Everyone is gearing up for the official 35th season of Saturday Night Live, so let's use last night's Weekend Update Thursday as a chance to warm-up with a mini-recap.
Instead of a full-bore critique, just some initial thoughts. It's still beyond weird to hear anyone say "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!" when it's clearly Thursday. This must be so they can use the cold opens in repeats? Or merely stuck on tradition? Regardless, Fred Armisen's Barack Obama is starting to slip into original SNL territory, you know, back when Chevy Chase played Gerald Ford as someone who looked remarkably like Chevy Chase, or Dan Aykroyd's mustachioed Jimmy Carter. Their take on Obama's Sunday press run was funny enough, heightening the scene by expanding out to a full press junket for cable channels -- Kenan Thompson as ESPN's Stuart Scott (got the inane product-placement and patter down pat), newcomer Nasim Pedrad checked in as Kathy Griffin (kudos on nailing her debut, although odd that the hair people didn't go for a bolder red?), Jason Sudeikis as Glenn Beck was devastatingly hilarious, Kristin Cavallari is probably thrilled to be portrayed by Abby Elliott, as is Guy Fieri by Bobby Moynihan. Andy Samberg still plays young enough to be a teen-aged vampire. And Bill Hader's Keith Morrison makes me laugh every time. As for the Update desk, Seth Meyers tripped over one line, but completely sold the punch on a burrito joke with his shy downward look. Amy Poehler played Rosie Perez as a 911 dispatcher? Sure, why not. What else?
Armisen is much more effective and edgy playing embattled (and legally blind) New York Gov. David Paterson, who still loves to put down New Jersey. Darrell Hammond is back as Bill Clinton! And as you can see below, Megan Fox made a cameo, too! You can watch the whole thing right here, right now...
Amy Poehler might not have walked away with an Emmy last night for supporting actress from her work on Saturday Night Live, but she still will get an hourlong look into her comedy career tonight on Bravo, thanks to James Lipton and Inside the Actor's Studio. It's also coincidentally (or not at all coincidentally) the start of new seasons of both SNL and Poehler's sitcom, Parks and Recreation. The preview clips indicate that Poehler is serious about her comedy, and is seriously funny.
Here we re-learn that Poehler joined the cast of SNL coming out of her work with the Upright Citizens Brigade, and also how much she praises Lorne Michaels. "I adore him, personally and professionally. He's a tremendous producer. He gives you rope at that show, and you can either use it to climb, or you can hang yourself with it. I don't think I'll ever really work for a better boss."
Poehler also talked about joining SNL and wondering if she really belonged at first. It's not an uncommon phenomenon for anyone running in an elite circle. No matter how talented or deserving you are, when you first get accepted inside the circle, you think, how did I get here? We all know how great Poehler is now, of course, but in the beginning, she said she felt she had to act as if she deserved to be at SNL. I wonder if that's part of the secret to surviving at that place.
I remember reading The Hollywood Reporter's Emmy package earlier this month, but Gabe at Videogum (aka Master of the Internet's Videos) saw that the trade mag put portions of these roundtable discussions on the YouTube, too. Yes, it's a happy coincidence that THR managed to get/predict the nominees for comedy actresses (not quite as lucky on the male side, however). But in this clip, you also get to see and hear how Sarah Silverman and Mary-Louise Parker deal with strangers coming up to them with their hee-haw-hilarious callback quotes and fandomness. Silverman shares her secret to managing the fan experience so everyone wins. Hint: Acting! It's something that most comedians who reach a certain level of fame and popularity can relate to. I've witnessed this many times hanging out with comedians in New York City, and Ben Bailey, host of Cash Cab, talks about his own experiences with fans in his current stand-up routines. Roll the clip:
Did you know they have a Funny or Die in the U.K.? Even more alarming, did you know that in the U.K., they also have funny couplings of comedic actors and actresses to match wits with the likes of our beloved Amy Poehler and Will Arnett? Yes, and yes. And here is a video demonstrating what may happen when comedy worlds collide, as Poehler and Arnett cross paths on a sidewalk with Britcom happy couple Peter Serafinowicz and Sarah Alexander (from Spaced (him), Coupling (her), and Look Around You (together!)). Have we all made our proper introductions? Alrighty then!
The 34th season of Saturday Night Live certainly brought a lot of buzz and attention back to the show, and Lorne Michaels and company celebrated the end of that year with a bang that included plenty of starpower and nostalgia, plus a heavily implied farewell to Darrell Hammond, who completed his record thirteenth season as a cast member by returning for multiple sketches. We got to see Hammond reprise Dick Cheney and Sean Connery one last time on the show, and it's only surprising that we didn't get to also see him pull out his Donald Trump as well -- considering how much Trump was in the news with a certain Miss California (who could have been played by newbie Abby Elliott). But with star and SNL veteran Will Ferrell hosting, we saw just how much Ferrell mattered to the show earlier this decade, as he dominated the finale's proceedings from beginning to end. Even with all of the celebrity cameos and returning SNLers. Did I mention them yet? OK. We saw (take a deep breath now): Tom Hanks, Norm MacDonald, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd, Elisabeth Moss and Artie Lange. With all of this happening, the current cast had much less on their plates to worry about. Good? Bad? It'll almost all make sense soon enough.
But first, a cold open from an NBC studio, and in the makeup chair getting ready for Meet the Press is one disgraced newly former VP Dick Cheney (Hammond), with Abby Elliott playing the makeup specialist. Ferrell shows up as his now Tony-nominated caricature of George W. Bush, trying to surprise Cheney and confront him about his newfound desire for media attention. Surprise fails because W. whispers too loudly: "That is one of the many reason I am no friend to libraries." Zing. We get it. They also poke fun at the current administration when W. asks why Cheney couldn't have been more like VP Joe Biden, going out for burgers and saying dumb things in public to make him look smarter. W. implies he has been watching a lot of Dr. Phil with his free time this spring. An OK, utterly predictable sketch, held together by the performances of the leads.
Ferrell's monologue attempts to re-establish his cred as a dramatic actor with roots in the theater, also with predictably disastrous results. Again, it's only Ferrell's sheer persistence that sells it. "Line?"
Talk about nostalgia. Our ad spoof for the night goes deep into the vault (Season/episode #26.11) for an oldie in which Ferrell sells his services as Wade Blasingame, Esq., attorney at law. Blasingame has sued more than 2,000 dogs. Because would you let a human do the things dogs get away with every day? Chris Parnell simulates the dog in scenes with Hammond, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Tracy Morgan and Horatio Sanz. If you want to look for such things, you might even notice that the way Ferrell, in particular, delivers his lines can suggest that SNL knew how to deliver lines awkwardly before a certain Tim & Eric came along (instead of the other way around). Anyhow.
Last night during the hourlong post-Super Bowl episode of The Office, NBC finally unveiled a name and a 30-second clip for its Office-spinoff that stars Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari and Rashida Jones. It's called Parks and Recreation, and it's coming to NBC on Thursdays this spring, debuting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on April 9. Watch:
Rachel Dratch stars and co-wrote Spring Breakdown, a comedy that has Dratch, Amy Poehler and Parker Posey getting mixed up with the shenanigans of spring break. It's been sitting on the shelf for a while, with little prospects for distribution, so Dratch got her film into Sundance, which ensured not only a live big-screen debut, but also a chance for some buzz and perhaps something more. Dratch, Poehler, Parker, Jane Lynch, Missi Pyle and director Ryan Shiraki took a few minutes this weekend to talk with the Sundance Channel about the film:
So, the last new Saturday Night Live of 2008 is the 11th episode of the fall, and thinking back to 2007-2008, the shortened Writers Guild strike season only provided for 12 new SNLs, so they've done a lot just since September. SNL doesn't normally do produce this much new sketch work -- even in 2006-2007, the full September-May season only saw 20 shows say "Live, from New York, it's Saturday night!" By last night, many may have been looking forward to the holiday break. But this week looked to be a gimme. Hugh Laurie dazzled when he hosted previously, and musical guest Kanye West had poked fun at himself in sketches last year, with NBC promos this week promising more fun. Alas, alack, Kanye stuck to singing (yes, singing) this time around. What else did we see or not see this week?
SNL acquired so much buzz this year from mainstream culture, newsmakers and political talking heads because of their relentless satire on the presidential election. Tonight's cold open, however, carried a feeling in the air that they were poking fun at Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich more because they had to than because they wanted to. Certainly, Blagojevich's scandal looking to sell the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama was the big news story this week. And yet. This sketch imagining Blago's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee looking for a personal bailout lacked a certain, well, enjoyment to the proceedings. Jason Sudeikis played the profane-speaking, big-wig-wearing Blago for bleeping laughs, though the funniest thing was a visual of Abraham Lincoln's dead skeletal hand as Blago tried to see Honest Abe's wedding ring to the highest bidder. The Senators (Darrell Hammond as Dodd, Casey Wilson as Dole, Bobby Moynihan as Shelby, Will Forte as Bayh, and Bill Hader as Byrd) did little to write home about, save for Hader's old mumbling speech pattern and the fact that Moynihan's forehead mask crack was showing! Kristen Wiig also made an appearance as Blago's wife, looking for a seat on the board of NASA.
For Hugh Laurie's monologue, we were reminded that he is, in fact, British, because Dr. House doesn't talk like this. He wanted to go Oprah and give gifts to the audience, but said the suits wouldn't allow much more than him giving a tube of Chapstick to a single audience member. Cute. Laurie also performed a quick Christmas carol medley, so quick to avoid paying any royalties by performing more than three seconds of any one song. S'ok.
Did anyone else notice the complete lack of audience appreciation or applause for the return of Bronx Beat with former SNLer Maya Rudolph and final show SNLer Amy Poehler??!?!?! What gives, audience? Almost shocked me even more than the time earlier this season when the audience didn't even care that Cameron Diaz had made a surprise cameo. Anyhow. The sketch itself. The Bronx Beaters cracked jokes about the fatal Wal-Mart trampling in Long Island. Um. Hmm. After a few more wisecracks, this interchange summed it up. Amy: "That was good." Maya: "It was stupid, though." Their guest is the local British butcher shop owner (Laurie), and the sketch changes focus to the ladies finding his accent sexy. What kind of meat do you like? Eggsactly.
Things picked up after the first commercial break, as we return to a Christmas dinner setting, and it's a simple but fun look at how holiday dinners can be so darned uncomfortable. Or, the family that cannot talk together, still eats together. There are "F-yous!" for everyone. "Judith, sit down!" "No, no, no, no, no's!" instead of "Ho, ho ho's!" But they all bond together to sing "Silent Night." Silly, but silly works. Featuring Sudeikis, Laurie, Wilson, Forte and Wiig.
This is followed by an enjoyable sketch about a wedding reception that cannot have too many toasts. Or can it? The silent but happy couple is played by Abby Elliott and Andy Samberg. Sudeikis plays the emcee. Michaela Watkins opens things up as "crazy Aunt Joanie," and things get crazier from there, with Laurie as Bob, a friend of the bride's father for how long? How long? Fred Armisen plays the ex-boyfriend who shows up to remind everyone how great sex with the bride used to be. Wiig, uninvited to the wedding, shows up on a respirator, looking for a ride home. Moynihan jumps in just to exclaim: "What!?" Forte, in long blond hair and sunglasses, plays a white supremacist. You can watch and laugh here:
You ever go on vacation and think, when I get back to work, I'm going to be relaxed, refreshed, ready and rarin' to go with even more gusto then before, but then you get back to work and find a week's worth of emails and junk mail and meetings to plow through, and by Monday afternoon, you think, well, maybe I'll just try to endure? Do you suppose the folks at Saturday Night Live felt that way this post-Thanksgiving week? The most prevailing news of the week was, if you read the media, about media layoffs and unemployment generally and the financial markets still in crisis, and the Big Three automaking CEOs trying again in asking for billions in bailout money. That's not the recap for this week's SNL, mind you. In fact, I got the sense watching the show that this was the week for pitching all of the oddball ideas that couldn't make the cut earlier in the year -- and having John Malkovich host only gave the performers and writers a wider berth for pitching. That said...
Amy Poehler's back! "You thought I was gone, didn't you!" Poehler swiveled around her chair for the cold open, as potential Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and reminded us that "just like the South, vampires, and Britney Spears, we will rise again." Her jokes were about the Clintons. But twas nice seeing Poehler back, too, all the same. She never really did say goodbye, did she? No, alas, she did not. Although press reports said she had left for good, we've already witnessed plenty of episodes this season in which past cast members (Tina Fey, Chris Parnell, Maya Rudolph) came back home to roost when called upon. And, after giving birth to little Archie, Amy Poehler's next gig doesn't appear to be filming anytime soon. NBC announced its midseason schedule earlier in the week, and not only was The Office spinoff not given a debut date, but it also had a new name as The Untitled Amy Poehler Project. Shows you how important Poehler is, doesn't it? Darrell Hammond, meanwhile, made his first and only brief appearance of the night in the open as Bill Clinton. And away we go!
The writers gave John Malkovich a lengthier than usual monologue, welcoming some kids onstage for a special reading of Twas The Night Before Christmas. What an interesting outfit?! Malkovich has gotten old! But nonetheless still creepy in a funny way.
Ad spoof alert. Fred Armisen pretends to be the guy who invented Breathe Right strips to prevent snoring, adapting his invention for sleeping farts with larger Gas Right strips! Ah, fart jokes. The kids (and kids in all of us) still like fart jokes, right? That must be the thinking here.
Casey Wilson opens an office birthday sketch, in which the guys in the office (Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Kenan Thompson and Malkovich) just hope the sexy new gal shows up. She's played by...wait for it...Kristen Wiig. So not one of the actual sexy new gals in the cast. Instead, Wiig vamps it up in her best Marilyn Monroe voice and miracle bra (just saying Wiig hasn't shown that much cleavage in a sketch that I can recall), but the joke is in how unsexy Wiig's character is whenever attempting sexy things, such as blowing out candles, bending over to pick something up, singing, etc., etc., etc.
First of a few videos in this evening's production presents a jazzy cool riff of a message from President-elect Barack Obama (Armisen). His impersonation is getting there, but neither he nor the writers have figured out how to make any of it particularly funny. Which makes me wonder. As I mentioned to a friend earlier today, does SNL need to make fun of the president to remain relevant? You can be a funny, buzzworthy sketch comedy show without mocking the leader, or at least you'd think. I don't say this as a Democrat (always registered outside of the party system). I think it's just something we have become accustomed to seeing as viewers, because our recent presidents have provided us with so many follies to make funny about. If Obama isn't putting himself in awkward positions, must we find a reason in comedy for a pre-emptive strike? Just throwing the idea out there.
The Sundance Film Festival has announced its slate of films for the 2009 celebration of cinema in Park City, Utah, and more than a few feature and/or star stand-up comedians during the Jan. 15-25 run in the ski hills.
There's one bonafide film about comedy screening next month: Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy
/ USA (Director: Robert Townsend)—Using rare archival clips along with
provocative interviews with many of today's leading comedians and
social critics, Why We Laugh celebrates the incredible cultural
influence and social impact black comedy has wielded over the past 400
years. Cast: Chris Rock, Bill Cosby, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Steve Harvey,
Dick Gregory. World Premiere
And I'm pleased as punch to pass along the news that NYC comedy troupe Derrick got their film into the festival: Mystery Team / USA (Director: Dan Eckman;
Screenwriters: Dominic Dierkes, Donald Glover, and DC Pierson)—A group
of kid detectives called The Mystery Team struggle to solve a double
murder to prove they can be real detectives before they graduate from
high school. Cast: Dominic Dierkes, D.C. Pierson, Donald Glover, Aubrey
Plaza, Glenn Kalison. World Premiere
Among the 16 films selected for the Documentary Competition:
Good Hair (Director: Jeff Stilson) - Comedian Jeff Stilson directs Chris Rock while he sets out to examine the culture of African-American
hair and hairstyles. World Premiere
Among the 16 films selected for the Drama Competition:
Big Fan (Director and Screenwriter: Robert Siegel) - The
world of a parking garage attendant who happens to be the New York Giants'
biggest fan is turned upside down after an altercation with his favorite
player. Cast: Patton Oswalt, Michael
Rapaport, Kevin Corrigan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Matt Servitto. World Premiere
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Director and
Screenwriter: John Krasinski) - This effort from The Office star is described thusly: When her boyfriend leaves with little
explanation, a doctoral candidate in anthropology tries to remedy her heartache
by interviewing men about their behavior. Cast:
Julianne Nicholson, John Krasinski, Timothy Hutton, Dominic Cooper, Christopher
Meloni, Bobby Cannavale. World
Premiere
Paper Heart (Director: Nicholas
Jasenovec; Screenwriters: Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi) - This is the is it a documentary, is it fiction movie you've heard buzz about in the past week: Even
though performer Charlyne Yi doesn't believe in love, she bravely embarks on a
quest to discover its true nature - a journey that takes on surprising urgency
when she meets unlikely fellow traveler, actor Michael Cera. Cast: Charlyne Yi,
Michael Cera, Jake Johnson. World Premiere
Push (Director and Screenwriter: Lee Daniels)
- Based on the acclaimed, best-selling novel by Sapphire, Push is the
redemptive story of Precious
Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous
obstacles and
discover her own voice. Cast: Gabourey
“Gabby” Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique Imes, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah
Carey. World Premiere
And in films debuting at Sundance 2009 outside of competition...
Amy Poehler and her funny hubby Will Arnett are celebrating their first Thanksgiving and holiday season as parents with newborn son Archie. But Poehler already has proven her maternal instincts and her sense of humor can co-exist admirably, thanks to a new series she filmed with her friends called Smart Girls at the Party. It's also a great way to get your Poehler fix as you wait until 2009 for her to re-emerge on the NBC Office spin-off that's not a spin-off.
In Smart Girls at the Party, Poehler joins up with her friends, Meredith Walker (former senior producer for Nickelodeon’s Nick News,
and former head of talent at SNL) and Amy Miles (recording
artist and performer and host of PBS children’s show LOMAX: Hound of
Music) to interview young girls with talent and confidence, giving them a boost at the age in which children may need it most. They'll have a new episode each week, and eight in all, presented by ON Networks and distributed online through several partners, including iTunes, DailyMotion and more.
Here's an episode with Cameron, a 10-year-old writer. Poehler takes her Weekend Update anchor persona and puts it to sincerely serious and funny work, channelling her inner Charlie Rose. Enjoy:
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