SNL – 3/6/10 – Zach Galifiankis & Vampire Weekend
Mar/100
Cold Open
The show starts with some 5 minutes of toothless political satire that takes 3 minutes to get to an actual joke. The premise, as far as I could tell, is that health care reform is unpopular (according to this sketch) and this might cost Sen. Harry Reid his seat… and hilarity ensues?
Host Monologue
This was basically Zach Galifianakis’ routine. It was excellent. I would say the spectrum of comedians doing their routines on SNL would probably go: Zach Galifianakis > Milton Berle > George Carlin (Carlin was just off that night) > Martin Lawrence > Andrew Dice Clay (note: due to laziness there are a lot of hosts left off of this spectrum). Although seeing Galifianakis do his act with the SNL band backing him did highlight the similarities between some of his material and “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey”.
Kissing Family
This week the “Kissing Family” find themselves at a funeral and my first thought was, “I hope they’re burying this tired old sketch.” Galifianakis seemed a little stiff, but that could have just been in comparison with the rest of the cast who has done this sketch so often they’re able to perform it with just the part of their brain that covers breathing, heart rate, and other autonomic functions. Seriously, if the point of this sketch is how shocking it is to see them all making out with one another don’t they invalidate it by performing it on every episode. Also, it seems like they missed an obvious opportunity for the father to have climbed into the coffin while making out with the deceased relative.
The Bidet
Here’s a sketch that develops ever so slightly and at a snail’s pace. Galifianakis’ performance is the best part, despite the fact that he is clearly reading off the cue cards. The only noteworthy thing about this sketch is that they use the Hotel Coronado for their establishing shots. Or is that the Disneyworld hotel that’s meant to look like the Hotel Coronado?
Zach Drops by the Set
It is what it is. The last segment where they cut to young Zach in the audience accompanied by the classic SNL audience member made-up fact they would do before going to commercial was pleasant.
Kathie Lee and Hoda
There are a few good jokes here. I appreciate that they didn’t completely rely on Wiig mugging to the camera. The digital short callback was a welcome change of formula as well.
Weekend Update
The jokes were good. None of them stick out in my mind, but they were good. Seth looks lonely by himself. I think he’s much better when he’s playing off someone.
There were two character pieces. One with Kenan Thompson playing Mo’nique, which I’m not going to bother embedding here. I couldn’t even decipher what the joke was supposed to be. Maybe that Mo’nique talks too much? Is that something people say about Mo’nique? The other piece was Will Forte as himself singing a song puportedly about “Women’s Herstory”. Forte is consistently my favorite thing on SNL.
What Up With That
I refuse to embed this video as well. Just scroll down and watch the one in the last SNL post. It’s the exact same damn sketch! In fact i refuse to call it a sketch, it’s a rubber stamp. At the moment this rubber stamp started it had been about 20 minutes or so since we had seen the host of the show, by the time Zach Galifianakis shows up halfway through this, it had been an eternity and 20 minutes since we last saw him.
The Situation Room
It’s okay, but this has already been done better several times on “The Daily Show”.
Pageant Talk
This sketch isn’t available online, so I didn’t see it. This is just one more example in a rather annoying trend of NBC cutting the last sketch of the show from their online content. I find it especially annoying as these are generally my favorite sketches. The last sketch before the host says goodbye is (according to this interview with former SNL writer Adam McKay) known as the “10 to 1″ sketch. Appearing roughly 10 minutes to 1 o’clock, the 10 to 1 sketch is generally the weirdest most daring sketch of the show. Here is my favorite 10 to 1 sketch of this season so far.
SNL – 12/19/09 – James Franco & Muse – Under the Knife
Dec/090
Cold Open - “Lawrence Welk Show”
Same rehash of the sketch we’ve seen several times already. The only thing that changes in this sketch is the dresses the girls wear. Grade: C
Monologue
James Franco talks about how working on a soap opera is a step back for him career-wise. He explains that he picks his jobs by drawing slips from an “Idea Barrel”. It’s a slightly promising premise that isn’t really developed as far as it could have been. Franco’s delivery seems a little off, he is squinting (more than usual) and saying his lines in a raspy shout. Grade: C+
Sketch 1 - “What Up with That” feat. Mike Tyson and Jack McBrayer
Yet another sketch we’ve seen before. The only thing that changes here are the special guest stars. I liked this sketch the first time I saw it, but have felt cheated every other time they’ve dragged it out. Grade: D
Sketch 2 - “Kissing Family”
More of the same. It was as if they took an old script for this sketch and just altered a few lines. I’ve never liked this sketch. The only thing that works is the awkward same sex and group kissing, but the comedic potential in that was completely mined the first time they did this sketch with Paul Rudd a little over a year ago. Grade: F
Digital Short - “The Tizzle Wizzle Show”
Finally something fresh and laugh-out-loud funny. It’s sad that so often these last few months (arguably years) the best part of the show, a show that is supposed to be a paragon of live sketch comedy, is the pretaped digital short. The premise here: a children’s show that very quickly devolves into a bloody, all out, glow in the dark, group knife fight. Grade: A+
Sketch 3 - “The Manuel Ortiz Show”
Here’s the game Manuel Ortiz host a Latin American talk show, every time any one enters or exits the stage, everyone on stage is compelled to dance to a uptempo samba. The game goes absolutely nowhere though, besides just bringing more characters on and off. I thought a good direction to have taken this would have been if one of the characters had a heart condition and was begging people to neither enter or exit. Instead the sketch was just left to develop in the least imaginative way. Grade: C-
Weekend Update w/Seth Meyers
The jokes were particularly solid this week and Seth kept update moving at a pretty solid clip. The first character bit involved Bobby Moynihan playing a female cast member of the the reality show “Jersey Shore”. Although I’ve never seen the show, Moynihan’s performance was virtuosically broad enough that I still thoroughly enjoyed this bit. The second character bit involved Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig playing a holiday folk singing duo named Garth and Kat. Garth and Kat are woefully unprepared to perform on the show and so they try to get away with making up songs on the spot. What I really enjoyed here was that Armisen and Wiig seemed to actually be making up the songs as they were singing them in unison. This was a rare utilization of the cast’s sizable improv skills that I think SNL would really do well to use more of. Grade: A
Sketch 4 - “Fraternity Hazing”
Three frat guys are hazing a pledge. Through the course of their hazing we are made aware that they don’t know how to read, how to tie their shoes, or even grasp the basics of human reproduction. They use the hazing to educate themselves in these basic matters by demanding that the pledge do things like tie their shoes. It’s a decent sketch, which definitely benefited from some unique performances by James Franco and Andy Samberg. Honestly I’m just happy it’s an original sketch. Grade: B
Sketch 5 - “Vincent Price Christmas Special”
Same tired old retread, only worth watching for the performances. Recently I listened to an old episode of one of my favorite podcasts “The Sound of Young America” (http://www.maximumfun.org/sound-young-america/podcast-david-mitchell-mitchell-webb) , the host Jesse Thorn was interviewing the brilliant British comedian David Mitchell. Mitchell remarked that while making his own sketch comedy show “That Mitchell and Webb Look” with his comedy partner Robert Webb, they resisted repeating characters or premises unless they took them in a new direction. For instance their sketch “Numberwang” about an indecipherable game show involving numbers, moves on in its second iteration to the German version of the show, then to a word-based version called “Wordwang”, then to a documentary about the show, then an action thriller movie trailer for “The Numberwang Code”, and finally a commercial for the Numberwang home game. Each time they examined the same old premise from an original angle. Off the top of my head I can’t remember a single instance of SNL doing this. Grade: C-
Sketch 6 - “X-mas Tree Seller who Talks to the Trees”
Again, I’m just glad to see an original sketch. Hey SNL, if you’re looking for new ideas, I’d be happy to send off a sketch packet. This was a lackluster sketch that, yet again, wasn’t developed as much as it could have been. Franco plays a man who has conversations and complex relationships with the trees he sells. All I could think about while watching this was the vastly superior Christopher Walken SNL sketch “Indoor Gardening Tips from a Man Who’s Very Scared of Plants”. Grade: C
Sketch 7 - “Jerry, Carl, and Troy Buy X-mas Dildos”
Yet another sketch repeat, perhaps they didn’t have time to write the show this week because they put together an SNL Christmas Special that aired earlier in the week. This was my favorite of all the reheated leftovers tonight. It was different enough from the previous sketches featuring the brusk talking and infantile corporate executives, to maintain my interest. Still, maybe we could see something different than these characters sitting in an office. Put them on a cruise ship, ditch them in the Sahara, transport them to the Middle Ages, something anything different. Grade: B+
Sketch 8 - “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Christmas Animals”
Of course they’d in this show with a carbon copy of the Mark Wahlberg sketch. I have to admit the line, “Hey, Partridge you were in that song the 12 Days of Christmas. I was in ‘The Happening’”, made me laugh. still the only think new here was the Santa cap on Samberg’s head. Grade: D
Overall
Of the nine live sketches tonight only two were wholly original. Franco’s idiosyncratic performance added to most of the sketches but detracted from some as well. All in all a lazy, uninspired, modestly amusing outing with a handful of stand out moments. Overall Grade: C-
Robot Chicken Sketch
Sep/091
A few months back I wrote some sketches with Robot Chicken in mind. This is my favorite of the bunch. It’s meant as a runner, which means it would be broken into segments and shown throughout the episode instead of all at once.
OTHER TRON DOMAINS
INT. ENCOM COMPUTER ROOM
Flynn exits the data terminal after besting Sark and the MCP.
COMPUTER VOICE
You have escaped Tron's game grid
for now, user, but take heed, next
time you may not fare so well.
FLYNN
Phew! That was close.
Flynn spots a plate of prawns on a table.
FLYNN (CONT'D)
Oooh! Prawns!
He picks up a prawn and is digitized by a green beam from the
plate. He disappears into the plate.
INT. DOMAIN OF PRAWN
Flynn is surrounded by a prawn covered world. He is
approached by a prawn.
PRAWN
Welcome user to the aquatic domain
of prawn!
FLYNN
Seriously?
LATER.
INT. ENCOM COMPUTER ROOM
Flynn materializes next to the plate of prawns.
PRAWN (V.O.)
You have escaped Prawn's game grid
for now, user, but take heed, next
time you may not fare so well.
FLYNN
(grumbling to himself)
Sheesh! Stupid worlds inside of
things. Don't make no kind of sense...
Flynn spots a plate of flan.
FLYNN (CONT'D)
Oooh! Flan! Don't mind if I do.
He takes a bite of the flan and begins to be digitized.
FLYNN (CONT'D)
Oh, come on!
Flynn disappears into the flan. A voice is heard from the
flan.
FLAN (V.O.)
Bienvenidos user to the delicious
Mexican realm of Flan!
FLYNN (V.O.)
Damn it.
OUT.
Technically, I probably should have written a third and maybe even a fourth segment. Possible ideas: The spiritual domain of Kahlil Gibran, The leafy domain of Frond, The icy domain of Kwan (Michelle), etc.