My weekend posts seem to be a bit random, but I guess that's a good change of pace. Today I decided to write about Saturday Night Live's newest episode hosted by my favourite Latino Sofia Vergara, with musical guest One Direction. The reason I wanted to write about this episode wasn't just because she did an amazing job, but also because I've been watching SNL a lot lately, and its pretty much all I can think about. Because NBC is so strict on their material, it is almost impossible to find full videos that can be viewed online outside U.S., but we all got our ways to get the episode, if you know what I mean. So that's what I suggest you to do...
Due to the presidential election in U.S, this seasons episodes have been even more political than usually. All four of current candidates for GOP presidential nominee have received their share of jokes. In this episode's cold opening, Jason Sudekis as Mitt Romney made fun about campaigning for things he really has no interest at all. He made appearances in places like Piercing Convention and Role Playing Event, and lastly at Saturday Night Live, falsely declaring the famous quote as: "Hey New York, lets start this show!". But as we all know, it is:
LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!
There was some concern about how Vergara will manage her hosting duty because of her strong accent and type-casting. SNL really went with that and played on her strong points: ethnicity, voice, and sexuality. She played multiple loud Latino characters with a lot of cleavage, and Fran Drescher. Her opening monologue was funny, talking about how Americans welcomed her "with open arms and pulled down pants" when she moved from Columbia. She also cleverly side stepped whole Three Stooges remake she is a part of (that seems like a total flop) and focused on Modern Family instead. About her accent she said "please forgive my accent and I'll forgive you for staring at my chest the whole night". Apology accepted.
After that on SNL Digital Short, Adam Sandberg and Sudekis promoted new booty shorts for men who are tired of being confused as gay couple. The shorts had "Just Friends" embroidered on their ass and left very little to imagination. The other commercial later on the show was for Lil' Poundcake doll. its just a normal doll, that administers HPV injections to kids against Human Papilloma Virus. Nothing unusual there. The third commercial was for "Almost Pizza", that really makes people think what it includes when the mother (Wiig) refuses to tell what it is actually made of.
The episode also included few of my favourite recurring sketches, like Bein' Quirky with Abby Elliot as Zooey Deschanel. Though Elliot's impression was spot on, its Taran Killam's work as Michale Cera that makes me laugh. From the high pitched voice to the nervous laughter it all works. Kristen Wiig played Drew Barrymore and Vergara did her version of Fran Drescher. Best line by Wiig: "I'd like to name my kid Rolf, because it sounds like fat dog laughing". Samberg also cameoed as Mayim Bialik.
Other recurring sketch I'm weirdly attracted to, the Manuel Ortiz Show. This parody of South American talk show with excessive dancing and really over the top guests. And yes, it is just as stupid as the picture looks like:
Third recurring sketch was Gilly, played by Wiig. Gilly is a student that does really inappropriate pranks that can end up really bad. Vergara played their sex-ed teacher (no surprise there). The sketch included a look to Gilly's future, where she still keeps playing pranks on people. Dying pranks rarely make me laugh so hard.
Weekend Update with Seth Meyers was constantly clever as usual, but appearance by Drunk Uncle (Bobby Moynihan) really made my day. He talked about Easter and what it means to him and how he plans to celebrate it. As drunks do, he kept losing track of what he was doing, started crying, fell asleep, got the munchies and was hilarious to watch.
Like I mentioned on my last post, this episode was the first time we see the new cast member Kate McKinnon in action. Her first appearance was as Tabatha Coofey in Andy Cohen spoof. Later she appeared as Penelope Cruz with Vergara on Panthene commercial photo shoot, where they had some problem pronounce the chemical terms, like actresses do in hair product commercials. Vergara helped Cruz pronounce "Phytomorphogenesis", which still ended coming out as "refrigerator". McKinnon proved she has a lot of potential though it wasn't too stellar start. It was a bit weird that no one mentioned the new cast member at any point, just a quick flash at opening credits, which I totally missed at first glance.
One Direction's performance really was nothing else but good time to get snacks for me. Good shot at getting the younger demo to watch, but kinda pointless for the rest. They also made an appearance at The Manuel Ortiz show.
Even SNL can't bypass Hunger Games. Vergara played very Effie Trinket-type character, who interviewed the tributes on arena, and caused few of them to die after giving away their position. Her character was super excited about the job, and kept a happy face even when Katniss (Elliot) her poisonous berries. Bill Hader played Ceasare Flickerman and Fred Armisen was Claudius Templesmith.
Overall I really enjoyed the episodes and I hope you'll all find your ways to this episode, or any other SNL episode. Next week SNL will be hosted by Josh Brolin with musical guest Gotye (whose song will be covered by Darren Criss and Matt Bomer on next week's brand new glee episode!).
Weekly post coming on Tuesday.
I do not claim any ownership for the pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment