so deliciously rare, the writers don't even know what to do with it.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Anne Hathaway/The Killers - VIDEOS
Posted Sep 17th 2008 8:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Casting, Reality-Free
I guess it was just a matter of time. Amy Poehler's star has been on the rise for a year or so now, ever since Tina Fey left
Saturday Night Live for greener pastures, Poehler has been the female go-to gal on the show. So
after the November elections, Amy Poehler will be leaving SNL forever. Sure, she'll still be on NBC, as they're developing a new show around her, that isn't that proposed
The Office spinoff. The problem is that this leaves
SNL with a serious estrogen problem.
Kristen Wiig is funny, but seems a bit limited, and we haven't really seen much from Casey Wilson yet. I can't imagine she expected to go from a featured player to an important female comedian so quickly. What she needs to do, though, is really up her presence on the show. We've seen a bit of what Bobby Moynihan can do as far as wacky characters, so now it's Casey's turn. Hopefully, they'll bring in another woman to diversify the cast a bit more. I vote for Lindsay Lohan. Then the show will be guaranteed a trainwreck every week!
Posted Sep 14th 2008 11:46AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E01) Well, well,
Saturday Night Live is back for another season and we couldn't be more excited. Actually, we probably could be more excited, but we're still tuning in and that's what matters.
Personally, I believe they took a risk in inviting an athlete to open the season with a bang, as I often find their performances super-awkward and damn near unwatchable, but there are folks that go totally nuts when sports people host. Plus, Michael Phelps was definitely the sweetheart of the summer and it was a smart move to grab him before he retired to his giant fish tank in Baltimore. His performance was still pretty awkward, but at least they didn't give him a lot of crazy characters to struggle through.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Michael Phelps/Lil Wayne (season premiere) - VIDEOS
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 12:59PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, WGA Strike, Reality-Free
It looks like some of the writers who participated in the
WGA Strike have decided to start their own network. No, it's not a television network.
Strike.tv is slated to begin this summer. It will contain more than 40 short-form programs including comedies, dramas and a game show.
Participating television (and movie) writers include Lester Lewis (
The Office), Rob Kutner (
The Daily Show), Stephen E. de Souza (
Die Hard), Karen Harris (
General Hospital) and Ron Corcillo (
Malcolm in the Middle). Acting talent involved with the programming include Bob Newhart,
Timothy Dalton and Kristen Wiig.
Continue reading Another result of the writers' strike
Posted May 18th 2008 1:05PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S33E12) To ensure a strong season finale,
Saturday Night Live made a very smart choice to go with Steve Carell. He is an incredible comedic performer and his first hosting stint went pretty well, so I wasn't surprised to see him pull it off again this time around. Actually, this picture is from the first time Carell hosted
. Is it weird that I've had it sitting on my desktop since then? Yes, probably. Anyway, the material was better than some of the other episodes', with a few spectacular highlights, including the hilarious digital short.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Steve Carell/Usher (season finale) - VIDEOS
Posted May 11th 2008 11:58AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S33E11) I honestly was not worried about Shia LaBeouf delivering a less than stellar performance, as his
first stint on Saturday Night Live showed that he works well with the cast and is naturally very goofy. With a funny guy like this, one can only pray that the writers use him as much as possible and work super-hard to give him embarrassingly crazy sketches. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Again. The writing was okay, but it did not do LaBeouf justice. Also, there seemed to be a strange flow to the episode, as the energy of sketches would start dying halfway through and eventually end on a really weird line. Let's hope the writers aren't already losing steam. They still have a season finale!
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 13th 2008 12:26PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, The Daily Show, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S33E10) Considering the fact that Ashton Kutcher has hosted the show two times previous to this, I expected a lot more sketches that would let him cut loose and go crazy. We already know that he can be a decent host, and I felt like they didn't use him to his full potential. I also fully understand that I'm simultaneously talking about the importance of range and Ashton Kutcher of
That 70s Show and
Punk'd.
That said, this episode was mediocre, but at least it was consistently chuckle-worthy. There were only one or two sketches that were a bit painful to get through.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley - VIDEOS
Posted Mar 3rd 2008 8:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities
Jenna Fischer: This is one of those "I've arrived!" moments. Seriously. There's, like, little milestones... Like, being on David Letterman for the first time and then, like, being in
Vanity Fair.
Chelsea Handler: ... I knew I arrived when I got my period.
Everyone: [groans and laughter]
Yeah, I know how most of our male readers are. They like their ladies funny, smart, and painfully out of their league. Well, start lurking around the magazine stands, boys, because the upcoming
Vanity Fair has a new Annie Leibovitz photo spread featuring
some of the funniest ladies on the scene. The impressive list boasts Sandra Bernhard, Susie Essman, Tina Fey, Jenna Fischer, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Mann, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and Kristen Wiig, each of them doing very typical "Hollywood bad girl" things. I especially love Maya Rudolph's hair and how Silverman manages to do Amy Winehouse better than Amy Winehouse.
Continue reading Fine ladies of comedy in Vanity Fair
Posted Nov 4th 2007 12:21PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews
(S33E04) From Brian Williams' guest spots and cameos on
The Daily Show, I already knew he was a surprisingly funny guy. He has an incredibly dry delivery and that level of newsman integrity paired with any remotely dirty joke is absolutely hilarious. That said, I still was not sure how he would deal with a live show. After all, even the funniest of comedians or most polished of actors can fall flat on their face when pressured with the threat of no edits, no do-overs.
I am very happy to report that Mr. Brian Williams did a spectacular job. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up joining the ranks of hosting gods Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin some day. His performance was crisp and professional, and I'm sure people that only know him from his news program were caught completely off guard. Too bad the writing this week was below average.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Brian Williams/Feist
Posted May 20th 2007 12:25PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews
(S32E20) I'm not a crazed Zach Braff fan, but I'm familiar enough with his work on
Scrubs and
Garden State. As the weird fantasy sequences in
Scrubs have shown, Braff and the bizarre totally work. So, I was disappointed that he didn't play any outrageous characters in this episode. He was always playing some version of himself. Even in the "Prom Committee" sketch, when he had the chance to portray some completely out-there character, he played the
Garden State kid with the Natalie Portman headphones. Oh, well. At least he didn't blatantly stare at the cue cards all night.
Also, there was so much Maya Rudolph love in this episode, it sort of felt like
she was hosting. I wonder if this is a sign that she's planning on leaving after this season? This then leads me to wonder if Darrell Hammond, who only appeared two or three times in this episode, is ever going to leave.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Zach Braff/Maroon 5 (season finale) - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 13th 2006 6:39PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Web, VH1
VH1 has created its own syndicated video player, which it will use to distribute a new, original comedy series on its broadband channel, VSPOT. The new series is called
Home Purchasing Club-- a spoof on the Home Shopping Network and similar cable channels. VSPOT will release eight episodes of
HPC. The series was created by Sean Masterson, a former improv-er with Second City, and is being co-written by Jonathan Mangum, a writer for
Reno 911! The program is going to be presented in sketch comedy style, and includes SNL actor Kristen Wiig and Diedrich Bader, who played Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. The series launches
on VSPOT in two weeks on Monday, November 27th.
On a side note, VH1's new player doesn't work on Macs.
Six shows that I am watching pretty regularly this season
Five other TV shows where Sarah Palin should appear
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