"The Charles Barkley Show" (Grade: D)
The talk show has been a long time standby for SNL. "Wayne's World," "Coffee Talk," "The Church Lady," "Black Perspective, "Pretty Living," " Jarret's Room," and "The Prince Show" are all just a few in a long line of SNL talk shows. This one just does not work all that well. The main problem is that there is not really any reason why a Charles Barkley talk show would be funny, and Kenan Thompson (as Barkley) gives the audience no reason to think otherwise. This is a fairly mundane sketch that completely relies on the strength of the guests. In this case Darrell Hammond did a decent Bela Karolyi. Michael Phelps appeared as himself.
"T-Mobile" (Grade: B-)
This sketch gives us a glimpse of what happens next in the already funny T-Mobile commercial where the sister is mad because her brother put all her friends in his cell phone "top five." When the girl complains to her parents, her dad replies "maybe you shouldn't have such hot friends." That is where the real commercial ends. In this sketch the wife is angry that the husband thinks the friends are hot, and long story short, the sketch ends with the husband moving out of the house. There is some funny dialogue between the husband and wife. This was a good sketch idea, it worked pretty well.
SNL Digital Short - "Space Olympics" (Grade: B-)
I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of the digital shorts. Aside from the original "Lazy Sunday," I haven't found them to be all that funny. I do like that Andy Samberg (the primary force behind the shorts) tries to come up with absurd ideas and they do bring something different to the show. In this one it is the future and the Olympics apparently take place on some other planet. Samberg sings the Space Olympics theme song throughout the short film. The joke is that despite the elaborate theme song, nothing about the Olympics goes right. Everything is a complete disaster.
"Uno's" (Grade: F)
This sketch was pretty much a non-idea. Basically some people are ordering food and the waiter - played by newcomer Bobby Moynihan - keeps saying he smells peppers. That's it. Not much else happened.
Article comments
1 - Jayne
Other than the opening Sarah Palin skit, this was one of the worst SNLs EVER! The writing was just awful, and god love him, Michael Phelps is a nice guy but totally out of his element (water). I've been a fan of SNL since the very first show -- through good times and bad -- and I really believe this one was the worst.
2 - Jake
I agree, the show was very predictable and almost boring. I would score some of the scenes a little differently. For example the Space Olympics short was awful, in my opinion, where as the Gloves scene was far fetched but much more funny. SNL really has fallen from grace, its sad.
3 - LaurenF
Bobby did great on Saturday. It's tough to make repertory but he's well on his way.
On another funny note, National Talk Like A Pirate Day is tomorrow, 9/19.