Saturday Night Live got off to a rocky season premiere, starting with its choice of host. There was no way Lorne Michaels and company could have known, when they booked Fox, that Jennifer’s Body would be a box-office disappointment. (Which doesn’t also mean it’s a bad movie — I don’t know; haven’t seen it.) But the fact that Fox didn’t even mention Jennifer as part of her resume in introducing herself at the top of the show suggests how much distance she wants to put herself from the film already. It was distractingly awkward.
Whether by her choice or the show’s, Fox was used primarily as — well, as a body. She matched Wiig’s Southern accent in the early flight-attendant sketch, and did some nice acting opposite Will Forte in a well-written Digital Short that was primarily a showcase for Forte’s beautifully calibrated sensitive-nerd SWAT team leader. But in playing a beautiful Russian bride, a cynical chat-line spokesmodel, and a curvy stooge for Kenan Thompson’s terrific Grady-Wilson-teaches-you-sexual-positions commercial, Fox was fine, but she didn’t really stretch her comedy muscles.
New cast members Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad didn’t appear much, although Slate may get some unwanted attention for apparently using the f-word by accident during a sketch called “Biker Chick Chat.” Please don’t punish Slate, and back off, FCC — it was clearly an accident.
Wiig, by contrast, was over-worked, popping up all over to little effect, reprising her “Judy Grimes” character, who says, “Just kidding!” a lot, and in an unfortunately long final sketch with a long title: “Your Mom Talks To Megan Fox While You’re Getting Ready.”
Kenan Thompson was really funny as the Sanford and Son character Grady in the Burnin’ Up The Bedsheets DVD sketch mentioned above, and he almost singlehandedly saved a rather drab “Weekend Update” segment with a fresh version of his recurring character Jean K. Jean (“Bon to the jour, Seth!”). Also on the plus-side, Forte (sporting a nice just-joined-the-armed-forces-style haircut) and Bill Hader managed to wring laughs from even weak sketches on the strength of their intonation and delivery.
And: U2 sounded strong, in its usual, overblown way.
Did you watch Saturday Night Live? What did you think?
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U2 first song “Breathe”
the 2nd song “Moment of Surrender” was a little wobbly
and the last song “Ultraviolet” was a classic from their best album ever “Achtung Baby”
for U2 who were just coming off of 4 stadium shows in 5 days (2 in Boston,2 in New York) that wasn’t a bad night
Megan Fox was pretty good on the show but the show as a whole was terrible. She was not the problem.
Probably because not enough of the actors are funny at this type of sketch comedy. I couldn’t believe that Kristen Wiig is the ONLY female character on the show (that’s not featured). It’s seriously an all-male cast. We need some funny females on this show, and Lorne needs to be unafraid to cut dead weight like Kenan Thompson, Fred A. and Will Forte.
yeah…cut the actors that gets the most laughs, thats smart.
I agree that Kenan is NOT funny. What is funny about the Jean K. Jean character? Maybe it’s because I’ve spent time in France, but it’s just not funny. Plus, shouldn’t he at least TRY a French accent? His delivery and intonation never change. Armison is hit-or-miss, and I generally like Forte. They can’t afford to lose that much, but Kenan is dead weight.
Kenan is the worst. He is seriously awful. SHOUTING isn’t the same as acting; his “characters” are all just him, assaulting the boom mic.
No, Baby Buster. You’re just a pathetic whiny little BlTCH.
Will Forte along with Bill Hader are the best actors on the show, what have you been smoking? calling him dead weight would like saying Will Ferrell was dead weight back in the 90’s, get a clue, or better yet buy a funny bone!
you’re high if you think Will Forte is dead weight, if anything they guy nees MORE to do, him and Fred are the funniest in the cast.
oh wait, Scratch that, Bill Hader is the funniest from the cast, but the other two arent far behind.
Will Forte is awesome! Watch his sketch’s as a basketball coach with peyton manning…..classic!
jean k jean is not supposed to be french. he’s supposed to be cajun!
Are u kidding me Kenan saved the show to me his Grady bit was so funny
I totally agree that Kenan is no good. He ALWAYS sounds the same. He was on Psych the other day and again he sounded the same. He’s just a bad actor.
Jean K Jean, is not Cajun. He is French. That’s why he wears the beret.
I have to be in agreement with the commenting hear. Mrs. forte, hader and even mr. suedickis are so so much of fun on the show. i thing it the way they say there words. it would be bad shame for all of them men to lose there jobs because they make me laugh so many times.
Kenan reminds me of Tracy Morgan. He has awful delivery, screams out his lines, and thinks making a joke is the only thing you have to do to earn a laugh, rather than be funny. I know there are going to be Tracy fans who hate me for saying this, but he’s only funny on 30 Rock because Tina Fey is smart enough to write around his lack of acting ability. Hopefully Kenan will find his own Tina Fey.
It’s funny. I read another article that said pretty much the exact opposite of this one. I heart Forte, but I do think that Kenan is not funny at all. He’s boring. They do need diversity in the cast, but really, can’t they just recast him with an african american actor who can act?
I’ve never been a fan of Kenan, but you know SNL is awful when he has the most(marginally) amusing skits of the night. Where’s Sarah Palin and Tina Fey when you need it? It’s going to be a long, unfunny season.
I agree. Megan Fox was OK but altogether the show was just not that funny. I think this is a backlash from Lorne firing two of last seasons great supporting cast members.
I agree somewhat. Casey Wilson was boring but BRING BACK MICHAELA WATKINS! i was shocked to find out she had left. Now there will be no more Kathie Lee/ Hoda Kotb sketches! that was a dumb movie to fire her…honestly i thought she would be promoted to full cast member. Abby Elliot is dreadful 90% of the time, she’s making it out of sheer familial showbusiness (but I will admit her Angelina Jolie impersonation is pretty dead-on)
Hot Chick, Bad Commedy, ’nuff said
Well it’s interesting that your title doesn’t match the article at all. It says “not many laughs”, and yet you describe almost every sketch as funny and terrific.
Really? I thought Ken seemed to be nice in describing the sketches. He basically was saying the sketches weren’t horrible cause they were being “saved” by individual actors. Being “saved” doesn’t mean that the end result is “funny and terrific.” Could be wrong of course.
BEEN SO LONG SINCE THIS SHOW WAS FUNNY I DO NOT EVEN CARE IT IS STILL AROUND…
BEEN SO LONG SINCE I FOUND MY CAPS LOCK KEY I DO NOT EVEN CARE IT IS STILL AROUND…
HA! Beautiful!!!
if you don’t care than WHY are you reading this and leaving a comment?!
ooooooh snappy comeback (not)
ive been watching this show for about 20 years now and the “it used to be funny but isnt now” line was old then…there were always horribly lame sketches and bad ideas but you just remember the gold…last night not so much…too bad they sacked casey, she was great
Heh…I’ve been watching the show for 35 years…the “it used to be funny” line popped up in 78 or 79 or so.
There were a few good laughs last season. If this show is any indication, this is going to be very very long year.
I saw it and i thought she did good on the show i laugh at time like the burning up the bedsheets sketch made me cry from laughing so much. I also did hear slate say the F word when i saw it, I said did she just say the F word?
Maybe SNL should quit the Thursday night thing and pack those jokes back into to main show, which was sorely lacking in funny. The f-bomb made me laugh harder than anything, only because you know it had to be in the back of her head, and she was probably even making a conscious effort not to say it, and the psychological phenomenon that occurred is not just fascinating, it’s hilarious! The women in showbiz nowadays are sooo bland; just models reading lines. Megan Fox has a great body, for sure, but she is NOT hot! The droopy eyes and too much makeup don’t play well with her matted hair (extensions possibly?). Is this really what it’s come to? She has about as much personality as Jessica Rabbit. Also, I saw her appearance on Jimmy Fallon and she’s dumber than a signpost. Even in this day and age of environmental awareness, she freely admits to leaving all the lights on in her house all the time, even when she’s out, because she’s afraid of ghosts and doesn’t want to come home to a dark house. That’s freaking crazy, not to mention irresponsible and wasteful. Bring back Anne Hathaway, best female host of the decade!
Awww, man, why you gotta dis Jessica Rabbit like that?
Do you mean Anne Heche ?
I was actually at the season premiere tonight, and thought it was pretty decent. Granted, my expectations were low, but Megan Fox wasn’t as horrible of a host as I thought she would be. The show had its funny moments, but I was saddened by the lack of Andy Samberg and Bill Hader; on the flip side, they were showing quite a bit of Bobby Moynihan..not sure where they’re going with that..
Also, I live in the Mountain time zone where the show is not aired live. I figured they would have beeped it by then rather than willingly continue to air an f-bomb on free tv… strange
Wow really? I heard it on the East Coast and figured they would have cleaned it up already. I mean it was clearly just a slip up. She even made a weird face after she said it – clearly felt awkward. And if the FCC didn’t even clean it up for later airing that’s their fault. I thought everything was on 10 second delay now to prevent that kind of stuff anyways.
The FCC doesn’t clean it up, that would be up to NBC. And the show wasn’t funny at all. The Russian bride thing had potential, but couldn’t they come up with something more funny than which one is cheaper? Disappointing.
I thought Megan did an adequate job, unlike U2, who, to me, were pretty boring. The sketches WERE one track, with the use of her looks as all of their plots. I think she performed the funniest as the biker chick! In regards to dropping the F-bomb, my face went flush for poor Jenny Slate, and I could feel her embarrassment as she tried to pick up afterward. Bill Haders facial expressions make me laugh harder than everyone combined! And where’s Darrell Hammond!? Hoping RyRey brings the funny next week!
He retired.
of course the sketches revolved around her looks. that’s the only reason she has any sort of career. why would SNL do anything different? it’s not their job to teach her how to act.
I liked the digital short with BAG appearing as Bumblebee.
Yes! That was my favorite moment! And I liked when they did the “opening credits” for the fake Transformers movie and Megan did that little fist pump. That was HER funniest moment. And I liked that U2 did “Ultraviolet,” an older song at the end.
I haven’t seen the SNL premiere as I’m in England at the moment, but I can tell you this: when an actor or actress has a lot of talent for being funny *consistently*, SNL’s writers tend to use that. Compare Dwayne Johnson’s appearances to, say, Wayne Gretsky’s, and you’ll see what I mean. I would take her demured use in the premiere as a sign that, regardless of how she is to work with in movies or television, in live television she’s risky and they’re working around her.
Kristen Wiig is not going to get another Emmy nomination doing crap like what they had her do tonight. Pick it up, SNL.
It was horrible!
Really looked forward to this first show of the season, but was really disappointed. Seemed lame all the way around; hard t believe it was the premiere. Lots of old bits rehashed, very little fresh energy. Hope it finds a groove in the next few shows; this wasn’t an encouraging debut. Would have preferred another re-run of a decent show . . .
Fox is bland in general, even in interviews, but the writing was terrible. I think the last 8 years have been comedy heaven w/ Bush, Palin, etc. Since obama is untouchable, where are they going to find their jokes? That UN crap was terrible. I was disappointed.
Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig are the best!
Why is Obama untouchable? Last season, they poked fun at a blind guy (Gov. Paterson of NY), even after he complained about it! I voted for Obama and still support him, but I’d love to see a funny sketch that gets laughs at his expense. And Joe Biden is comedy gold.
To Brian, personally I think it’s because Fred’s BO impression blows. People keep saying he’s gotten better with it over time, but I don’t see it. There’s got to be a comedian out there that does a good Obama impression. Jason’s Biden is really good, hopefully they’ll use him more.
Terrible episode. Just awful. I often find myself defending SNL, but this was just an increadibly weak, unfunny premiere. Fox was ok. Did the best she could with bad material. They’ve had all summer to write sketches and this is what they come up with?
“They’ve had all summer to write sketches and this is what they come up with?” That’s what I said last night. I mean seriously? They need to get rid of Kenan. I think Lorne Michaels need to walk too. It’s time someone else took over the show. I hope they use Bill Hader more. He’s the best they’ve got!