Season 38, Episode 1
Ah, there’s nothing like a new season, fresh with
potential, to renew one’s faith in Saturday
Night Live. Granted, these days it feels like any small change in the
show’s line-up has the audience hoping that it will return the show to the
quality of the halcyon days of the 70s/mid 80s/ early 90s (take your pick). But
considering that the show has now lost Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, and Abby
Elliot; has replaced Fred Armisen’s Obama impression with Jay Pharoah’s; and
has three new featured players, it feels as if this would be as good of a time
as any for the show to mount a mass improvement. And it’s that kind of
potential that gives me hope, hope that not even Seth McFarlane’s job as host
could possibly crush.
Right?
Cold Open –
Democratic Rally: “I wouldn’t want his job, right?” And with that, SNL hands over the reins of the Obama
impression to Jay Pharaoh. That alone would have made a cold open sketch better
than any one staring Fred Armisen as Obama, but this one went above and beyond,
by doing something that cold opens rarely do – actually be funny. Instead of
just using Romney as a punching bag, something that the show did many times
last season, it also managed to contrast both sides against each other and
comment on both. Soon the sketch became not about the candidates themselves,
but rather the race they are running against each other.
(Hey, there’s even
a new credit sequence. See, I told you this was a new day for SNL. Too bad the static pictures make it kind
of boring.)
Monologue: It
would be hard to top such a strong opening, but it’s interesting to see two
segments in a row try to use standard tricks to new effects. In this monologue,
that’s where McFarlane doing the voices of his characters – and a few other
impressions – came in. It’s the thing he’s most known for, and such
crowd-pleasing actions would normally feel too safe to be funny. Fortunately,
McFarlane framed the voices as representations of his own (fake) neurosis, and
standing up on stage acting like a crazy person was just crazy enough to work.
(Sorry.) The singing, on the other hand,
was just as calculated, but didn’t have anything new to add to the process, and
thus fell fairly flat.
Obama Attack Ad:
There’s something here to this ad that paint Romney as a utter and total dick,
but it only really works in the second half, where we see Keenan Thompson’s
character repeatedly followed from job to job by Bain Capital, as though it was
some sort of conspiracy. Romney being a jerk about his illness isn’t really
outrageous enough to be funny, but thinking that he’s targeting one specific
human being certainly is.
Sex After 50:
After a fake-out with Cecily Strong in the fake credits for this
show-within-a-sketch, we got the return of a familiar figure with Armisen
returning as his “producer who gives terrible advice on an advice show.” It’s
the sort of crassness-for-crassness sake that doesn’t really work on SNL, especially when that crassness is
use for a one-joke sketch. This is one Armisen recurring character that can’t
be saved by giving it to Jay Pharoah; it just needs to die already. (But hey,
at least Tim Robinson got his first appearance. Too bad it wasn’t in a better
sketch.)
Clint Eastwood And
Chair: And the award for most predictable sketch of the night goes to…this
one. Ever since the real Clint Eastwood yelled at an empty chair at the RNC, it
was pretty much guaranteed that SNL would manage to work in a sketch about it.
However, instead of just resting on the laurel of the idea, the sketch was able
to build on the initial idea of “Clint Eastwood and Chair” as a Broadway show
(which wasn’t really all that funny) to the point that throwaway jokes (the
various chairs, the “man on the street” praises) actually garnered some true
laughs.
Lids: Confession:
I don’t get the craze around “Gangnam Style”. It’s a song so crazy and batshit
insane that I can’t get the appreciation of it, either as something you can
dance to, or as ironic kitsch. As such, it’s hard for me to know just what to
make of this sketch. If it’s meant to satirize that indiscernible popularity of
the song, it sort of works. If it’s meant to celebrate the song – and the cameo
by PSY seems to indicate that that’s the case – then I’m not really sure what
the point of the sketch it. It turns the song into a punchline and celebrates
it at the same time, and while it’s sort of enjoyable that way, I wouldn’t
really call it funny.
Introduction to
Puppetry: As Crank Yankers proved
long ago, having puppets say dirty and inappropriate things doesn’t automatically
translate to hilarity. What makes this sketch work then is that instead of just
playing off the “sweet meets naughty” formula, they ground the action of the
puppets in those that are controlling them. By breaking down the normal
artificiality that comes with puppet shows that hide the puppeteers, we see “Tony”
as the physical manifestation of Anthony’s neuroses, and that makes it funny.
That the sketch took this to the next level by having Anthony interact with the
other puppets only sweetened the pot.
Weekend Update:
In addition to Seth Meyers doing his normal shtick, we got…Honey Boo-Boo and Mama
came on to mock the fact that their show got higher ratings than the convention
telecast (though it’s more complicated than that), but really it was just a
chance for SNL to mock a show that’s already a mockery to begin with…McFarlane
comes on with a killer impression of Ryan Lotche doing fall TV preview…And it
end with a quasi-racist Domican “Get out the Vote” Volunteer character. Really,
I’m not sure what the writers were going for here, as it bounced around too
many ideas for any of them to really land.
Stuttering Sergeant:
This is a tricky one. When the sketch is asking us to laugh at the fact that
the sergeant has a speech impediment, it comes off as more mean than funny.
However, when it asks us to laugh at his hubris over the fact, or the confusing
of the new recruits, then it gets some genuine laughs. (The “repeat after me”
gag, for example, was predictable, but worked in the classic slapstick
tradition.) Too bad it felt like the former outweighed the latter.
The Steve Harvey
Show: That’s right. Steve Harvey really does have his own talk show. (So do
Katie Couric and Jeff Probst, but that’s a whole other issue.) The thing is,
the show’s only been on for a couple of weeks, so it’s not like it’s well known
enough for SNL to really mock the
talk show itself. Instead, it’s mostly just an excuse for Keenan Thompson to
bust out his Steve Harvey impression and crack jokes about the actor, a target
that seems really random in this day and age. That being said, they’re were a
few good lines, and nothing too groan-inducing.
Blind Date: Making
a joke out of people saying “I am all like…” isn’t really a joke, and it’s not
really funny, which just makes this one-note sketch even more unbearable. There
were a couple of good laughs with the superficiality of the phrase was matched
with some heavier stuff (like say, death), but there wasn’t enough here to
justify this sketch making it on air. (Or perhaps Keenan Thompson’s waiter put
it best: “I’m all like, this needs to stop.”)
Wooden Spoon Warehouse:
A simple joke about the backwards nature of the Amish, that had enough
sense to get in and get out. (Though it does make me wonder is SNL always keeps such simple gag
sketches around in case they’re getting down to the wire and need to fill some
quick time.)
Though I really can’t stand Seth McFarlane and his
animation empire, I have to admit that he really brought it tonight, and was
able to bring charm to even the worst sketches. As for the episode on the
whole, it was stronger than average, (that’s to be expected for the first one
after a break), but not strong enough to belay the confidence that I had for
the show at the beginning of the night.
Best Sketch – Introduction
to Puppetry
Worst Sketch – Sex
After 50
Next Weeks: It’s
a swoon-off between host Joseph Gordon-Levitt and musical guest Mumford &
Sons.
Quotes, Etc.:
In other, less-hope-inspiring updates to the show,
apparently SNL is just going to
directly crowd-source hosts and musical acts straight from the Internet.
Because there’s no possible way that can go awry.
“I do that to remind you that I have two young daughters,
and not five creepy adult sons.”
“Thank you for your service. Oh, I’m sorry, your gay service.”
“That doesn’t make me a liar. It just means I’m terrible
with numbers. Now, let’s talk budget.”
“Whoomp! Chair it is!”
“DeGens! That’s legit.”
“Nobody was laughing out loud that day in Grenada.”
“But if you know how Mitt Romney travels, this is one
trip you do not want to win.”
“You know you’ve made a terrible decision when having a
neck tattoo is the second worst thing about your neck tattoo.”
“This will be Pacino’s second movie with the line ‘Say
hello to my little friend.’”
“It’s not fair to give all the best lines to the monkey.”
“It feels so weird to be dry.”
“It’s the prefect way to tell the world ‘Yes I have a
small penis, and no, it don’t work so good.’”
“I have a correction to make: The animal I was holding
was called a marmoset, not a pocket monkey.”
“I like a pocket square that has three titties – like that
girl in Total Recall.”
“I’m not going to say ‘no’ on TV in front of everybody.”
“No, don’t do Family
Guy. We’re 30.”
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