Here we are at the last episode of 2008, the big holiday episode. Saturday Night Live was good enough to leave us all a little surprise for the holidays: a big pile of turd! Seriously, there was barely anything funny going on here. It was a real shame, especially considering that it was Amy Poehler’s final episode as a cast regular. I have to imagine that we will see her again from time to time doing Hillary Clinton; after all, she is leaving to do a sitcom on the same network.
If you can endure the pain, come listen to me bitch about this stinker….
Cold Open/Blagojevich: I must have missed something about Blagojevich having a foul mouth. Overall, I think this could have been a lot funnier. When a wig is the funniest thing going on in a skit, it’s not a great sign. I don’t know. I felt like I should have been laughing, but I didn’t even crack a smile. Just me?
Monologue: It’s always fun seeing people who act without an accent speak with their regular voice. Laurie does one of the better American accents on TV. Kudos to him. His summing up of 2008 was sadly accurate. I think there might be a thorn in my paw, I didn’t find anything chuckle worthy here.
Bronx Beat: Leave it to Maya and Amy to actually get me laughing. They got Hugh laughing too. I love seeing people lose it on live television. I loved their reaction to Hugh’s British accent. It’s such a shame that Maya is off the show and that Amy will be off after tonight.
Christmas Dinner: This was a truly bizarre sketch, but it did get a couple laughs out of me, which is all I ask from SNL.
Culhane Wedding: This one was painful. The trick with uncomfortable humor is that there actually has to be humor somewhere in there. Perhaps SNL will learn that at some point.
Musical Guest: I’ll certainly give it to Kanye West that he had the coolest set of any musical guest this season. At this point, though, I was just trying to get through this stinker of an episode, so I fast forwarded.
Weekend Update: Weekend Update is always an oasis in the desert, even in crappy episodes like this one. Frankly, it’s a little cheap and a little offensive to go after the NY governor for being blind, though the NY audience seemed to be eating it up (do I need to get off my high horse?). I will admit that some of the New Jersey jokes were funny, and comparing his life to a Richard Pryor movie was clever. It was nice to see a return of the “Really!?!” bit. Funniest part of the night. There was a nice goodbye from Amy too. I hope her sitcom doesn’t tank like everything else on NBC.
Lamp Store: I’m going to take the lead from Amy and Seth. Really, SNL, really?!? Singing lamps? Really??? Poor Hugh Laurie.
Christmas Letter: This was mildly amusing, which is to say, compared with the rest of this episode it was comedy genius.
Digital Short: I asked for no diarrhea jokes last week, and I consider this a veiled diarrhea joke. Ugh.
What did you guys think of this week’s episode? Was it as bad as I thought it was? Clearly Hulu thought it sucked as there were barely any clips uploaded. Are you looking forward to a couple weeks off from SNL as much as I am?
The thing I find most disappointing about bad episodes is when a genuinely funny host like Hugh Laurie actually performs the crap they’re given. Laurie is a great comic performer, the people at SNL should be ashamed to supply this sort of tripe – more-so than they should be generally.
I agree. You could really see him trying hard, and he almost made the wedding toast funny. It’s a shame for him. When it’s Michael Phelps you can understand.
This was really a terrible episode. I was particularly upset at the way they made Amy’s goodbye a skit. It was a heartfelt farewell and shouldn’t have been interrupted. Once the singing lamps appeared I shut it off for the night. Poor Hugh Laurie.
What made me fall off my seat was the still of Hugh Laurie standing with the moose antlers with his BIG eyes, man that was the shit. I also loved the Bronx skit with Hugh “translating” into British. I think I know I’ve seen enough House when during the episode i felt he was faking his British accent and was only normal when he was talking American.
I watched up to the wedding sketch before having to leave. I felt that I wasn’t going to miss much anyway. The episode was meh. The lamp thing you mentioned confirmed I made the right choice.
(Season 34, Episode 11)
The thing I find most disappointing about bad episodes is when a genuinely funny host like Hugh Laurie actually performs the crap they’re given. Laurie is a great comic performer, the people at SNL should be ashamed to supply this sort of tripe – more-so than they should be generally.
*POST AUTHOR*
I agree. You could really see him trying hard, and he almost made the wedding toast funny. It’s a shame for him. When it’s Michael Phelps you can understand.
This was really a terrible episode. I was particularly upset at the way they made Amy’s goodbye a skit. It was a heartfelt farewell and shouldn’t have been interrupted. Once the singing lamps appeared I shut it off for the night. Poor Hugh Laurie.
What made me fall off my seat was the still of Hugh Laurie standing with the moose antlers with his BIG eyes, man that was the shit. I also loved the Bronx skit with Hugh “translating” into British. I think I know I’ve seen enough House when during the episode i felt he was faking his British accent and was only normal when he was talking American.
I watched up to the wedding sketch before having to leave. I felt that I wasn’t going to miss much anyway. The episode was meh. The lamp thing you mentioned confirmed I made the right choice.
I liked it but simply because I fast forward through all episodes. You just skip the crap and that’s it. Leaves you with a solid 40 minutes of fun.
But the material was really sub-par this week. Poor Hugh Laurie…