SNL with Peyton Manning

I had my morning coffee still giggling about the United Way digital short. "Cops!"

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/#mea=84993

I was hoping to see a spoof of Peyton's eighth-grade tango home video. However, all of these SNL/Peyton Manning ideas only reinforce the fact that yes, the show needs some new writers.

 

Yep. That was a hilarious skit, which was enough for me.

 

I figured Manning would be good, but I didn't think he'd be so game. I mean, getting someone who's polished his image so well to do a spoof where he's injuring kids and telling them to bleep off takes more self-deprecation than many of us could manage. I can't imagine Tom Brady, for example, being as willing to do that dancing as Manning was at the end of the coach sketch.

And Peyton can act, a little. We've seen that in his commercials, as opposed to Wayne Gretzky, who didn't pretend to be an actor and who looked as comfortable on stage as we would in the NHL.

The only problems I had was the usual one -- most sketches are too long. They'll take a one-minute joke and stretch it to f-i-v-e minutes of hell. The party chick, the locker-room thing and the coffee sketch at the end all could have been better by being shorter.

And the thing that was missing from the NCAA pool thing was a reprise of Abdul-Jabbar's role in "Airplane!" where the kid tells him he doesn't work hard. Jabbar looks around, breaks character, then lectures the kid, directly. The same thing would have been just as good in that sketch.

I agree, the show hasn't been very inspired in recent years. This was one of their better efforts. And the Montana sketch is a classic, as was the one where Fran Tarkenton was with a woman in her apartment, calls timeout, then goes to talk things over with Bud Grant. Yeah, I'm old.

 

I don't understand why Will Forte is still even on the show. I mean, they give Chris Parnell - to cite one example - the ax and keep this guy? Hell, I would've rather seen Sanz come back if it meant losing Forte.

 

Didn't Brady sport tighty-whiteys while walking around an office? I'd say he was pretty game.

 

Brady did a song-and-dance opening number, and danced in the baba ganoosh skit where (shockingly) Horatio Sanz couldn't keep himself from laughing. He was definitely game.

But Peyton did an excellent job.

 

"Jack Abramoff? I don't even know Abram."

Christ I thought I was gonna have a heart attack laughing at that one.

 

It took Peyton (and Carrie :-*) to get me to watch a show I hadn't seen in 20 years.

And neither one let me down.

In a world of Pacman Jones and Britney, it's great to see their opposites reach the top.

 

Same with Carrie. Not really an Idol fan, but she can eat crackers in my bed anytime.

I'd say Peyton was a fair sport. I kept waiting for them to do a sketch with him dressed as a woman and they didn't do one... unless it got cut after dress rehearsal...

All in all, a funny show, funnier than some this year.

 

Manning was game, but the show doesn't have much game. The spoof was funny, but the skits (party girl, most of the basketball piece, "300" spoof) sucked.