SNL Scorecard: Did Scarlett Johansson Host the Worst Show of the Season?
The Bad
"Middle School Kids" (Thompson, Ensemble): Kenan Thompson plays a middle school student who has a broken knee. After some inspirational lectures from a teacher, the other students convince Thompsan that anything is possible, even walking on his broken knee. It never works, leaving Thompson on the ground, screaming for the others to leave him alone. Classic SNL repetitive joke -- except that it doesn't get funnier.
Score: 5.0
"Ceramic Busts" (Armisen, Johansson): Yes, everything looks classier with a ceramic bust. This was OK, but could have benefited from being even weirder considering it was the last sketch of the night.
Score: 5.0
"Weekend Update" (Meyers, Sudeikis, Pharoah, Bayer, Armisen): This was by far the worst "Update" of the season -- even a pretty great bit featuring Kanye West and George W. Bush couldn't save it this week. Bayer and Armisen -- as two passengers of the stranded cruise show -- were beyond unnecessary.
Score: 4.5
"Hollywood Dish" (Hader, Wiig, Johansson): I have no idea why this is a recurring sketch. The two Hollywood reporters trying to milk answers out of a celebrity was slightly amusing the first time, but now it's just tired. Though it was slightly amusing to see Hader do a spit take into Wiig's face and then almost break character by laughing.
Score: 4.0
"Paula Deen's Paper Towels" (Wiig) My God, this episode was terrible. This is just a laundry list of unfunny sketch after unfunny sketch. In this one Kristen Wiig plays a standard Kristen Wiig character selling paper towels that have the ability to absorb all of the fat out of food, which leaves pretty much nothing. I wish there was a towel that could absorb all the unfunny sketches tonight, which, yes, would have left pretty much nothing.
Score: 3.0
The Ugly
"Millionaire Matchmaker" (Johansson, Ensemble): There is nothing worse than trying to parody something that's already, in reality, a parody of itself. Just because there some "hilarious" accents are thrown in doesn't mean this is going to be anything worth watching. Especially considering that this was one of the first sketches of the evening.
Score: 2.0
"G-20 Cold Open" (Obama, Hader, Pedrad) Week after week the cold open is absolutely terrible. Look, I realize that SNL thrives off its political humor, but it doesn't have to open the show week after week. Especially when it contains Armisen's pretty tired Obama and it's basically just a repeat of the exact same sketch they did last year -- only with Forte as the Chinese president instead of Hader. Feel free to compare and contrast with last season's version. Also, this sketch seemed to last forever.
Score: 1.5
"Scarlet Johansson Monologue" (Johansson, Wiig, Elliott) Seems pretty telling that this week's monologue isn't on Hulu. Johansson -- who has now hosted three times and was serviceable in the sketches in which she appeared -- just phones it in. It seemed so forced. Not to mention, the whole concept of "ways celebrities can stay out of the tabloids" seems like it would only be informative or funny to other celebrities. Also, yes, Twitter was quite vocal about Johansson's hairstyle; some compared it to Conan O'Brien. All night I was trying to figure out where I've seen that hairstyle before: I think I've figured it out.
Score: 1.0
Average Score For This Show: 4.69
Weekly Host Scorecard:
· Amy Poehler 6.04
· Emma Stone 5.88
· Jon Hamm 5.86
· Bryan Cranston 5.79
· Jane Lynch 5.31
· Scarlett Johansson 4.69
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Comments
I would imagine the monologue isn't on Hulu because NBC doesn't want to pay the royalties to Kander & Ebb for their song "Class" from Chicago (cut from the film). ScarJo was dressed (and styled) like the stage version of Roxie Hart -- was this an audition we witnessed?
Actually, yes, I would bet that you are correct.
I agree the episode sucked.
Another Sat night I wished so hard for MadTV to be uncancelled.
For Unstobbable, are they making fun of Denzel's smile?
Honestly, if the episode was just bland I would have been disappointed that I'd wasted an hour, yet remained hopeful for the next week's episode. However, this episode seemed to go beyond just bad... it was actually quite painful to watch and never hear the studio audience laugh. I was left wondering if something didn't seriously go wrong this week at the Studio that left the writers with less time to write the show. Several times during the episode (particularly with "Middle School Kids" and "Millionaire Matchmaker") I would wait for a climax that I felt attainable for the sketch; nevertheless was disappointed and tremendously confused at the absence of comedy or even a point. In all, SNL is a truly great show that sometimes produces below the line episodes as every show on television does. But this episode was an outlier, so much so that I'm not even sure if comedy was the goal of the writing.
"But this episode was an outlier, so much so that I'm not even sure if comedy was the goal of the writing."
Ouch.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why Scarlett Johansson felt the need to do a bad NY accent in nearly every sketch she was in. Except for the Stars of Tomorrow and MTV sketches, I was pretty disappointed with this whole episode.
And the Paula Deen impression was an impression of Paula Deen of the Food Network, not a Kristen Wiig character. And while it was pointless as a sketch, I thought it was a fun impression.
If you want honest and dead bang on reviews of each SNL broadcast check this out...
http://snlsaturdaynightlive.com/
I aggree completely about how bad last nights show was and disagree completely about "Jon Hamm"...that episode was maybe the 2nd worst episode in the past 36 years along with this one, being the first.
They also had an extra week to work on this one because last weeks episode was a repeat. There was NO ECUSE for what Lorne Michaels did last night. he is losing his touch and that's 5 now out of the 7 episidoes so far that have completely sucked this year! Forthermore, Scarlett Johansson was pretentious and phoney and was the last [person whom ever should have been selected to host this show!
http://snlsaturdaynightlive.com/
Yes! Argh, I meant to comment on her NY accent. What was that all about? It was quite distracting.
You were too generous with your scores this week, this episode was terrible! You gave “Darlique & Barney” a 3 last week and that sketch was funnier than anything in tonight's episode.
Also, they really need to drop the political openers. SNL is not The Daily Show and I don't think outside of election season there is a reason to have political humor outside of Weekend Update.
I actually loved the Middle School Kids sketch. It was a pretty effing brilliant sendup of the kind of mind-numbingly sappy shows that have taken over Disney & Nickelodeon since Kenan's days on Nick.