Seems like SNL finally got the message that sketches don’t have to be super-long. A weird hodge-podge of sketches tonight (Lawrence Welk?!), but except for the two political ones, they’ve all been short and sweet. I’m enjoying.
I am glad it was not just me. I think this is overall the best show in a long time. They got in and out of the weak skits quick. The opening was absolutely spot on and kicked ass. Even the musical group is reasonably good.
I haven’t watch to the end it quite a long time.
I always enjoy when Will Forte sings. I may be the only one, but he is good.
For those of us on the West Coast, can you give a hint about the opening? I want to know if it is worth staying up for. Was it another Fey/Palin?
Yes and it was great.
I missed the cold open. Could somebody please give a summary? You can spoiler it if you wish. Did they do something with the VP debate?
The opening was a really good parody of the VP debate. It was dead on and Queen Latifah played Gwen Ifill and added some good humor, especially about her book. Tina was spot on as Palin and it will be well worth watch the clip of it as soon as NBC puts it up.
MAVERICK!
Thanks for the clip, I was playing on the computer as usual and missed the beginning.
That was a really strong episode, right on. And Anne Hathaway, Holy Cannoli!
A friend & I were hanging out & having a serious talk but we took a time-out to watch the FANTASTIC debate sketch.
I just watched the Bailout skit, which is probably truer than most of the reporting about it.
And the Mary Poppins skit- Anne’s going to get a call from Julie!
Wow. That debate sketch was supurb. It nailed everything perfectly.
“I love my friend John like a brother but he’s an unbalanced lunatic.”
“I think marriage should be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers.”
Queen Latifiah did a great job as Ifill too.
Me too. I swear I wasn’t on anything, but even “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals” had me laughing. I have no idea why. I’m chuckling to myself even as I write this.
“Hey goat. How’re you doing? Say hi to your mother from me.”
The Mark Wahlberg sketch made me laugh, too. As did the sketch where guy pretended to be gay for five years. The political sketches were great, but I didn’t expect to actually laugh at the rest of the show…
I thought it was a really great episode all around. The opening was hilarious, and I was practically crying at the Lawrence Welk bit. Kristen Wiig cracks my shit up. I loved the Digital Short with the self-loathing referee, and Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals was magical. I hope they keep the show at this level.
I HELD A CAT, AND I LIKED IT!
Check out the thin skin we have here in Scranton. :rolleyes:
http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2008/10/05/news/doc48e8bc82940dd082069128.txt
The debate was fantastic!
And I am still laughing at the Lawrence Welk skit. I think if you had never had to watch that show as a child, you wouldn’t find it that funny. I always wanted one of the performers to go off and do something insane–an itch finally scratched!
Does anybody have a link to the whole Weekend Update from the SNL on 10/4? I don’t know why, but I loved that one 
This was the first time I’d watched the show in I can’t remember how long, instead of catching isolated segments on the web in the following days or weeks based on buzz. The current political season has clearly energized them. I thought it was legitimately fascinating that they would put up the PBS and CSPAN “channel bugs” during those sketches; it says something about how the audience is paying enough attention to political developments that these once obscure media outlets will be at least marginally meaningful to an average viewer.
The Mary Poppins sketch, I thought, was interesting for another reason. It looked to me like something that had been pitched before in the writer’s room, but didn’t really go anywhere. It’s sort of a dopey idea, but Hathaway somehow managed to turn it into something funny with her sparkling delivery. On paper, that script gets the dreaded end-of-show slot; with Hathaway doing it, it gets bumped a lot earlier.
Also, the repeated series of “heaviest man in the world” jokes during Weekend Update was hilarious. Amy and Seth playfully cackling at each other made that bit.
Pretty good show. For those who watch it regularly, was this a fluke outlier, or have they been getting measurably better recently?
I will second this request. Time-Warner Austin has stopped carrying NBC so I was not able to see it.