Photos
As you can see from the above image, Kanye West performed on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live. He wasn’t the host, he was the musical guest, and yet, he seems to be the only thing anyone wants to talk about. And fair enough! His performance was certainly something, wasn’t it? Kanye’s performance was one of those situations where someone does something and you’re like, wait, no fair, I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW YOU WERE ALLOWED TO DO THAT! Up until now, we had all agreed that if you wanted your music featured on Saturday Night Live, it had to be performed on a cheesy-looking Grand Central Station soundstage. That was the rule! And everyone was fine with it! Now what? We are in a new world now. Who knows what is going to happen?! I need an adult. Of course, the show’s host was Bryan Cranston. I think? It was hard to tell. I’m pretty sure he was on the show, though. Yeah. He was definitely probably on the show. (You would think that Saturday Night Live, when faced with the available talents of a sharply comic actor who has been working professionally for 30 years, that they would use all those talents, and not just slap a fake moustache on those talents and shove them into the background. You would think.)
Anyway, some highlights:
There was, of course, the return of What Up With That:
That recurring sketch is obviously one-note (that is the whole point) but it always gets me. Even this one, which was a little sluggish, and featured Ernest Borgnine’s 1000-year-old “Hi Mom, I’m On TV” face, still got me with MARY KAY LETOURNEAU. Haaaaa. Back to school!
This week’s Digital Short was a far cry from some of the great Digital Shorts we as AMERICANS have come to expect, but it was certainly a step up from Booger Man last week. Remember Booger Man?
Better.
The highlight of the evening, sketch-wise, was Kid Smartz.
Much like last season’s inspired parody of the Gathering of the Juggalos infomercial, this was one of those special Saturday Night Live easter eggs for the superfans. Because one imagines that very few viewers this weekend drew the comparison between SNL‘s Kid Smartz and the long-defunct Canadian children’s game show Just Like Mom, but SOME OF US DID! (Just Like Mom clip here. Wait, no, here.)
And I’m not sure how “funny” Nasim Pedrad’s nerd kid sketch at the end of the night was, but it was a good character sketch, and she’s very talented at playing little boys. No pedo.
But, of course, the highlight of the evening was the two epic Kanye West performances, which you can watch here. It is true that Kanye West is grandiose and self-absorbed (hahaha, what a weird trait for a celebrity to have!), but you have to admit that when it comes to creating pop cultural artifacts, he is really TRYING. Whether you like it or not, he is trying VERY HARD.
Next week: Jane Lynch and Bruno Mars.
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remember the time taylor swift sang a song to kanye and forgave him for raping her?
I walked away from that episode with one lingering question: “I sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice to your house … did you get it?”
I had to fast-forward through that one.
Aaaaand now it’s stuck in my head again. Thanks for that!
probably the worst skit of the night
I thought the new girl’s Miley Cyrus was very accurate, very Miley.
And the new guy nailed Johnny Depp. His impression was also very good.
His Johnny Depp reminded me of Daniel Faraday.
Yes! I was trying to think of this guy’s name earlier when I was talking about SNL with a friend, but the only thing I could think of that he was in was Secretary, and she couldn’t remember. It’s creepy how much they look alike.
Oh shit Daniel Faraday was in Secretary – I totally never made that connection *mindblown*
He is a good guy. #justsayin
She was just being Miley.
I watched SNL in hopes that Bryan Cranston would drop a hint as to WHAT WALTER WHITE IS GOING TO DO NEXT? (No Spoilo)
I was PISSED that there were no Breaking Bad skits. That’s what the show needed.
Who the hell is Bruno Mars??
Last night, around 11:30, I watched part of “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser,” staring Bruno S.
Before going to bed, I got on the internet, from my bathroom ( where I internet from when at home) because I had an unexplainable urge to check and make sure that Bruno S. was doing okay, only to find that he died just this past August at the age of 78. This made me sad, so I took a bath.
This morning, when the alarm went off, the first thing the DJ said was “…Bruno Mars…” My mind registered this as meaning that Bruno S. now lived on Mars, and for a moment, I felt happy again.
Love me some fucking Herzog, Mans. You and me arent so very different after all
Except for “Lost,” which I hear sucks, I think we pretty much have the same tastes in stuff. I watched “Last Year in Marienbad” this weekend as well and really enjoyed it. Also, I saw “Let Me In” in the theater (not as great as “Let the Right One In” but still very good).
I would be interested in your thoughts.
Never heard of this so called “Last Year in Marienbad” thing and frankly it sounds made up. Enjoyed the foreign vampire Let the right one in movie quite a bit, wasnt sure if I’d check out the americanized version but so far the reviews inspire some quantum of confidence if not solace
Mans, why’d you like Marienbad? I read so many things about it that made it sound great, and when I finally saw it I was just… bored. Was there any particular hook that grabbed you?
Winwood I have the same reaction to Let Me In — was going to avoid it, but the reviews are encouraging. Hmm.
Both Lost and Last year in Marienbad are partly based on “the Invention of Morel”, but they are very different so I would take a look into it Stever.
That said I would kill to watch Herzog next in a room with Steve Winwood and Mans.
Hotspur, it’s a movie which spoils itself if you hear the hype first, since the movie is so subtle and grand at the same time. But what do I know; I also loved Gummo and hated Lost, but I loved Gabe’s recaps.
1. I really loved “Let the Right One In” when I saw it a few weeks ago. I would have seen the American version even if it had received negative reviews because there just isn’t that much to do around here.
While it is not as great, it is still a very good movie. With a few exceptions, they keep the nice slow pace, which I love. The largest drawback, for me, was the constant swelling American Symphonic Score. I just hate background music in movies. I distracted.
That said, the acting in the film was really quite good. It is for sure worth the money.
2. I don’t know that I can say for sure what gripped me about “Marienbad,” but it grabbed me right away and I was pretty overwhelmed the whole time. Again, I really like slow movies. It was also an example of a film where the use of music was perfect–not just background noise to try and fill out my emotional involvement, but just as much a part of the scene as the lighting and actors.
I knew little about the movie going in, other than this:
But I had read a Robbe-Grillet novel, so I had some idea about what sort of vibe I might expect. And again, there just isn’t that much to do around here.
The way that the film slowly resolves into a narrative–from the gliding shots of the chateau and voice-over through the play and the frozen people unfreezing–really intrigued me and made me want to wrestle with the film.
And I could stare at cinematography like that while listening to organ music for hours.
3. An interesting note, Chris: I too thought that “Marienbad” was inspired by “Invention of Morel” (I really like that book), yet, apparently the director didn’t read the book until after the film was completed.
Why are we not discussing Alejandro Jodorowsky & Ron Fricke?
I was just about to ask the same question. I literally have no idea who that is. And judging from what usually happens when I look to rectify that situation, I think I’m going to try to remain unaware of who that is. YOUR KIND WON’T BURN ME AGAIN, KE$HA!
He co-wrote the song that brought Ke$ha into the national conscious, Flo Rida’s “Right Round.” So good instincts.
He’s that Sasha Baron Cohen character, no?
I’m really looking forward to Jane Lynch. I love her in everything. I want her episode to be amazing.
Favorite moment of the episode (aside from Kanye no duh): Jason Sudeikis’ slowed down dancing in What’s Up With That?
His slowed-down running man is so, so good.
His face is so, so good.
Was this episode actually good, or just SNL good?
It was neither. Maybe the worst episode I’ve seen. And I was there on JanuaryJones-Day.
SNL good. It’s no “Zach Gal/V-dub.” Ah, remember that day? That was a good day.
So I did not watch SNL, nor did I hear anything about Kanye’s performance until now, so let me be the last person on the internet to say, “HOLYSHITDOYOUSEEWHATKANYEDIDONSNLTHATWASAWESOME!!!”
I sent a bottle of WOHNDAFUL, WOHNDAFUL APPLE JUICE to your house. Did you get it?
I fast forwaded through a lot of it. About a 45 minutes into “sparkling apple juice”, I knew I’d had enough. SNL has always feature stock recurring characters, but its never been so depressingly slavish to following a template when presenting them. “Pooped my skirt” girl was funny at first, just put her in some sort of a different situation for crying out loud!
I meant 45 seconds in it. It just felt like 45 minutes.
So I didn’t get to post on Monsters’ Ball last week, and instead of posting it there where literally no one will see it buried under a mountain of great jokes and funny commentary, I thought I’d just put up my really lame story that no one will care about. This past weekend I was in Amsterdam celebrating my 21st birthday (just kidding, Mom, I don’t even know what a Red Light District is!), where I happened on a coffee shop playing “Take U 2 Da Movies.” I looked to my left, I looked to my right, but I saw no one with whom I could truly revel in the miracle taking place in front of my (Visine-soaked) eyes. Compuer-less, I took a note in my phone so that I’d remember to tell all my friends on the World Wide Web!
The significance of this story: Although I really only post rare, albeit stupidly uninteresting anecdotes riding on the keen observations of other Monsters, I want to thank you guys for making me laugh during English class and having the professor yell at me for simultaneously reading Videogum and playing solitaire during his lecture. Thanks for (unknowingly) letting me steal all of your jokes which I then Nick Madison off as my own when I show my friends clips of people breaking watermelons between their thighs. Thanks for pretending to be a baby to make me laugh, Notsewfast, and actually being Cookie Monster, huckabeast. Thanks to all you Monsters. Now that you’ve wasted your time reading this, let’s get back to making this the ))(( of blogs!
So about ten years ago, I remember saying to someone, “This is The Year 2000, and Saturday Night Live is still almost exclusively sketches about talk shows and game shows! Do they still even have talk shows or game shows? I am sure in ten years they will moved on from them, right?”
Sigh. Maybe in 2020?
Something made me laugh toward the end, but I can’t remember what it was. Oh well, maybe next week, SNL. Jane Lynch!!!
plagiarist wardrobe!
This week’s “What Up With That?” was the best “What Up With That?”.
Second places goes to:
Oh hells yes. If I were on facebook I would start a facebook petition group to demand that SNL be nothing but this skit. Oooooh weeee what up with that
Kanye was a ton o’ fun.
On a completely unrelated note, I had a dream this weekend that one of my comments got 300+ upvotes, but then werttrew replied to my comment and got 600+ upvotes. I think this is a testament to how much I miss Videogum every weekend. Thank you.
For some reason the Anthony Crispino Second-Hand News bit on weekend update always killed me:
“apparently these Muslamic guys, they want to show that Jim Carrey movie The Mask at ground zero.”
“Tiger Woods finally got a divorce from, a, uh, Ellen DeGeneres. Which is good, because it never would’ve worked since she’s uh, Lebanese.”
Big fan of Bobby Moynihan. I feel like he’s going to go places. Like SNL for a while. And then maybe a few movies, potentially one based on a SNL character. But I wouldn’t count on it.
him looking under the desk killed me.
I am really jonesing for a Gilly sketch or maybe some Two Assholes.
We are all jonesing for two assholes. #yeahyeahiknowshutup
When SNL hired Jay Pharoah, one of the first things I heard was how great his Obama impression was, so it makes total sense that they still have Armisen doing his garbage Obama impression.
Fer serious. It’s like whenever they have even a slightly ethnic character, they give it to Armisen.
“You would think that Saturday Night Live, when faced with the available talents of a sharply comic actor, etc, etc” – Gabe next week
Other than seeing my post-racial grand dad Morgan Freeman, this was one of the worst episodes of SNL I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know what you mean about “post-racial granddad” but I get why he was there. Celebs do kid movies to gain their kids’ respect. What better way to gain your 27 year old step-grand daughter/fiance than appearing in the sketch all the kids love.
I love fake punching, so that last sketch really did it for me. Also, the analyzing of the blow-by-blow of the fake punching was fun.
Nobody’s going to read this, but I had to say that Pusha T is the shit. That is all.
I read it and upvoted you, even though I’m more of a Malice woman, m’self.
Please, please, please – NO feature-length ‘Henry’ film, Lorne.
I don’t live in the US,so I don’t have to pretend to have watched this,or have honestly want to see SNL.But I think the last genuinely good episode of SNL was the one with NPH.And after that,everything became blurry.
More horsesh*t performances by Kanye that everyone hypes up. Congratulations Perez.