SNL - 4/17/10 -Ryan Phillippe

A Larry King skit opened the show with Kristen Wiig's Bjork (OK) and Bill Hader's Richard Branson (pretty great). A memorable monologue was not because of host Ryan Phillippe, but because of guests (Target Lady, Andy Samberg's R&B pervert, and D'Andre Cole). D'Andre is the best new character of the year and the best thing Kenan Thompson's ever done. They found a new way to use him when his usual skit has becoming predictable. One of my favorite faux-commercials followed, the home invasion gem from earlier in the season. The new fake commercial (seen after the jump) was no doubt deemed inappropriate that early in the show . . .

Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte's terrific ESPN commentators continued their hilarious (and well-written) streak followed by some hip hop kids where Andy Samberg tries to talk some sense into his idiotic friends. A digital short ("The Other Man") was OK but ended interestingly with Samberg standing next to his "doppelganger". A Samberg-heavy episode continued with Mort Mort Feingold, an accountant to the stars the took a few jabs at some celebrities (loved Mel Gibson). A Shake-Weight commercial followed which is better seen than described.Ke$ha then lip-synched "Tik Tok" with some astronauts lip-playing instruments. Thanks a bunch from the NASA community. Weekend Update was pretty good this week with Bill Hader's James Carville, Will Forte playing another pervert, and Bobby Moynihan scoring with a new gossip character. A favorite recurring skit of mine is 4 men reminiscing about a song and this week's was humorous but ended with an unnecessary cheap shot at the Tea Party movement. Hader was really good comforting teens in the next skit, Teen Talk, where Fred Armisen psychologically and verbally abused them. Ke$ha then lip-synched "Your Love is My Drug" in a terrible outfit (labeled "Comanche Tron" by Lawyer). If there was a weak link, it was the game show, "I Got This", but it's always nice to see Forte go nuts. Last was the "Outrageous Clown Squad" which was almost as funny as the real song.

For my money, this was the best episode of the season from top to bottom without a throwaway sketch. Zach Galifianakis had some better moments but his episode was uneven. This was better written all the way through and even managed to avoid kissing Obama's ass. After a terrible first half season, SNL has really picked it up since January with excellent hosts (Jon Hamm, Zach Galifianakis, Tina Fey) and hosts that really went for it (Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Lopez). During this episode, Hader and Samberg were everywhere, which is always a good thing. A-