SNL Thoughts – 12.05.2009

Shows, Top Story

Host: Blake Lively (1). The monologue was pretty lame. Do you know how hard it is for me not to be entertained by the second appearance of Samberg’s Swedish Chef? Really hard.

Musical Guest: Rihanna (1). I understand why the new album is a little on the darker side. But I’m really not impressed with what I’ve heard so far. It’s not “fun” and, I’m sorry, you can’t release a bunch of happy-go-lucky albums and then expect to suddenly be taken seriously as a deep artist.

Best Skit: Tiger and Elin Woods: Played by Blake Lively and Keenan. The sketch that is causing righteous indignation by “domestic violence advocates” in a slow news week. DID IT STEP OVER THE LINE? WAS IT IN POOR TASTE? Maybe, but it was funny.

Honorable Mention: Two commercials making fun of the UPS guy who folks, if they watch any football, know well. Also, Gossip Girl Staten Island: Because anything making fun of Guidos is high comedy. If you like the intrigue of Gossip Girl but hate the sophistication of Manhattan.

Lines of the Week: Underground Rock Festival: A pretty good take on local radio ads for terrible festival concerts. “Ya wanna get sick as hell? Helicopters gonna be sprayin your asses with viruses, yo!” And… “You want excitement, we’re giving everyone pitchforks! No, really, everyone will be given a pitchfork.”

Character of the Week: Keenan’s Tiger Woods and Lively’s Tiger and Elin Woods… and really, Sudekis’s Wolf Blitzer.

Worst Skit: Potato Chip: An awful long time for the sight gag of Sudekis spitting a chewed potato chip in to Forte’s hand. Miss on the ten-to sketch this week.

Should have been funnier: Ladies Bowling: ESPN commentators Greg Twinkle and Pete Stick return with Vagisil presents Ladies Bowling. This is the second appearance this season from Twinkle and Stick — previously commentators on Tampax presents Ladies Billiards. Ladies Billiards has been my favorite sketch of the season so I may have set the bar a bit high. To be fair, I did watch it a second time and I maintain it should have been funnier.

Digital Short: Shy Ronnie: Rihanna makes an appearance with Shy Ronnie supposedly to do a video for school kids. Is it bad I like this song better than anything I’ve heard off Rated R?

Weekend Update

  • Keenan as Bill Cosby: Discussing Cosby’s new hip-hop album to reach the kids. I love Keenan’s Cosby.
  • Abbey as Brittany Murphy: Slow news week, I guess? It’s a good thing they had Abbey do the “I’ll never tell” line from Don’t Say A Word or I might not have been able to place anything she was in since Clueless.
  • Best Line: “Police in Texas seized a shipment of Ecstasy pills shaped like President Obama’s face. The drug is charactized by a brief, poweful high followed by a long, slow comedown.”
  • Second Best Line: “Police in Florida responded to a man who called to report that he’d killed his wife. When the police arrived they found that he was single and had marijuana on his kitchen table……. really, really good marijuana.”

Final Notes: Not the best sketches but some killer lines that forced DVR pausing. Update was a little lackluster because of the Brittany Murphy thing that seemed to exist just to give Abbey something to do this week. Rihanna didn’t sound particularly good either. On the other hand, Blake Lively was a really good host. Solidly average episode.