Mississippi just likes to watch.
Loved the “Impossible Hulk” sketch last night. I also loved Elba as the incredibly obtuse soccer player on the sports show.
BTW, whose pic was that shown for the “150 million dollars worth of opioids” gag?
That episode, to me, was, Can Idris Elba be funny? The answer is, I don’t really know. They didn’t give him much to do, the soccer guy was pretty good, but other than that, he had some issues stumbling with lines, and sat on the sidelines with a lot of sketches.
I mean, we only had one game show sketch this week, so that is good I guess?
One issue I have with SNL sketches right now is the staging. So many sketches are character sitting or standing in one place, delivering lines. In game show sketches, everyone has a spot to stand, talk show sketches, everyone is just sitting down, in that powerpoint sketch, everyone just sat in their spots and reacted to the lines and visual gags. This season hasn’t all been like that (see the Mulaney episode) but there have been a lot of just blah sketches. I don’t know how you have Aidy Bryant in the cast, and she is sitting down the entire episode. It is just odd to me, some of the choices being made.
I don’t know if this has to do with the show being live each week, and the difficulty of blocking scenes with cue cards, but there has to be a middle ground somewhere.
Yeah, agreed all around.
I feel like we didn’t really have a Idris Elba sketch in which he played any significant role.
OTOH, Leslie Jones and Keenan Thompson were great this week and highlighted in several sketches including the opener.
It doesn’t help that this was the second week in a row where the musical guest was so freaking boring. Usually SNL is actually a fairly decent way for me to discover bands. OTOH, music is the most subjective thing ever, so I’m sure the last two week’s bands have their fans who were pretty excited to see them on SNL.
Just as an aside, the show that used to be called Prairie Home Companion, but whose name was changed to “Live from Here” continues to be just fantastic, and honestly is even better than in the Garrison Keiller days. The comedians they have on are funnier than Garrison, and Chris Thile, the new host, really appreciates and loves music and he makes you appreciate and love music along with him. It’s such a joy to listen to. As usual with public radio though, I only listen to 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there as I’m driving from place to place on the weekend. But those snippets have all been amazing the last two seasons since the switch away from Garrison.
Yes! Kenan is becoming the season MVP.
I first became aware of Keenan Thompson when my kids used to watch his show on Nickelodian. I think that was the network. I never thought I would later think of him as one of SNL’s best assets.
As far as so many SNL sketches being geared towards characters standing in place, I think that’s due to the everything’s-written-at-the-last-minute nature of the show. There’s very little rehearsal time and everything’s read off cue cards.
So there’s no time to work out blocking for movements, much less actually learn it. Plus you have to keep the cue cards in view of the performers.
It’s a testament to the talent of any SNL cast when they’re even decent, given how little prep time they have for anything they do. And it shows why improvisers tend to do better than stand-ups on the show.
You are probably thinking of Nickelodeans “All That” which was basically SNL for kids. I grew up with it and Kenan was one of the few characters that I still remembered before he joined SNL (Kenan, Kel, and Lori Denberg). Kenan was basically trained for SNL.
All That was educational too - it’s what helped me realize that I was lactose intolerant as a kid :).
Finally got around to watching this past weekend’s show. The R Kelly thing was great.
"My lawyers said “no”, but my ego said “yes”!
OK, this bit of the amazing Cecily Strong as Jeanine Pirro was fantastic last night:
She was also great in the Kremlin sketch. Her Russian accent sounded more authentic too (to my ear anyway). BTW, who was playing the visiting Kim Jong Un in that sketch?
Bowen Yang. One of the new writers they added this season.
This really cracked me up:
Wow, that’s really dark and depressing. LOL
Yeah, that’s brilliant.
Promo Code: SameSadYou
Looks like it’s partially based on this guy:
Don’t forget to check out the three new SNL cast members starting this fall:
Err, make that two new cast members:
I had no idea SNL had the vetting abilities of the Trump administration but here we are. Gillis was fired for some pretty racist shit he said on a podcast under a year ago. It’s not like he said this stuff 10 years ago and it just came out. At least they did the right thing when it surfaced, especially given their hiring of the first Asian cast member at the same time.
Woody Harrelson hosts season premiere tonight. Heads up.
The “Impeachment Town Hall” sketch was pretty good.
Anyone know why Aidy Bryant was corpsing so badly toward the end of the political talking heads bit?
A stagehand lost track of the sketch and ran right out onto the stage during a wide shot.
