Well I predicted that SNL would go back to the Parnell/Samberg comedy rap video well after the viral success of Lazy Sunday, and that’s just what they did.
Their second attempt, featuring Natalie Portman as an angry drink-driving rapper, didn’t have anything like the same magic as Lazy Sunday, but it was pretty fun. For some reason Samberg appearing as a viking was what made it for me.
Don’t expect this one to have the same Internet meme factor as the last one though. The problem with SNL is that they continue to believe that lightning in a bottle can be captured over and over again. This is what led to the comedic demise of Debbie Downer and, I suspect, will be the undoing of these digital shorts.
I have a friend who worked there as a writer for five years, and from what I can tell the “lightning in a bottle” thing is what they’re constantly striving for.
I thought last night’s episode was really funny, and while I think the digital shorts will grow old, I got a few laughs out of Portman’s “99 Problems”-esque video.
The Lonely Island guys have been doing those digital shorts all year, so it’s not like the Narnia thing was a one-off they’re trying to copy. Some have been good (Narnia, the Chuck Norris one, Natalie Portman), some awful (the close talking one). Better chance of the digital shorts being funny than the average sketch, though.
Hell, I don’t care if they do 50 Lazy Sunday rap ripp-offs if just a few of them are half as funny as that one. Natalie Portman’s was funny in parts. Something is funny, why not try to duplicate it a couple of times. The only reason I can see to bitch about it is if you were simply waiting around for another rap video spoof on SNL so you could come here and bitch about them going to the well too often.
