saturday night live

[Weak2ndAct]

60 Minutes this sunday will have backstage footage from the Simpson incident, apparently they were there doing a story on the show/live tv and it happened.  Can't wait.

[MacGuffin]

60 Minutes this sunday will have backstage footage from the Simpson incident, apparently they were there doing a story on the show/live tv and it happened.  Can't wait.

60 Minutes To Air Simpson Snafu

It now turns out that a news team from CBS's 60 Minutes was shooting a feature about how NBC's Saturday Night Live is produced when the commotion over Ashlee Simpson's botched performance occurred. After Simpson's voice was heard singing the same song she had sung earlier in the show, Simpson danced for a few seconds, then ran offstage -- and into 60 Minutes' cameras, which recorded her reaction and show creator Lorne Michaels.' CBS said Thursday that reporter Lesley Stahl and the 60 Minutes cameras were also on hand during the dress rehearsal, when Simpson again ran off stage.

[tpfkabi]

they had several references to the Ashlee fiasco tonight.
i thought Kate did quite well. i didn't know she could sing.
i liked the Osama bit.

[ono]

CBS said Thursday that reporter Lesley Stahl and the 60 Minutes cameras were also on hand during the dress rehearsal, when Simpson again ran off stage.

Wait, so did that incident happen at the dress rehearsal too?

So random, I was watching the old episode from the dark ages of SNL when they brought in people like Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, etc. to help resuscitate things.  They had Eddie Murphy dancing around in gold swim trunks too.  Didn't catch what that was about.  The Folksmen, though, they performed EAT AT JOE'S there -- a song they performed some 19 or so years later in A Mighty Wind.

Tonight's episode was borderline excellent.

Osama opening was decent -- at least it didn't drone on for 15 minutes like the first two weeks' did.

Didn't care too much for the Winslet monologue, though it was admirable that she was singing and dancing, and doing both well.  Shows how hard it is to do both, because she was winded, and her singing suffered.  She sung much better in the next sketch, Chubs Hotty, which was pretty funny, though it went on too long.  I really liked seeing Winslet do an impression of Norah Jones.  Special points for irony because of Eminem guest starring.  Of course, this calls up his unlikely pairing with Dido which rocketed him to status of household name.  Anyway, the whole bit was funny, as Conesey would say, "because he's fat!"  

CHUBS: Gimme some love, sweetheart.  (falls over, breaks piano)  Sorry about your piano.
NORAH: Yeah, it's no problem.
SUGAR: Man, Chubs, that's like the third piano you broke this week!

Doesn't sound all that great on paper, I know, but I dug it.  Could've done without all the food and fart jokes.  But whaddya gonna do?  His character, though, reminds me of when Sanz played an obesity coach for Kelly Ripa as Renee Zellwegger.

Mrs. Dr. Frankenstein.  Horrible.  I wanted to like it, 'cause it was an early sketch.  Only borderline-funny line: "Oh yeah, I made a homo."  The whole sketch was just all too obvious, and I can't really think of any ambiguously homosexual comedy actually being incredibly funny.

The cartoon was okay.  I often wonder why McCain puts up with what he does.  A little insight to what he's feeling is welcome.

Clinton/Kerry sketch.  Feh.  It's no Carville.  We get that SNL would love to have Clinton as president again, so they keep working him in.  They need to get over it, though.  I don't even know if Clinton's recovered yet, not that it really matters.

Almost a year ago, I wrote that Eminem was a genius.  Now, seeing his Mosh video, and seeing him perform on SNL, I rest my case.  Beautiful performance, beautiful gesture at the end, and that video is just so incredibly powerful.  I think JB was the one who posted it in the Next President thread.  So check it out if you haven't.

Weekend Update was awesome, and really made this show for me.  Love the joke about lip synching pop stars.  Poehler is really making herself at home at WU.  Good sign.

OREILLY: This brutal ordeal is now over, and I will never speak of it.  Again.
FEY: But I will. ...  I love all those parts.  And I'm gonna keep talking about it.  A lot.

The Seth Meyers segment was just classic, proof why he's so great, and why he would do great on WU.

FEY: There's no way we're having a three-way with you, Seth.
MEYERS: Just like there's no way the Sox would come back from 3-0?
AND
MEYERS: "Be sure to bring your credit card for incidentals!"
FEY: "You mean like condoms and porno mags?"
MEYERS: "I was gonna say Pringles, but your idea's better."

Resident sex symbol, Will Forte, how I love you.  Halloween star spangled banner: most hilarious song since his and Armisen's interpretation of the tax codes.  There are no words.  There are no words.

O'Keefe joke, predictable.  Arafat, bleh.  Kerry mask joke was great.  Armisen, eh, okay.  Those kind of skits where "obnoxious comedian annoys unsuspecting victims" kind of grate on me.  Sanz as Elton John is always a revelation.  I went out and listened to Tiny Dancer right after the sketch.  One goof in the writing - Sanz said to have Ashlee point Jessica his way.  It should've been Nick.

Glad to see the Rick the step-dad sketch back again.  Poehler as the hyperactive preadolescent is just so great.  So much subtlety going on in this sketch.  I loved how Dratch and Rudolph did laps - those old ladies you always see powerwalking through the mall.  And then later they're munching on pretzels ... still walking.

Eminem.  Again, excellent.  'Nuff said.

Maya Rudolph's been so underused.  Yet again.  And then she gets this weird off-the-wall sketch about unscary costumes.  It had charm, but was short, at the end of the show, and she could've done so much more than continue to act only as Kerry's financial-trophy wife (though she does do that well).

The Russert/Brokaw sketch was excellent.  Short, sweet, memorable, a perfect bookend to an excellent show.  Surprising how few sketches Winslet was actually in.  And some thought Jude Law was shortchanged.  Either way, though it started out rocky, this episode just flat out rocked.  Sucks that it's at the end of my tape, though, so I'll have to fast-forward if I want to watch it again.  My only complaint is that Winslet was short-changed.  She was only in four things, including the monologue.  Don't know why that is.  She's got the talent.

The Best of Tom Hanks next week, eh?  Okay... whatever.  Not that I don't like Tom Hanks ... but in all the times he's hosted, how many great things could he have done?

[Stefen]

Whoa man, you take SNL too seriously. Eminem is underrated though.

[tpfkabi]

how much of a delay is there?
i'm thinking there has to be some because of profanity bleeping and blurring out Chris Farley's butt back in the day (although i've only seen that on the Best of, so i don't know  if it was blurred out when it aired originally).

[cine]

Didn't catch the live show this week.

I was too busy in New York City... watching the dress rehearsal...  8)

[Finn]

I think the new SNL episodes aren't that funny. But the older ones are a lot better.

[Gamblour.]

How astute.

[RegularKarate]

Eminem can't be underrated.. because he's huge.

And he sucked on SNL (which, along with the Rick the Stepdad was all I caught).  The song sucks and from what I've heard, the new album, just plain sucks.  Boring.  His time is over.

[Ghostboy]

Mosh is an okay song, simply because of its message, and the video is awesome. But that Lose It single is TERRIBLE. His time is, indeed, over.

[MacGuffin]

But that Lose It single is TERRIBLE. His time is, indeed, over.

God, that song is so annoying (uhhh, uhhh, uhhh, uhhh!).

[Stefen]

Well eminem is underrated by the community we all belong to, but overrated by the teeny bopper/vodka crowd. What im saying is it could be alot worse, i guess.

[©brad]

well i personally do not think eminem has completely lost it. granted, lose it is enough to make you want to jump off a bridge, but i honestly think its purposefully done. that d12 song "name of my band" was annoying as hell too. it's always the most stupid songs on his albums that are the first singles. it's like he's saying "hey look, i can make crap and they still love it."

a lot of his stuff is still excellent tho.

[Ravi]

What is the "teenybopper/vodka" crowd?