SNL Scorecard: Zach Galifianakis Does His Best to Save a Mediocre Show
The Bad
"Scared Straight" (Thompson, Galifianakis, Hader, Moynihan, Samberg): It's strange how less entertaining these are when Bill Hader doesn't break character. This was fine overall, and Galifianakis was strong as a cannibal, but the whole thing got a little too meta once they started referencing The Hangover.
Score: 5.5
"Digital Short - Zach Looks for a New Assistant" (Galifianakis): This is a prime example of this episode's letdown: Last year, Galifianakis' Digital Short involved him showing up unexpectedly on a wide variety of NBC programming. This year... he talks to kids. It was OK, I suppose. A couple of chuckles?
Score: 5.5
"Weekend Update" (Meyers, Wiig, Samberg) This installment of "Update," unfortunately, reminded me of the one that aired the day of the Arizona shootings. This certainly isn't the fault of "Update," but when a tragic event is occurring elsewhere in the world, "Update" automatically becomes neutered. Wiig was good as Julie Taymor and Samberg was forgettable as a dude named Liam who just woke up. Classy move at the end, though, for Meyers to acknowledge Japan and give out the information for the Red Cross.
Score: 5.0
"Titanic" (Galifianakis, Pedrad, Wiig, Elliott, Moynihan, Hader, Bayer): Galifianakis plays the Captain of the Titanic who dresses up like a woman in order to board one of the life boats. Yep, that's pretty much it...
Score: 4.5
"The Talk" (Wiig, Elliott, Pedrad, Bayer, Hader, Galifianakis): Very awkward all around -- except for Wiig, who was solid as a Julie Chen who doesn't understand
slang. Elliott's Leah Remini was very good but she stumbled over her lines a few times. The biggest flaw of the sketch was basically announcing to the world, "Yep, we don't have an African American female cast member!" It was just weird how, in a quick comedy sketch, an announcement had to be made "Yeah, Holly Robinson Peete's not here today." Think about that: An excuse had to be made in a comedy sketch as to why a parody of a real person wasn't present...
Score: 3.5
The Ugly
"Celebrity Scoop" (Wiig, Armisen, Galifianakis, Hader): A celebrity gossip show based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Basically four minutes of "Boy, Canadians sure do talk funny!"
Score: 3.0
Average Score For This Show: 5.86
Weekly Host Scorecard:
· Russell Brand 6.35
· Jeff Bridges 6.21
· Amy Poehler 6.04
· Anne Hathaway 6.00
· Emma Stone 5.88
· Gwyneth Paltrow 5.88
· Zach Galifianakis 5.86
· Jon Hamm 5.86
· Paul Rudd 5.83
· Robert De Niro 5.83
· Jim Carrey 5.80
· Jesse Eisenberg 5.79
· Bryan Cranston 5.79
· Dana Carvey 5.75
· Miley Cyrus 5.54
· Jane Lynch 5.31
· Scarlett Johansson 4.69
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Comments
SNL has been mediocre for some time. Since they have become a schiel for the democratic party and has dedicated themselves to rediculing the up and coming Republicans, their writers have lost their edge.
I used to watch them all the time. They were mostly on my DVR. They had great stuff. Then they went into politics and lost me 50%. I still see the show until the boring stuff shows up. Then I watch the grass grow.
Today, they are vulnerable for competition. What made them great is being lost.
I concur with pretty much everything, except that I love Liam the Teenager Who Just Woke Up. But yeah, the Titanic sketch was almost annoyingly throw-away. How incredibly fresh and current, a Titanic sketch. Even worse: they covered that cross-dressing premise IN THE MOVIE.
Sarah Palin? Michelle Bachmann? Yeah, why bother making fun of people who do a much better job of it themselves?
After Zach's monologue I had such high expectations for the entire episode. Although this was leaps and bounds in front of Miley's efforts last week, the episode went downhill rather quickly with too many missed opportunities. Unfortunately that's a trend that's becoming too frequent with this show. I still love Zach and his beard, though.
Decent episode...good show for the women, actually. After the initial excitement of seeing "Winnipeg!" on the screen, the Canadian sketch kinda pissed my friends and I off. 4 minutes of tired annoying stereotypes and godawful accents.
I've speant four days in Winnipeg... It wasn't like this sketch!
SCTV did the Canadian bit better thirty years ago. Monty Python did the Titanic bit better forty years ago.
My 50+ mother, who's watched SNL since the 70's, turned to me last night and said this was one of the worst episodes shes ever seen. I thought it perfectly summed up these last 2 awful seasons. Bill Hader has been on fire, good for him. I knew this season was in trouble when the writers botched the first episode with Amy Pohler. I mean, how do you have Amy Pohler as the host and have it still suck eggs? That takes "talent".
Noodles. Was. Brilliant. It's probably not on Hulu because of music clearance, same as the monologue (also brilliant).
I thought the cold open's best moments were the little things: Thompson & Sudeikis praising each other's obtuse analogies, Dick Vitale going into cold storage, the Nic Cage joke, & Kim Jong-Il as a 4-time winner who wasn't even on the bracket this year. (I actually just found out about half an hour ago that Charlie Sheen's webcast is a real thing. I thought they'd made it up for the sketch.)
"Comedy Tour" was clever, but too long...just like real promos for real shared-headline comedy tours.
This was definitely the weakest "Scared Straight", but I still like the sketch.
The real downside of the "Talk" sketch was just that nothing seemed to fit together. The only moment that really worked was Whoopi appearing at the end, the randomness of which probably would've been funnier if the rest of the sketch hadn't already seemed so random. (Also, I kinda like the actual show they're spoofing. Sharon Osbourne isn't nearly as manic as she was 10 years ago, & Sara Gilbert is fun. Plus, it's not as catty as The View.)
Disagree totally on the Digital Short. They were going for cute instead of creepy this time, & it worked. (The one last year was funny too, just a different kind of funny.)
Agree totally on the rest, especially "Celebrity Scoop" (the ohhhh.com & the moose at least made it watchable) & "Titanic" (the ending just made it worse).
'The Talk' was pretty funny! Especially Wiig's Chen and Elliot's Remini.It was funny throughout the sketch.
I guess different people grade SNL on different curves. After Zach's classic monologue (which prompted me to praise it as "worthy of the 70s era" all over the net), I actually dug in and watched the rest of the show. Because for once, I actually felt like I did in the 70s -- I had an open mind to what I hadn't seen yet.
It's amazing how much funnier I found most things once I watched without the crossed-arm "I dare you to be funny" attitude that has been the default position for viewers since the mid-90s. And while sketches like Noodles and Titanic were random, they made me laugh because, hello, funny things happened in them. Thin as they were, they had the same flavor and attitude of many of the 'third-act' sketches in the 70s.
And I thought the Talk parody was brilliant. Why? Because it showed exactly why the show is lame, and who is really to blame for it. Not poor exec-deer-in-the-headlights Sara Gilbert, but the motley crew she was stuck with, including
Mike, what are you seeing? This was an excellent show. Zach G. was fantastic. His opening was joyously unnerving. There's always an air of unpredictability that he brings to the show. But, the rest of the show kept pace. The only dud sketch of the entire night was the Canadian Bob and Doug McKensie rip off. Even Jessie J was good (thankfully she left "Do it Like A Dude" out of the set).
The amateurishly stereotyped "Canadian" Celebrity Scoop sketch was so removed from any present day factor of Canadian identity that it fell flat on it's face right out of the gate. I mean really, did watching that sketch even remotely evoke any thoughts of people like Rachel McAdams, Dan Akroyd, Shania Twain or Ryan Reynolds? Terrible stuff - definitely the low point of a mediocre show.
WOW...this episode just clarified why Abby Elliot is one of the worst castmembers EVER!
I mean "The Talk" sketch was already awkwardly not funny due to Abby's unfunny quips but then she totally drops the ball and screwed up her lines!!
Watch it over and you can see her come unravel after her jokes don't go over with the crowd and she botches her lines...my question is what memorable character...what memorable moment...matter fact what funny joke has she ever even said!?...WHAT..Meryll Streep iceskating?...her godawful Katy Perry...or how bout Khloe Kardashian...UNREAL
Abby won me over with her Sally Field "Boniva" commercial last year.
The shaved head bit at the end was a nod to his last hosting stint when he shaved his beard right before the last sketch - the beauty pageant talk show.
Mediocre? The prisoner skit was HILARIOUS. And Noodles and Corn Syrup were also good. The Stand Up Comic and Andy Samberg's as the news anchor guest falling asleep was even okay. It certainly wasn't great and had some flat-liners, but mediocre ... ?
Kids are your Kryptonite, The song 'Tomorrow' from 'Annie' is mine. This digital short was good and the monologue lost me with the song.
Also, the Canadian sketch was far more racist than the Axe-Ask joke in the monologue...
"Then they went into politics"
Not sure how long you've been watching the show, but they've been spoofing republicans AND democrats for decades.
The writers on SNL skewer lefties all the time. Get over yourself and your butthurt and maybe you'll notice that political comedy on SNL makes fun of all parties and opinions, not just the one you happen to think is superior.
Btw, saying the show has lost its edge and inferring that it's boring, and then saying you still watch it, well, that sort of undermines your opinion just a little bit.
Canadian isn't a race, it's a nationality. You can't be racist when you're not picking on a race.