I've said before that Saturday Night Live is an important program to me, but I wanted to take a few moments to explain. While I have no direct memories of the early seasons of the show, I know that they were consumed in our household. I have memories of Chevy Chase falling down; I remember doing A Couple of Wild and Crazy Guys on the playground; I recall saying "Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi" at Lucas Bros. The Nerd's Todd DiLaMuca was my first regular impression and Bill Murray became my first comedy idol. Billy Crystal and Martin Short usurped Murray's significance and then came Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman; Mike Myers dominated my college and post-college years, and then came Will Ferrel.These are just the men who I have admired. The list of women is longer (Radner, Curtin, Dunn, Hooks, Sweeney, Oteri, Shannon, Gasteyer, Dratch, Fey, Poehler, Wiig). SNL defined my comedy perception, telling me what was funny. Topical humor with obtuse celebrity impressions rules the day. Parodies of long forgotten television formats are okay. And you can go to the same comedy well as many time as you want.
Any way on with the show....
Cold Open: First Presidential Debate
Chris Parnell is in to play Jim Lehrer, which you would think Taran Killam could have done, but Pharoah is playing Obama as a forgetful but still as the hero. Pretty much this is an apology piece saying that Obama was too distracted by forgetting his anniversary, and just being tired. Even Lehrer gets distracted. Romney (played ably by Jason Sudeikis) is pretty much relegated to a creepy stare at Obama and an endless diatribe while the other two are busy with their interior monologues. There is some funny stuff here, but the fact that Romney is still the butt of the joke is disappointing. This event was ripe for parody and instead we get a half-baked apology piece for the sitting president. What Romney was saying was either lies or too boring to even get the other two principals involved.Daniel Craig: Monologue
Craig is out with a quick joke trashing the other Bonds, and then a taped In Memoriam sequence for all they guys he has killed in his movies. It's an okay bit but perhaps too soon after the Kimmel bit on the Emmy's. If the In Memoriam clip package is so passe now and ripe for parody, why do we still have them? Is it okay to laugh openly about the sentiment we have for those who have passed? Are we that cynical? This is a legitimate question not me being a smart ass.The Hecklers
Daniel Craig plays a construction worker on his first day on the job. However he cannot make with the casual guy slang. As the rest of the crew sexually heckles the women walking past, he is incapable of making even the simplest of vulgar cat calls. While definitely offensive, it was definitely funny. Craig sells every beat and plays the awkwardness beautifully. I was sort of hoping for a better final hook to justify the blatant misogyny on display but we can't have everything. Lots and lots of solid laughs.Lesser Known Bond Girls
Diane Keaton. Jodie Foster. Lea Michelle. Molly Ringwald. Ellen DeGeneres. Penny Marshall. To say any more would kill the joke entirely, but it was another succesful taped bit with the women getting to try on many of their celebrity impressions. Great stuff.MSNBC: The Worst Thing That Ever Happened Anywhere
This is a great bit and would have made for a better cold open than the one we were given. If you happened to watch the post-debate MSNBC coverage it was almost exactly like this. I thought at the time someone needed to put Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz on suicide watches. Cecily Strong is playing Maddow with a prickly gotcha sense that is pretty perfect. She's not Matthew Perry, but still. Keenan Thompson is in as Al Sharpton, and that man can play anything; he's great in everything he is doing this season. Sudeikis is doing Chris Matthews as a hardened, apoplectic pit bull.; is it sad that I was hoping for Darrel Hammond. If anything the sketch could have gone a lot harder after these guys.Long Island Medium Commercial
Kate McKinnon, who is quickly becoming the star of this season, is playing the newest TLC sensation. This is creepier than the actual show. It's spot on. Another great skit.Kirby in Space
Bobby Moynihan is playing a simpering astronaut who misses his kitty cat on a trip to Mars. This is essentially The Hecklers sketch structure (outsider who can't fit in with a last minute,endearing twist), but it's not nearly as funny. That's disappointing as Moynihan is usually terrific. He's fine here, just saddled with unfunny and repetitive material.Muse: Madness
Muse is a terrific synth rock band. Their newest album, The 2nd Law, is not bad. We listened to it on the way to vacation today, and while it isn't nearly as strong as The Resistance, it's still worth your time. They pretty much take Queen's mantle and parade it around the EP.Weekend Update
The Presidential Debate gave us 6 jokes before the sustained Winners and Losers bit. And they were all fairly pointed and even handed. The Winners and Losers bit was great as well, especially the thought of a shirtless Biden going Tebow. Later Big Bird--actually Big Bird--came to respond to Romney. The bit was essentially a series of bird puns and a good 2nd Grader political joke. Ummm....okay. The dairy cow booty call joke was pretty great. McKinnon was out as Cecilia Giminez the artist who "fixed" a Jesus painting. This is a pretty obscure news reference and is really just an excuse to let McKinnon riff in a fairly offensive accent. It's perfectly reflecting what she represents for the show right now: the future. How far will the show let her go and how long can she sustain the thinnest of bits. The answer to both is pretty far. Move her out of the featured players now.A Sorry Lot We Are
A Sorry Lot We Are is a fictional working class BBC drama where guys meet and lament the difficulties of their lives at the corner pub. They're out of work and eating food with cigarette butts in it. As much as this skit is connecting, the performances are very good as are the costume and hair designs. The costumes and hair looked like they were straight off the BBC. Bill Hader is killing it as the perpetually down mouthed loser. The skit ends with the guys going off to stand in a pedophile line up for the police. I get parody for parody's sake, but this had no point. It's not a style that enough people are familiar with to effectively be parodied. The first really disappointing sketch of the night.Dinner with Regine
Fred Armisen plays Regine, the date of Craig's recently divorced character, Carl. The other dinner party guests are excited that Carl is finally dating so they are turning a blind eye to the outwardly disgusting mannerisms and expressions that Armisen is doing. Armisen is all over the board, and as always showing no fear. This is the kind of skit Wiig would have done last year, but Armissen had to have written that for himself so she would never have had a chance. It's the briefest and sketchiest of character sketches and worth it just to watch Armisen's facial reactions.Muse: Panic Station
This is one of the better tracks on The 2nd Law, and a great kick ass number. Yes, it's a little Franz Ferdinand-y, but there's nothing wrong with that. All in all they had a great double set tonight, making them the musical highlight of the season thus far.Low Information Voters
This appeared to be a repeat of the great commercial bit from a few weeks back, and I checked out. But then there were some new lines thrown in I think. Since we're on vacation, I don't have my DVR and can't rewind, but I don't recall the Asian-American asking where his power cord was.Final Bows
This was the strongest the show has been this season. A lot was successfully mined from the Presidential Debate, most notably Weekend Update and the MSNBC sketch. There were some fearless performances from Armisen and Thompson. Craig was used fairly well throughout the entire night and really cam alive during the taped sequences and in the Hecklers and Regine sketches.But mostly tonight was about the positioning of Kate McKinnon. Last time she had a good star turn as Ann Romney, and tonight she had another Update feature, a starring role in a commercial parody, as well as featured parts in the Bond Girls filmed bit and the BBC parody. She seems incredibly capable of handling whatever amount of material Lorne Michaels and the staff throw at her, and she handles it very, very well. There wasn't one false moment in any of her bits and she gives great crazy eyes. I say it's time to move her out of Featured Player status and up to the Regular slot. Give her more to do pronto.
But it's been a great night. My thanks to Daniel Craig...Muse...Chris Parnell...Big Bird...and the cast and crew. You guys are the best. Good night, everybody!!
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