The “Good Times” sketch was okay. That’s about it.
At this point wouldn’t it be better to start up a thread if it didn’t suck?
Well, I’d like to be able to post BEFORE the end of time.
I near died laughing at the cork soaking sketch. Otherwise it was just ok. I’m looking forward to Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen Twins out of curiosity though.
I dozed off after the second sketch. Is Tracy Morgan back as a regular?
Oh dear. It appears that Finesse Mitchell is developing a recurring character out of Sharkisha or whatever her name is. Wow, is THAT an annoying character or what? I kind of figured Finesse would be bland and useless for a while, but his first season isn’t even over and already he’s graduating to full-blown suckiness.
Well, SOMEBODY had to replace the painfully unfunny Tracey Morgan, right?
I refused to let SNL appear on my TV for even a fraction of a section last night due to the guest host. I’ve never liked Janet Jackson and think they should hang her next to Michael because of the wave of censorship she’s provoked with her “wardrobe malfunction.”
That said, I did like last week’s show with Trump as the host. It’s the first show in a long time that I’ve watched in its entirity. Even keeping the tape, if only for the chicken restaurant skit.
Did anyone on here see the Sex and the City parody on the Christina Aguilera episode a few weeks ago? I was shocked to see that Christina was FUNNY with great comedic timing and delivery.
I was flipping back and forth between SNL and a few other things. I shuddered at the Brian Fellow theme music because I thought the character was completely played but for the first time in years I actually laughed aloud at an SNL sketch. The usual stupidity of Brian Fellow sketches gave way to complete absurdity.
Of course that was followed by that wretched Starkisha sketch and then I didn’t switch back to it until the middle of Weekend Update, just in time for the start of Jimmy Fallon’s ditty. Which was enough for me to abandon the show for the night.
I have to second what Otto said about Brian Fellows. I came in fully preparing to hate it. For the most part, I did: the repitition of “I’m Brian Fellows” which never was nor ever will be the least bit funnny, the retarded dream sequences, etc. However, there were some extremely funny moments. From memory:
Of course, it’s only funny when said in the half-shouting Brian Fellows tone. And of course:
I thought the show could have used a little more cowbell.
I have to admit, I did like the “cork soaking” sketch. Not only did it connect with my juvenile-humor-lovin’ side, but Janet’s repeated flubs were funny as well. She really had a hell of a lot of problems saying “cork soaking.”
Twice – during Brian Fellow and Finesse Mitchell – I switched channels and watched a vastly superior “Mad TV” sketch. It’s too bad the two shows don’t overlap completely so that I could have that option available longer.
Hey, I thought Janet did a really good impersonation of Condi Rice, much better than the regular chick who tried it during weekend update.
There were a couple of moments for the Season Highlight show, the Brian Fellow (there’s no S, it’s Brian Fellow**'s** Safari Planet) sketch was hysterical. Fred left out the funniest part.
I also got a kick out of the return of Katan and Morgan with Simon Cowell for the Easter version of “Christmas is Really Great.” Cowell was abysmal, but I love that song, and I love the faces that Horatio Sanz makes when he sings it. It’s the only time he’s genuinely funny, except perhaps when he tries to be cool as the principal of the junior high school where Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch do the A/V club television show.
The “Prince Talk Show” was so surreal that I had to laugh. It was probably funnier if you remembered that Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul had been very good friends. Abdul choreographed all of Janet’s videos from “Control,” What Have You Done For Me Lately, Nasty, When I Think of You and Pleasure Principle but then they had a falling out over Paula’s decision to pursue a recording career for herself. The pettiness in Janet’s impersonation was so over the top that I found myself hooting with laughter.
I found the “Good Times” sketch and the 70’s nonsense words games sketches painful and unfunny, and perhaps I just blacked out for a moment, but I swear that the “Good Times” sketch actually had no ending, it just sort of… stopped. Kenan (or is it Kel?) did earn some cred, however, with his portrayal of Florida. The tossing down of the cornbread and the “Damn, damn, damn.” was right on, and if I may, dy-no-mite. But the sketch meandered and went nowhere. It was disappointing. They should’ve done a “Diff’rent Strokes 20 Years Later” sketch instead, riffing on the real life foibles of that cast. That would’ve been funny. Much funnier, especially, in that they wouldn’t have run out of black people and forced Maya Rudolph to play two characters in one sketch. :eek:
Cork soaking was funny, but three minutes too long.
The show needs more regular characters or ongoing scenarios that they can plug the host into, and I don’t mean Sharkisha or Sully and Zazoo. The loss of all of the former members of “The Groundlings” has taken its toll. Say what you will about the Katan, Gasteyer Ferrell, Oteri, Shannon, Morgan years, the show was the better for having Goth Talk, Loser Wannabe Cheerleaders, Mary Catherine Gallagher, Mr. Peepers, Night at the Roxbury Brothers, Altadena Middle School Music Teachers, Woodrow the Sensitive Homeless Man in the Sewer and DeMarco Brothers frameworks to build upon and round out the show instead of giving us a thread of cruddy, “original” one-off sketches.
I really hope that we see more “Prince Talk Show.” That’ll be a step in the right direction. And for the love of Mike, give Darrell Hammond more to do than impersonations of politicians and Ted Koppel!
[Dana Carvey as John McLaughlin]WRONG![/DCaJM]
Hmm, one frequent criticism of the show is that it’s too repetitive and relies too much on bringing out the same returning characters to do the same things over and over. Personally, I think it depends on the characters; and most of the ones you mentioned I got way tired of long ago, if I ever liked them in the first place. On the other hand, I liked seeing Brian Fellow back again; I do find him funny.
I’m so glad the women you mentioned are gone; something about them just rubbed me the wrong way. Not only was Oteri Not Funny, she had an aura of Not Funny that killed any humor in any sketches she was in. And while I can tell that Shannon is talented, she just doesn’t do much for me. But I love Dratch, Fay, Poehler, and Rudolph!
That’s his job at SNL; but I agree I’d like to see more of him. Has he ever done anything on the show where he wasn’t impersonating somebody?
Maybe this deserves its own thread, but I’m surprized that all the news stories that I’ve read about the show reported that Jackson (as Condi Rice) revealed a “heavily pixilated breast.”
Not quite. She actually revealed a heavily pixilated bra. The right shoulder strap was clearly visible.
No way were the SNL producers going to let the live studio audience see Jackson’s right breast – all the while crossing their fingers that the control room button-pushers would throw the pixilating filter up at just the right time.
Anyway, what’s up with Janet making fun of her Super Bowl ‘wardrobe malfunction’ on SNL, when a week and a half earlier she adamently (and rudely, IMHO) stonewalled David Letterman on any question he put to her about it?
She absolutely refused to even talk about it with Dave, claiming that she wanted to put all this behind her.
And then she does a skit about it on SNL. WTF?
The Good Times sketch was much better appreciated by those of us who know that Janet Jackson actually did play Penny in the original version (or at least better appreciated than a totally pointless Diff’rent Strokes sketch would have been.)
Very uneven, with little middle ground. Stuff really worked or it didn’t.
I loved the Good Times sketch, because I remember Janet being on the original show. I loved how they heaped on every type of tragedy and misfortune that was ever a plot on the sitcom, the constant downer and “can’t win for losing” atmosphere of the show. Winning the lottery, only to have the rat eat the ticket, Penny’s begging to spare the rat’s life only to have it immediately drop dead. Just like the real show. And **TeaElle, since when is SNL sketch not having ending a new thing? For once, it fit with the show because many of the episodes ended that way. But no mention of JJ’s 12 cavities, for shame! Or did I miss it?
I liked the Janet as Condi opener, the ending was obvious, but her version was so much better that Mya’s. She knew how to overdo the facial expressions enough to make it funny.
That “ubbie dubbie” nonsense speech sketch, was there even a point to it? I honestly blanked out part way through, I was watching the show on tape, and nearly fast forwarded through it in frustration and boredom. I usually just do that with the musical numbers, especially if it’s someone clearly lip-syncing pop songs that don’t interest me. Like Janet’s two songs.
“Cork-soaker”. Just save crap like this for The Man Show. The first time I heard “cork soaker” said with an accent I could tell exactly where the sketch was going. Who specifically on the show is writing all these sketches aimed at 12-year old boys lately? Even seeing Janet crack up couldn’t save it. They seem to be trying to crack each other up on camera now. “Fallon/Sanz” syndrome seems to be spreading now that it has reached the point that it can be joked about on the show.
The only time I ever laughed at a Brian Fellow sketch was when Al Sharpton was on. How is Tracy Morgan’s sitcom doing anyway? Since he seems to have all this free time to come back on “active reserve”. He’s one of those former cast member like Jon Lovitz I wish they wouldn’t have back for any reason.
I have a bias against the overtly tacky musical numbers like that Easter song/Simon Cowell mess (stunt casting like this gets old quick too), the singing restaurant commercials (basically the same thing every time, must be written with a fill-in-the-blank sheet) or the Trump “garage band” from the week before. They slow the show down (always a big problem on SNL anyway) and seem to be done more for the cast’s own amusement.
Janet was also a semi-regular on Diff’rent Strokes as Willis’ girlfriend, so there is a connection.
I thought the Good Times sketch would have been many times better if they’d trotted out even one of the actual original cast members. Bookman, Willona, Thelma and J.J. are all still sort of in the business and healthy and I’m pretty sure that any one of them could have worked it into their schedule.
I’ve never understood the point of the “Christmas will soon be here…” song. It was moderately amusing the first time or two, now it’s just old and witless (speaking of, I’m surprised Simon participated in that sketch- he must be a bigger media whore than I previously suspected).
I basically tune in for Weekend Update and to see if my favorite brainless pretty-boy Jimmy Fallon takes his clothes off (which he hasn’t so far, but one can hope- Will Ferrell certainly got nekkid enough, and Kattan had lame short-short clad Mango, but no semi-clad character for either of the two cute male castmembers [Fallon & Seth Myers]). Fallon did do an amazingly competent job of not giggling this week.