SNL (11/7)

[DanOregon]

Might have been the funniest episode of the season (I realize not saying much) but Taylor Swift, a guest appearance by Amy Poehler and some good decent skits went a long way. Taylor Swift was pretty damn funny. Worth checking out on Hulu if you missed it.

 

[BYH]

The skit where Swift plays the girl who declares the dangers of parents driving while looking for their cell phone, singing a song to which they don't know the lyrics, having The Sex Talk with their kids, etc, was hilarious.

She was better than I thought she'd be. Did an uncanny Kate Gosselin impersonation.

Tonight marked the first time I even watched a second of SNL of the season. Boy, I couldn't have imagined typing that even two years ago.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

That one person responded to this thread says a lot!

 

[BYH]

It's also the middle of the night, dude.

 

[Football_Bat]

Taylor Swift was the best host they've had in more than a year. She was great. The last one I recall who exceeded expectations so much was Peyton Manning.

 

[txsportsscribe]

opening monologue song by swift was pretty damn funny

 

[slappy4428]

It's also the middle of the night, dude.

BYH gets desperate to post as the night gets later... the equivalent of the girls all get prettier at closing time.

 

[terrier]

I had the feeling she'd pull it off - she's not a brilliant actress by any means, but young female host who wants to muss up her wholesome image a bit (Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman) has a pretty good track record.
It was great to see them open with a go-for-the-throat (and actually funny) political sketch - you know those Faux News folks who were crowing about the Obama I've-done-nothing opener a few weeks ago are going to be in full conniption (hell, Beck will throw a second appendix).
Particular since TS probably drew in plenty of folks (including hardcore red-staters) who usually don't watch SNL.

 

[shockey]

taylor swift is a very talented young lady. 8)

well done episode for a change.

 

[lisa_simpson]

If you saw her appearance on CSI (original recipe) last season, you'd know that she has some acting chops. Her musical performances were awful though - get a vocal coach, kiddo!

 

[Killick]

I tuned in just after the monologue, and barely chuckled the entire show. Swift as the teen with bad-driving parents was funny, as was the Twilight spoof, but so much of the rest was just so unoriginal.
• Scared straight? Yeah, done before and it wasn't funny then, either.
• Penelope (or whatever her name is), the exaggerator? Done. Unfunny.
• The View? Again: Done before, not funny yet again.
• Nick Fain on WU? Ditto.
• At the end, the "Business Bunnies" album? To steal Seth and Amy's bit, "Really?" Natalie Merchant? Eddie Vedder? Did I miss the memo where we not only were supposed to turn our clocks back last week, but also our calendars to 1993?

 

[DanOregon]

The Fox News skit didn't hold a candle to what the Daily Show did on the elections and Beck this week. Saw Swift on Fallon and I think she wrote some of her own stuff, at least the monologue song.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Pretty mediocre... Swift gets major points for trying and was in almost every skit, but that episode was a C- at best.

Kristen Wiig tries way too hard. I know she's funny, but her characters suck.

Seth Meyers sucks and Amy Poehler needs to stay away.

Too many of the regulars, especially Sudeikis and Armisen, have this look on their faces that they think what they're doing is the funniest thing ever, when in reality, they're pretty awful.

 

[Double Down]

I thought Swift was funny too. Not hilarious, but funny. The Twilight spoof was the best part for me. One of the keys to being a good host is totally throwing yourself into the skits and not being afraid to make fun of yourself. You have to abandon your desire to be cool. I think Taylor did that. ]

That said, I HATE Nicolas Fein. HATE him.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Al Gore was actually a pretty decent host of SNL

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I thought Swift was funny too. Not hilarious, but funny. The Twilight spoof was the best part for me. One of the keys to being a good host is totally throwing yourself into the skits and not being afraid to make fun of yourself. You have to abandon your desire to be cool. I think Taylor did that. ]

That said, I HATE Nicolas Fein. HATE him.

The worst part of this season is that Update has sucked. You expect the rest of the show to suck, but Update is usually pretty consistently funny because it's a hell of a lot easier to come up with one-liners about current events than it is to write a skit about it.

Nicholas Fein is so dreadfully unfunny it's scary.

 

[Double Down]

I thought Swift was funny too. Not hilarious, but funny. The Twilight spoof was the best part for me. One of the keys to being a good host is totally throwing yourself into the skits and not being afraid to make fun of yourself. You have to abandon your desire to be cool. I think Taylor did that. ]

That said, I HATE Nicolas Fein. HATE him.

The worst part of this season is that Update has sucked. You expect the rest of the show to suck, but Update is usually pretty consistently funny because it's a hell of a lot easier to come up with one-liners about current events than it is to write a skit about it.

Nicholas Fein is so dreadfully unfunny it's scary.

For the life of me, I can't understand why so many characters get to fail over and over and over again. Meyers is the head writer and Lorne is still the producer so I assume they have the final say of what goes on the air. Well, how can they possibly think that Nicolas Fein or Gilly or Wiig's one-note character who out-brags everyone while she plays with her hair is funny over and over again? It's ok to fail miserably once, or even twice. But 80 percent of Fred Armisen's and Wiig's characters are painful. The Fein "I'm struggling to come up with jokes off the news!" thing no longer makes sense even if drugs are involved, it's so bad. It even sucks as meta-commentary on stand-up.

I Kristen Wiig is actually very talented, but she needs focus, editing and direction worse than any cast member in history. No one beats a one-note joke into the ground quicker than she does. She has a weird sense of humor, and occasionally it's funny. The Target skits with Timberlake and even dumbass Dane Cook were funny. But the others have been baaad. The overreliance on bad characters is the show's biggest problem right now.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Hader and Samberg will have decent careers once they leave the show and so will Wiig. Very little of it will have to do with anything they did on SNL. Kenan Thompson will do OK too...

The rest of them? Other than the newbies who haven't done much yet, the rest of the group, like Meyers and Armisen and Sudeikis are just dreadfully unfunny and just suck.

 

[txsportsscribe]

i don't get the reaction for amy poehler. she was an eh cast member but the audience erupts like she's the greatest thing ever when she comes on weekend update.

 

[Killick]

Though, the Bon Jovi thing she did was one of the best of the last decade. Can't stand her show, though. Cheap, unfunny ripoff of The Office.