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Channing Tatum hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend, in promotion of his new project the fact that he used to be a stripper before he was an actor, and it was pretty good! Though, there is certainly something to be said about having very low expectations of how an actor will do hosting SNL, and how that influences your opinion of the episode when those very low expectations are not exactly met. Like, I really thought this guy was just going to be a big old handsome dummy the whole time, whose inability to act convincingly and comedically would drag down every sketch. And he kind of was that? But in a way that worked pretty well, or was at least endearing when it didn’t work. A lovable doofus. But, uhh, speaking of when it didn’t work, what was with that male stripper sketch?! My goodness! I almost LOVED it, that’s how terrible it was and how awkward it made me feel. 45 minutes of Jason Sudeikis telling too bad bad-on-purpose jokes while every male cast member comes out and dances suggestively with their clothes on? CAN WE HAVE 45 MORE MINUTES OF IT?! Let’s not dwell on that, though. Remember the good things?!
The Newt Gingrigh, Moon President cold open was a VERY GOOD cold open! A cold open so good it makes you think, “Why aren’t any of the other cold opens good, if they know how to do it?” Like when you accidentally do a good job on a task you hate doing and people notice and then when you do it half-assed again the person in charge of you is like, “I know you can do better than this.” And you’re like, “Arrrggggg, why did I ever do better?!” It’s like that, only not at all, because we have no say in what goes on at SNL HQ. But hey, good sketch! “May divorce be with you”!
The Downton Abbey FX commercial is unfortunately not available to embed, so here is a terrible YouTube recording of it. This was so good! Downton Abbey fever is in FULL FORCE!
The “Getting Freaky With Cee-Lo” sketch was not particularly great, but I wanted to highlight it for Channing Tatum’s DEFINITELY good enough Matthew McConaughey impression, and the fact that I watched The Voice last night after the Super Bowl (impressive) and didn’t realize until then that I really like Kenan’s Cee-Lo impression. LOL. That guy is crazy. Not as crazy as X-Tina, though — what a total B.
The “NBC Football Promo” sketch was succinct and funny and, most importantly, TIMELY! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! GIANTS!
I don’t know how I feel about the Lana Del Rey “Weekend Update” segment. I like that they did something about it — obviously, they had to. Lana Del Rey’s SNL performance is all anyone’s ever going to talk about for the rest of our lives. But I’m not sure that Kristen Wiig was the right person to portray her (though, I also don’t think anyone else could have done it better) (maybe GET SOME MORE GIRLS on this cast), and I’m not sure that ignoring how terrible the performance was was the right route. It is VERY silly that people were so upset about it, and bringing up other of the billion artists with stage names was a good call, as was defending how “weird” she was, but that wasn’t really what people were upset about with that performance, I don’t think? People were upset, I think, because she actually did a very bad job? Even considering how she is just a weirdo? I just feel like it would have been a bit better if they actually addressed THE ISSUES! THE MOST PRESSING ISSUES OF OUR TIME! LANA DEL REY ON SNL! SHOULD I WRITE ANOTHER PARAGRAPH ABOUT IT?
And, finally, I really enjoyed the “Exercise Commercial” sketch. Good jobs all around.
Oh, also: Bon Iver performed, and he sounded just like Bon Iver sounds!
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The Downton Abbey Spike commercial = the best thing ever that I will never get tired of watching.
“What’s your other car, a bike? HAHAHA it IS a bike!”
“That’s not how you pour soup, you asshole!”
“Hot, Way Hot, and The Other One!”
What I learned about Bon Iver: Falsetto singing, very long songs (takes many 30 second jumps to get to the end).
Needs more upvotes.
I didn’t watch SNL proper, but there was a commercial with dogs barking the Imperial March from Star Wars. It was great. And now I need to buy a Volkswagen. I am not sure what dogs barking the imperial march has to do with Volkswagen, but it worked. Volkswagens for all!
I’ve never really liked that “Secret Word” sketch very much, would made me all the more surprised that Channing Tatum sold it so well. His face when they revealed that the secret word was “probe” was as good a face as anything in “The Artist.” (No it wasn’t.) (But you get what I’m saying.)
I’d watch a show called “Fancy Entourage”
The Lana Del Rey skit was the best IMHO. It felt like a big FU to all the flack she’s getting while still poking fun at her in a lighthearted way. Channing Tatumm did a good McCaughnehey impression, but was kind of flat otherwise.
I don’t really care all that much about Lana Del Rey one way or the other, but I kinda like the idea of Lana Del Rey (even a fake one) saying “You think I sucked? Check out all of these other bands that have been on SNL and sucked even more!”. Which pretty much any band that sucked could always say, because when you’ve had like seventy thousand episodes, there’s going to be a pretty significant number of bands who’ve really sucked, even if the percentage is small.
I made a wish and it came true! Newt was on Meet the Press and they showed him the moon president sketch.
How did he respond, other than smugly?
My brain and mouth can’t seem to call him anything other than Tanning Chatum.
Chanting Atem
Chatum Tanning?
“(maybe GET SOME MORE GIRLS on this cast),”
Their problem is they need to GET MORE TALENTED GIRLS on this cast. The only other female cast member that’s actually good is Nasim Pedrad. The others are in a constant race to which one is less deserving of being in a national TV show. They’re all so bad!
PS: I was truly surprise that I enjoyed this episode so much and now all I can do is feel bad for Daniel Radcliffe because his episode was SO BAD, even though he’s way more talented than Channing Tatum and Charles Barkley. Are the SNL writers secretly Death Eaters?!
I don’t looove Nasim Pedrad myself. She’s fine, but I think Vanessa Bayer is the best “new” performer and Abby Elliott’s got some good impressions that aren’t featured nearly enough.
After watching their performances, I’m convinced that I’m just not right for Bon Iver. They have too many people on stage for such an underwhelming performance. I feel like most of their other material sounds quite similar to one another too.
It was a pretty lackluster episode. SNL usually manages to hit at least one or 2 sketches out of the park but the Downton Abbey commercial was the only one this week. It’s like the writers took the week off and just hired helper monkeys to put this episode together.
I’m really unnerved by the fact that Channing-McConaughey looks and sounds exactly like my “coon-ass” (his word, not mine) cousin.
Side note: Thanksgiving morning, cousin drunk, hollering about being a “coon-ass” and my New England family getting really uncomfortable and wondering if he’s allowed to say that. Turns out he is!
On a tangent, does anyone know what the alien in the Password sketch was from? I kinda want to watch that movie.