SNL #3118: SWEEPS EDITION!
In 1997 it used to be posh to say things like, “remember when SNL was good back in 1993?” Then Will Ferrell hit and the 2000 presidential election happened and everyone was all, “SNL is soooo good!” Way better than it was in 1993!” Then, as you probably remember, Will Ferrell left and no one else could figure out how the hell to write a biting political sketch despite the fact that SNL puts only 20 episodes on every year and The Daily Show was doing that many in a month with much greater success and people began to say, “Man, this show is awful. Remember when it was good back in 2000?” But then this aging show started to embrace digital media and began putting those fun little shorts on the air (like they did in 1976, only without the film processing fees) and in December “Lazy Sunday” hit and suddenly people were saying, “Dude, did you see that SNL clip on YouTube?” To which I’d sometimes respond, “Yeah, I actually saw it when it aired.” And then they’d say, “What do you mean, aired?” And then I’d have to go into this long explanation about how they do this show on Saturday nights and 20 times a year it’s live and as the person’s face slowly glazes over with confusion I just change the subject and start talking about World of Warcraft or some such nonsense.
Everyone knows that the quality of SNL ebbs and flows (usually based on cast combinations that strike the right cord with the audience and presumably the writers) but those changes seems to be happening at a faster clip than in years passed. Since the solid three episodes that aired after “Lazy Sunday†hit the air, the show has again fallen into a horrible slump. Whatever momentum each of those episodes had, it was being inevitably bogged down by the painfully unfunny Weekend Update.
With two episodes left in the season, we were greeted with a decent one, largely to the credit of the endless pool of lovely that followed around host Julia Louis Dreyfus, as well as the sometimes-welcome presence of celebrity cameos—assuming you find Al Gore to be more of a celebrity and not, say, a former vice president of the United States of America. Oh, and a capless Paul Simon was present.
One of the better reveals in the show this season happened in the cold open, when a voice-over tells us that there are alternate realities with what could have been. We then see the white house and are told we are about to hear a message from President Al Gore. But it isn’t Darrel Hammond. It’s actually Al Gore. This isn’t a particular surprise as he seems to be a friend of the show and has a movie coming out at the end of the month. The sketch was more signficant for what what it represented (aside from laughs), which was a big F-You to Darrell Hammond. Here’s a cast member whose only significant contribution in the past 5 years was a role as some kind of bizarre, bulimia genius in two episodes of the canceled FX series Starved. On SNL he has turned into comedy poison, dragging out tired impressions of people we were never really all that into in the first place.
And so what happens? The show decides it wouldn’t be that funny to have someone do an impression of the vice president, so they call in the real guy—AND give him the cold open.
Oh, Snap! Perhaps what Hammond really needs is to open a documentary about global warming, or bulimia. In any case, it was a strong point for the show in its indirect slam of Mr. Hammond.
The rest of the ep wasn’t amazing, but was solidly good. Weekend Update was lousy as usual, but not AS lousy (though strangely long). The real winner is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was quite charming and may have actually convinced me to check out her horribly titled show, The New Adventures of Old Christine.
May 22nd, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Julia was allright, wasn’t she? You’ve got to love when a host comes in and doesn’t just mail it in with the crutch of “Oh, I’m the host, so I can just read directly off the cards without any of the pressure of trying to sell any of this crap.” Someone else who I was impressed with simply for that reason, although I feel really weird saying it, and have a good feeling I might be reproached about it — Lindsay Lohan. I know, I know, but the woman had her lines down.
And can we cut out the requisite Tina Fey smile and giggle shot after every Pohler joke, and vice versa? Individually, I like both. Together, it’s become the part of the show during which I magically find myself washing dishes or folding socks. And I HATE washing dishes.