This week, Saturday Night Live was thrown for a bit of a loop when pregnant cast member Amy Poehler went into labor only hours before show time. Poehler's unexpected absence may have meant less sketches for the night, but Coldplay fans got a bonus. The band performed a third song ("Yellow") at the end of the show. Initially, Poehler had originally planned to only stay on the show through the presidential election. With Poehler leaving a week earlier than planned, last Thursday's "Weekend Update" election special is the last we'll see of her as a regular cast member.
Cold Open - "Biden/Murtha Rally" (Grade D)
Election humor has given SNL its highest ratings in years, and rightfully so. For the most part the humor has been witty and funny, and has given the show a relevancy I thought was long lost. But, there have been a few misses, and this sketch was one of them. The political humor works best when they keep it as close to the real thing as they can, with exaggeration used in just the right places to make it funny. This sketch took one real remark from each person (Biden's "Obama will be tested" and Murtha's "they are racist") and then created a bunch of fake remarks that were so far from the real people there was no humor in them. The sketch was also excruciatingly long.
Opening Monologue - Jon Hamm (Grade B)
I have to admit I have never seen Mad Men, and I did not know who Jon Hamm was before watching this episode. In a way I like watching hosts I'm not familiar with because I have absolutely no expectations for how well (or not well) they will do. The writers seemed well aware that Hamm is on a show not widely watched because the monologue revolved around trying to draw in more viewers for Mad Men. I thought the writing was fairly clever in saying Mad Men is a combination of elements of a bunch of very popular television shows. To top all that off, Hamm said both Barack Obama and John McCain would be guests on the next episode.
"Adult Trick-Or-Treater" (Grade C-)
In this sketch, Will Forte played an adult who was trick-or-treating dressed as a "sex-offender." Really, I just wasn't sure the material was all that funny. I got the joke - he's saying he's just dressing up, but not denying he is one. There weren't enough funny lines to make me forget they were talking about something that is actually a very serious and troubling subject.
SNL Digital Short - "Rasta Man" (Grade B-)
You hear the word Rastafarian and you think dreadlocks, Jamaica, Bob Marley, and of course bongs. This digital short was all those clichés put to song - with Samberg (looking a bit like Jason Castro) rapping about the joys of the lifestyle. I wasn't sure if Samberg was making fun of those clichés or paying tribute, but there were a few funny moments in this one. My favorite part of the short was that he had a video of the movie Cool Runnings.
Article comments
1 - Jesse
Familiarity with Mad Men would have undoubtedly increased your ability to find humor in this episode. This is my first time reading this site's reviews of SNL and I found it enjoyable, but difficult to establish a frame of reference. For example, if you are going to categorically describe each skit with a letter grade (as opposed to pure prose), some objective benchmarks seem to be required. Without any, the review feels arbitrary.
In other words, what does an "A" skit have that a "C" skit doesn't. This does not need to be specified explicitly to the reader, but my sense is the author hasn't established these guidelines for themselves and this accounts for my feeling of inconsistency on a skit-by-skit basis.
Secondly, regarding the toilet humor, it's easy to dismiss this kind of comedy. But to do so in a way that suggests the show has reached some sort of last resort or act of desperation is difficult to justify and imparts additional subjectivity. This is a special brand of humor that not everyone enjoys. Just as a wine critic who has a personal distaste for chablis should refrain from offering an opinion, so too should the television critic that does not find humor in bodily functions. Declaring a piece "juvenile" feels dismissive and seems to lack effort.
Despite the above suggestions, I think your opinion of the recurring characters and sketches are right on. Kristen Wiig is very funny, but has certainly missed on a few roles. A recurring sketch is ripe for criticism because patterns of success or failure become apparent after two or three attempts. The unfortunate "MacGruber" bit is another example.
I also agree that the "Fartface" sketch from a few weeks back was poor, but not because of the sordid humor. More for what I'd call a lack of imagination surrounding the boring, but interminable, catch phrase.