I’ve search and searched, and am surprised I can’t find a thread on this.
I thought he was pretty damned good! Some of the sketches were predictably lame, but Mick’s opening monologue (“I’m going to do what I do best: stand still and talk!”) was enjoyable. And he did a good job covering various accents in the sketches.
But the music! Mick and the Foo Fighters jamming on “19th Nervous Breakdown” and “It’s Only Rock and Roll”, doing a fabulous version of “The Last Time,” with Arcade Fire, Mick and JEFF FUCKIN’ BECK doing “Tea Party”,a blues number about the presidential election, and the final Kristen Wiig sendoff to “She’s a Rainbow” and “Ruby Tuesday” were all awesome!
So was it just dinosaurs like me who tuned in to watch the whole thing? I frankly can’t remember the last time I watched an entire episode of SNL.
I DVR’d it (as a dinosaur myself, can’t stay up until 11:30) and watched the first 20 minutes last night. Really enjoyed Mick so far- on the karoake sketch and the 60’s game show, he was actually pretty funny, staying in character and going for it. The opening bit cracked me up, nice to see Jon Hamm again. The Al Sharpton thing was stupid. I hope to watch the rest of it tonight.
I watched until the end of the “news.” Then I went to bed because I had been really disappointed in the comedy (I never cared for Kristen Wiig - her “characters” seem to never go within the parameters of a skit. She just acts completely independently of the sketch. And I used the word “characters” in quotes because they barely qualify. And of course her last episode was packed with those one-note “look at me! It’s all about me” sketches for her). I also didn’t think Mick Jagger was too funny. It’s clear why the Beatles made “Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” and the Stones never did.
Pretty great episode. Terrific and emotional goodbye to Wiig at the end (though what about Sudekis? Isn’t he leaving as well?). Lazy Sunday 2 was a really great bookend to close out Andy Samberg’s SNL career too (though technically “Lettuce” was the first Lonely Island short).
Has anyone gotten such a long and heartfelt farewell as Kristen Wiig? I mean, getting serenaded by Mick Jagger probably can’t be topped, but I don’t recall them ever turning the “goodnights” into such an extended “goodbyes” before. Obviously she’s well loved by Lorne and the cast. Was nice to see.
BTW, I have a totally naive question about the original Lazy Sunday digital short. When I first saw that thing, I thought it was entirely about nerd culture. But then later I thought about it and noticed the emphasis on “Chronic” when they said “Chronicles of Narnia” and also the mention of cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. So was that whole thing about pot consumption?
(As I said, it’s a naive question; perhaps the pot theme was obvious to everyone else.)
Yes - it was about pot and the cupcakes were about the munchies you get while high. “Chronic - what? - cles of Narnia” was just a clever way of disguising the slang for weed.
I thought it was a great episode. I’m still a big fan of this show - LOVED STEFON ON WEEKEND UPDATE - and I think they’re going to have HUGE shoes to fill next season without Kristen and Andy.
Jagger did OK, he’s been a performer for 50+ years, so he should do OK.
I though the dance contest sketch was the best one, because of the contestants. Plus Jagger played Steven Tyler; in the early days of Aerosmith, Tyler was sometimes accused of being a pale imitation of Jagger.
They kind of did a send off for Phil Hartman - he ended up hugging Chris Farley at the end of the episode, I think.
“Lazy Sunday” isn’t about pot smoking. It’s about two guys going to see the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia” which was a new release at that time.
Couldn’t be happier that Kristen is gone. All of her characters were more annoying than humorous. The only reason I can imagine she got so much screen time all these years is that she swallows.
I hated the Stefon bit. An actor breaking up uncontrollably during a skit can be funny. An actor pretending to break up during a skit is pathetic.
I thought Jagger did great. I wasn’t sure what to make of the Mitt Romney blues tune he did with Jeff Beck. Is he a Romney supporter?
I thought it was about Mr. Pibb and Red Vines being CRAZY DELICIOUS!
Lazy Sunday 2 didn’t thrill me… my old man ears (apparently) couldn’t make out most of the lyrics and I was too lazy to rewind and watch it with the captions on.
I thought it was the best episode in awhile. Though the opening was a major major major disappointment – here you have a sketch about Lawrence Welk, and Mick Jagger is your guest and you don’t put them together??? (especially for that lame tiny hands woman bit that’s about as funny as a dead rat in your toilet).
After that, though, the show was excellent. I especially loved Mick’s sad version of “Satisfaction.”
That’s what I (naively, in retrospect) used to think, but the explanation given makes perfect, subversive sense. Serves me right for not being dope with the youngsters…
I thought it was a great ending to a dull season with a long series of horrible guest hosts. Jagger outdid most of them in becoming characters for the sketches. He plays someone different better than half the cast.
And it’s so past time for Kristin Wiig to leave her unfunny characters behind. How many skits have been ruined by her? Jon Hamm saved the Lawrence Welk sketch from another one-note performance from Wiig and Jagger did his best to save the secret word sketch though that was impossible. Hey, SNL writers: if something is only a tiny bit funny the first time, running the exact same sketch a dozen times with different words doesn’t ever make it funnier. You know why they say the early SNL was better? Because when they reran sketches, they used the same characters but changed the bit each time. Today they would do Samurai Deli 50 times, with the only change being the type of cold cut.
With that out of my system, I completely agree with the excellence of the music. Four musical bits were the right number. Usually there are two too many.
Well, it’s all above my head then. The words and video images are all about the two guys buying junk food and going to the movies. If “buying junk food and going to the movies” is how the youngsters reference pot smoking these days I’m more out of it than I thought. I’d ask for a cite but I presume it’s all too hip to be defined on the internet.
Took me awhile to see that it was Jon Hamm doing the Italian skit at the beginning. Loved the silly 60s game show, even though it’s completely predictable. I laugh every time.
The Californians was OK this time. Maybe it’s a joke that only works well once-- I laughed so hard it hurt the first time I saw it.
Stefan is getting old. He was funny the first 3 or 4 times, but it’s getting played out.
It passed over my head, too, the first time I saw it. But remember the weird way they emphasized Chronic when saying the name of the movie. (Chronic is, for whatever reason, slang for marijuana.)
But sorry for the hijack. As for Saturday’s episode, I did enjoy the Secret Word game show sketch because of Jagger’s really gay action movie star and not the annoying running joke about the actress who always screws up and says the word.