Who Scored Big in Week Five of SNL's Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Player Relevancy Poll?
This is not the kind of Saturday Night Live Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Player Relevancy Poll I like to see: The rankings of the female cast members is a concern, with the three women not named Kristen Wiig all settled into the bottom three slots. As recent history has shown, this usually doesn't end well.
Look at it this way: The last three people booted from SNL -- Casey Wilson, Michaela Watkins, Jenny Slate (Will Forte left on his own accord) -- have all been women who couldn't get airtime because of both the lack of female roles and Wiig's massive presence on the show. Ironically, tonight NBC airs its Women of SNL reunion, but unless something drastically changes the distaff dynamics on the show, the next such reunion will probably look identical like the one this evening.
Anyway, on to the poll! The NRFPTP Relevancy Poll is driven by a proprietary algorithm involving such factors as quality airtime or maybe even the fact that fatigued Movieline staffers had to read one more godforsaken Back to the Future-related post on the site. We gauge the chatter following each new episode and, based on that, create each week's NRFPTP Relevancy Poll. If your results differ, let's hear about it.
Hader claims the season's first back-to-back No. 1 ranking. And, my God, he was on fire Saturday night. His Vincent Price sketch and his turn as James Carville during "Update" alone may have been enough to keep him at the top, but after his dual roles as Al Pacino and an uncanny Alan Alda in the "Back to the Future Screen Tests," no one else was even close.
2. Kristen Wiig (Last Week: 5)
It seemed Wiig was in just about every sketch Saturday night -- which means the other three female cast members were nowhere to be seen. Wiig deserves the No. 2 spot, but her dominance of pretty much every female role on the show should be a problem for viewers and castmates alike. SNL can't afford to just keep recycling through female cast members like they are Wiig's understudies.
3. Bobby Moynihan (Last Week: 11)
Huge week for Moynihan, finally. Not only did he absolutely nail Sam Kinison trying out for the role of Marty McFly, his "I Didn't Ask For This" was a desperately needed lead role. Plus, thanks to Moynihan and Jon Hamm, traffic has spiked again for the actual "Best Cry Ever." (That poor guy.)
4. Jason Sudeikis (Last Week: 2)
Sudeikis appeared as Joe Biden in a pretty lackluster cold open, but he made up for it with a solid supporting role in "Audition" and somehow salvaged the "Highway Cops" sketch with Jon Hamm.
5. Fred Armisen (Last Week: 9)
Solid night for Armisen. Garth and Kat was his highlight of the evening, followed close behind by Liberace. Also, he didn't even have to say a word as Prince to generate laughs.
6. Andy Samberg (Last Week: 7)
Pretty much just regulated to a Digital Short, but the Digital Short was Shy Ronnie, which is one of Samberg's more solid efforts.
7. Jay Pharoah (Last Week: 12)
This seems to be the recurring theme for Pharoah: One quick part, knocks it out of the park. This time it was his spot-on Eddie Murphy impression. Why does Pharoah not get more airtime?
Best "Update" lines this week: "A 10-year-old boy in China survived after falling 20 stories from his apartment window and landing on a parked car. And since it was China, the air helped break his fall." Also: "Oh, a strange package from Yemen. Where do I sign?"
9. Taran Killam (Last Week: 8) Nice job as the son who causes Jon Hamm to cry. Also does a splendid Pee Wee Herman impression -- but so do a lot of people.
10. Kenan Thompson (Last Week: 4)
Always nice to see Kenan's Cosby impression. Unfortunately, that's about all we saw of Kenan this week.
12. Paul Brittain (Last Week: 3) Brittain had a nice one-week surge after his "Sex" Ed Vincent sketch, but now it's back to reality. Not a lot going on here, but I have a sneaky suspicion he was fairly involved with Moynihan's "I Didn't Ask For This" sketch.
12. Nasim Pedrad (Last Week: 10)
I'm starting to figure this out. Of all the female cast members, Pedrad has done the best job of finding roles of her own that won't, by default, be given to Kristen Wiig. Unfortunately, I think that's why Pedrad winds up playing so many awkward teenagers, because Wiig doesn't do that. In a week where there's no role for an awkward teenager, Pedrad is hardly seen.
13. Vanessa Bayer (Last Week: 13)
A few weeks ago Bayer had her breakout role as Miley Cyrus. Since then, unfortunately, there hasn't been much. Considering the plight of all female cast members not named Wiig, this may have more to do, unfortunately, with her gender than her rookie status.
14. Abby Elliott (Last Week: 14)
I've been sayng it in the Relevancy Poll for quite some time, but it bears repeating: Abby Elliott's lack of productivity has reached an alarming level. She was promoted to full-time cast member this season but has had less screen time than any of the individual new featured players. The same was true last night -- a brief appearance in the Back to the Future sketch as Joan Cusack (which was good) and that was about it. What is happening here?
Comments
I really think the best thing for the show would be Wiig leaving. I like her, but she's doing every female role going which is getting dull. She can only do so many funny voices before we've heard them all.
Pharoah needs to write, or team up with someone to write, a sketch that doesn't involve him impersonating someone. A funny sketch. A funny original character. Of course, maybe he is and he's just getting tough love from Lorne Michaels...
This is getting embarrassing. I like Wiig, but this season, every character seems to be sort of the same. Did she really need to be in the "I Didn't Ask for This' sketch? Any of the other ladies could have done that. And I dare say Abby Elliot could have done a better Judy Garland in the Vincent Price bit. The last straw was that awful sketch with Wiig as the auditioning actress. You can't tell me that Elliot, Bayer and Pedrad don't have great bits they could do. Well, I wonder about Pedrad, because her nerdy kid bits (I think there have been at least 3) are WAY old--and her Gloria Allred fell flat. On the other hand, the one time Elliot got to do the opening--as Rachel Maddow last season--she nailed it. Elliot's Angelina is sublime; they should riff on this latest bit that Brangelina's godmother is Mindy Cohn from FACTS OF LIFE....
I agree with a lot of this. Also, I feel like I pick on Abby Elliott, but this is far from the case. She is so good when they give her a chance to do something. Sadly, it never seems to happen.
Thanks for clearing that up. Seriously, I thought you just didn't like her because she was an SNL legacy. I kinda feel like we haven't even seen what she is capable of because she hardly ever gets lead roles in sketches. That may be her own fault, or maybe it's the writers or even Lorne, but if they are going to bump her up to full cast member than why not utilize her talent?
It's frustrating to watch the show every week and recognize the talent of all the actors but then see it go to waste with same old, unoriginal sketches than Lorne chooses. It's like he only picks sketches that are safe, sketches that have been done 20-30 years ago with slightly different characters and/or premise. If that is true, than it also encourages the writers to make sketches like that too because they know it will get on the air.
Abby Elliott isn't getting any stage time because she's too busy sleeping with Armisen.
Or maybe they are shutting her out for sleeping
With him while he was just newly married to
Elisabeth moss, causing all this awkward drama.
Am I the only one perfectly fine with not seeing Abby Elliott? I thought her Joan Cusack was ridiculous and really don't feel any of her impressions. I'd much rather watch Nasim Pedrad and wish Jenny Slate was back. Ngh.