SNL's Continued Downward Spiral Thread

We're through Weekend Update, and call me crazy, but I'm finding this week's episode pretty funny. Loved the Denzel Washington impression.

 

This was pretty good, although I'm still waiting for a decent Digital Short this year.
Then there was the incredible awesomeness of Florence. She was gloriously over the top without needing a bunch of dancers.

 

Florence Welch is going to down as one of the great voices of this era. Wow.

To think I nearly missed her because the kissing family almost made me turn the TV off right there.

 

I thought it was pretty solid until the kissing family.

The Romney opener was funny. Segel nailed the monologue (Having the muppets there was a nice assist...)

The auditions to replace Regis was pretty funny. They should have had Pharoah do Murphy instead of Denzel, but I think SNL stays away from poking fun at Murphy.

 

My favorite show of the season, even though the Mitt opener blew.

Florence has a set of pipes, doesn't she? And her cameo in the New Jack skit was great.

The Regis skit was one of the best of the year, and the newscast was great because it showed why Huntsman is so far behind in the polls -- Kermit's right arm brace was more dynamic.

And the Muppets kick ass!

 

I loved the episode, except for the kissing family. That jumped the shark a couple episodes ago.

 

I don't think it's possible for the Muppets to suck. They're officially on my list of things that will always be cool, like Sinatra and blue jeans.
Did anyone else catch the tiny moment during Weekend Update when Kermit started rubbing his nipples (or at least where his nipples would be if a frog had nipples)? He never said anything, just kind of put his hands there, did a couple circular motions and pantomimed something to the effect of, "hey, that feels pretty good..."
It's that kind of thing that makes the Muppets awesome. There's always a small sliver of bawdiness just under the wholesome exterior.

 

I agree with you, but to me, it looked more like he was rubbing his stomach, since Seth was talking about obesity.

 

Maybe he was. Seemed like his hands were higher to me, like on his chest.

 

God, YES!! This guy is absolutely funny! His impressions are spot on target. Yet they have so much trouble getting him on a show. This guy is going to get away from you, NBC... he WILL go on and have a great career.

 

When you hear about how SNL works, the absence of Pharoah from almost any prominent sketches makes pretty good sense.

Chris Rock was on Marc Maron's WTF podcast a few weeks back and he was talking about how at SNL, at first they want you to pay your dues for a year or two.

Pharoah is also the second black guy in the cast, there with someone who has been there, a long, long time. If there's a black part on the show, I'm guessing that 95 percent of the time, Keenan Thompson gets first refusal.

Pharoah also probably hasn't found a writer that he works well with. Spade has said numerous times that he and Farley didn't do much on the show until Fred Wolf (who also wrote Tommy Boy) took a liking to both of them. It was a similar deal with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. McKay is now Ferrell's producing partner and I believe has produced, written or co-written the bulk of Ferrell's movies.

Apparently the rare exception to the rule is someone like Carvey or Myers, who developed their own characters and wrote most of their own stuff. In a lot of other cases, actors had a character from their (pre-SNL) standup or improv and a couple make it to the show.

It's Pat was an example of that. Mary Katherine Gallagher is another. Rachel Dratch's girl from Boston was another than she was doing long before she was on SNL.

I always thought Dratch was pretty funny on SNL, but with Shannon and Julia Sweeney, "It's Pat" and "Mary Katherine Gallagher" were pretty much all they had.

I want to find out if Pharoah is good at imitations and nothing else, or if he's as versatile and as talented as Rock or Murphy.

 

I wonder if the Muppets write their own stuff. Really. And not Really?!!? really. It's just they tend to be funnier than whomever they are on stage with.
Nice to see them making a comeback.

I was always kind of sad that Jim Henson never received national recognition for his work because of his sudden passing. Figure he would have been a Kennedy Center honoree, a Medal of Freedom honoree. I'd put him right up there with Walt Disney, perhaps higher due to his work helping educate kids.