RATINGS SYSTEM

***** = Excellent, a possible future classic

**** = Great

*** = Average

** = Meh

* = How'd this get past dress?

 

Cold Opening - Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen

• A non-political cold opening! This was a decent format they chose to parody Charlie Sheen, although I wish they used something outside of the cliché talk show format. Still, this sketch worked just fine so I can’t complain.

• I knew even before the show that Bill Hader would be perfect to play Sheen, and his impression did not disappoint.

• Glad the show came to its senses and rightfully gave the Christina Aguilera impression back to Abby.

• Nice way to work in the John Galliano controversy as well.

• Loved how the fan mail ended up being from Gary Busey.

Stars: ***½

 

Monologue - Miley Cyrus

• The reference to the Miley Cyrus Show theme lyrics at the beginning completely bombed.

• I wanted to like the song, but I’m so burned out on these cookie-cutter song-and-dance monologues that the show relies way too much on. This felt like an exact cross between the Bryan Cranston and Dwayne Johnson monologues.

• One positive thing I can say is at least the song was kept short.

Stars: **

 

Sketch - Our Time! with Taboo and apl.De.ap

• Surprise surprise - yet another “talk show hosted by a celebrity” sketch. But the premise of this and the desperation from Kenan and Andy kept things fairly amusing. This sketch had potential to get old fast, but they thankfully managed to avoid that and got enough laughs for the duration.

• All the jokes about Taboo were pretty funny, such as the Japanese ghost line and him on the cover of Vaguely Asian magazine.

Stars: ***

 

Sketch - The Essentials presents: The Sound of Music

• I had to groan at this being the billionth Turner Classic Movies sketch this season alone, then I groaned even more when I realized this was going to be an uncreative variation of the Wizard of Oz sketch from earlier this season, only with Fred playing a stereotypical Mexican this time instead of a stereotypical Jew. Either way, this whole sketch was absolutely nothing we hadn’t seen before. As if we needed more fuel added to the “Fred Armisen needs to leave the show ASAP” fire.

• Has anyone else noticed that these TCM sketches always seem to end with a character looking into the camera and saying the title of the film? Fred said it at the end of this and The Wizard of Oz, and Andy said it at the end of This You Call a Wonderful Life.

Stars: *

 

Commercial - Disney Channel Acting School

• I’m surprised this is the first time Kenan has ever played Raven Symone. I’ve been saying for years that Kenan was born to do an impression of her on SNL.

• An accurate and pretty funny parody of typical Disney Channel shows, particularly the bit about being the loudest person in the room. The few times I’ve caught glimpses of Disney Channel shows over the last few years, the thing that bugged me the most was the LOUD voices from everyone.

Stars: ***

 

Sketch - The Miley Cyrus Show

• Astounding nobody at all is the appearance of this sketch tonight. I’m just surprised this didn’t show up earlier in the episode.

• Miley as Justin Bieber was a completely predictable choice, although I give her credit for doing a very accurate impression and at least they TRIED to make fun of him.

• The Darrell Hammond reference was interesting.

• Loved the cutaway to Taran as the Swagger Coach.

Stars: **½

 

Weekend Update - Seth Meyers, featuring The Devil, Anthony Crispino

• Best jokes: New iPad, Mom Prom

• The Winners/Losers segment should’ve been shortened a bit, but overall it was pretty good and had some funny observations.

• Nice to see Jason return as The Devil again. He’s perfect for this role and always gets big laughs from his great delivery and charisma in these, even if he had no lines tonight that stood out as particularly strong.

• Second-Hand News Correspondent - meh, same stuff as usual, although I chuckled at the ad-lib about Bobby’s voice getting higher pitched.

Stars: ***

 

Sketch - Les Jeunes de Paris

• Wow... while the original installment from earlier this season grew on me after repeated viewings, I did not expect this to become recurring at all. And did it really need to be recurring? The original would’ve been much better standing alone as a one-off experimental piece.

• While this wasn’t as strong the second time around, I still enjoyed the bizarreness and perfectly-timed physical comedy of tonight’s installment, which is something I always have to appreciate even if these Les Jeunes de Paris sketches aren’t exactly side-splitting comedy.

• My biggest laughs from this installment came from Taran stuffing the crepes in his mouth in time to the music, and Andy’s mime character.

Stars: ***

 

Commercial - Beastly

• Odd technical error at the beginning.

• Really, this again? So now Andy’s grotesque movie trailer character is recurring, after he made his first appearance only two episodes ago??? This is just ridiculous.

• This character’s first appearance wasn’t all that funny and neither was this. However, I will admit that the ending with Andy saying the wrong movie title was so retarded that I couldn’t help but kinda chuckle in spite of myself.

Stars: *½

 

Sketch - Rock-a-Billy Lady Party / Moisturizing Facial Cream

• Nothing much to say about this. At least this was an original non-recurring sketch (having said that, just watch them bring this sketch back later this season), but the premise was lame and very dull, and the sketch as a whole just dragged on and on. Not really any big laughs at all here.

Stars: *½

 

Sketch - Cruise Singer

• I’ve never been a big fan of these types of cheesy lounge singer sketches unless it involves Bill Murray. Put Miley Cyrus in the lead singer role and you have the recipe for a dull, forgettable 12:50 sketch. I will admit that Miley did give a fine performance and I guess this kind of sketch is acceptable in this late time slot, but it felt like this could’ve been much funnier.

• My only laughs came from Taran’s grouchy character and Vanessa requesting “My Heart Will Go On” by Titanic. Speaking of Taran’s character, didn’t that seem like a role that normally would’ve gone to Jason? I think this is further proof that Taran’s being groomed to become the new Sudeikis of the cast after Jason’s departure, which I STILL think will be at the end of this season, regardless of what Jason said in that recent interview. The real fact is, dude has a promising movie career ahead of him and he knows it. Also, remember that last year in May, Will Forte said he was definitely returning to SNL for the 2010-11 season... look what ended up happening there.

• Did this sketch get cut off mid-progress at the end? It faded out VERY abruptly and it looked like Miley was going to continue speaking right as she got cut off.

Stars: **

 

Commercial - Gurney Month on CBS

• I’m pretty sure I remember hearing this got cut from a recent episode.

• A pretty forgettable and tame satire of CBS programming that failed to be very funny or hard-hitting.

• Only part I really cared for was the quick reference to the current Two and a Half Men controversy, which obviously must’ve been a last-minute addition to this.

Stars: **½

 

_________________________________________________________

 

Episode Highlights:

• Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen

• parts of Weekend Update

• the physical performances in Les Jeunes de Paris

 

Episode Lowlights:

• The Sound of Music

• Beastly

• Rock-a-Billy Lady Party / Moisturizing Facial Cream

 

Best Performer of the Night:

• Taran Killam

 

CASTMEMBER / HOST COUNT DOWN

ARMISEN: 2 sketches (Duh Winning, Sound of Music)

ELLIOTT: 6 sketches (Duh Winning, Our Time, Sound of Music, Disney Channel, Les Jeunes de Paris, Cruise Singer)

HADER: 2 sketches (Duh Winning, Sound of Music)

MEYERS: 1 sketch (Update)

MOYNIHAN: 6 sketches (Monologue, Sound of Music, Disney Channel, Update, Les Jeunes de Paris, Cruise Singer)

SAMBERG: 3 sketches (Our Time, Les Jeunes de Paris, Beastly)

SUDEIKIS: 3 sketches (Sound of Music, Miley Cyrus Show, Update)

THOMPSON: 3 sketches (Our Time, Disney Channel, Cruise Singer)

WIIG: 4 sketches (Monologue, Sound of Music, Facial Cream, Cruise Singer)

 

BAYER: 3 sketches (Sound of Music, Miley Cyrus Show, Cruise Singer)

BRITTAIN: 4 sketches (Disney Channel, Les Jeunes de Paris, Beastly, Cruise Singer)

KILLAM: 6 sketches (Duh Winning, Sound of Music, Disney Channel, Miley Cyrus Show, Les Jeunes de Paris, Cruise Singer)

PEDRAD: 3 sketches (Sound of Music, Les Jeunes de Paris, Beastly)

PHAROAH: 1 sketch (Our Time)

 

MILEY CYRUS: 10 sketches (Duh Winning, Monologue, Our Time, Sound of Music, Disney Channel, Miley Cyrus Show, Les Jeunes de Paris, Beastly, Facial Cream, Cruise Singer)

Back to Season 36 (2010-11)