“The Californians” had me laughing so hard it hurt. Even the cast members couldn’t keep a straight face. I assume there is a real Soap Opera they were spoofing. And “Game of Thrones” was pretty hilarious, too. The rest was kid of meh, but those two made it well worth it.
One of the few episodes this season where I found something to laugh at in almost every bit.
I must respectfully disagree. I laughed at the “Game of Thrones” bit, but that was about it. Nothing against James Brolin, but it was a weak episode overall.
Cast members losing their shit is funny—when it’s extremely rare. When it happens in just about every episode, I begin to suspect some intentional Fallonization.
Of the last 10 times I have seen a SNL actor start to lose it (or at least appear to start to lose it) during a sketch, probably 9 of them have been by Bill Hader, usually during his increasingly monotonous “Stephon” bit during the usually dreadful Weekend Update…
I also think it’s beginning to seem intentional on Hader’s part.
I really liked Gotye’s first song.
Other than that… Remember when the whole internet came hollering down on Lindsey Lohan because she didn’t do a funny monolog, was pushed to the side in skits, and wasn’t used on Weekend Update? I’m waiting for everyone to say the same about Josh Brolin.
Yeah, if only it was played on the radio more often…
I thought the short film making fun of it was much better.
As for “The Californians”, I guess you have to live here to appreciate it.
Who listens to the radio?
I liked the slo-mo hallway sketch, although I think it would’ve worked even better if they had explained why the hallway always played that song as well.
Probably, I lived in LA and me and my wife were dying. I think it is partially the fact that half the conversations in Los Angeles revolve around how you get from place to place and the fact they were trying to make that dramatic.
For the Stefon bits, it’s mostly not intentional on Hader’s part. I can’t find where I read it, but the writer John Mulaney purposely puts some new lines in there that Hader hasn’t seen before the show. With the new lines and it being such a weird character, I could see it being easy to break. Although now it’s pretty much part of the character that Hader will break so it is expected.
Hader has seemed to be breaking more often lately in other sketches. But in most sketches he doesn’t break, and he’s still one of the best in the show in my opinion, so I’m not too bothered.
Not a particularly memorable episode. But I wonder if anybody but me thought the cast was going to *sing *“Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night” in place of the line “I hope you had the time of your life” in the cold open? It would have been such a perfect fit, and I was SO sure it was going to happen that I was surprised and actually a little disappointed when it didn’t.
Maybe it was just me.
I was going to comment on this myself. Brolin’s been on before, so they must have brought him back knowing he was capable of handling himself as host. But he wasn’t in anything! Not even the digital short. Couple that with the fact that his next movie doesn’t even come out for another month and the whole hosting gig seemed off.
I’m thinking Brolin got squeezed in at the last minute and didn’t have any time to reherse anything. That would explain why he wasn’t in the pre-taped segments. He wasn’t really around earlier in the week to participate in them.
He was admittedly overshadowed by Jay Pharoah, but I figure (a) he did an increasingly good job as the drunken high-school principal, and (b) Pharoah’s schtick went over so well precisely because it came in small doses, thanks to Brolin getting enough laughs in between to keep the whole thing going.
I doubt this is the case as I saw promos for the Brolin/Gotye episode during the Sophia Vergara episode.
Yes, that sketch was utterly hilarious for anyone who has lived there. It might have been funnier for me b/c I lived in San Francisco but never in LA, and they sure do love making fun of LA. (“The” 101, etc).