Posts with tag kristen wiig
Posted Nov 23rd 2008 12:20PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E09) I had my doubts about Tim McGraw, since musicians hosting kind of freak me out and country music is inherently scary to me. Thankfully, the redneck humor was pretty limited, Tim McGraw only sang once, and his over-the-top enthusiasm was marvelous. A lot of the sketches felt underdeveloped, but McGraw jumped head first into every character and sketch, which made even the worst jokes a little more bearable. Check out some video highlights after the jump, plus a web exclusive sketch!
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Tim McGraw/Ludacris and T-Pain - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 16th 2008 1:20PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E08) This episode was warmed up like biscuits.
Dance biscuits. I swear to God, I will find a way to work that into a conversation some time in the near future. This was certainly the strongest episode of the season, as the writers didn't seem quite so afraid to have fun with the more pointless or tasteless jokes. Sometimes, they try to do something bizarre but stop just short of a satisfying pay-off, leaving a palpable awkwardness. In this episode, they really pulled through and, thanks to some special appearances (hello,
Justin Timberlake), gave Mr.
Paul Rudd a very memorable episode. Check out some highlights from the episode.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Paul Rudd/Beyonce - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 3rd 2008 4:55PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Video, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Annie recently posted her
top 10 Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live moments, and I happen to agree that Wiig seems to be one of the
SNL MVPs now. Remember just a short time ago when she was in the "featuring" category instead of one of the main players? She's earned it, that's for sure. Even when her impersonations aren't dead on (such as
this past weekend's Elisabeth Hasselbeck), you know who she's doing, and she really throws herself into the character. I think her Hasselbeck will get better, and her other impersonations have been just dead-on and brilliant (Judy Garland, Suze Orman, Gloria Swanson, Jamie Lee Curtis).
But I was thinking that there are three other people that would be naturals for Wiig to impersonate.
Continue reading Three people Kristen Wiig should impersonate on SNL - VIDEOS
Posted Nov 2nd 2008 12:00PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E07) Although I have fond memories of Mango and Ben Who-fleck working
Saturday Night Live together back in the day, I was pretty disappointed by this episode. I think someone told Ben Affleck that he's pretty all right on
SNL and it got to his head, because he was trying way, way too hard. It was almost to the point where it was unbearably awkward. If not for Senator John McCain's appearances, this episode would have been wholly unremarkable. I mean, apart from its super-weakness.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ben Affleck/David Cook - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 24th 2008 11:00AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Well, that concludes
Saturday Night Live's three week run of "Weekend Update Thursday." There were some good jokes here and there, including tonight's especially strong cold open, but looking back, we really could have done without these three episodes. Most of this material, election-related and otherwise, could have been bumped to the regular Saturday program without any problem. I'm sure we could come up with a list of sketches in the past few
SNLs that deserved to be replaced. Someone fix my time machine and let's get this job done. I don't want to hear any of that "There's no such thing as a flux capacitor" bullcrap.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (October 23, 2008) - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 19th 2008 12:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E05) First of all: It felt like Josh Brolin wasn't really hosting the show, but just kind of hanging out until Mark Wahlberg and Sarah Palin got their business done. He did a fair job with what he was given, though. Secondly: Fartface. Why? Why would they do that? I'm glad NBC.com didn't post that video, because it was so bafflingly bad that everyone that was in the room with me, watching the episode, was reeling from the effects. Please note that I am someone who still laughs at "duty," so a sketch revolving around the word "fartface" should have killed me. Instead, it just left me a little confused and wondering what stuff ends up on the
SNL writing room floor. Anyway, this was a big episode, so here are some video highlights:
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Josh Brolin/Adele - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 17th 2008 10:26AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
I liked it. I laughed. Sure. I also laughed last week, but I can't quite remember what was so funny. These specials are pretty forgettable, bleeding into my
Saturday Night Live memory and then dropping into the recesses of my mind. Again, I understand the need to jump on the debate coverage as soon as possible, but I honestly could have held on until Saturday. Or maybe they were worried that everyone would be sick of Joe the Plumber by then. Well... too late.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (October 16, 2008) - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 15th 2008 11:58AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Ever since her
Saturday Night Live debut in 2005, Kristen Wiig has been stealing scenes and startling viewers with her strange, high-energy characters and performances. Despite the fact that the last few seasons have been generally mediocre, she is one of the strongest players in the cast, alongside the likes of Bill Hader and... My favorites are just Wiig and Hader, actually. Never mind. My point is, it didn't take long for Wiig to win over the audience with performances like these.
Continue reading Top 10 Kristen Wiig moments on SNL - VIDEOS
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
Next Page >
Twilight Vs. Roswell: Are aliens more romantic than vampires? - VIDEO
Why do series finales have to be so final?
Spoilers Anonymous
