“Saturday Night Live” hasn’t been in its best form for years, but many agree that Jennifer Lawrence’s appearance this past Saturday breathed a bit of life into the classic show.
In her monologue, Lawrence took on her fellow Oscar nominees, her “I beat Meryl” comment during her Golden Globes acceptance speech, and the fact that Tommy Lee Jones was a stony-faced grump during the comedic stylings of “SNL” alums Kristin Wiig and Will Ferrell at the awards show.
The episode also mocked Lance Armstrong for the “sort of but not really” confession he gave during his interview with Oprah Winfrey regarding doping, and took on the Manti Te’o “fake girlfriend” story that’s swept the nation over the past week.
Anne Hathaway hosted this weekend’s SNL, and though the episode has gotten mixed reviews–some called it “plodding” and a “disappointment” after the huge election week–the “Les Miserables” actress hit several high spots during the night, including taking on an emotionally unstable character from the Showtime hit “Homeland”.
Claire Danes, who found stardom–and her sad face–on the ’90s show “My So-Called Life”, often displays her famous crying visage on her new show, a cop drama. Hathaway nailed the chin-trembling, total devastation that Danes has become famous for, earning several of the night’s laughs on the sketch comedy show.
The skit also skewered some of the other characters, such as Brody, his tiny mouth, and his teen daughter, who randomly wanders in and out of CIA headquarters.
“Saturday Night Live”, most people would probably agree, has gone a bit downhill over the years. With the exception of a handful of funny sketches–mostly dominated by Andy Samberg’s digital shorts–the bits have begun to seem a little stale without the brilliance of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.
Every now and then, however, a guest star will surprise us with their willingness to be completely open for the camera, no matter how silly it makes them look; The Rock and Justin Timberlake are two that come to mind, and now “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane can be added to that list after his stint on the show.
MacFarlane has always had a goofy sense of humor, so it was no surprise that when it came time to make fun of a celebrity he did it with great vigor; however, his spoof of Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte was somehow both spot-on and over the top to the point that he had the audience hooked from the moment he rolled his chair up to the Weekend Update desk.
Check out MacFarlane and Seth Meyers playing off one another:
37 seasons of Saturday Night Live; it’s hard to imagine a show could stay successful for so long, while never fundamentally changing its structure. Sure, they’ve thrown a few loops here and there, but SNL has always been just about the same since its inception. From the original episode with George Carlin, to the Betty White hosted episode that was fueled by a Facebook campaign.
This infographic will give readers my age a fond remembrance of Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, which hopefully leads to your reenacting of ‘da Bears’ and ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’ scenes. While the parents of those readers will scoff at the 90’s and tell you how Chevy Chase, Aykroyd, Murray, and Belushi killed it back in the 70’s.
No matter the generation, you’ll be amazed by just how many people have starred in the show, and just how many of them you won’t recognize. I also learned Robert Downey Jr. had a short stint on SNL as well.
Anna Faris is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight. Unfortunately it is a repeat, but still worth watching. The musical guest is Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan Drake. Drake is a personal friend of Kentucky coach John Calipari so look for a possible “Go Cats” reference in tonights performance.
This repeat performance is from her Saturday Night Live appearance on October 15, 2011. Here’s SNL’s official video promo for the broadcast on NBC:
Anna Faris most recently appeared in the movie “What’s Your Number?” in 2011. That is if you don’t include her voice appearance in the movie “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” which came out this past December. “What’s Your Number” did fairly miserable at the box office grossing a total of just $14,008,193 in the U.S. Considering marketing and production costs it lost money.
Per Twitter, fans had a mixed reaction to this movie but seemed to love Anna, except for the guy in the first tweet who thinks Anna is hideous. Most others disagreed!:
Erika Van Pelt has escaped many rounds of the American Idol competition by a hair but last night was her final hoorah. Van Pelt found herself in the bottom three along with DeAndre Brackensick and Heejun Han.
Despite transforming her image she was voted out of the show and seemed very emotional. But then again, who wouldn’t be. “American Idol” aired on Fox in 2002, and has launched the careers of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Kellie Pickler.
After being booted, they showed a montage of her experiences throughout the “Idol” process to highlight her journey.
The judges praised her for her performance of Lady Gaga’s “The Edge of Glory.” Randy said “She is singing like she has got to have it,” while JLO complimented her for being able to fight through her tears and emotions and deliver. Steven Tyler added that she was “living on the edge,” and was beautiful.
Van Pelt’s mentor Jimmy Lovine said that Van Pelt “deserves to be in the top of the batch,” she was criticized by judges for “oversinging” Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” on Wednesday’s Joel themed show.
While the judges may have boosted the her self-esteem in the past the judges declined to use their “save to keep” option; judges only get to save one contestant per season from being eliminated.
With Van Pelt out of the picture that leaves nine contestants to battle it out.
The stunning and talented Lana Del Rey performed her new single “Video Games” on the show last night.”
Del Rey also performed the same song erikaidolon Saturday Night Live back in January. Her performance was so bad that fans have begun to say that they love her songs but thinks she can’t sing live.
Despite a mediocre-at-best performance from Lindsay Lohan, one good thing did come out of the SNL episode from two weeks ago. The sketch “The Real Housewives of Disney”, spoofing the countless housewife reality shows on TV, went viral on NBC’s website, and became one of the highest viewed clips this season. NBC is banking on its success by releasing new and extended scenes from the sketch.
In case you missed it, here is the full sketch as it aired on March 3.
Rush Limbaugh’s recent remarks about University of Georgetown student Sandra Fluke, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute”, have continued to come back to haunt him. He blogged a Saturday apology, then explained to his listeners on Monday that he had apologized because he realized that his statements made him sound like a liberal. The debate rages on about whether this comment and the fallout from it might be the end for Limbaugh. His opponents have organized an advertiser boycott that claims to have taken out dozens of ad-buyers. Limbaugh says those local ad buys are inconsequential to him and will not affect his business. Our analysis of that statement says it is not true. Local ad buys affect the local stations, which cannot sustain the kind of advertiser exodus that is happening. At WABC radio recently, the flagship station for Limbaugh’s program, over half of Limbaugh’s commercial spots were replaced with free public service announcements, a sure sign in the radio world that advertisers were leaving and staying away.
Some businesses are coming forward to say that they will gladly advertise with Limbaugh, but he is denying those since they are for such websites as AshleyMadison, which promisses to help people find a way to cheat on their spouses.
Into this fracas steps Saturday Night Live, famous for its impersonations of other political figures, including President Obama and Sarah Palin. The cold open piece pokes fun at the advertiser troubles Limbaugh has. SNL cast member Taran Killiam plays Limbaugh in the piece.
Saturday Night Live has been accused by some people these days of not being that funny anymore and that all of its good actors have moved on. SNL proved last night that they still got it.
A sketch last night on SNL spoofed Verizon’s ads where a person walks into a store to look for a new phone while an employee barrages them with specs and technical mumbo jumbo. While the ad would portray this as something that everybody gets, the truth is very different.
The sketch portrays what it’s really like for a person, young or old, when they encounter a Verizon salesperson. The sketch may be funny, but it once again shows that SNL can still give us the truth under a veneer of humor.
Check it out below:
And for those who can’t watch the NBC embed, we’re sorry. Every video of the ad on YouTube has been flagged for copyright by NBC. You’ll have to watch their embed.
“What harm would it do to let him keep playing his game, not any game mind you, but a word game for smart people.”
Only a few days removed from Words With Friends-gate, Alec Baldwin has addressed the incident publicly – on Saturday Night Live. During Seth Meyer’s Weekend Update segment, Baldwin came out dressed as a pilot from American Airlines. He proceeded to put on a southern drawl and apologize to the “national treasure” Alec Baldwin for the way he was treated.
If you missed the story last week, Alec Baldwin was removed from an American Airlines flight for refusing to quit playing Zynga’s massively popular scrabble clone and turn off his device. Baldwin, an already outspoken tweeter, took to the site to give a play-by-play of the incident. The Twitter battle eventually saw American Airlines and even Zynga get involved.
Baldwin later asked all of his followers to participate in a “mass unfollowing,” and his Twitter account was then deactivated.
American Airlines released a statement on Facebook, hinting at the “extremely vocal customer” that they had to remove.
And now Baldwin has responded in a way that takes a few jabs at American Airlines but also demonstrates that he probably realizes he failed to act in a proper manner. At least that’s what I take from it –
Regarding the whole slamming of the door thing and his excuse – anyone who has played WWF will understand. That game can make you do crazy things.
Oh well. I guess the only people truly happy about this whole ordeal is Zynga. Talk about your free publicity – right before a historically massive IPO. “Words With Friends: A game that makes powering down your device for a few minutes impossible.”
