Seth Rogen / Spoon
October 6, 2007
RATINGS SYSTEM
***** = Brilliant, a possible future classic
**** = Great, but not quite perfect
*** = Average
** = Meh, but not complete crap
* = How'd this get past dress?
Cold Opening - A Message from Kevin Federline
• Nice to see a non-political cold opening and Samberg does a good K-Fed, but this opening was nothing special. Pretty much just standard, average material. Could’ve been funnier if they had him interacting with other characters.
• The funniest parts were the “It’s official; I’m a slightly more responsible parent than Britney Spears” announcement, and the Bill Cosby comparison at the end.
• Samberg’s first time saying LFNY by himself.
Stars: ***
Monologue - Seth Rogen
• Eh, not nearly as funny as I hoped Rogen’s monologue would be; I was honestly expecting much better from him. Some parts of the speech just dragged, and even the funniest parts of the speech could’ve been better.
• Hader’s random walk-on as Steven Seagal was hilarious, though, and really helped this. I was hoping for some interaction between Hader and Rogen tonight after their great work together in Superbad.
Stars: **1/2
Commercial - Ultrasound HD
• The premise behind the commercial wasn’t all that creative, but the performances and many of the lines made this a good commercial. Especially Sudeikis proudly saying “Now THAT’S a penis!” and Kristen’s angry comments after Sudeikis would say something.
Stars: ***1/2
Sketch - 2007 National Douchebag Championships
• A very funny idea for a sketch and the execution was great.
• All the three Douchebag characters were funny. Forte’s look alone cracked me up right off the bat and I loved Hader’s Borat/Austin Powers/Ace Ventura medley of impressions.
• Sudeikis was great as the game show host.
• Amy’s Sharon impression was even better than usual tonight.
• I always thought that Armisen looked a lot like Gene Simmons and should play him on SNL. Good to see it finally happen. He stole the whole sketch with his hilarious comments to the contestants and his sleazy facial expressions.
• You could tell Amy was trying not to crack up after her “douchery” line.
• Samberg’s character was so ridiculous and cheesy, that it made me laugh.
Stars: ****
Mini-Sketch - MacGruber #1
• Glad to see this back again. I loved these sketches last season and the theme song is especially killer.
• I like how they change the MacGruber plot every time. The new storyline with Forte being worried about his aging looks is a good one, although this wasn’t as good as the last one with his drinking problem.
• Rogen looked like he was wearing Horatio Sanz’s old wig from the Kaitlin/Rick sketches.
Stars: ***1/2
Sketch - “Little” Twins
• I almost thought this would be another Kuato sketch when it began, before I realized that was Forte on the big couch instead of Hader.
• Rogen and Kristen were hilarious as the creepy twins and all the weird things they would perform in front of the guests, especially when they sang the rehab song.
• Everyone’s facial reactions were priceless, and I loved Forte jumping out the window at the end.
Stars: ****
Mini-Sketch - MacGruber #2
• The funniest of the three tonight.
• Forte looked hilarious with the messed-up lips. Maya and Rogen acting disturbed by everything going on was also funny, as was Kristen’s random appearance as the hooker.
Stars: ****
Sketch - A Message from Fred Thompson
• A new impression for Hammond, but a lot of his political impressions look and sound exactly alike so it felt like he played Thompson before. He was okay in this, though, and had a few good lines at the beginning. I also liked his laid-back demeanor and him angrily telling the audience when to applaud.
• This started dragging shortly before Armisen came on, but Armisen helped bring it back. His Sam Waterston is always hilarious.
Stars: ***
Mini-Sketch - MacGruber #3
• They don’t usually have the MacGruber segments so close together in the show. They should’ve put this one on a little later tonight.
• I like how we’re at the point where MacGruber doesn’t seem to care about diffusing the bombs anymore.
• Forte revealing his horrifying new face and saying “Not so bad…” right before the explosion was a funny ending. Although I was expecting him to look even worse because of the long build-up before they showed his face. They should’ve gone all out and made him look unbelievably disfigured, or have a completely different person as his face.
Stars: ***1/2
Musical Performance
Weekend Update - Poehler & Meyers, featuring Lou Dobbs, Willie Randolph & Omar Minaya, and Chevy Chase
• Best jokes: Yoda Minnesota, Closed Convent, Ikea Home, Pope Book
• Hammond’s Lou Dobbs bit was actually very good, easily the funniest thing Darrell’s done in a while. All his Canadian/Seth Rogen-bashing was just hilarious, especially the quote he showed and him calling Rogen an “economic Bin Laden”.
• Another excellent “Really?!!” segment with many great quips from Seth and Amy.
• The Mets managers bit was silly, but still worked and it helped that it was short. Armisen once again cracked me up with just his facial expressions alone.
• Chevy Chase’s cameo was a big surprise. It was great seeing him back on the old Update set and he had several funny comments, but his commentary ended up being too long-winded, and his timing seemed off at parts. And some of his lines just flat-out bombed.
• A very long Update, but most of it was good.
Stars: ****
Sketch - America's First Colonists
• Rogen did well in his role, as did the rest of the cast, but the whole stoner premise wasn’t all that great and came off as a little tired, even in the colonial setting. Still, the performances and a few funny parts made this just passable.
• The best part was Hader using the rifle as a bong and shooting a hole through his head, and Armisen as the Indian chief delivering Indian food.
• Kenan’s walk-on was actually pretty funny.
Stars: ***
Miscellaneous - Rowlf & The Swedish Chef
• I thought this would be great when it started. Seeing Rogen and the castmembers as the Muppets was cute and funny, it was nice seeing Samberg as Swedish Chef again (the puppet hands they always give him are a good touch), and Hader as Animal was just awesome. This had potential to be a classic in a similar vein of the Timberlake/Kermit sketch, but they didn’t really do anything with it. They just dressed up as the Muppets and sang, and then that was it. No real joke or spice added to it. Very underwhelming. It should’ve gone much further.
Stars: **1/2
Musical Performance
Sketch - Mad Joe Dixon
• When this started out with all the innuendos/double ententres, I thought it would be a rip-off of Colonel Angus. But then Rogen kept talking about wanting Maya’s “pie” and I was reminded of the Mountain Man sketch with Matthew Fox. Then it just turned into complete junior high humor with Rogen talking about his balls and Maya talking about taking a dump in lunch boxes. I mean, I kinda chuckled here and there, but this was really low-brow without any cleverness to back it up. And the explanation behind Mad Joe Dixon’s name at the end was just lame. Weak sketch to end the show with.
Stars: **
_______________________________
Show Highlights
• 2007 National Douchebag Championships
• “Little” Twins
• Weekend Update
• MacGruber
• Hader as Animal
Show Lowlights
• Mad Joe Dixon
• Monologue, minus Hader as Steven Seagal
• Rowlf & The Swedish Chef
Best Performer(s) of the Night
• Bill Hader, Fred Armisen
FINAL THOUGHTS
Like last week’s show, there were mostly good sketches with nothing really horrible. A couple of tonight’s sketches moves this slightly ahead of last week’s show. There was a downhill slide after Update, though. Seth Rogen was a good host like I expected, but at the same time, I also wanted a little more out of him. He was mostly given funny roles and did just fine in them, but I was expecting him to do more crazy, disturbing stuff similar to the Twins sketch.
Overall Grade: ***
CASTMEMBER COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 7 sketches (Ultrasound, Douchebag Championships, Twins, Fred Thompson, Update, America's First Colonists, Rowlf & The Swedish Chef)
FORTE: 6 sketches (Douchebag Championships, MacGruber #1, Twins, MacGruber #2, MacGruber #3, America's First Colonists)
HADER: 5 sketches (Monologue, Douchebag Championships, Twins, America's First Colonists, Rowlf & The Swedish Chef)
HAMMOND: 2 sketches (Fred Thompson, Update)
MEYERS: 1 sketch (Update)
POEHLER: 4 sketches (Douchebag Championships, Twins, Update, America's First Colonists)
RUDOLPH: 6 sketches (MacGruber #1, Twins, MacGruber #2, MacGruber #3, Rowlf & The Swedish Chef, Mad Joe Dixon)
SAMBERG: 3 sketches (Kevin Federline, Douchebag Championships, Rowlf & The Swedish Chef)
SUDEIKIS: 4 sketches (Ultrasound, Douchebag Championships, Twins, America's First Colonists)
THOMPSON: 3 sketches (Kevin Federline, Update, America's First Colonists)
WIIG: 5 sketches (Ultrasound HD, Twins, MacGruber #2, America's First Colonists, Mad Joe Dixon)
SETH ROGEN: 9 sketches (Monologue, Douchebag Championships, MacGruber #1, Twins, MacGruber #2, MacGruber #3, America's First Colonists, Rowlf & The Swedish Chef, Mad Joe Dixon)