SNL: Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Mumford & Sons

Saturday Night Live is coming of a fairly good episode last week and a fairly good special edition episode on Thursday.  Tonight, Joseph Gordon-Levitt who hosted a fantastic episode two years ago is back as host, and Mumford & Sons who have a new album out on Tuesday are the musical guests.

Cold Open:  Live with Kelly & Michael

Nasim Pedrad and Jay Pharoah play the new morning show co-hosts, while Bill Hader is in as Robert Pattison.  This was awful.  All three are fine impressions but the skit went nowhere fast.  There wasn't even a good KPat joke to be found.  I wonder at the decision to lead with this or even do it at all.  Does the target audience of SNL know the show that the sketch is parodying; do they care?

Monologue:  Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Last time, he sang "Make 'Em Laugh" complete with the Donald O'Connor choreography.  This time it's Magic Mike and "It's Raining Men".  Bobby Moynihan was in with a great double vest bit.  Gordon-Levitt attacking Pedrad was over the top and gross.  I don't have a good feeling about tonight's episode.

Low Information Voters of America Ad

This was a funny ad.  I loved the plaintive earnestness; that was great parody.  Plus Cecily Strong got another large speaking role, and there was an Asian-American, "Albert."  Is he the first in SNL history to have lines?

Tres Equis Ad

Gordon-Levitt is the ultimate Hispanic douche in an ad for Tres Equis, a beer created by the son of an interesting man who created Dos Equis.  It's a funny character bit that he plays well.  How odd is it that a commercial opens a sequence, instead of ending one?  Perhaps there will be more pre-filmed bits this week because of the Thursday show.

Caricature Detective

This was just silly, but an essentially fun silly.  Hader plays a detective that presents evidence to his clients in the form of a street artist's fare. Then it ends in Little Armenia.  Huh.

Tres Equis Ad Dos

More silly fun.  The taped bits are working best this week.  Loved the multiple twitter parody accounts. Jason Sudekis is in as his father, the owner of Dos Equis, and then the bit goes to a whole new level.  Bravo.

Tommy Bergamont, Master Hypnotist

Gordon-Levitt is out as the title hypnotist and Taran Killam is playing his victim, who isn't really hypnotized.  This is silly, but Killam is one of my favorites of the cast.  He's game for anything, including running around in his tightie whities acting like a dinosaur.  Is humping people in the audience a thing now?  God, I hope not.  There's two great payoffs here, both the expectedon and especially the unexpected one.  Great skit led by a great performance by Killam.

G.O.B. Tampons

Hysterical.  Search this out.  The tampon that only the G.O.P. could invent.

Mumford & Sons:  "I Will Wait"

This is a great song.  I liked several tracks off their first album Sigh No More, especially "Little Lion Man" and "The Cave."  But a lot of the album album left me cold.  I felt that they were aping Fleet Foxes too much.  I much prefer the sound of the British folk stomp, which "I Will Wait" delivers in spades.  Very much looking forward to the release of Babel this Tuesday.

Weekend Update

Seth Meyers isn't yelling as much, which is a good thing, but he started with three Romney jokes and then onto Paul Ryan at AARP.  Fortunately next was an extended bit on Obama, telling him to shut up, which actually was pretty good.  But there were still two extended Romney riffs within it.  The thought that Meyers and the SNL writing staff can't figure out a way to make fun of Obama is distressing.  President Assad's Two Best Friends are out next, with Vanessa Bayer and Fred Armissen resurrecting a bit from last season where they play two folks who are afraid to really tell the truth about whatever Middle Eastern dictator is in the news that week.  It's, in theory, a great bit but they may have gone to that well one too many times.  Seth Meyers always sells the ending; he should be in more skits.  Kate McKinnon is out as Ann Romney.  I like McKinnon a lot, and now I would like to go to Mormon Mardi Gras.  "I would kill that horse if I could meet Beyonce."  McKinnon, in a sudden realization that she needed to hit hard because she may not get the chance again anytime soon, threw everything that she had at the bit, and I can't believe it worked this well.  Brava.  Let's bring her back, and soon.  She reminded me of some of the classic SNL parodies of politicians that weren't so much impressions but great characterizations of a one or more personality traits.  Here it's her passion for her husband and her plain talking attitude, and it connects.  Pharoah is out now as Stephen A. Smith.  Almost every inside baseball joke here is lost on me, and the audience, too, it appears.

Hey Dude!

Mumford & Sons play a Beatles cover band while four men tell stories about themselves and sing along to "You Got to Hide Your Love Away."  This is one of my favorite recurring bits on the show.  The use of sentimental pop music (and beer) to bring out confessions in men is funny because it's true.  This time it seems a little too rote.  Only the first confession was personal in the least or at all self-revealing, which is the real trick with the bit, especially with this particular song.  I did like them leaving through the audience, maybe that was sign that this is the last time they will go to this well.  If this is what the future of this skit holds, then that would be best.

The Finer Things

Pharoah and Keenan Thompson play two rappers, Fort Knox and Suede, who are enjoying the finer things in life.  These rappers have never lived the thug life, and their raps title reflect that.  Gordon-Levitt is out as Jay Thriller a hip hop fashion reporter, or I should say a fashion reporter who is hip hop.  This is definitely a sketch that is growing on me.  The interplay between the three is great as is the thug-speak delivery of upper class material.  It's the inverse of when I squarely use the language of youths.  I like it.  I also like Moynihan doing a Street Report on Wine Charms.

Mumford & Sons:  Below My Feet

A ballad.  Great.  If I were in bed watching I'd be asleep before the chorus.  Wait, it's starting to build.  Is it wrong that Marcus Mumford reminds me of Arcade Fire's Win Butler?  This song reminds me of Arcade Fire, as well; all it's missing is a lot more instrumentation.  Not a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, but I was already sold on the album.

Evelyn's Set-Up

This defies description.  Two parents (Fred Armissen and Kate McKinnon) are desperate to set up their daughter Evelyn (Gordon-Levitt) with Tom (Tim Robinson) a guy who works in Receiving at Dad's office.  They are so into the promise of their daughter finding love that they have written a song extolling all of her virtues and more importantly her warts.  This is an odd skit, befitting the final full skit slot of the night.  Armissen hasn't had a lot tonight, but at least McKinnon is getting another feature.

Powers' Realty

The show ends again with another live commercial featuring Tim Robinson.  That's an interesting pattern for the show to have this season.  This time a husband and wife team take to the airwaves to get people to stop vandalizing their ads all over town.  Now, I wonder did the skit end when it was supposed to, or did Gordon-Levitt playing the vandal son of the married real estate agents jump the gun a bit early.

Final Bows

Well this was a bit of a let down.  All of the taped bits were very good.  Both Tres Equis segments, the G.O.B. Tampon ad and the Low Information Voters Ad were pointed, well produced and well-written.  The show didn't play Hide-The-Host this week as Gordon-Levitt was used in almost every sketch.  That should be a good thing as he's game for almost anything and capable of much.  He was very much a part of the two sketches that worked:  "Tommy Bergamont, Master Hypnotist" and "The Finer Things."  Plus McKinnon, who had a walk on as Ann Romney in the Romney Cash Cab bit on Thursday's show, got to flesh out her new persona a lot more here.  Beyonce and I want to see more of McKinnon's Ann Romney--right away.

But everything felt rushed and haphazard.  There was a let's-throw-everything-to-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks attitude at play here.  Far too much reliance on older bits and many of the new ones weren't thought out completely.  Do we need a poor parody of a morning talk show that no one watches?  Or a sketch about a private detective that does street art and ends in Little Armenia?  If we're going to do the guys sing-a-long sketch again, then shouldn't it be a little more pointed and not so silly?  Do we need to bring in the dictator's best friends again?  How about Stephen A. Smith?  It's as if the extra show on Thursday distracted everyone and then they realized, "Oh, shit.  What are we gonna do now?"  "Oh, I know!!  Let's write a song about setting a problematic daughter up."

But it's been a great night.  My thanks to Joseph Gordon-Levitt...Mumford & Sons...and the cast and crew.  You guys are the best.  Good night, everybody!!