Sunday, October 5, 2008

Saturday Night Live – 10/4/08

The opening vice presidential debate was better than expected. Jason Sudeikis was a pretty good Joe Biden and he nailed the inappropriate smile and the conflicted feelings about John McCain. Tina Fey’s dismantling of Sarah Palin continues – it’s either very hilarious or pretty amusing – depending on your politics. Host Anne Hathaway making fun of her love life in her monologue made it the best of the season so far. It didn’t hurt it’s also been the shortest one . . .
After Barack Obama seemingly has the election won, SNL finally allows itself to be intellectually honest in the C-SPAN sketch when Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank acknowledge that Democrats were the ones who refused to regulate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae despite the Bush Administration’s efforts. Kristen Wiig’s Pelosi praising “victims” who abused the system was great.

Somehow, the Mary Poppins and Lawrence Welk sketches both worked despite none of the performers having been born when both Poppins and Welk were culturally popular or relevant. The digital short was the best of the season so far. Love Will Forte in the fetal position at the end. Andy Samberg was also terrific as Mark Wahlberg talking to animals – simple but funny. The “Most You-Tubed”, “Gay Roommate”, and “Katy Perry” sketches seemed to be filling time, but they weren’t total disasters. Weekend Update was mixed – with some pretty good timing from Seth Myers (the OJ joke), but a little too much screeching from Amy Poehler. The show is improving every week. Overall: B

3 comments:

Lawyer said...

The debate sendup was okay, but not hilarious. Fey is perfect as Palin, but the meanspirited nature of the impression still gnaws at me. Hathaway is funny and I'm looking forward to Rachel Getting Married. Welk show sucked, but Poppins was great, especially Bill Hader. Wahlberg was also great.

Killers were really good. See forthcoming post.

Priest said...

This was my favorite SNL of the young season. Hathaway was better than i thought she would be (and used her surprisingly impressive pipes to get effect). The welk show really struck me as funny, honestly. Palin is getting hammered by Fey and company, and this one seemed more mean-spirited to me than the others, but i still thought it was a pretty funny send-up, especially the definition of marriage (although that did make me a little uncomfortable in that i think the underage children of politicians ought to be off-the-table).

Glad to see the Killers are back on the right track.

Meg said...

I didn't like the "marriage between two unwilling teenagers" comment, but other than that it was alright. The Lawrence Welk spoof on the Lennon sisters was hilarious! It was especially hilarious for those of us (even though I'm 18...) who have watched the original show and can tell the little nuances that they pulled from it. I thought Hathaway's beginning was really annoying and boring. It was funny that she was making fun of herself, but boring other than that. One of my absolute favorite times of the show was when Will Forte did his little song during the weekend update! "YAY OR NAY!" Oh my goodness. I want to find a video of it, but I haven't been able to yet. :(