SNL Just The Funny Parts: Skinny Seth Rogen FTW
Some people with Twitters seemed to think that this weekend's SNL with host Seth Rogen was "meh." Those people don't know what they're talking about. Clearly, they don't watch the show every week, or they'd know that by current SNL standards, Saturday's episode was pretty pretty pretty good, and at least the third best of the season (aided in no small way by the debut of a new Lonely Island video.) If you watch every week, you know that often there isn't a single truly funny part! The five best sketches after the jump.
UPDATE: no more technical difficulties! Here's the Comic Strip sketch, a spinoff of/callback to the Broadway sketch earlier this season (#1 here):
4. The Presidential Address -- funniest Obama sketch since the inauguration. Fake vomit!:
3. Fast And Bi-Curious. A little obvious and edging into homophobic territory, but cute:
2. Girlfriend Voice. So true:
1. Lonely Island Digital Short: Like A Boss! Look for a cameo by dreamy John Mulaney:
Oh, and WHAT THE HELL was the "Easter Album" sketch besides totally stupid and weird-for-the-sake-of-not-funny-weird? There aren't enough pot brownies in the WORLD to make that sketch okay to exist.
Also: musical guest Phoenix had the rare opportunity to play three times on this week's show. Stereogum has all the video, including the closing credits song, if you're into that. Next week: Zac Ephron. "Meh"-Twitterers get ready.
Posted by Lindsay at 12:00 PM in Late Night, Sketch Comedy
Tags: Andy Samberg | Bill Hader | Kristen Wiig | Observe And Report | Seth Meyers | Seth Rogen
how can you like Like A Boss, which was such a standard joke gradually becoming weirder cuz its funny to put into song, and not like the insanity of easter album? Like a Boss was dumb because it seriously is their same old shit, while Easter Album was crazy and just well constructed in its 'what the fuck'-ery... Easter Album was the best sketch. The fact that you even mention it, you are admitting there is something here, and that something is the best sketch they did all night (it took about a horse hoof size of pot)
Score = 12
i'm surprised smartpeople are into this boss video. same goes for the boat video. way too long rap parodies? really?
Score = 10
Two minutes is too long? And a good twenty or so seconds of that is setup and resolution? I hate bad rap parodies as much as I should, but Lonely Island does it right. Though Lindsay didn't even mention one of my favorites, Hader as Italian host guy. Normally that sketch bugs, but Rogen and Hader are a great duo. Bearman!
Score = 7
The Lonely Island is terrible. Dick in a Box was great, FINE, but all this other shit about boats and bosses and jizzing in pants is half-baked in preparation and overwrought in production. It's one cliche after another packaged as fake rap, which I thought invited derision around these parts.
Someone needs to tell those Lonely Island hacks to ask Kenny Powers about jizz-pants jokes. And if it sounds like I'm taking this all too seriously IT'S BECAUSE I FUCKING AM.
Score = 8
"Like A Boss" is my favorite track on Incredibad. So psyched they made it into a digital short.
Score = 0
I'm hoping they'll make a Boombox music vid
Score = 4
At first I didn't get "Boombox", but it grew on me. I think a video for it would be hilarious.
Score = 1
As much as it pains me to have anything in common with twitter-ers, i would have to agree this episode was decidedly "meh." For one, at least 3 or 4 of the sketches were reworkings of older ones (plus the monologue, which Rogan ironically admits is unoriginal). I am sure this will anger some people here, but i am not a fan of Lonely Island. Recently friends have forced me to listen to the album, so the little bit of novelty from this week's song was already worn away by the time i saw the video for "Like a Boss!"
I kind of thought the Muppet Bus sketch might have been funny, but having come of age during the late '90s/early '00s, I'm not sure if i could completely appreciate it. I could identify most of the "muppets" in the sketch (Kristin Wiig as Beaker was funny as always), but who was the crazy blue haired muppet who shot the cop? If i had know who that was, would the sketch have been funnier/made more sense?
This has less to do with the content of the episode, but did anyone else think the episode felt sloppy? The closing credits song by Phoenix seemed completely impromptu and like it was covering up a mistake. Also, it might just have been my local NBC carrier, but at least twice it came back from commercial breaks 15 seconds into a sketch.
On a positive note, Phoenix was awesome. The only chuckle i got from the whole episode was at the very end of the easter album sketch. It was incredibly stupid and made no sense, but near the end Kristin Wiig wore me down, and I let loose a hearty guffaw.
Score = -4
The blue-haired Muppet was Zoot, who played the sax in the Electric Mayhem, the house band on the Muppet Show. He always seemed to be kind of stoned on the show, so maybe in that sense it could maybe possibly considered ironic that he would be the one to shoot the cop. But funny? No. The sketch sucked.
Score = 0
I believe you mean "Zac Efron." Also, that is going to be GREAT.
Score = 5
I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard at an SNL sketch as I just did at that Easter Album sketch.
Sorry, Lindsay. You are ALL MIXT UP.
Score = 12
The more videos I see from The Lonely Island, the more I'm reminded of the superiority of Flight of the Conchords.
Score = 10
Not to try and claim my view is better or more valid, but reading your comment made me think the exact opposite.
Score = -1
Not finding the Easter Album sketch funny (granted, not as funny as the first time around, but still friggin' hilarious), thinking that "Like A Boss" was the highlight of the show (It's, like, the sixth best new song on Incredibad) and calling this episode the third best of the season: Lindsay, I think your sense of humor is broken.
Score = 15
Surprisingly, one of the best sketches from this SNL was the Muppets skit that closed out the show. Meanwhile, that Obama opening sketch was TERRIBLE. Can we get a bailout on NOT FUNNY?
"Like A Boss" wasn't that great, but I'm still hoping the expression becomes a big part of the cultural lexicon. Like a boss.
Score = 10
I thought the first third of the girlfriend voice sketch was kind of funny and then it just sucked. Gotta go with the people giving the easter album sketch props, it was awesome. I had the feeling that Seth Rogen was just there in a number of sketches, when he's really quite funny.
Score = 8
It was really similar to a Derrick Comedy sketch (He really gave it to me). When I have to compare those two things... SNL loses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfRLPHk44w
Score = 1
Show pretty much sucked. There were more than a few sketches that made me wonder how people get paid for writing sketch comedy these days. Like most eps this season, Weekend Update was best part of show. Like a Boss was OK but no Jizz, Ras, or Lazy. Easter Album, GF voice, muppet sketch...all meh. The newspaper comic sketch was just a repeat of previous week's Broadway show sketch. How about the Grease CD sketch? Fucking awful. High school improv troupes are doing better shit than this. Only thing funny was Keenan's facial expression.
Score = 5
I guess I'm the only one that loves Vinny Vedecci.
"Seth Rogan. You are in movies. Why?"
Score = 27
You are not alone.
Score = 4
also bobby moynihan!
"or was-a they both bears and when you were a baby bear you were bit by a human?"
Score = 8
@west
I thought that was far and away the funniest part of the show.
"Was yo' mama a human and your papa a bear or was papa a human an' your mama a bear or was it they're both bear and when you were a baby you were bit by human?"
"YOU TALK EXACTLY LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME."
Score = 7
"The Presidential Address -- funniest Obama sketch since the inauguration. Fake vomit!"
Lindsay? You're fired.
Score = 20
How could you not like the babies bit? http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-madonna-and-angelina-jolie/1081317/ ... about the only part I laughed at.
Score = 1
Lindsay, I hate to say this, but theres a reason Gabe fronts the history of fake rap, and Lonely Island are leading the forefront to being shot in the face for being incredibly awful.
Score = 3
I know, they are incredibly bad... incredi-bad, if you will
Score = -1
I never watch SNL, but I caught it this week for Phoenix, and just realized that, all this time, Lindsay has been highlighting exactly the wrong sketches. I'm starting to suspect SNL is way funnier than I'd been lead to believe, given the inaccuracy of this post. Kind of an outrage.
Score = 17
Who poured that spaceship o-oil over my E-easter bo-onnet?
!!!
While it wasn't the sanest or most straightforward sketch, or even really anything close to "I understand why and how they came up with this one," Easter Album was kind of adorable (if uneven) and made me smile a lot. It's a good example of how SNL has been erring recently on the side of unhinged and goofy/nonsensical humor (like Bill Hader as Italian host Vinny Vedecci), which I think is way better than relying on the tired/obvious (like the Comic Strip convention).
And while I like a lot of Lonely Island's stuff, 'Like a Boss' felt kind of phoned in.
Score = 13
those parts weren't even funny, I'd hate to see the rest. I laughed at Hader's Gizmo voice though.
Score = 2
Gotta agree that Weekend Update is the only consistently funny part of SNL nowadays. Meyers' Obama / Queen gift exchange rant could've easily been a "Really!?!" session with his sorely missed co-anchor.. (Fingers crossed for Parks and Recreation) The GF voice sketch was a solid idea that in the time-honored tradition of SNL was stretched too far. Rogan mimicking a flatlining heart monitor was pretty ironical (and painful to watch). I feel like its been ages since I've seen a Digital Short that didn't involve Samberg singing / rapping or a sketch featuring Will Forte (that wasn't MacGruber) that didn't involve singing.....with crazy eyes. The comic strip retread of the broadway sketch was pretty weak and the Fast and Bi Curious sketch basically dragged out the same gag from the Steve Martin / Will Forte "Close Talkers" sketch from awhile back.. All the deja vu-ness had me expecting yet another airing of the edible diaper commercial. Didn't happen, but there's always next week...
Score = 1
The Easter one was miles better than another fake rap shit...shit. I mean, jars of beer ARE great.
Score = 3
Hated this episode, except for Phoenix, and I'm usually the SNL apologist. The Easter Album sketch was the only remotely funny bit.
Score = 5
yep, i'm with everyone else here: lindsay got it completely wrong. obama sketch was terrible, Like a Boss had its moments (despite being a ripoff of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J1FSyFTWTU&feature=related ) , easter sketch was one of the funniest i've seen in a long time.
Score = 6
People should stop comparing lonely island, flight of the conchords, and Tenacious D. Its just music, and they all have good and bad songs. And yes, Flight of the Conchords does have more good songs. Ha. And the Obama sketches suck. It seems like they just can't seem to portray him humorously. Maybe they should take the gloves off or something.
Score = 4
I honestly can't believe this many people still watch SNL. Let it die, people.
Score = 0
The Easter album one was probably my favorite, for inexplicable reasons. The Muppet one had potential, but they didn't do a whole lot with it. The girlfriend voice sketch was pretty funny, but they didn't know how to end it. It seems like they've been having that exact problem for years now, and I understand that it's probably the hardest part of the sketch to write, but damn. It gets awkward.
But by far, my favorite quote of the night was, "If they put a brother in the Palais de l'Elysée, the motto would be 'Liberté, Egalité et Bootay!' Zut alors!"
Score = 5
Yeah its crazy that they fitted all those references in the Like A Boss video, it was perfect! For the dude that said he hates '"long rap parodies' ITS LESS THAN 2 MINUTES. Seroiusly, have we become that cynical?
Score = 1
"...then a marshmallow Peep came to life and made him say sooooorrry!" pretty much clinched that Easter Album skit as the best thing I've seen on SNL for years. The roast beef preacher took it over the top, in a good way. LOVED IT.
Score = 3
As someone who had a job filling orders for time life records as a teen, the Easter songs were dead fucking on. There were some bizarre collections out there and they let us take them home to try them out. I'm from podunk Texas and this shit went way beyond my hillbilly learning ability.
My kid is 12 and she thought the whole thing reminded her of our family reunions.
Score = 5
What qualities of George Bush did they attack and mock? I'm pretty sure they portrayed him as an inept, party-boy, recovering alcoholic. So, what are some comparable Obama qualities? How about.... recovering drug user, a guy who goes to a hate-church for decades without realizing it's overtly hate-filled? I don't know-- is it even important to make fun of our own president? If it really is, they could always take some cues from the past-- they made fun of Sarah Palin for being a woman, why not make fun of Obama for being multi-racial? Guess we'll never know.
Score = -18
boo-urns. this episode was snore. bobby moynihan in the Vinny Vedecci sketch was the only funny part of the entire episode. weekend update under seth meyers is the weakest it's ever been. how can you justify 30 minutes of weekend update that is 2/3's side character comments? hell, i'd rather watch the jimmy fallon years, which is saying A LOT.
Score = 0
i agree with most of the other posters that this was pretty mediocre. I think Hader is funny and was by far the best in the gf voice skit, and i always think the italian talk show skit is funny. The easter album was retread of aver similar skit on a previous episode
http://boards.nbc.com/nbc/lofiversion/index.php/t790934.html
skinny rogen not as funny. fat>skinny
it works on so many levels
Score = 2
WHERE THE HELL IS VINNY VEDECCI???
Score = 3
Lindsay, we are so different, you and I.
And Incredibad aren't funny. I'm sorry to their fans, and usually I'm open-minded and all that shiz... but not this time.
Score = 3
you should be sorry. because of the overwhelming power and influence of your internet comment, I am no longer a fan of the lonely island.
Score = -1