Miley Cyrus’ distinctive speech pattern — a Nashville twang bouncing against glottal stops — is both distracting and distinctive, which makes her comparatively easy to imitate, if you have that kind of talent, and Vanessa Bayer does. She’s spent this SNL season making her “Miley Cyrus Show” sketches little critiques of show-biz unctuousness, exaggerating Miley’s penchant for hype (“Purty cooool!”) and dad Billy Ray’s coattail-riding of his daughter’s fame (Jason Sudeikis plays him as a shameless shill).
Saturday Night Live waited until midnight to unveil its latest “Miley Cyrus Show” sketch, which turned out to have a clever idea: Bayer was Miley, as usual, while the week’s host, Miley Cyrus, portrayed Justin Bieber in her best impersonation of the night. Cyrus had Bieber’s trying-too-hard hiphop mannerisms down cold.
SNL commenced with — duh — “Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen,” with Bill Hader doing a good Sheen impersonation, hosting the week’s biggest losers, including Christina Aguilera (Abby Elliott), John Galliano (an excellent Taran Killam), Lindsay Lohan (Cyrus sounding like Cyrus), and Fred Armisen’s Muammar Gaddafi. (Told ya SNL would conflate Sheen with Gaddafi.)
A particularly strong “Weekend Update” did better with its Sheen jokes, offering the winners and losers in that guy’s scandals. Denise Richards was a winner, said Seth Meyers, for getting out early, “like someone who’d sold her house in 2007.” A loser: tigers and their blood (“Why is he dragging us into this?”). It was followed by a superb up-yours to the religious protesters at a military funeral whose right to be heinous was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this week. Sudekis played Satan, relishing what he’d do when these homophobic zealots landed in Hell… and added a nice kicker about working on the upcoming season of Entourage.
Feeling her oats, the 18 year-old Cyrus ridiculed her Hannah Montana fame-vehicle in a sketch about the “Disney Channel Acting School,” with Kenan Thompson accompanying her as Raven-Symone. It was nicely done, with lessons in speaking too loudly and dressing too loudly.
I’m always a sucker for SNL‘s Turner Classic Movies parodies, and this week’s one, built around unseen footage from The Sound of Music, was well-conceived, folding in Fred Armisen as the kind of brassy stand-up comic who’d have been making comedy records and doing movie cameos during the time of Music‘s release in 1959. There were a few duds, of course, such as Wiig and Cyrus in a “Rockabilly Lady Party” fake ad, but the majority of the material this week was, at the very least, goofy fun, such as the charmingly wacky French-people-dancing moment. (Again, congrats to Killam, who stuffed his face with a lot of French bread crepe while wiggling around.)
Cyrus fared best in the moments when she was required to sing, whether it was her cute opening “I’m Sorry That I’m Not Perfect” specialty number to her showing-closing tune, playing a disgusted cruise-ship singer, crooning about how everybody on a cruise ship seemed “gross” to her.
Musical guest the Strokes sounded very Strokes-like; by this time, they’re almost Ramones-ish in their assiduous adherence to formula, and of their two performances, I liked “Under Cover of Darkness” the best. (And if this is the kind of thing that gets you wound up, yes, I think Julian Casablancas uttered the f-word; I also couldn’t care less if he did.)
What did you think of Miley and SNL?
Twitter: @kentucker
Liked it. Agree with most everything said. Too bad they couldn’t have had Jimmy Fallon do his Charlie, I think he pulled it off flawlessley. Loved Miley
for a minute during the opening, before we saw Bill Hader, i was hoping they got Jimmy Fallon to do Sheen, Sadly. Bill had too much or an east coast accent to pull it off, he came off like Bronx Charlie.
disagree, Hader nailed it, and Fallon is an overrated tool of NBC
It was a good show, the Disney channel bit was pure gold, everything they showed was spot on. And that is why Nickelodeon is the better network these days with Big Time Rush, iCarly, and Victorious
Great acting on Hader’s part, then, given he’s from Oklahoma.
I also disagree. Hader did a very good Charlie and both he and Jimmy had moment in their respective sketches where they were slightly off.
I’m just happy that there was very little Kristin Wiig until the last 1/2 hour of the show. I don’t dislike her, they just overuse her and she recycles the same bits too much.
Jimmy Fallon is awful.
Why would they get get Fallon to come back to do Sheen? Its not like when you look at Sheen you automatically think Jimmy Fallon like when you see Sarah Palin you automatically think Tina Fey. Fallon did an admirable job but honestly I could do a better Sheen impression than both Hader and Fallon. I think the audience got the point anyway.
Yes, I was expecting Jimmy Fallon too! He has come back to the show other times, so it would have been great to have him back to do his Charlie Sheen shtick! Don’t care for Miley Cyrus – her opening number was just a gimmick to say that she can do anything she wants because nobody is perfect. That’s a real novel excuse for some of her behavior.
Her singing voice is horrible and annoying.
She sounds like a goat. It reminds me of a singer who is faking vibrato. It makes AI’s Haley Reinhart sound like a trained Opera diva. Yuck!
I agree. I’d hardly even call that singing.
yea, i know right?
what is UP with her vibrato? it’s so weird – she sounds like a sheep baa-ing or something
Hey, nobody minds when Stevie Nicks does it.
Not sure why Justin Bieber was wearing makeup during her “impression” of him…no time to take a wet wipe to her face during the commercial and get all that crap off her face?
Agree! I think so too!
yep, that was quite the vibrato. She’s pretty and her voice is good in general. But does she always sing like that?
Probably just comin’ down from some Salvia. Completely legal, y’all.
Miley was excellent until she decided to sing and then it sounded like baby goats being slaughtered.
Hader is usually great- but agree- Fallon totally rocks as Sheen. Should have borrowed him for the opener!
Fallon is a gifted impressionist, but Hader did a great job as well, he had the mannerisms and the attitude down cold.
What I don’t understand is why most of the audience was so silent during her monologue. Was it because she was acting like she was doing Vanessa’s impression of her?
I wondered about that as well. Maybe she just isn’t likeable anymore? Personally thought this was a good SNL, but not because of her – the writing was better and the cast was good. Am I the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when “Gillie” didn’t show up in the Sound of Music spoof?
No, it was because it wasn’t funny, just like the rest of the show. One of the worst in a LONG time, normally the studio audience will laugh for most of the skits even if they aren’t funny, but last night there was no laughing and nobody wanted to clap.
The monologue wasn’t very good. They obviously had a hard time coming up with material. The song was okay. Her singing is always great, but her acting is non-existant. She’s another Melissa Joan Hart. Twenty years later her acting hasn’t progressed beyond “Carissa Explains It All.” Cyrus should stick to singing. It’s where she really shines.
We noticed that silence too. I was a little surprised that Miley’s fans weren’t in the audience hootin’ and a-hollerin’ for her. I was more surprised at the silence– far far worse monologues have gotten SOME response from the audience, but there was just silence. I don’t like Miley, but I did feel bad for her.
Frankly, I found the snarky comments in her monologue were off-putting. Yes, there are worse things you can do than puff on a bong, but that’s a pretty poor standard for measuring one’s behavior. So, as long as I can point to other people who do worse things, I can do whatever I want? There’s a definite maturity problem there.
Between SNL and the Oscars, Tucker’s standards for entertainment have dropped considerably.
You said it deedee!!!!!!!
Has anyone noticed that all of EW’s blog pages are now being deluged with data from something called “assets.rubiconproject.com”? I can’t even scroll through the blog pages here anymore without it bringing my PC to a screeching halt. Seemed like it just started a few days ago; anyone else finding that? (It does make me remember how much I miss AMC’s “Rubicon” though…)
Please go on youtube and watch a rerun of the classic SNL from the 70s. See what funny really was. This new SNL is bad. So bad in fact, I never laugh at it. Maybe smile occasionally, but no it isn’t funny like it was a long time ago.
I get so sick of people my age talking about how much better SNL was back in the 70s. My friends and I watched it faithfully every Saturday night starting with the first episode, and loved it, but it wasn’t better than it is now, and those shows haven’t aged that well.
This cast is very talented and funny, as were the casts going back several years.
When I hear older people (like me) saying the show hasn’t been funny since the 70s, it makes me think of my parents and their friends who, in the 60s and 70s, said that the Beatles just made a lot of noise and the music we liked wasn’t really music. They’re such geezer things to say.
So true, Daisy. Then again, Bieber Fever is such a mystery to me. Do girls like him just to stick it to guys?
You are absolutely right Tom! This show needs some new comedy writers.
Such ageist BS! I’ve watched SNL since the first show, and while it’s gone through several slumps and revivals, overall, it’s no worse or better today than ever before, and I have to say that Miley Cyrus, as young as she is, shows a lot of great comedic talent, is a great singer/songwriter, and while her first non-Disney movie left a lot of room for improvement, for an 18-year old, she’s doing pretty good and that’s pretty cool. And please, stop acting like a geezer from my father’s generation who thought any entertainer born after Frank Sanatra was worthless.
that was one of the worst episodes ever.
jimmy giggled like a girl during his skits w/ tat fat spanish guy who’s taking orders @ taco bell now.
You mean Horatio Sanz? It’s unfortunate that your weight based “slam” on him makes no sense anymore.
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/horatio-sanz-comp-gi-500.jpg
I tried to watch a whole episode of SNL recently. Not a single laugh.. Why? I have no idea. It’s just not funny anymore. Go on youtube and watch something from the original SNL, and I will laugh and laugh..
It sounds like you and Tom would both be much happier watching 40 year-old episodes on youtube, so why torture yourselves with the current show? When I don’t think a show that’s supposed to be funny is funny, I just don’t watch it. I don’t watch it and then bitch about it.
For a show that’s on from 11:30 pm to 1 am the f-bomb should be allowed after 12.
F*ck it! Haha way to go Jules!
I was impressed. Very good show. I’m not sure I would give Miley as much credit, as the writers who knew exactly the best way to use her assets. I was particularly glad they kept her monologue brief and didn’t for her to pretend to be a stand-up comedienne. The writing felt really strong. Weekend Update was excellent, Seth Myers has really found his voice.
didn’t *make* her pretend to be a stand-up comedinne
TYVM you’ve solved all my problsem
You have very low standards.
Not as low as someone who obviously hates the show, yet continues to watch it.
I was actually surprised by this SNL. I’m no Miley fan, but she did pretty good job. Fared much better than some of the other hosts this season.
I use January Jones to judge how bad someone is. Miley was nowhere near as bad as January Jones. She held her own pretty well. It wasn’t like Jon Hamm or somebody like that – but she is also pretty much a kid so I think she did pretty well.
I was surprised, I didn’t expect much.
I like your rating scale…January really was the worst.
That “kid” has been the STAR of her own show for YEARS. She should be able to do a few sketches on SNL.
oooooo ((((shudder))))) January Jones on SNL. It was so painful!
ditto!
No way. Paul Rudd was worse
Paul Rudd didn’t get to do anything. Paul McCartney sang the entire show.
John C., I really would have preferred an all-McCartney show
Not a big Paul Rudd fan.
Paul Rudd does a great job on SNL. I blame the material they give him and the writing. Miley was … “pretty cool.”
yea i agree, it wasn’t painful but it wasn’t awesome
the only problem i had was miley’s horrible acting – she’s not that great at doing impressions
i do love how her voice is lower than the beibs is haha
she just sang so much too, but that’s when she did best
whoa what about The Strokes their performance was epic
as per usual
HELL YEAH IT WAS! That second song (“Life is Simple in the Moonlight”) is so chill, with underlining emotion and a great solo. I felt the first one was way better than the studio version too!
SERIOUSLY. julian’s got more talent than miley could ever hope for.
just curious and off topic, but is Jay Pharoah still on the show? I havent seen him in ages.
yeah – he showed up for two seconds last night as will.i.am. they are wasting his talents.
Hee — how come there hasn’t been a Bush-sized borccoli scandal surrounding it?Meanwhile, I hated beets for a long time and firmly believe you just need the right recipe.
Yeah. He did a Will.I.Am impression this episode
yeah, he played Will.I.Am in the Black Eyed Peas sketch
As per SNL protocol, only one black cast member is allowed to get real screen time in any given season. The others must be marginalized at all costs. (See: Chris Rock, Damon Wayans, etc.)
Jay Pharoah can either stick around and hope Keenan quits/gets fired (not likely, given his limited post-SNL career options)… Or pull a Chris Rock and jump ship while he still can.
Jay is a great talent, but he really looks uncomfortable when he is on the screen. He does great impressions, but not too much else. Him not being featured more has to do with the fact that he probably just isn’t ready for a bigger role. If he sticks around for a few years his role will grow more.
New members don’t get the bulk of the skits unless they are absolute stand-outs, which unfortunatey Jay is not. Has nothing to do with him being black.
Your racesit
You haven’t seen him because aside from his impressions of Black actors he has no comic talent.
You know. I kind of agree with this. I wouldn’t say he has no comic talent, but he is still a waste. Impressions are all he does. He got a lot of over praising when he started which now seems overblown. If impressions are all he has in his bag of tricks, he needs to go elsewhere. SNL is not for him.
The first time I saw Jay perform on the show, I immediately thought that this guy had the potential to be a breakout star, similar to Eddie Murphy. But he still hasn’t had that “big” moment. It’s frustrating because you can see his potential for greatness so clearly.
I think Jay rocks. But I to remember his first performance – he was impersonating Eddie Murphy!
Cool! That’s a clveer way of looking at it!
I was impressed too, mostly because I didn’t expect it to be at all good. She seemed a little awkward and hesitant at times, but overall she did a good job.
SNL really needs topromote all of their featured players immediately (really, how is Pedrad still just a featured player?) They’re better and more consistant than most of the regular cast, except for maybe Sudekis and Hader. They’re seriously the VIPs of the show.
I completely disagree about The Strokes. From an outsider perspective, I can see how similarities to The Ramones could be seen, but if anything, they’re differentiating almost too much from The Strokes sound on their albums.
I thought the other guys from Black Eyed Peas show was pretty funny………….
yeah, I thought that was the best of the night although I got a chuckle out of the Justin Beiber impersonation too.
I must have seen a different show, I didn’t think it was that funny. I actually thought the French bit and the “rockabilly” bit were awful.
Not sure why Justin Bieber was wearing makeup during her “impression” of him…no time to take a wet wipe to her face during the commercial and get all that crap off her face?
It was ok. You hit the highlights. Twice was mentioned the Salvia incident and both times the retort was It’s Legal. I didn’t think that went over well. Miley as Bieber was the best moment. It has to be awkward for her to see someone else do her and get laughs.
Cyrus said on Fallon that she actually did her own version of Bayer’s Miley Cyrus character with her friends, and that Cyrus asked Bayer to do her impression over and over.
And Miley was a fantastic sport! I give her full props for doing the ‘Miley Cyrus Show’ sketch, given the way her father’s been embarassing her in public lately.
I was annoyed by the way she brought up the salvia thing. Both times it was like she was defending her actions. She should have made a joke about it without being defensive, maybe it would have actually been funny. Otherwise she did better then I thought she would.
Uh, she WAS making a joke about it, brainless.
“She should have made a joke about it WITHOUT BEING DEFENSIVE.” Marc C, before you satiate your juvenile need to call someone a name while in the safe bosom of internet anonymity, calm down and count to ten. Or try rereading the comment, that works too.
Wow, I thought it was awful. Weak show, and Miley Cyrus showed very little in the way of versatility. That voice is really limiting, not to mention grating.
wow, good job hating on a 18 year with way more talent then you Jane.
Oh calm down, Danny. Jane wasn’t rambling nonsense for the purpose of “hating” on Miley. She has an opinion – Miley’s performance showed very little versatility.
I agree – I got bored quickly.
Seriously Danny, relax. Her opinion is just as valid as yours, regardless of how wrong you are.
Yeah that was far from hating. Hating is when people rant, rave and do full on character assaults, not when they give an articulate critique. Calling someone’s voice “limiting” is a far cry from saying “OMG she sounds like a goat and I hate her and wish she would go away.” Also, how much talent Jane does or doesn’t have is a moot point. Are only chefs allowed to complain if they eat a meal they don’t enjoy? Get a grip.
That, said I enjoyed her energy if not her range and she was great in that oddball French skit. Aside from that oddity and the hilarious weekend update, the show was a dud. I really wish people crying wolf and complaining about how unfunny the show was every time the core cast changed only to love on them later kept their pie holes shut because now that the show really has been bad the past few years, nobody takes the criticism seriously.
I agree, Miley’s Bieber and Fergie impressions were her best moments, but the rest felt like an unfunny/uncomfortable way for her to vent frustration over the press she’s been getting.
i thought she did really well. the rockabilly sketch was the worst. her dancing in the french skit was kinda bad but those skits are too amazing to let that be a fault.
i was impressed very funy im no a fan of hers either but she was funny her bieber imitation was ok the skit of the french kids was very good the beastly short was prety cool it was a good episode.
I enjoy the reviews, Ken, but often you don’t mention sketches if they don’t have accompanying clips. I thought the Black-Eyed Peas sketch was really funny — why ARE those guys in the band? (And it’s one of the few times I’ve laughed at Kenan Thompson.) And the CBS crime show promo raised a point that I hadn’t considered — man, that network DOES run a lot of shows with grotesque death, doesn’t it?
Best BEP skit on SNL ever was the one where they would play your supermarket opening… or bar mitzvah… or birthday party. With Amy Poehler as Fergie changing the lyrics to “Let’s Get It Started” with each new corporate opportunity. This was 5 years ago and they were mocking the “Other Two” Black Eyed Peas then. The more things change……
I am not a Miley Cyrus fan. But I enjoyed watching her on SNL. Lots of credit to the writers. I thought it was an above average show.
The writers really stepped it up this week, and Miley was a pretty good host. Her Bieber was great!