snl digital short-related stories
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 May 13th 2009 10:05AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Oh, Justin Timberlake. You know what your audience wants and you give it to them ... uncensored-style. Hot.
In the latest episode of
Saturday Night Live, Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg gave everyone and their mom a real treat in the form of the "Motherlover" Digital Short. The video was quickly uploaded onto NBC.com and promptly exploded all over the Internet in a mildly graphic and suggestive way. It was from the actual live airing, though, so audience laughter, bleeped words, and less-than-superb sound quality were inevitable.
Continue reading Justin Timberlake heard you wanted "Motherlover" uncensored
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 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
Posted Feb 11th 2009 11:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten

To celebrate the release of
The Lonely Island's debut album "
Incredibad," we've compiled this list of the top ten
Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts. For almost four years, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have brought us these videos, and they've managed to keep us laughing and humming their tunes weeks after they've aired. We hope this countdown makes you feel just as
SNL-y in your digital shorts as when you first saw the videos, and if not, that's okay too. We're glad you're here anyway.
Of course, the rule is that they must have been prefaced by the "An SNL Digital Short" card to qualify. We know how much you love "
Virgania Horsen's Hot Air Balloon Rides," but it's not happening. Sorry.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Top SNL Digital Shorts - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 25th 2008 8:30PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Video, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free

Christmas is the easiest holiday to make fun of because it can be so hokey and jolly. It's like the office jolly holly -- someone who's always smiling, always bringing gooey sweet goodies to the office for no reason, always cackling at everyone's jokes, no matter how bad they are or what
MadTV episode they were taken from.
But deep down, you know that anyone that happy has to be making up for something equivalently dark and sinister. They are hiding a dark secret, something they can't even admit to themselves. You just know that the rises in sick leave usage after she brings her secret recipe brownies aren't coincidences.
Christmas wears the same mask. All it takes is a little scratching to find something dark and funny behind its red and white veneer.
SNL has had some great success taking pot shots at Christmas, even during the down times, for this very reason. It's hard not to find something funny about Christmas, but it's hard to keep finding something funny about it long after the turkey has been picked clean and the eggnog has left a thin layer of plaque on the inside of your small intestine. Here are the best of the best.
Continue reading Seven of the greatest Saturday Night Live Christmas sketches ... that we could find on the web - VIDEOS
Posted May 14th 2006 3:17PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Music and Variety
(S31E19) This is one of those shows that no matter what I write in the following paragraphs, people are going to disagree with me. I really do think that as this season has progressed, it's gotten stronger. Early episodes in this season weren't as good and as readers have pointed out, I was far more critical of those earlier episodes. Well, there's a reason for that. I think they've steadily gotten better, save for the crappy sketch here and there and or the few horrible episodes we did get this season (Dane Cook was a huge disappointment). Last night's episode with Elaine... er, I mean Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say here. This was a solid episode with a few huge errors, the biggest in my opinion being a "Weekend Update" that ran in at just over 14 minutes. That's way too long.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Paul Simon
Posted Apr 16th 2006 7:03PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Music and Variety
(S31E16) Not too shabby. For her third SNL hosting gig, Lindsay Lohan wasn't all that bad. I did
find it odd that she's doing SNL again so soon though. Especially after that big hoopla about the Vanity Fair
article a few months ago. But her arms did look much plumper this time around. Besides, she has a new movie coming out and I would assume that she and Tina Fey
have a good relationship. So I guess it does makes sense that she would be doing SNL again so soon. See that?
I answer my own questions.
The Situation Room - It seems like we've officially reached
the point where every single cold open that SNL does is going to be a take-off of one of the many political
pundit shows from across the cable universe. I'm fine with that. I'm just saying that I can't remember the last time a
cold open that wasn't Hardball, or Anderson Cooper, or this. I suppose it makes sense though when the
government is giving out plenty of material to spin into a sketch. Might as well use it. This was funny. Wolf
(Chris Parnell) had numerous guests commenting about the recent news that White House Chief of Staff Andy Card had
resigned (well, I guess it's not that recent). It seems everyone they interviewed, who now worked for the
President, had come from a temp agency. I loved it when Kristen Wiig (she's the new Resident Iran Expert) asked to
have her time card initialed.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Lindsay Lohan and Pearl Jam