The most amusing Saturday Night Live cold-open in a while was a sequel to the recent, lousy sequel to “We Are The World,” with impersonated-vocalists. These included host Jennifer Lopez reproducing the mannerisms of Rihanna with clever concision and Jason Sudeikis squalling as Adam Lambert.
Lopez came with the right SNL attitude: Ready to poke fun at herself and to engage enthusiastically with anything the show offered her. Fortunately, much of her material was good stuff. Paired with Fred Armisen in imagining how Telemundo might have covered the Olympics, Lopez and the writers took what could have been ethnic-tasteless and made it sharply funny.
After a terrific new edition of the ESPN Classic parody that Jason Sudeikis always makes hilarious with his vigorous delivery of crude catchphrases for the “vaginal cream” sponsor (“When you’ve got something fungal in your lady-jungle!”), the “Digital Short” was a cheerfully wacky music video, “Flags of the World.” Sample flags included the “We Love Betty White Flag” (a sign of things to come, we hope?) and the “Neo-Nazi Potsie Flag.”
What seemed like an interminable “Weekend Update” (really, Bobby Moynihan’s YouTube joke — did that seem to use up about half an hour or not?) was redeemed by Fred Armisen’s David Patterson impersonation. Armisen always does the now-exiting New York governor as an insult-comic with one insult: New Jersey. But the delivery and the jokes were, as usual, killers. “We’ll miss you,” said Seth Myers. True words.
This was one of those weeks when you felt as though the SNL staff had really looked around at what was going on in the media and matched timely topics with the right joke-delivery-system. For instance, how happy I was to see one of TV’s most popular new irritants, Undercover Boss, get the SNL treatment as Undercover Celebrity Boss:
It also helped that Nasim Pedrad, Jenny Slate, and Abby Elliott were given more to do this week; the result was more of a true ensemble feel, which has been rare thus far this season. Lopez helped a lot by setting the tone, though: Smart, sexy, always keeping the momentum of the sketches moving swiftly.
Agree? Disagree?
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The show was pretty funny. I owe that to improved writing, as oppose to Jennifer Lopez’s comedic skills. My favorite skit was Undercover Boss, followed by the “we are the world” parody
Wow, Ken Tucker, did you miss the mark. TWO parodies of Spanish language programming? A rerun of the Closet Organizer? That horrible re-tread of the Doorbell sketch, this time done as car horns? Cold open was good, and most of Weekend Update was good, but the Digital Short was horrible and they are over-relying on the same old skits (old ESPN skit, the 2 entertainment reporters, and the Barry White sketch). Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I agree! Was Ken Tucker watching the same SNL show as we were?? It was terrible! I thought Megan Fox’s appearance was better-and that isn’t saying much! Way too many awful spanish skits.
The show was awful! I’m sorry but Nasim Pedrad, Jenny Slate & Abby Elliot having more to do, is not a good thing! Their impressions are horrendous! The rerun of the closet thing, and those “sports announcers” who are seemingly on every show now. Ugh! If Tina Fey is going to host, she needs to insist on bringing in her own writing team, because SNL is horrible!
The writing on SNL was horrible. The only good thing was JLo’s comedic skills.
I thought Jennifer Lopez did a great job, especially considering what a crappy week she’s had career-wise. Not bad.
The sketches weren’t bad, but her singing is really awful. She looked great though.
yeah, her singing was TERRIBLE. couldn’t believe she sounded so bad! apparently she can’t sing live. her voice cracked at one point and she wasn’t hitting the notes. and even if she could sing, the song was awful too.
Maybe this would be the time to consider moving into acting–I remember she was funny when she hosted the first time, but her singing wasn’t quite so god-awful then.
SOOO awful! I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was terrible!
JLo’s singing wasn’t bad at all. She greatly improved from the first time she sung on SNL.
What show did you guys watch last night? Awful (BLAME THE WRITES)… where was the Jennifer from George Lopez Tonight? I still think she is better actress then singer. That hurt to watch and hear.
I agree. I thought it was dreadful. Unwatchable. I normally keep the DVR going even if the first hour sucks but not last night. There was no saving this episode.
yeah , I thought it sucked but she did look AMAZING !!!
Seriously, I think I laughed a total of 3 times. They had a few extra weeks with the Olympics and it was horrible!
The ESPN Classic sketches are PRICELESS. I laugh so hard I cry. Hope there are more of those in the future.
I agree. I love the ESPN skits!
Those are one of the best new recurring sketches…hilariously gross.
Yes, these are really funny! My husband and I both laugh equally at these.
Wow, I must be the only one that HATES those skits. Oh well. I have a DVR, I can skip them. Enjoy, the rest of you.
Nope Kim, my husband and I, HATE them too. They are ridiculously stupid, and not the slightest bit funny.
More proof that comedy is subjective – I think they are hilarious.
My 20 and 16 year old sons and I laugh hysterically at the ESPN classic sketches. We love them. They were the high light of the night. Could have done without the Telemundo take-offs and the Barry White sketch. I would much rather see Keenan doing “what up with that”.
I love these skits because that means I can fast forward about five minutes without missing a laugh.
my coworker and I were trying to look up the tampax/vagasil sayings so we could laugh over them again. We think they are sooo funny.
Jlo did good but i wasn’t carzy about the skits except for a couple but compared to the rest of the season it was Good !
she killed , so funny and great performances
I think so too. Funniest of the season I think, or at least of this year. The skits were consistently funny. I can’t believe Ken left out the Smash Mouth skit. When they burst through the wall–so funny. Good episode, I think at least.
I think this show was a major step up. It reminded me that I’ve missed Jennifer Lopez. I do think her last hosting gig was WAY better written. I would have liked to see a sketch regarding her absence from the business and all the other girls who have taken her place and she sets them straight. Another bone is why would she do 2 slow songs? The slower songs show her weak voice and she’s SO much better at dance songs. I was looking forward to hearing a catchy, beat driven track. Oh, I bet Smashmouth hasn’t gotten so much attention in 10 yrs. Ha! Overall, B-
The thing is that she hasn’t set them straight. Lopez has not had a big hit in many, many years, and her two radio singles from the now-postponed new album, both flopped. All the girls that have replaced her, have catually shown more talent and musical instincts.
JLo did fine in the skits, but geez, the singing was painful!
I always — always — forward through the musical guests. I’m too old to know some of them and the ones I do know, I usually don’t like. But I LOVE the old ESPN sketches. So funny!
I love everything Jennifer does.
She is smart, funny and sexy!
A true multi-talented actress.
Bravo Jennifer!
I tried to watch and tuned in when they were doing the curling sketch with the two announcers talking about some kind of vaginal creme and it was tortuously endless and awful. Either the show picked up after that or I just don’t share the humor that others see in STL anymore.
I love the ESPN Classic sketches, and they are deservedly placed right after the monologue. But why make us wait for Jenny Slate and her show-saving Tina Tina sketches? The character is 2 for 2 with me.
They should have done a lot more with the We Are the World cold open. Really, they couldn’t think of anything funny for Lady Gaga to do?
Wait, does Ken’s first line mean he liked the Cold Open or not?
I think he did like it. I found it to be hillarious to be honest. J-Lo as Rihanna was pretty funny as were the rest of them!
J-lo didn’t even pronounce it Um- Bur-Ella
No love for the Smashmouth sketch, Ken? Might confirm my suspicion that this was hilarious for anyone ages ~25-40, non-sensical for anyone else. I love those bizarre end-of-show bits and this was one of my favorites yet.
I found myself laughing really, REALLY hard at the Smashmouth sketch. It was so bizarre.
“Smash Mouth in the closet” was my favorite of an actually good episode. “Mom, I can see their soul patches!”
I almost spit out my drink when they broke through the wall.
This was, in my opinion, the best sketch they’ve done all year. I played it for everyone at work. Half of them hated it in the morning, but by lunch were yelling out “Smash Mouth Mom!”
Agreed. Best sketch of the night, probably best sketch in a while.
Loved that- so off the wall and totally out of left field.
The vocal performance was a bit rough. She is beautiful and did a decent job with the skits, but just doesn’t have a strong enough voice for much other than fluffy, catchy dance music.
I agree. She looks great, still has a great figure after having two babies, and her acting isn’t bad, but her singing is really awful. She went sharp, then flat, and has a very uninteresting tone, and not much musicality. It was like bad karaoke. I felt bad for her. She seems like a nice person.
At least we know she wasn’t lip-syncing…
Her voice has it’s limitations, but I think she sounds much better now that she did 10 years ago. I just wish the songs had less range. Her voice sounded good when she didn’t try to go too high. I give her props for not lip-syching like at the AMA’s and at the New Year’s performance.
I thought the show was very lame. J Lo tried, but she had awful material written for her. I hope next weekend will be a lot better. Zach Galifinakis should make for a very funny show.
It wasn’t a bad show, but it wasn’t memorable in any way. Even the timing seemed off on the Patterson bit. Overall, pretty tame. If you missed it, you didn’t miss a thing.