It's funny how hosts of Saturday Night Live earn their reputations. Former SNL director Beth McCarthy-Miller holds Justin Timberlake up as her favourite guest. He was responsible for one of the stronger shows of the post-Ferrell period.
Timberlake's first show still holds up as one of the more surprising hosting stints in recent years; picking him as both host and musical guest the first time felt like stunt casting, but here he is hosting the pre-Christmas show. Will Barry Gibb Talk Show be exhumed for another go-round? Will Timberlake return to Omeletteville and beat up more Muppets? How much singing is going to be in this episode?
The answer to all of these questions is "E.G. Daily." That's right, the payoff to my buildup is a non-sequitur. I like E.G. Daily.
"Santa's My Boyfriend" - A surprisingly good song to open the show. The female cast members singing (and well at that) reminds me of the Chevy's Girls sketch from SNL's second season. This is actually one of the better Christmas songs coming from Saturday Night Live in recent years and might be future SNL Christmas special material.
Notice how the best cold openings this year aren't overly political in nature? I know the cold opening has been traditionally about politics, and maybe that's a tradition that needs to die a quick and painful death.
Monologue - Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Andy Samberg play Alvin, Simon, and Theodore while Justin Timberlake acts as their Dave. That's right, it's 2006 and grown men are wearing Chipmunks costumes and singing in falsettos. This opening was better than it had any right to be (and purely for Hader breaking the fourth wall every so often), but this was the second of many excuses to have people sing.
"Return to Omeletteville Homelessville" - At this point in the show the only people who haven't sung anything are Darrell Hammond, Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, and Kenan Thompson.
This was a retread of the Omeletteville sketch from Timberlake's first hosting stint. It wasn't horrible, but seeing this variation of it makes me wonder why it's considered classic by some. It's just Timberlake wearing a food-derived costume and reworking rap songs. The studio audience went nuts for it, but they were going nuts for anything Timberlake was doing.
"Target Greatland" - While I like Kristen Wiig, I hate when she plays quirky, Cheri Oteri-esque characters like the Target Greatland clerk. It just doesn't seem like the best use of her talents and the Target Greatland character just isn't that funny. Justin Timberlake does what he can here, but this felt like the typical SNL recurring sketch.
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Article comments
1 - Al Barger
Brother Cameron, you're being a bit Grinch-like with your niggardly praise for this fine Christmas show. Dry eyes and the Target sketch were a little weak, but pretty much everything else was quite fine.
I particularly dug the Nancy Grace sketch. You didn't seem to pick up on her basic argument about the struggles and hardship of all those poor women making false rape accusations. She was riffing on that beautifully. Poehler's Nancy Grace will run right up or may even past Hammond's Chris Matthews- and that's high praise.
The Barry Gibb Talk Show is a particularly welcome reprise. It's not just Barry Gibb threatening to beat people up - though I did get special satisfaction from seeing him threatening to kick Sandra Day O'Connor's ass. But Fallon's creating a character, this old cokehead falsetto disco singer who's from the STREET!
Also, I'm not sure if it's an all-time SNL classic, but the Cock in a Box was excellent, and there was more than one joke to it. First off, it's actually a pretty good song, and a good parody of the really bad end of loverman r&b. Plus, they had, you know, a cock in a box.
2 - James Donaldson
Cameron Archer - You're just another SNL hater, huh? Do you have a sense of humor? Dick in a box is an instant classic. For you to say, "This is going to add more fuel to the "please cancel SNL" fire, being as it is a literal one-joke sketch centered around a literal penis in a box," is absurd. That sketch happens to be one of the greatest things ever to air on SNL. Have you seen old SNL sketches? A lot of the so-called "classic" sketches rely heavily on one-joke material. For instance, take a look at the sketch featuring Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks at their 10 year reunion. Also, take a look at Wayne's World - Dick in a Box is 100 times funnier than Wayne's World. Wayne's World sketch is considered one of the greatest moments on SNL because of the success the feature film had. SNL is still hilarious and will always be hilarious. Happy Kwanza!
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
I've heard good things about dick-in-a-box.
...wait a sec...
4 - Cameron A.
I didn't say I hated "Dick in a Box," I should point that out. I realize I come across as sounding like I'm really down on it, but I was referring to people that would look at the sketch and figure that this is the only way SNL gets attention/a laugh nowadays.
Strangely enough, "dick in a box" on Google Blogsearch earns an overwhelmingly positive response. I'm really up on the zeitgeist, I am.
As for this week's Barger comment, I'll admit to not following the news story that the Nancy Grace sketch is based on. I still think the payoff to the sketch was essentially "DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS SHOULD FRYYYY." Her monologue took a long time to get to that point.
5 - Colton
I think cock in a box was the funniest vvideo ever aired on SNL.
6 - Al Barger
Cameron, you don't seem to have gotten this Nancy Grace sketch. The main point was her call for sympathy for the especially difficult plight of women who make fake accusations of rape, such as the stripper in the Duke case. I'm tellin' ya, this one will reward your effort to follow the details of her rap when it re-runs.
Still though, I want to note that I appreciate your general approach of intending to be critical of the show, and not just gushing on like a cheesy fanboy every week like this new show is the greatest episode ever. I appreciate your general effort to hold this venerable show up to critical standards.
7 - HonestObserver
Will "Dick in a Box" be this season's "Lazy Sunday"? And have we, as a society, truly gone so downhill in little less than a year?
8 - Tonya
I thought the SNL Show sketch with Justin Timberlake, was down right hilarious! However, Carmen Archer has it wrong. The sketch was not "parodying R&B effectively". As a R&B listener, I know that there are variety of forms of R&B. Any informed music listener knows that one song cannot parody R&B (for it has too many forms styles and substyles). The sketch was just what it was: it was parodying two smarmy guys who wanted to give their women d****s in boxes. Carmeny, educate yourself about R&B before you offhandedly condemn R&B by your comments.
9 - Al Barger
Tonya, the Dick in a Box is certainly an r&b parody- though of course r&b is a big territory. It certainly has nothing to do with Ray Charles or Aretha Franklin. Brother Cameron was perhaps just not specific enough.
I wouldn't take it as intending "condemnation" but there's definitely an identifiable strain of modern boy group/loverman r&b being spoofed. The ridiculous faux romantic vulgarity of Pretty Ricky comes to mind.
10 - Cameron A.
Color Me Badd is the band "Dick in a Box" is being most compared to stylistically, but I'm not exactly sure what style of R&B is being parodied here. That's why I was being vague.
Interesting side note: there's a number of people claiming that "Dick in a Box" is essentially Three Times One Minus One's "Ronnie & Kayla's Love Song" from Run Ronnie Run redux. The Annette Bening episode also had a sketch at least one person on the SNL forums claims was taken from Night of Too Many Stars.
11 - tcandew
ehh, Dick in a Box is by far the best satire of early 90s R&B ever (even better than Dave Chappelle's "Piss On You"). They get so many things right, the spot on cheesy simple dance steps, the corny deep voiced spoken word breakdown. its Shai, H-Town, Jodeci, Color Me Badd, Boyz II Men, Bobby Brown, Jon B, and its done to perfection, the get the small nuances just right.
12 - bob
bill is great
13 - Evan
i hate Justin Timberlake his new cd future sex love sounds is only for mature aduiance i got Elton Johns new cd the captain and the kid
14 - Victoria
I hate Justin Timberlake so much because he is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dirty but I think he is very sexy and dresses nicely.
15 - krista and paige
ummm first of All the barry gibb tALK SHOW WAS incredible!! JIMMY FALLON IS THE BEST CAST MEMBER SNL HAS EVER HAD AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO LIKE HIM (I DONT SEE WHY) AND this episode was HILARIOUS!! and dick in a box was a classic...sorry you dont understand comedy! by the way you are really missing out by not loving jimmy fallon and justin timberlake!!