7 posts tagged “saturday night live”

With "Saturday Night Live" not delivering the comedic goods lately, at least there's some good news about the program. 

Last night, on "Weekend Update," Seth Meyers was the first to let me know that Lilith Fair (the all female music festival helmed by Sarah McLachlan) is coming back in 2010!

I went to all three Lilith Fairs that came to the Pittsburgh area, own all of the Lilith Fair live CDs, and still have my dog tags from the inaugural event (I just found them the other day, actually!).  I suddenly have a renewed interest in summer concerts. I wonder if Sheryl Crow will go back on tour with the other fabulous ladies again!

The bad news: while my interest in summer music is renewed, my interest in "Saturday Night Live" still wanes. Especially with the Sarah McLachlan skit they did last night. If they were going to talk about Lilith Fair, I was really hoping they'd bring back Ana Gasteyer for her Cinder Calhoun skit.

I'll admit it. I've never been the biggest fan of "30 Rock". I've resented the fact that this show is on the air, getting Emmy love, when "Arrested Development" and "Pushing Daisies" are cold in the grave.

However, after finally giving in to the hype and watching the show, I now actually appreciate "30 Rock". Even though I feel like I've heard most of the jokes before, it's still better than most of what is on television. And Tina Fey is funny (although, I imagine that Liz Lemon is a lot like Tina Fey in real life -- which is awesome!).

Last Thursday's season 4 premiere entitled "Season 4" was pretty hysterical. My favorite part of the show comes in the first 30 seconds when Liz sings the "Cheesy Blasters" song.

In recent years, I've learned that I would rather watch a show loosely-based on the writing behind "Saturday Night Live" than SNL itself.  

Last night, I caught part of the season finale of "Saturday Night Live" with guest host Will Ferrell. Tom Hanks made an appearance in the "Jeopardy" sketch and stole the show from the other SNL players.

Tom Hanks' appearance in this sketch marks the first time I've laughed out loud at SNL in over a year -- especially when he voiced into his pen-microphone "sibilance," which made reference to his appearance on SNL almost 20 years ago in a famous Wayne's World sketch. You can actually hear someone in the audience recognize the word and yell, "Sibilance!"  

I burned the new Kelly Clarkson All I Ever Wanted CD from a friend and have been enjoying it. The songs I've singled out as my favorites so far are "I Do Not Hook Up" and "Long Shot" -- both surprisingly penned by Katy Perry (among other collaborators such as American Idol's newest judge Kara DioGuardi).

Upon discovering that Perry had a hand in both songs, I grew disgusted with myself. I am not a Katy Perry fan. The only song I've remotely liked is "Ur So Gay," and even though the song is funny ("You're so gay and you don't even like boys"), it's really nothing but a throwaway track that should have been a one hit wonder like Julie Brown's "Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun." Sadly, this wasn't even her hit!

I will never understand the mystique behind Ms. Perry (whose real name is Kate Hudson; class was against her from the get-go). And furthermore, I will never understand how the "artist" whom many critics slammed for her lackluster, lacktalent performance at the 2009 Grammy's managed to have a hand in this Myspace Generation Pop Anthem.

I was pleasantly surprised to go to Entertainment Weekly's web site today and see a post about Saturday Night Live's decline in quality, with writer Ken Tucker directly addressing the issue of Kristen Wiig (finally!).

The post states: "Speaking of Wiig, her Kathie Lee Gifford and Bjork were excellent, but I doubt I'm the only person who thinks she's on-screen way too much these days--at best, she's carrying too much of the load."

Finally! All this time, I thought I was crazy. I've stated in previous blog posts my confusion about Kristen Wiig and why she shows up everywhere in movies and television, playing the same dry-talking, weirdo female character. Against everything conventional, Wiig is like the most popular girl in school who makes goofy faces and fart noises in class all the time, and students think it's hilarious and cute. It just doesn't happen. Yet, Wiig appears in EVERY SNL SKIT.

Message boarders chimed in at the bottom of the EW article, with one saying she's "one-note" like Adam Sandler.  I feel like I've finally been vindicated.

However, I will say that Wiig does a good job of impersonating celebrities, especially Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She nails it -- dead on. But really -- it isn't hard to make a View skit funny when the material is pretty much directly lifted from the ABC daytime talk show itself. It's similar to Tina Fey making "Sarah Palin" funny when Fey looks exactly like the V.P. candidate and took dialogue directly from Palin interviews (which then became "jokes").

Either way, SNL needs a reboot. While I love Seth Meyers' Weekend Updates, I don't know how he leads the writing team with some of the skits that garner crickets from audiences. I long for the days when Will Ferrell would show up and somehow make the worst written skit funny (although I'm sure many will debate me on this one!). I wonder if Lorne Michaels and crew think Wiig is the new go-to girl for that.

Here's Wiig in The View skit that actually made me laugh:

Since the 2008 election ended, Saturday Night Live just hasn't been as funny. I watched the Neil Patrick Harris episode two weeks ago because I figured NPH would deliver the funny, but was gravely disappointed. Except for NPH's digital short (which featured the Doogie Howser theme song), most of the episode was pretty lackluster. At times, NPH looked like he didn't know what to do with himself.

And while most people know of my absolute frustration with Kristen Wiig (see this week's skit "Gilly" on Hulu and you'll understand), on the other hand, I usually love most of what Andy Sandberg does. I think he's funny and adorable. But I'm starting to feel that his Digital Shorts are hit or miss. For example, this short from last week's episode hosted by Rosario Dawson:

I don't get it. I've always thought of myself as hip to parody, but what exactly is this making fun of? And was this actually written? I want to know how much was paid to write this. To me, it seems like some sort of surreal dream you wake up from and go, "Wow. I had no idea my mind was capable of something so absurd and random. AND unfunny." I'm also pretty sure anyone (and I mean anyone) could have written a better skit than this.

I already found a funnier skit at Funny Or Die:

Kristen Wiig is everywhere, and I can't take it anymore.

No offense to the woman. She might be a nice person. But I can't take another SNL skit or low-budget, throwaway farce with her face in it. I can't watch a trailer for an Apatow comedy or anything that might even have a few chuckles in it without seeing her face or hearing her voice drop in that low ironic way in which she only knows how to speak.

Just when you thought it was safe to watch a trailer for the new Superbad-esque comedy Adventureland, Wiig shows up in the trailer, pushing me over the edge. That's it. Something needs to be done. I would like to build a case against Kristen Wiig and argue how unfunny she is.

After her "retirement" from Sarah Palin, Tina Fey said that she thought Wiig would be a good contender for future SNL impersonations of the Alaskan V.P. candidate. Really? You be the judge of whether I'm right or wrong. The future of Saturday Night comedy depends on it.

First, I would like to submit exhibit A into evidence of Kristen Wiig NOT BEING FUNNY: