Season 37, Episode 11
Cold Open: Oh goody, a Rick Santorum sketch. Until this week, Santorum was primarily known that candidate with the “Google problem”, and that coupled with his trailing position made it easy to mock him. However, with his sudden rise to prominence thanks to the generally ADD nature of the GOP party, he's suddenly become a candidate worth talking about, apparently. This led to a lot of weird jokes about how Santorum is going to visit every county in America, something that I wasn't even aware he pledged. This jokes worked only fitfully, and then the sketch took a few other turns before ending with, you guessed it, a Google joke. Clearly, this was a sketcht without a proper hook, and it probably should have been scraped.
Monologue: What? This is Barkley's third time hosting the show??? Damn. Anyways, Barkley came out, made a few jokes about the NBA lockout, followed by a few jokes about him joining Weight Watchers, all the while tripping over all of his lines. Why did the show invite him back again?
Chantix: I feel like I've seen this one before, but in case I haven't – Making fun of side effects is a tired comedy trope, yes, but what I think made this one work was that it focused on one side effect, and then just built on that joke. It also helped that the side effect in question – homicidal thoughts – was ridiculous, which allowed for the insertion of a few other bizarre effects.
Inside the NBA: Okay, so Barkley isn't playing himself, but rather Shaq, which allowed Keenan Thompson to burst out his own Barkley impression, which frankly is just as predictable. However, even if this was a softball sketch for Barkley, there was a lot of good chemistry between the actors, and the conversational tone really helped to keep the sketch clipping along nicely.
White People Problems: White people, amirite? While that is a terrible, tired joke to base a sketch on, I will admit that there was a better idea about black people bonding over this shared experience that kind of worked. Or at least it would have if this idea was developed further, and it “I'm going on break” wasn't the only punchline, because some of the interactions between Barkely's host and those that he interviewed actually kind of worked. But other than that, there was just lazy racial humor all the way around.
ESPN Bowl Madness: Okay, we get, there's a lot of football Bowl games, and there presented by a lot of things. This is one of those sketches that mines humor from just going to a really weird place with these combinations, and while the sketch eventually went there – in the last three match-up, which had something other two football teams – it took too long to get there considering how short it was.
(Okay, I just got a commercial with Terry Bradshaw for NutriSystem. That's a bit awkward, right?)
Joann: So Barkley's dressed in drag, and the “joke” is that the character he's playing is a lesbian, and nobody saw it coming? Ugh. Just awful. What worse is that the sketch did even really do anythign with this “joke”, they just kept beating us over the head with how unfunny it was.
Charles Barkley Post Game Translator App: It's another role straight up Barkley's alley, as he finally get to play himself shilling a useless product. (Zing!) The problem here was that the issue that this sketch was mocking – that post-game interviews are full of double speak – was so specific, and such a small issue, that I think it's lack of universal applicability meant that the joke remained fairly one-note, and didn't really hit home for a whole lot of the audience.
(You know, if Kelly Clarkson shouted “Vote Ron Paul!” at the end of one of her performances, it would be the greatest SNL musical guest controversy since that time Sinead O'Connor ripped up that picture of the pope.)
Weekend Update: In addition to Seth Meyers doing his usual shtick....We got Wiig coming back as Michelle Bachman, which failed with the political humor, but was pretty funny with all those blinking jokes...Nicholas Fehn, just in case we didn't hate tonight's episode enough...Drunk Uncle, who didn't even get to that level of “randomly funny” that he achieved in his last appearance.
Lord Windermere: Frankly, given the way that the first Lord Windermere sketch worked out, it didn't seem like the kind to spawn a recurring character. In fact, I doubt the writers meant it that way, and as much as I enjoyed both the original and this incarnation, I'd argue they should stop here, because its clearly going to be an issue of diminishing returns. But tonight the sketch still worked, by playing up the relationship between Windermere and the father character, and by making it as something of a sequel to the first. (Though that being said, shouldn't Stephen had a slightly different reaction to Windermere when he first arrived, given that they've met before?)
17th Annual Adult Video Awards: An in memoriam joke? Really? As with most skethces of this sort, if worked best when it got to work in some of the more random, bizarre jokes (like the guy who did “scene cleanup”), but there weren't enough of them to make the whole thing work. As whole, it was a mix of tired porn gags.
Digital Short – Convoluted Jerry: I think there was a good kernel of a joke here, but I would have to see a sketch that pulled it off well, and this wasn't that. Perhaps if they had taken to a further extreme, and had frankly just been weirder with the convoluted phrases that it used. (It's perhaps telling how many of the sketches tonight could have been improved by an increase of the surreal.)
Mayan Calendar: Oh, good, a chance for a 2012 joke, which I'm sure this show has made many times before. But before we got to that, we had a whole lot of jokes from a eurocentric point of view, as well as some misunderstandings of the history of the evolution of calenders. Just painful all around, and not even worthy of the last sketch slot. (I did kind of like Keenan Thompson as the disgruntled rock carver, however.)
***********
Let's face it: This was just an awful episode of the show, through and through, even if there were a few bright spots. I don't want to lay the blame entirely at Barkley's feet, given how terrible some of the sketch premises were, but it does seem as if the writers of the show basically said, “Fuck it. Barkley doesn't have the comedic chops. Let's save the good stuff for a host that can actually deliver.” And while I can understand that line of thinking, it still made for some terrible sketches. Why couldn't they do what they've done with past hosts that can't act, and just sidelined them in the sketches?
Best Sketch – Lord Windermere
Worst Sketch – Joann
Quotes, Etc.:
My hand to God, the lead anchor of my local NBC's affiliate told us to stay tuned for Barley on SNL because “he's a riot”. Either this man was being diplomatic, or he knows nothing about comedy. I'm going to go with the latter.
“If the lesbians don't get me, the Mormon Death Squads probably will.”
“Some people say to me, 'Charles, isn't Weight Watchers for women?' To which I respond 'Shut up, Michael Jordan!'”
“For those of you at home, 'awkward' is a white people word that can be applied to any situation.”
“Said a Wal-Mart cashier, 'Everybody knows there's nothing higher than a 10 dollar bill.'”
“For it's 100th anniversary, the Girls Scouts released a new cookie named 'Savanna Smiles'. In return, the porn industry introduced a porn start named 'Oatmeal Raisin.'”
“STEPHEN, GET OFF YOUR DUMB BUTT AND GET THE LITTLE LORD SOME SWEETS!”
Monologue: What? This is Barkley's third time hosting the show??? Damn. Anyways, Barkley came out, made a few jokes about the NBA lockout, followed by a few jokes about him joining Weight Watchers, all the while tripping over all of his lines. Why did the show invite him back again?
Chantix: I feel like I've seen this one before, but in case I haven't – Making fun of side effects is a tired comedy trope, yes, but what I think made this one work was that it focused on one side effect, and then just built on that joke. It also helped that the side effect in question – homicidal thoughts – was ridiculous, which allowed for the insertion of a few other bizarre effects.
Inside the NBA: Okay, so Barkley isn't playing himself, but rather Shaq, which allowed Keenan Thompson to burst out his own Barkley impression, which frankly is just as predictable. However, even if this was a softball sketch for Barkley, there was a lot of good chemistry between the actors, and the conversational tone really helped to keep the sketch clipping along nicely.
White People Problems: White people, amirite? While that is a terrible, tired joke to base a sketch on, I will admit that there was a better idea about black people bonding over this shared experience that kind of worked. Or at least it would have if this idea was developed further, and it “I'm going on break” wasn't the only punchline, because some of the interactions between Barkely's host and those that he interviewed actually kind of worked. But other than that, there was just lazy racial humor all the way around.
ESPN Bowl Madness: Okay, we get, there's a lot of football Bowl games, and there presented by a lot of things. This is one of those sketches that mines humor from just going to a really weird place with these combinations, and while the sketch eventually went there – in the last three match-up, which had something other two football teams – it took too long to get there considering how short it was.
(Okay, I just got a commercial with Terry Bradshaw for NutriSystem. That's a bit awkward, right?)
Joann: So Barkley's dressed in drag, and the “joke” is that the character he's playing is a lesbian, and nobody saw it coming? Ugh. Just awful. What worse is that the sketch did even really do anythign with this “joke”, they just kept beating us over the head with how unfunny it was.
Charles Barkley Post Game Translator App: It's another role straight up Barkley's alley, as he finally get to play himself shilling a useless product. (Zing!) The problem here was that the issue that this sketch was mocking – that post-game interviews are full of double speak – was so specific, and such a small issue, that I think it's lack of universal applicability meant that the joke remained fairly one-note, and didn't really hit home for a whole lot of the audience.
(You know, if Kelly Clarkson shouted “Vote Ron Paul!” at the end of one of her performances, it would be the greatest SNL musical guest controversy since that time Sinead O'Connor ripped up that picture of the pope.)
Weekend Update: In addition to Seth Meyers doing his usual shtick....We got Wiig coming back as Michelle Bachman, which failed with the political humor, but was pretty funny with all those blinking jokes...Nicholas Fehn, just in case we didn't hate tonight's episode enough...Drunk Uncle, who didn't even get to that level of “randomly funny” that he achieved in his last appearance.
Lord Windermere: Frankly, given the way that the first Lord Windermere sketch worked out, it didn't seem like the kind to spawn a recurring character. In fact, I doubt the writers meant it that way, and as much as I enjoyed both the original and this incarnation, I'd argue they should stop here, because its clearly going to be an issue of diminishing returns. But tonight the sketch still worked, by playing up the relationship between Windermere and the father character, and by making it as something of a sequel to the first. (Though that being said, shouldn't Stephen had a slightly different reaction to Windermere when he first arrived, given that they've met before?)
17th Annual Adult Video Awards: An in memoriam joke? Really? As with most skethces of this sort, if worked best when it got to work in some of the more random, bizarre jokes (like the guy who did “scene cleanup”), but there weren't enough of them to make the whole thing work. As whole, it was a mix of tired porn gags.
Digital Short – Convoluted Jerry: I think there was a good kernel of a joke here, but I would have to see a sketch that pulled it off well, and this wasn't that. Perhaps if they had taken to a further extreme, and had frankly just been weirder with the convoluted phrases that it used. (It's perhaps telling how many of the sketches tonight could have been improved by an increase of the surreal.)
Mayan Calendar: Oh, good, a chance for a 2012 joke, which I'm sure this show has made many times before. But before we got to that, we had a whole lot of jokes from a eurocentric point of view, as well as some misunderstandings of the history of the evolution of calenders. Just painful all around, and not even worthy of the last sketch slot. (I did kind of like Keenan Thompson as the disgruntled rock carver, however.)
***********
Let's face it: This was just an awful episode of the show, through and through, even if there were a few bright spots. I don't want to lay the blame entirely at Barkley's feet, given how terrible some of the sketch premises were, but it does seem as if the writers of the show basically said, “Fuck it. Barkley doesn't have the comedic chops. Let's save the good stuff for a host that can actually deliver.” And while I can understand that line of thinking, it still made for some terrible sketches. Why couldn't they do what they've done with past hosts that can't act, and just sidelined them in the sketches?
Best Sketch – Lord Windermere
Worst Sketch – Joann
Next Week: Daniel Radcliffe will undoubtedly inspire at least one Harry Potter joke, and Lana Del Ray will give us at least one “Who is Lana Del Ray?” joke.
Quotes, Etc.:
My hand to God, the lead anchor of my local NBC's affiliate told us to stay tuned for Barley on SNL because “he's a riot”. Either this man was being diplomatic, or he knows nothing about comedy. I'm going to go with the latter.
“If the lesbians don't get me, the Mormon Death Squads probably will.”
“Some people say to me, 'Charles, isn't Weight Watchers for women?' To which I respond 'Shut up, Michael Jordan!'”
“For those of you at home, 'awkward' is a white people word that can be applied to any situation.”
“Said a Wal-Mart cashier, 'Everybody knows there's nothing higher than a 10 dollar bill.'”
“For it's 100th anniversary, the Girls Scouts released a new cookie named 'Savanna Smiles'. In return, the porn industry introduced a porn start named 'Oatmeal Raisin.'”
“STEPHEN, GET OFF YOUR DUMB BUTT AND GET THE LITTLE LORD SOME SWEETS!”
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