Welcome to the sixth in my series of articles about Saturday Night Live. For those who are wondering whether my threat about checking out TALKSHOW with Spike Feresten was empty, I finally got a chance to tape it recently. A review is forthcoming, as is a MADtv review. Yay for variety!
Also, Al Barger and El Bicho will duel banjos later on tonight. Should be fun.
I'm glad to see SNL continually improving this season. I'm really not that choosy, despite my constant and irritating threats to the contrary. Give me a concept that entertains me and some good writing and I'll enjoy the show. SNL is getting better at doing that this year.
I assumed Jack Black was going to figure into a sketch to prop a mediocre show. Instead, Tenacious D are the best musical guest so far this year and Matthew Fox did a credible job of hosting. That's a good thing - it shows that the show is finding itself and can stand up on its own even if the host isn't that great.
I'd still like to see a grindcore band on SNL, but do you hear me complaining about the anthropomorphic representation of metal smiting all other musics? I know Tenacious D are a comedy band, but they simultaneously took the piss out of and played some decent metal. The D are also good at small details like Jack Black sticking at least three picks in his foam microphone grip. They added to the show instead of outright stealing it, and Tenacious D have the power to steal a show by force of will. Tenacious D deserved to be musical guests and they piqued my interest in their film Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny. I can't ask more from a musical guest than that.
I might be too hard on Maya Rudolph as I've actually enjoyed her performances lately. I ride her pretty hard and I think I'm overreacting in doing so. Her Whitney Houston this week was solid. I don't like her as much as I do cast members like Will Forte or Jason Sudeikis, but she does have a good range and I'm starting to actually see that.
What was with the constant references to Michael Richards during the night, anyway? I know why he was in the news - threatening to hang anyone upside down by a fork up one's ass is disturbing, never mind the racial angle - but devoting part of a monologue, part of a Nancy Grace sketch and a Weekend Update segment to Richards is overkill for what I feel is a relatively unimportant news item. All this attention on Richards and Danny DeVito's drunken ramblings on The View rates one throwaway WU joke? Bill Hader did play a great Richards-as-Kramer, though, so SNL got something good out of the meme.
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Article comments
1 - Dave
2 - Schenny
Tenacious D is NOT a comedy act...did you even watch the performance last night? And you're completely wrong with Will Forte. But I must agree with you on Whitney Houston.
To Cameron Archer, you're 100% right with Tenacious D, they ruled the show.
3 - Vern Halen
More real than Spinal Tap, anyway.........
4 - Lono
indeed, that deep house dish skit is terrible every time. it is a one time premise that is being beaten into the ground.
the D were good, but they killed me my doing Kickapoo. I kept thinking Meatloaf or Dio would pop up in a cameo to do their parts of the song.
That mountain man pie bit was terrific. I like seeing them free up the skit genre a bit. Frankly, the D should have been musical guest and host. Fox did great though, I really enjoyed the elavator sketch... especially since I am a rabid 'Lost' fan.
In a totally unrelated comment, last week I was in NYC for the first time and did the Rockefeller Center tour. I got to see the SNL studio in person and it was pretty friggin' exciting. I also learned why I never get to see the show. The pages who led the tour said they get 20,000 ticket requests per season and can honor only 2,000 of them.
5 - Al Barger
Tenacious D is certainly a comedy act- and also fairly serious music, which is what gives the comedy artistic weight. Frank Zappa, Homer and Jethro, and Spike Jones come to mind similarly.
I've been somewhat a Tenacious D skeptic, but those songs, musical performances and outstanding clever choreography pretty well sold me. They work as both participatory tribute and also as parody of the heavy metal form. Comparing it to similar comedy/musical SNL creatures, I'd probably take those two songs head to head with anything from the Blues Brothers or Spinal Tap. Principally, this is because there's some actual serious compositional musical craft there.
Also, really good musical comedy act like Tenacious D underscores the weakness of something like the Deep House Dish. The heart of the sketch is the parody of house music. They successfully offer the genre up for ridicule- but there's very little musically to the SNL parody acts. There's far more music to either of the Tenacious D songs than to every DHD parody combined.
I will heartily defend the multiple Michael Richards references on grounds of humor. I don't know that being an "important story" is particularly a requirement for successful humor. But not just Michael Richards, but also the reactions to his nonsense are ripe humor fruit. Nancy Grace explaining to the black professor about how he's a victim of Michael Richards because he saw the story on tv - that's the hardest I've laughed at anything not on South Park in awhile.
Also, I want to give a special plug to the opening press conference with the Iraqi prime minister. That was really well written, with the exquisitely detailed inadequacies of the Iraqi defense forces. This would be dark enough in hue to satisfy even the evil Mr Mike.
6 - Czar of Entertainment
Has there ever been a sketch performer who gets more time with less talent than Kristin Wiig? Her "Aunt Linda" role is irritating not because it's funny, but because she's probably not acting.
7 - Cameron A.
Has there ever been a sketch performer who gets more time with less talent than Kristin Wiig?
Chevy Chase. End of discussion.
Seriously, though, I don't mind Wiig. I think she's a better actor than castmembers like Thompson, Samberg and Seth Meyers. I will agree that Aunt Linda isn't a good character, since it's somewhat one-note at this point - she takes apart a film, rates it a sound of disgust and repeats the process a few times. It is a relatively new character, though, so maybe she'll go somewhere with it.