Did anyone else see this? I thought it was pretty good, though I admit I haven’t been watching too regularly. I think Natalie Portman is a great actress and she did a good job on the show. Also, she’s got to be the most beautiful actress in Hollywood, no matter what hairstyle she’s sporting.
Some highlights:
Her opening monologue where she showed up the Star Wars geeks
Nice spin on the Nuni skit, which is frankly getting old
Larry King not getting the whole transgender thing (Fred Armisen does a great LK)
Kenan Thompson’s drag outfits for black men
Seeing Dennis Haysbert say, “steaming bowl of elephant piss”
“Sasha Cohen” flubbing her delivery of The Aristocrats joke
Best moment: Natalie delivering the profane rap on the SNL Digital Short interview with Chris Parnell. Maybe it’s just a perverse thrill, seeing Ms. Portman pull out all the stops and get as vile as she can. It’s almost as good at the Chronicles of Narnia rap. Hope these things happen more often on the show.
I only watched Update and the Portman rap. Update is always good. The rap was good but man… the Lonely Island Guys are obessed with their penises. Its not funny anymore. If you watch their pilot for their own show…almost every song and sketch has a plethora of dick jokes. When Sandberg popped into the rap it started to suck… although him dressed as a mongol warrior was pretty funny.
I liked the show. One of the best this season, I’d say. And I loved the rap. Natalie Portman really sold the gangsta bitch thing.
And I have to say, I"m enjoying ‘The Needlers’. The setup is now pretty old, but the material they come up with to insult each other is still really funny. And the Saturday TV Funhouse with Dennie Haysbert was pretty good.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space.
Was I the only one that thought this was hilarious?
No, that was my favorite part of the entire episode, even edging out Natalie’s nasty rap and Dennis Haysbert flubbing his lines. I would have totally watched Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space if it was real! I loved the crude Hanna-Barbara-style animation showing them running back and forth, and introducing all their names (way too quickly).
I don’t get as many pop-culture references as I used to on SNL. Was the rap a parody of something in particular?
Probably hip hop videos in general; Samberg is making a name for himself by making these videos. I’m not sure if the Viking costume was a reference, though.
I also thought the Jamba Juice skit was surprisingly funny. It was one of those ones that usually sucks, but it didn’t.
Of course, I’d pay to watch Natalie Portman stand in line at the DMV, so I may not be totally objective here.
I also really liked the opening monologue, which looked like it was going to just be a rehash of the William Shatner “get a life” thing, but then went another way entirely. Chris Parnell plays the perv so well…
I HAD 13 PROTEIN BOOSTS AND LIFTED A CAR OFF A BOY! LATER TURNED OUT IT WASN’T A BOY!! IT WAS A KIT-KAT WRAPPER!
I’ve never been to a Jamba Juice; it’s one of those chains that’s everywhere except where I live. Are the workers really that perky?
Someone should be watching the death notices across the USA for Star Wars fanboys who died suddenly last night.
I figure some of them shuffled off their mortal coils from excess happy during her monologue with Natalie showing off uber-obscure SW knowledge, and the rest were killed off by that rap video. A whole generation of nerds may have been wiped out!
Well, not THAT perky. But the company philosophy definitely promotes perkiness.
It seems to me I saw Flavor Flav of Public Enemy wearing a viking hat in a video.
I think that hat might be super-glued to his head. I don’t think I’ve seen a picture of him without it.
And the clock around his neck is actually his robot heart.
Huh. So this was a good episode. I wish they’d warn us about those, so we’d have a chance to watch 'em.
I thought this show was terrible. The openning Bush skit was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. There are hundreds of comedians out there who can get all of Bush’s manerisms down pat, and there is so material to lampoon him on that there was no excuse for the bad acting and the bad material. Then, the fake TV ad, I can’t even remember what it was about, was so stupid I was embarrassed for the writers and the actors. The Larry King skit fell completely flat. I was read to say “jump the shark” arfter that episode…
I missed the Bush skit. The fake commercial was for baby tupees. Some of it didn’t do much for me, but I loved the gangsta video (it’s all the talk down at work today) and the Cohen bit. The Needlers were good too.
Well, I’m sure the writing team was having a difficult time this ep, since each and every one of them must have been nearly suicidal over being on hiatus when the Dick Cheney quail-hunting incident occurred.
After seeing that on YouTube, I now forgive Portman for making those Star Wars prequels and being so lousy in them.