I haven’t watched SNL in a while, but the one that surpised me most was Norman Lear. I thought “He’s a producer - how funny can he be?”
Boy, when I’m wrong, I am really,
REALLY
wrong! I should have known better - you can’t produce six of the hottest comedy shows of the time without knowing something about making an audience laugh.
His opening KILLED - made fun of himself and all of his shows. Even thirty years later, I remember the sketch where Lear played Kissinger’s aide while trying to negotiate peace in Rhodesia. Belushi played Kissinger, and tried to settled things by having the representatives of the two warring parties hold hands and sing songs.
I’m not much of an Alec Baldwin fan, but my God the “Schwetty Balls” skit was CLASSIC!! I don’t remember [del]much else[/del] anything else from that episdoe, but that one skit made me think Alec was alright.
Natalie Portman was quite good in her alpha-geek opening, the Jamba Juice skit, and the rap video.
While they were so-so most of the episode, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey were really funny at times–most often the times when they were directly making fun of their own public images.
These were thee first two that popped into my mind. Garth Brooks was totally great, and DeNiro couldn’t have been flatter.
Justin Timberlake surprised me as well; he was terrific, a total professional, and extremely talented (I still sing “Bring it on down to Omeletville!” to myself).
Some that have been mentioned (The Rock, Natalie Portman, Alec Baldwin) were also really, really good, but I wasn’t surprised; I’d seen and admired Baldwin and Portman in movies, and I’d seen interviews with The Rock here and there and knew he had more than muscle between his ears.
Another vote for Al Gore. Loved his performance as Willie Wonka’s brother.
“And a billion dollars to develop a ray gun that turns a giant bar of chocolate into a tiny bar of chocolate . . . What was the thinking behind that?!”
How odd that I agree with almost everything that has been posted. Garth Brooks, Timberlake, and The Rock were all suprisingly good. I seem to remember that Sylvester Stallone was suprisingly funny (Stallone whispers, “I don’t think you should buy that computer” “Why not?” “That computer is for gays” then he tries to sell Will Farrell a vending machine as a “computer that gives food” or something like that. I also remember Toby Maguire being suprisingly funny (“In heaven, the role of Zack will be played by Dustin Diamond”).
I love Jack Black but he was not as funny as expected.
I opened this thread to mention Justin Timberlake. “Bring it on down to Omelettville!” Kevin Spacey’s recent American Idol-themed monologue was also surprisingly hilarious. And I will also second Dane Cook, whose monologue about the rogue peanut had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to rupture something.
Yeah, and then he mentions that you can’t use a peanut because “a peanut could go rogue!” Whereas a cashew just has the perfect shape. (I might be misremembering this slightly.) It was the part about the peanut “going rogue” that nearly gave me an embolism. I was watching with my sister and brother-in-law and we still just have to look at each other and say “rogue” to inspire fits of giggles.
