Scarlett Johansson / Bjork
April 21, 2007
RATING SYSTEM:
***** - Future classic
**** - Almost perfect
*** - Average in every way
** - Eh
* - Is this 1994-95 again?
COLD OPENING: President Bush Press Conference
- The CSPAN intro was very funny.
- Overall this wasn’t bad and Sudeikis’ Bush is still very good, but these Bush openings always feel like they need a bit of a touch up before going on the air. Mainly, this one needed to be shortened because it went too long.
- Funniest parts were Sudeikis talking about the Brainteasers book and Kristen’s long list.
- I almost thought Kristen was going to say LFNY when she interrupted Bush from saying it, but then they showed a pre-taped Charles Schumer saying LFNY, which was really strange.
RATING: ***
MONOLOGUE: Scarlett Johansson
- The stuff at the beginning with Scarlett talking about New York was good.
- Samberg as Sanjaya was a welcome return. But I was disappointed to see this turn into another musical monologue, pretty much just like Scarlett’s last time hosting. This one was a little funnier, though, thanks to Sanjaya, but they also could've done much more with him.
- I wonder how he got those huge wigs on so fast, though.
RATING: **
SKETCH: Live with Regis and Kelly
- They haven’t done Regis and Kelly in a long time, I think since ‘04.
- This was alright, but slowed down a bit with the Ivanka Trump interview. The funniest stuff was at the beginning with the talk of Regis’ return and the cut-aways to Armisen as Howie Mandell.
RATING: ***
SKETCH: Mrs. Hastings and Step-Daughter
- Here we go again with this character, which was never funny to begin with. Kenan in drag sometimes amuses me, but not in this context. And how many different white step-daughters is this character supposed to have anyway? This is her third or fourth one in just one year.
RATING: *
DIGITAL SHORT: Roy Rules!
- I heard about this getting cut many times before. It didn’t sound too funny to me from the description and I’m usually not big on the shorts where Samberg’s the only castmember performing, but this one was just hilarious. All the lyrics about Roy, the 24/7 69 comment, the revelation of “Roy” being played by someone else, and Samberg’s freeze-frame ending were all awesome.
RATING: ****1/2
SKETCH/COMMERCIAL: Mike’s Marbleopolis
- Before tonight’s show, I was thinking about which of Scarlett’s characters from her show last season might be brought back on tonight’s show, but I came up with nothing. I see I was wrong.
- I never thought they’d bring the Chandelier sketch back again, especially since Rachel Dratch played Armisen’s wife in the first one and she’s not on anymore. But since she barely spoke in that one, I guess they thought it was easy to do it without her.
- Despite this being an exact carbon-copy of the Chandelier sketch (they even had Kenan sitting at a table eating dinner like the first one) Armisen’s performance once again saved this from completely failing. The way he was saying “marble column” never stopped cracking me up.
RATING: **
SKETCH: Bi-Curious News Reporter
- As soon as this started with Sudeikis as the news anchor, I immediately knew this was going to be that same news reporter sketch from the Jaime Pressly show. Like the Chandelier/marble column sketch, I never would’ve guessed before that this would be done again. I wouldn’t have minded seeing this character again if they made the sketch a lot different this time instead of basically reusing the same script from the original.
- There were still a few funny comments from Kristen, though, and Sudeikis’ deadpan reactions back at the studio were good. And I admit I liked the idea of Kristen and Scarlett together. But this sketch just didn’t work anywhere near as well as the first time. And that bizarre cat attack at the end was a pathetic attempt at trying to top the ending from the first one with the bird crapping on her shoulder.
- Was the “WIIX News” title supposed to be a play on Wiig’s name?
RATING: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WEEKEND UPDATE: Poehler & Meyers, with Will Forte
- I think this was the first time that Seth started Update by telling the first joke.
- Was it just me or did Amy’s hair look different from how it usually looks on Update?
- Best jokes: Earth Day, Woolworth’s, Cuddle Parties, Coney Island fragrance, Law and Order
- The “Really?!?” segment with Alberto Gonzales was great, just as good as the first one.
- Another Forte Update song! This one was hilarious as all of his songs are.
RATING: ****
SKETCH: Quato
- Oh, you have gotta be kidding me. Originality must have taken a vacation this week. Why in the world is this awful sketch being done again? And why is this yet ANOTHER recurring sketch brought back from the Jaime Pressly episode? Tonight alone had THREE from that episode, and a few weeks ago with Peyton Manning they brought back the cider sketch (although that was funny, so I’m not really complaining about that one). Why are they trying to replicate an episode that was already very bad? Thank god they ended this episode before we wound up getting a second installment of Big Wigs.
- At first, I was wondering why Maya (who has barely appeared on tonight’s show, BTW) or Amy’s role wasn’t played by Scarlett, until Maya mentioned she has a Quato, too, then I saw where this was going. I guess Scarlett as the female Quato was supposed to make this funnier or more original, but it didn’t at all. And the vomit ending actually made things even worse. And of course, they WOULD have to end this by once again sticking in Hammond’s god-awful Arnold Schwarzenegger impression for no good reason at all. This whole sketch was just an all-around disaster.
RATING: *
SKETCH: News Makers with Jane Pauley
- Kristen’s sarcastic comment about the Today Show at the beginning was good, as was her questioning the bad puns she read off the teleprompter.
- Kenan’s interview as the mini mall guy started slow, but the sketch got better as it went along.
- Armisen as the dancing Indian midget was hilarious and stole the entire sketch.
- Scarlett as the grape-stomping lady was pretty funny.
- Good ending with Forte as the Star Wars kid.
RATING: ***1/2
TV FUNHOUSE: Torboto
- Weird seeing a TV Funhouse so late in the show. Usually the ones put on this close to the goodnights aren’t too good, but this one didn’t turn out to be bad at all.
- Funniest parts were the rabbi/facial hart part and the robot demonstrating “the Cheney”. Overall, this was a little similar to Smigel’s other cartoon, Shazzang (which I still don’t understand why so many people hated).
RATING: ***1/2
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
___________________________
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
- Roy Rules!
- Weekend Update
- TV Funhouse
- News Makers with Jane Pauley
SHOW LOWLIGHTS:
- Quato
- Mrs. Hastings and Step-Daughter
- Curious News Reporter
- Monologue
FINAL THOUGHTS:
A very disappointing show. I didn’t really care for Scarlett’s show last season, but this one was even worse. A huge overload on recurring sketches (all of which either weren’t funny in the first place or was better as a one-shot sketch), and a low amount of creativity and originality. This was the lazy type of writing that SNL has a bad habit of resorting to, when they bring back a sketch and change almost nothing from the first installment, except for a few minor things here and there. The better sketches tonight actually seemed to be towards the end, and as usual the digital short was the best thing in the whole show. As much as I usually like Scarlett, I think she just needs to stay away from SNL because neither of her two episodes were good at all.
I hope SNL returns to form soon, but with me being very anti-Molly Shannon (I’ve been dreading the day that she would host ever since her departure from the show in 2001; I couldn't STAND her during her later seasons), I’m really not looking forward to the next live show. Geesh, no wonder they’re airing "The Best of 06-07" so early.
TONIGHT’S RATING: **
CASTMEMBER/HOST COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 5 sketches (Live with Regis and Kelly, Mike’s Marbleopolis, Weekend Update, Quato, News Makers with Jane Pauley)
FORTE: 3 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Weekend Update, News Makers with Jane Pauley)
HADER: 5 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Live with Regis and Kelly, Mrs. Hastings and Step-Daughter, Quato, News Makers with Jane Pauley)
HAMMOND: 2 sketches (Live with Regis and Kelly, Quato)
MEYERS: 1 sketches (Weekend Update)
POEHLER: 4 sketches (Live with Regis and Kelly, Mike’s Marbleopolis, Weekend Update, Quato)
RUDOLPH: 2 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Quato)
SAMBERG: 3 sketches (Monologue, Roy Rules!, Quato)
SUDEIKIS: 3 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Mike’s Marbleopolis, Bi-Curious News Reporter)
THOMPSON: 4 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Mrs. Hastings and Step-Daughter, Mike’s Marbleopolis, News Makers with Jane Pauley)
WIIG: 4 sketches (President Bush Press Conference, Monologue, Bi-Curious News Reporter, News Makers with Jane Pauley)
SCARLETT JOHANSSON: 7 sketches (Monologue, Live with Regis and Kelly, Mrs. Hastings and Step-Daughter, Mike’s Marbleopolis, Bi-Curious News Reporter, Quato, News Makers with Jane Pauley)