Season Premier of SNL

bhkad · #1 (**permalink**) 09-14-2008, 04:11 AM

Season Premier of SNL

Opening skit with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler was terrific as Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton.

Michael Phelps' monologue was what you'd expect. He was pretty poised though. And there were a couple of cameo appearances by his real mom & William Shatner. (Although I think Phelps might have stepped on Shatner's set up line. Michael might have had a shot at a big laugh but I think he was too quick to respond to Shatner. The average view will sense something went flat but they won't likely know what it was.)

The game show skit was an act of war against Christians and not funny at all. It is a blow in the skirmishes that look increasingly hard to deny are being fueled.

The swimming skit with guest host Michael Phelps was just stupid.

As was the phony commercial for whatever it was where the woman killed her hubby and went to prison and escaped. Just stupid.

As was the skit with the boring kids with braces. Other recurring characters in SNL history have seemed funny and you looked forward to see what they'd do next. Not these (Kristin Wiig & Michael Phelps this episode).

Weekend Update took repeated swings at McCain/Palin as well as news swipes at OJ and Snoop Dogg/Russell Crowe, masturbation, Cabbage Patch Kids, golf, Canseco, a Fred Armeson recurring character who is getting tiring, and another swipe at Palin in the guise of a story about the New England Patriots, a parrot and other unfunny stuff.

The Charles Barkley Show skit prompted genuine laughs.

The T-Mobile skit was kinda funny but had no payoff.

The SNL Short film: "Space Olympics 3022" with Andy Samberg was really good. Interesting concept, execution, music and effects. He's a talented guy.

The restaurant skit with the pepper smell was boring and they made sure to make the irritating waiter character a Christian.

I had a big smile on my face watching the Michael Phelps Diet skit which featured a cameo by Subway Restaurant spokesman, Jared Fogle.

Basically, watch the opening and the short film and the Barkley skit and maybe the Michael Phelps diet skit and save yourself some time.

Unless you hate the GOP & Christians.

Spencer Collins · #2 (**permalink**) 09-14-2008, 04:17 AM

I pretty much agree with your assessment. There were some very good lines but frankly..SNL has gone way down hill.

bhkad · #3 (**permalink**) 09-16-2008, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Did Tina Fey out-Palin Palin on 'Saturday Night Live'?

As it used to be years ago, the word "live" was appropriate.

Ever since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was announced as Sen. John McCain's running mate, people have remarked on her strong resemblance to former "Saturday Night Live" head writer, Tina Fey.

Would Fey appear on the show's season-opener Saturday, sporting Palin's trademark rimless glasses? Speculation raged about that all week, and of course, "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels was coy about whether Fey, who left the show a few years ago for "30 Rock," would stop by her old stomping grounds. Of course she would... right?

The end result of all the suspense: Forget DVRs, forget on-demand TV, forget YouTube, forget firing up your WiFi connection. All across America, people were parked in front of their TV sets late Saturday night.

As the program came on (at 10:30 p.m. Central time), there was Fey in a bright red blazer. She was the spitting image of Palin (or wait, is Palin the spitting image of Fey?). Even Fey's flat Palin-esque accent was perfect; Fey had obviously closely studied the interviews that Palin gave to ABC on Thursday and Friday.

TV viewers will have a tough choice this year, as they struggle to decide which is more interesting: The ongoing reality show featuring Sen. Barack Obama, McCain and Palin, or Tina Fey doing her pitch-perfect version of Palin. We should have at least a few more opportunities to observe the latter, as "SNL" exploits the foibles of the election season every weekend and on three "SNL" specials that will air on Thursdays this fall.

On "SNL," Fey stood beside her good friend and fellow castmate Amy Poehler, whose Hillary Clinton has been one of the high points of recent "SNL" history. They slung barbs that took sharp aim at Palin's experience -- or lack thereof -- and at the perception that Clinton has been relentlessly ambitious.

"Mine! It's supposed to be mine!" Poehler-as-Clinton said. "I need to say something. I didn't want a woman to be President. I wanted to be President and I just happen to be a woman."

Both women agreed on one thing: That sexism had become an issue in the campaign. It was an issue that "frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about," Poehler-as-Clinton deadpanned.

She later warned Fey-as-Palin that she didn't "want to hear you compare your road to the White House to my road to the White House. I scratched and clawed through mud and barbed wire and you just glided in on a dog sled wearing your pageant sash and your Tina Fey glasses."

As she spoke, Fey-as-Palin struck sexy poses and pretended to fire a shotgun. "What an amazing time we live in," she said. "To think that just two years ago, I was a small town mayor of Alaska's crystal meth capitol."

Earlier, she talked up her foreign policy credentials: "I can see Russia from my house!"

Host Michael Phelps couldn't help but be overshadowed by Fey's terrific turn as Palin. Sketches about a couple's ugly children and a weird swim coach (below) didn't come close to the level of the opening sketch. Nothing in the rest of the broadcast did really (and Obama, after reports emerged that he would be a guest, was a no-show on Saturday; he decided not to appear thanks to the destruction Hurricane Ike was causing). For more on what worked and what didn't, go here.

The show's "Weekend Update" segment featured some Palin comedy as well. As Poehler noted, recent polls show McCain "only six points behind Sarah Palin." Perhaps there wasn't enough Palin though -- raise your hand if you thought the "Weekend Update" commentary from the comic-strip character Cathy was a good idea. (Pictured above, "SNL" musical guest Lil Wayne with Phelps and Poehler.)

Quote:

Created on Sep 14, 2008

Minutes after the Clinton-Palin sketch aired on "SNL," a spokesman for the show sent out a full transcript of the piece, and I've reprinted it in full below.

An NBC transcript of "SNL's" opening sketch:

Continued at the link.

The Watcher - All TV, all the time | Chicago Tribune | Blog

You can also watch the terrifically funny Palin/Clinton skit at the same link.

tristanrobin · #4 (**permalink**) 09-16-2008, 08:57 AM

My favorite line: "That's right. I just didn't want it badly enough"

bhkad · #5 (**permalink**) 09-16-2008, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tristanrobin

My favorite line: "That's right. I just didn't want it badly enough"

That was one of my favorite lines, too.

It was a splendidly funny skit. It's in a league of it's own, and head & shoulders above the humor level of the rest of the show.

Even those who love Palin, as I do, can enjoy this barbed send-up of her and Hillary.

foundit66 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-17-2008, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhkad

The game show skit was an act of war against Christians and not funny at all. It is a blow in the skirmishes that look increasingly hard to deny are being fueled.

I actually saw the polygamy "cult" represented there. Not really a "Christian" thing at all, although I'm not surprised that the Christian "dhimmitude" jumped up and claimed offense.

What did the skit do that identified them as "Christian"?
Can anybody answer me that?

Quote:

The SNL Short film: "Space Olympics 3022" with Andy Samberg was really good. Interesting concept, execution, music and effects. He's a talented guy.

Over and over again the article identifies parts that sucked, and I have no real disagreement.
But identifying this skit as "good"?

Quote:

The restaurant skit with the pepper smell was boring and they made sure to make the irritating waiter character a Christian.

How was this guy identified as a "Christian"?

(And the skit WAS stupid.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TristanRobin

My favorite line: "That's right. I just didn't want it badly enough"

That and the Bush doctrine response from Palin: "I don't even know what that is..."

Whoever wrote that skit must have gotten involved for JUST that, and then been completely absent for the rest...

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