SNL - "Will Ferrell/Usher"

Season 37, Episode 21

Will Ferrell is hosting tonight, which makes for his third time hosting the show, and the third time that a SNL alum has hosted this season. Those numbers don’t really mean anything, other than the fact that I don’t have much to say about Ferrell’s hosting ability going into tonight’s episode. He’s obviously familiar with the show, and as with most hosts, it generally means that the show will bring it’s A-game and/or some of Ferrell’s previously recurring characters. Let’s see which one(s) it is.

Cold Open: Well, that didn’t take long. Really, I would have been disappointed if the show didn’t deploy Ferrell’s George Bush impression at some point during show. But here’s the problem: W. doesn’t really fit into the political-comedy environment anymore. Sure, he still exists as a powerful voice of the Republican Party, but he doesn’t really do anything anymore. As such, his presence in this sketch felt distracting. What could have been a solid sketch about the Obama-Biden dynamic instead turned into a showcase for Ferrell. Sure, it was funny, but it didn’t really make any sense, and that was distracting.

Monologue: Awww, somebody brought their mommy. Okay, I kid, because that moment was actually kind of sweet, be that Ferrell’s actual mother or not. However, this was also a highly unoriginal sketch, as it banked on an upcoming holiday AND Ferrell acting like an obnoxious boob. Obviously “obnoxious boob” is what Ferrell is known for, and at times it’s a shtick that works, but deploying the go-to move this early in the show does not bode well for a variety throughout the night. (Also, that reminds me that I need to find an e-card to send to my own mom…)

One-A-Day Night Cold Medicine: Case in point, this commercial, where the joke is just Ferrell yell-sneezing at random intervals. It’s lazy and unfunny, and I can’t believe this is what the show chose to follow up the monologue.

LGBT Prom: Okay, admission. I never got any of The Culp sketches. Even in the show’s glory days, when all of the other sketches would work, I would never really enjoy these sketches. I think it has something to do with the fact that I’ve never been a fan of “laughing at white people” comedy. I usually find it stiff and stilted in a way that doesn’t make for good laughs, and this was no exception.

ESPN Classic - Ladies Long Drive Championship: This marks Cameo #2 of an SNL alum, as well as another reminder that Lorne Michaels needlessly cut Will Forte from the show. This wasn’t a particularly strong sketch – skipping back and forth between some random (and admittedly pretty funny) maxi pad quips and some not-all-that-funny jokes about an unprepared reporter (which was weirdly set during the OJ Simpson car chase) – made it a bit awkward to watch. But Forte killed all of his lines tonight, and reminded me that the anchor section is always the only good parts of these ESPN Classic sketches. (Oh, there was also something in here about ladies’ golf, but the less we say about that, the better.)

Digital Short – 100^th Short: As a sucker for callback comedy, this was right up my alley. Yes, the song was random and goofy in the sorts of ways that don’t usually benefit the Digital Shorts, but here the randomness worked. While it would have been easy for the show to just name check its most famous and viral shorts (which of course they did), but they also weren’t afraid to reach into the back catalog and include some more subtle references the lesser-known one. It was a bunch of mad-cap tomfoolery, and I enjoyed it.

Weekend Update: In addition to Seth Meyers doing his usual shtick, we got…Three jokes in a row about President Obama support for gay marriage, because apparently the writers couldn’t be bother coming up with a few other news stories to mock…A “Really?” segment about the controversial “breastfeeding mom” Time magazine cover, which like all “Really?” sketches since Amy Poehler left is just a mixed bag of one-liners...And A ”Get in the Cage” with Liam Neeson. Sure, it was an excuse for Neeson to shill his fare The Grey (on DVD Tuesday!) and Battleship, but who cares? It was another fantastic offering, even if said offering seem to be using the host-guest dynamic less and less.

2012 Funkytown Debate: This is one of those weird little SNL sketches that was enjoyable, even if it didn’t make me laugh once. The actual joke - with fuddy-duddy Janet Nichols getting passed over for the funkier candidates – didn’t really get any traction, and there weren’t even any pauses for the audience to laugh. It was still enjoyable though, because of how well the show sold the funky aspect of everything, and here specificity was key. (But hey, after two SNL Alum cameo appearance, and then two sketches with famous stars dropping in, it’s apparently time for the musical host to make his second comedic appearance with Usher showing up. So that’s all of the bases covered there, right?)

Broadway Sizzle: Continuing the pairing off of sketches that seems to be going on tonight, we got a second sketch that was musically inclined in nature. However, unlike “2012 Funkytown Debate”, this one wasn’t enjoyable in the slightest. It’s set on a fake show that doesn’t make any sense (and not in a fun way), and the joke is a close-minded mockery of gender-bending song choices. Come on, it’s 2012. Guys singing songs meant for females just isn’t funny anymore.

Anniversary Party: I’ll never understand how this “pass the mic” format sketch keeps coming back year after year, but it does, and tonight was just another excitable example of why this sketch belongs in the Seventh Layer of Hell along with “Secret Word”. (Well, except for Will Forte’s appearance, where he eked out another win from a sketch that didn’t really seem to work. Hey, it’s another sketch pair!)

Almost Pizza: Not only has this one been aired before, but also it’s like the show is mocking us by brining out something good to close off an episode that’s so bad.

This is going to be another one of those times where I won’t bother putting up a Best/Worst sketch breakdown, because frankly all of the live sketches weren’t that great. (I try not to include Digital Shorts and Weekend Update in the list if I can help it.) Even more disappointing was the fact that the show continues to bury its host. Doing so with Ferrell, who’s arguably the host the show would least want to bury, it’s just a poor choice. We were robbed of so many possibly great recurring sketches, and while I’m all for originality, I think the show would have been better served by just sticking to the safe choice this time around.

Next Week: Mick Jagger hosts (yes, really), and he brings in Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, and Jeff Beck to back him up for the musical performance. This is going to be biggest quality discrepancy between music and sketches ever.

Quotes, Etc.:

“That should be me! Vice-Presidents never get to go anywhere!”

“I would have just finished hooking up the Slurpee machine, and setting into a Charles in Charge marathon, and that ol’ penguin would come waddling in and say ‘Put your damn pants on, we’re about to bombe blah-blah-blahaibity-blee-blah.”

“Literally or figuratively?” “What’s the one where there’s a real fire?”

“It’s the downstairs patch for your baby hatch.”

“Once again, it’s 1994.”

“I see London, I see China, I see one happy vagina.”

“Stay Free Maxi Pads: When your uterine lining looks like the elevator from The Shining.”

“This week President Obama was finally outed as a Democrat.”

“Okay buddy, we get it – you’re not a Muslim.”

“This photo doesn’t say ‘I am loving mother,’ it says ‘I’m the creepy mother from Game of Thrones.’”

“If you wanted a great photo, you would have Photoshopped out the chair.”

“I have a hard time believing he was harassed, because $12,000 sounds like a number you reach after some haggling.”

“Spare me your pity, Neeces Pieces.”

“Don’t condescend me, Tall Bono!”

“You played characters named Rhas-Az-Guhl and Qui-Gong-Jin, which are the names of two of my three testicles.” “I’m afraid to ask, but what do you call the third one?” “We call him The Fixer. Let’s just say he makes problems go away.”

“So let this be a lesson kids: Drugs make you very strong.”