This episode only served to prove that last week’s episode really was one of the better of the season, if not the best so far. Tonight felt like we were getting the scrapings from the bottom of the writers’ barrel of material. I held out hope for something really remarkable to come out of it, but wound up disappointed. At least the pre-taped Party segment was decent. It was a shame that we didn’t get a traditional sign-off, though. ‘Peas fans probably loved it.

Cold Open: Vice Presidential Address — Oh, what a surprise: more politics. However, I’ve always loved Sudeikis’s Biden impression, so this was one of the better ones in my book.

Monologue: January Jones — Jones looked a bit nervous and tripped up a little at the start, but she fell back into the swing of things quickly. I know a few “Mad Menies” myself, so here’s the official Man Menie lyrics for the show’s non-verbal theme song (until now):

Mad Men, Mad Men
’60s, Cigarettes
Thin ties, short hair
Mad Men, Ma-ad Men

TODAY Show — Kathy Lee is one of the few recurring characters I like of Wiig’s, but the jokes in this skit were falling painfully flat. I still sensed some nervousness with Jones in her delivery of some of the lines.

Rear Window Set — What the hell? Fart jokes? This felt of desperation, no? This segment’s only saving grace was Jones losing it a bit and, to some degree, Moynihan’s Hitchcock. I’m all for decent fart jokes, actually, but this was just … no.

Dairy Queen Hero — They definitely succeeded in achieving full-out awkward creepiness in this one. As Wiig was falling all over the Dairy Queen worker, I couldn’t help but think how much creepier it’d be if we were watching a guy do the same thing.

A Lady’s Guide to Throwing a Party — A perfect little pre-taped sketch for people looking for Jones to do some sort of reprisal of Mad Men’s Betty Draper. “If a black person arrives … just kidding. A black person won’t arrive. That’s an example of party humor.”

Musical Guest: Black Eyed Peas — Wait, I thought it was totally bad form now for artists to use auto-tune. Doesn’t it pretty much spell out that you can’t sing? Not that these guys aren’t successful, with or without auto-tune. They did cap things off with a rate third number, so they get props for that for sure. The thing is, it spelled out that there just wasn’t enough skit writing material to keep this episode together.

Weekend Update — My favorite quote this week: “This year’s Rockefeller Center’s Christmas tree is a 76-foot-tall Norway Spruce from Easton, Connecticut. So come on down to Rockefeller Center and watch a tree slowly die.”

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde — This one started out promising but just seemed to wrap things up really quickly. Sometimes I just don’t get how elaborate some of the skits are, along with the wardrobe and, in this case, shooting in black and white, only to give us something like this. It could have been so much more.

SNL Digital Short: Toilet Guy — Oh, we’ve all done it. You knock and you knock on that bathroom door, it’s unlocked or even ajar, but when you open the door fully you get yelled at by your roommate who’s sitting there taking a crap. I get the feeling one of the guys in the skit had this happen to them recently, so this short was born. It went a bit too far but paid off in the end.

Clueless Picnic Date — This one was pretty funny, the best line being Sudeikis’s “Yeah I’m gonna go through with this.” Sadly, I’ve known some people that out of touch. Yeah, sometimes that person is me.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Today we’re going to offer you, the tried-and-true CliqueClack reader, a two-for-one special. Not only will we be reviewing the latest set of webisodes from The Office, but we’ll also be giving away a sweet package, courtesy of NBC Universal Comcast (sorry, got ahead of myself there).

For the latest round of Office webisodes, the creators have taken a page from the continuing surge in everything musical, and whipped up a small story — a behind-the-scenes look, shall we say — about a music video produced at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin. Not a video by one of the hottest bands of today, like Bon Jovi or Ace of Base. Rather, this video was directed, written, and produced by two members of the D.M. staff.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kelly Kapoor and Erin Hannon; otherwise known as the duet Subtle Sexuality.

In addition to Kelly and Erin — known in real life as Mindy Kaling and Ellie Kemper — the web series features Ryan Howard and Andy Bernard (Misters B.J. Novak and Ed Helms), with cameo appearances by Oscar and Kevin. All of the action takes place inside and outside of the Dunder Mifflin office, as Kelly and Erin attempt to produce a music video for their song “Male Prima Donna.” Along the way they encounter their own M.P.D in the form of Ryan, then conduct a talent search when Ryan goes all diva (or is that divo?) on them.

The highlight of the series is the third episode, which is Subtle Sexuality’s video. Using all of the facets of the D.M. office complex, the video features Mindy and Ellie in leopard-print jumpsuits, as pirates, and as a bride and a priest. Ryan and Andy both appear on the video as well, with Ryan donning the white-suited persona of Mr. Understood and Andy portraying Nard Dog. We already knew Ed Helms had a good singing voice from some of the songs he performed on The Office, but both Mindy and Ellie can also hold a tune.

In addition to the video, which can be seen on the official Office website, there’s a Subtle Sexuality website that you can peruse at your leisure. The website features the duo’s hit video, as well as features like their world tour schedule (with stops in Scranton, Dunmore, Scranton, and Scranton), photos, free items like wallpaper and AIM icons, and, being NBC, things to buy. Which brings us to our giveaway.

NBC has been nice enough to provide us with an exclusive “Subtle Sexuality World Tour” t-shirt and CD of the soon-to-be blockbuster “Male Prima Donna.” All you need to do is tell us what your favorite Kelly, Ryan, or Andy moments are. Submit your entries to this giveaway by Friday, November 20th, at 5 PM ET. JoJo the Prize Monkey (stolen from a CHR station from the 1980s) will pick a comment completely at random to receive the package, and alert the commenter after the giveaway ends. Remember, only one entry per person, and you must have a valid U.S.-based mailing address. Not following these guidelines voids your entry. Good luck, and enjoy Subtle Sexuality’s first video.

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I know this starts out as more of a post meant for CliqueClack Food, but bear with me.

I grew up hating tequila. OK, by “grew up” I mean since first having it in college; since I’m now in my 30s, college is now, sadly, considered my youth. The reason I hated tequila, though, was twofold: it was always the cheapest crap found on the lowest shelves of the corner package store, and we always threw them back in one gulp with salt and lime. Once I figured out that there was such a thing as good tequila, and that — *gasp* — you can sip it and it’ll taste good, I became a tequila LOVER.

Last month, Cuervo was publicizing their higher-end white (clear, or “silver”) tequila, called 1800 Tequila Silver. In the ads I saw, they were using Michael Imperioli (Sopranos, Life on Mars — see, it’s TV-related) in yet another typecast wise-guy role, this time bullying up to a bottle of Patron. Now, I like 1800 Tequila just fine, but throwing the bird to my beloved Patron? Oh, it is ON, Moltisanti!

I was first made aware of these ads by the people promoting 1800 Tequila Silver, and as part of that they asked me if I’d like to review the tequila for CliqueClack. Uh, good, free tequila to my doorstep? Yes please. I was even more surprised when I actually got the foam-padded box with a full-sized bottle of the sweet, silver nectar.

The first thing I had to try — OK, second thing — was to see if there was anything to this “shot top” thing. Here’s the video I’m talking about:

Now, do you see something missing in that little demonstration from Christoph … er … Michael? Well, I didn’t, until I tried to do his little trick with my own bottle; he doesn’t show you how he’s able to take the full top off and not have the tequila pour back into the bottle, or worse, all over the table, making you look like a drunken, well-dressed slob.

It turns out that, after careful analysis within the controlled environment of the McDuffee Laboratory of Tequilology, it has been concluded that on a scale of extremely unlikely to extremely likely, the shot top has achieved full-on bullshit status. Not only is it nearly impossible for someone to successfully pull off the 1800 shot top, but it’s unfathomable that any sane, rational, sober person would even attempt the task, never mind think the bottle’s cap would make a good thing to shove into one’s mouth (although, that’s an excellent way to claim the bottle all for yourself).

See me back over on CliqueClack Food next week, where I’ll be back at *MLoT to do some actual taste-testing of 1800 Tequila Silver, up against Jose Cuervo Especial Silver, Patron, and Don Julio.

* McDuffee Laboratory of Tequilology

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Celebrity Funny or Die videos have become so popular over the past few years because it’s fun to see high-profile people making fun of themselves and their image. Usually, the celebrity in question is in on the joke, so you’re all having a big laugh together. This isn’t the case with Jon Gosselin’s Funny or Die video. Instead of laughing, I just shook my head and felt a pang of sadness.

In it, Gosselin talks about how he wants to make amends for his recent douchetastic ways and go back to the way things were. He throws out all of his hair products, changes back into a polo shirt and khakis, and returns all of his hideous clothes to the Ed Hardy store. He wanders around L.A., seemingly throwing away his new life, but is it all a joke? And who is supposed to find it funny?Gosselin looks at the camera in the beginning of the video and says, “I am gonna go back. I’m gonna learn from my mistakes, I’m gonna move forward, and be the righteous person I know I can be.” He takes out his earrings, deletes Michael Lohan’s number from his cell phone, and starts putting his life back in order, while Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” plays in the background.

The video ends with him saying, “People say to me, ‘Jon, you can’t go back.’ But at least I’m going to try,” followed by a good five seconds of him staring into the camera. I guess the joke is Jon saying, “Ha ha guys, I know I’m a douchebag,” but what good is that if he’s not going to change?

If I thought I’d never have to see Jon Gosselin in tiger jeans again, or hell, if I thought I’d just never have to see him again in general, this would be an amazing video. If he were going to go back to his kids instead of making internet videos in Los Angeles, this would be brilliant. But does anybody, including Jon Gosselin, actually believe that?

Gosselin is going to continue to perform for the cameras as long as they’re willing to point themselves toward him. He’s going to continue to date a 22-year-old. He’s going to continue to hang out in New York and L.A., two cities in which his children don’t live. He’s going to continue to go to clubs and just be a general blight on the media, and obviate the need for a ton of backstory when his children’s inevitable therapy sessions begin.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if he actually learned from his mistakes? If he actually tried to go back? Because otherwise, this video is just a sad testament to the fact that the appearance of self-awareness doesn’t mean that any actually exists.

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I’ve gotta hand it to Taylor Swift, she did an excellent job as host of SNL this week. Not only was she solid at performing on live TV, but her acting was totally up to snuff and she was in nearly all of the skits (all but a pre-taped commercial and Weekend Update), along with performing twice. I’ll throw up at least a golf clap for all that. That’s the way to do it, though — why only appear in a few skits when you’ve got the honor of being on SNL? (Videos clips of most skits are embedded below.)

Cold Open — Am I the only one getting sick of the politically themed cold open? I think we may as well call it the Political Open at this point. Alright, so seeing them mock FOX News’s coverage of the election was pretty funny. I’m still tired of the politics, though.

Monologue: Taylor Swift — Probably one of the better monologues of the season, hitting everything fans of Swift wanted her to talk about without, well, talking about it. And because I have some weird thing about transcribing lyrics to songs on TV shows, here’s Taylor Swift’s “Monologue Song (La la la)”:

I like glitter and sparkly dresses
But I’m not gonna talk about that
in my monologue

I like baking and things that smell like winter
But I’m not gonna talk about that
in my monologue

La la la
La la la

I like writing songs
about douchebags who cheat on me
But I’m not gonna say that
in my monologue

I like writing their names into songs
so they’re ashamed to go in public
But I’m not gonna say that
in my monologue

La la
La la la la la
This is
My musical monologue

You might think I might bring up Joe
that guy who broke up with me on the phone
But I’m not gonna mention him
in my monologue

Hey Joe, I’m doing real well
I’m hosting SNL
But I’m not gonna brag about that
in my monologue

La la la
Ha ha ha
Ha ha ha
Ha ha ha
La la la

And if you’re wondering if I might
Be dating the werewolf from Twilight (Hi Taylor)
I’m not gonna comment on that
in my monologue

La la
La la la la la
This is
My musical monologue

You might might be expecting me to say
something bad about Kanye
And how he ran up on the stage
And ruined my VMA monologue

But there’s nothing more to say
‘cuz everything’s OK
I’ve got security lining the stage
It’s my SNL monologue

La la
La la la la la
This is
My SNL monologue

La la
La la la la la
That was
My SNL monologue

Commercial: Carter & Sons’ Swine Fever — This reminds me of the poor company behind the dietary supplement “Ayds,” pronounced as you might think. No, seriously, there was a diet pill called Ayds. Even if they got the idea from that unfortunate naming clash, this was a pretty funny one.

The View — I still get a kick out of seeing two of the three hosts of The View being played by men. By the way, Andy Samberg’s Nick Cage impression was spot on!

SNL Digital Short: Firelight — Holy. Fricken’. Awesome. I mean, come on, we’ve got a thousand vampire and/or werewolf movies, so where’s the Frankenstein lovin’? “I’m afraid I might choke you to death … by accident.”

Hollywood Dish Interview — Most nights I would have thought this wasn’t so bad, but tonight it really wasn’t good at all when standing up to the rest of the show.

T.R.A.A.A.P.D. — Swift in another skit, with her first musical number coming up next! Seriously, I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, but she’s definitely earning her keep as host. Oh, and any parent watching this skit knows all of those dangerous situations in the car are so true. Well, hopefully except the sex and relationship talk ones.

Musical Guest: Taylor Swift — I have no idea what Swift sings, so all of this was new to me. But damn, she really does sing about boyfriends and breaking up and stealing guys. But isn’t that all country music?

Weekend Update — Wow, they even threw in a last-minute joke on the passing of the Health Care Reform bill, which was announced a mere hour before Weekend Update aired live. Not a brilliant joke, but great work keeping really current. One of the few skits Taylor Swift didn’t make an appearance in. Best joke of the night: the woman with two vaginas story having “too many holes” in it.

Wedding reception with Penelope — Can someone please stop giving Kristin Wiig these regular characters to play? I hate Gilli and I hate Penelope. Oh, and that Target checkout chick … alright that one’s not so bad. Finding them much more annoying than funny.

Scared Straight — Alright this is ridiculous. Is this a record for a guest being involved in skits in one episode? This one seemed to scream out that she was going for one. Loved this skit the first time I saw it, loved it again tonight. Always great to see the cast lose it. “1.21 gizz-a-watts!”

Anna the close roommate — For this late hour of the episode, this was a surprisingly decent skit. Maybe it’s because at one point in my life, I could have totally related to being Samberg’s character.

Bunny Business — Everyone’s impressions were awesome in this skit. I’m not sure I could pick a favorite. Alright, maybe Hader as Eddie Vedder — that got the biggest laugh out of me.

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This week brings with it the premiere of another new web series, and it’s one that you kind of have to see to believe. It’s just so out there. Those of you that take your sci-fi comedy with two cubes of absurd will feel right at home. If you’ve worn worn out the grooves on your Red Dwarf DVD, and read the words right off the pages in your Hitchhiker’s Guide collection, Hurtling Through Space At An Alarming Rate could be just the thing to satisfy that bizarro urge.

From writer/director Mike Davies, HTSAAR (as all the hip kids call it) is the story of two “astronaughts,” Mike (Mike Davies) and Stuart (Stuart Paap). They’re not your typical astronauts though. No, it seems that Mike and Stuart’s apartment is actually hurtling through space. As you might have guessed, it’s doing so at an alarming rate.  What’s more bizarre, they can still make phone calls, and people can come by and visit.

In their first adventure, the apartment crashes on the planet of tons of dirty laundry. That leads to the inevitable, an epic battle with a laundry monster. Initially, Mike and Stuart try to fight off the laundry monster with ketchup, beer, and wine. Their unseen roommate Gary later points out that you can’t fight a laundry monster with things that stain. (I know! Right?) Fortunately, Stuart’s sister, Elizabeth (Stephanie Thorpe), is able to stop by on her lunch break with some detergent. If that’s not enough, you also have Michelle (Taryn O’Neil), who has decided to pursue her first love, roller-derby girl.

It’s so crazy, you just have to see it. For the click averse, you can watch the embedded episode below. If you would like to see the big, fancy, high resolution version, head over to the HTSAAAR page at Babelgum. You can also find out more about the show on the HTSAAAR tumblr and facebook pages.

In other fantastic premiere news, this week also brings the long awaited debut of Riese. (And, just so you know, both of them are totally shot in Canada.) The first episode, “Hunt,”  is very much about setting the stage for what is to come. We meet Riese, and get an understanding of just what kind of trouble she finds herself in. The rest, is left to the imagination. If you really can’t wait, you can learn much more about where this is all headed at the main Riese site. Riese also has a nice facebook presence. Both of these are shows that I’m really looking forward to seeing more from. Here’s Riese, “The Hunt.”

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Undeclared is the best show about school ever made. Cliqueclack Flashback = DONE.

Judd Apatow’s quickly-canceled college follow-up to his quickly-canceled high school series, Freaks and Geeks, was released my junior year of college. I hadn’t seen Freaks and Geeks at the time, so I had no idea who Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, or any of the other now-familiar faces in the cast were. I just knew that it was the funniest and most painfully-realistic portrayal of college life that I had ever seen.

The cast looked, dressed and sounded like actual college students– not 30-year-old hookers, which is a feat that has not been accomplished since. The guys were odd looking– a fact that was freely mentioned, and even the hot girls looked like normal hot college girls, not model/actresses. It was this realism that allowed the writing to shine and allowed the viewers to identify with every single thing these people were going through.

After all, who hasn’t had embarrassing singalongs with their friends after they’ve talked you into letting them give you ill-advised highlights?

(The beauty starts at about 5:15)

Even in the pilot episode, when we first meet the characters and there’s Steven, the adorable dork, and Lizzie, the cute girl with the inappropriately older boyfriend she’s been dating for years, it’s painfully obvious that Steven is going to fall in love with her. While 99 out of a 100 TV shows would use this as a plot device that stretches over a season or four, Apatow and company go a different way: Lizzie and Steven sleep with each other in the pilot episode. The nerd actually gets the girl in the pilot.

Of course, that’s not to say they live happily ever after– Jason Segel plays Lizzie’s boyfriend Eric, after all, and he certainly isn’t going to go quietly. In fact, when he finally finds out that Lizzie and Steven slept together, he drives down to the school to fight Steven. My favorite thing about the fight scenes in Undeclared is just how real and awkward they are. Not everyone can be Ryan Atwood.

One of the things that was the most fun for me was seeing unexpected people show up on the show. Amy Poehler, Ben Stiller, and Will Ferrell all made appearances, as did a just-starting-out Jenna Fischer with a crazy red perm.

Even Adam Sandler appeared as himself, in a surreal episode that basically seems like a script treatment for Funny People.

And I’m not sure, but the roommate who is moving out in this scene sure looks like Felicia Day to me. Am I out of my mind? There’s no mention on IMDb of her being on Undeclared, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not her, right?

In all, watching the first and only season of Undeclared for the first time since it originally aired was more fun than I ever imagined it could be. There are few shows that are as funny and just as honest as this show is. If you ever went to college, or hell, even if you didn’t and just want to know what the experience is like, there isn’t a better example of college life than Undeclared.

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This is going to come out wrong, but I’m going to say it anyway: my favorite part of Community is always the end. Not because I don’t love the show, because I totally, totally do. I think this show is freaking awesome. But, easily, the best 38 seconds of my week, every week is the tag at the end of each episode with Abed (played by Danny Pudi) and Troy (played by Donald Glover).

I’m not sure what exactly drew Troy and Abed together character-wise. After all, they’re hardly shown together during the actual show, and they couldn’t be more different. Troy was the popular kid in high school, and Abed is what I would refer to euphemistically as “socially inept.” Whatever made them bond, I’m glad it worked, because how else would we have rapping in Spanish, prank PA announcements or conversations with Batman about turning into a doughnut?

I have so many questions about these little skits. Are they scripted? Are they natural riffs improvised by the actors? Are they a combination?  Could we please have a series of webisodes dedicated just to these two? Or at least a behind-the-scenes look? Anything? Because I will take whatever this show has of these two together, being hilarious.

My choices for the top three Abed and Troy endings are, in no particular order:

Do Troy and Abed do it for you? Because if so, I’m going to keep plugging Community as the must-watch new show of the season, if only for these episode tags alone. You’ll thank me later.

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If ever there were a show that was suited to having a Halloween themed episode, it’s The Munsters. But then, not far after that on the list, it’s Medium. Allison’s abilities bring their own spooky vibe to every episode, and it really does dovetail nicely with this time of year. The Medium team really went all out with “Bite Me”, doing a really convincing job of  inserting Allison into George Romero’s zombie-classic, Night Of The Living Dead. As if solving a murder wasn’t a hard enough gig, try doing that while battling zombies all night.

This week the real star of the show was the production team. Even if you’re not a fan of zombie films, you have to appreciate the job they did in putting Allison, and the whole family, into the movie. If you haven’t seen the film, or it’s been too long since you did, the internet is your friend. It turns out the whole thing is available to view. Have a look below. Just fast forward to the 5:50 mark if you want to get an idea of how the original compared to what we saw this week.

The dreams this week continue the season’s speculation about how dangerous this could all be for Allison. Bringing injuries back from the dreams is a scary proposition, even if the E.R. Doctor (Molly Hagan, Herman’s Head!) says it’s all in her head. Solving cases is great, but this is all really starting to take a toll on Allison, and it seems to be getting worse.

Along with that ongoing story, there was a lot to like about the way this one played out. Although, the dream side of it was better than the waking side. I settled on the daughter as the culprit right when Scanlon gave the detail about WET (which is an actual drug, crazy as it sounds). The case, on the waking end, was pretty by the numbers after that. In dreamland though, things were only getting started.

The addition of Joe and the girls — or Dale, Abigail, Mabel, and Bella — was an interesting twist. And how shocking was it when Allison locked them all in the living room with the zombies? Because the dreams weren’t traumatic enough at that point? I guess the turmoil needed to be ratcheted up just that extra little bit. Of course, even that wasn’t quite enough. She also had to suffer through having Devalos feed her to her zombie family. It was just crazy. Crazy, but very fun.

Meanwhile, it was again Bridgette’s turn to flex a little medium muscle, in the form of Miss Scarlet, the tarantula. It fit well with the Halloween theme, because spiders are just generally spooky to begin with, but it wasn’t my favorite of the girl’s power stories. The highlight of the whole thing was probably seeing Melanie Deanne Moore (Notes from the Underbelly) as Miss Colletto. We could use more of her on our TVs. Still, any steps back in that department were more than made up for by the inventiveness of the main story. It all made for another very good episode.

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Halloween is right around the corner, which means different things to different people. For me, it will be a collection of scary movies, some Scooby-Doo cartoons, and a trip across the lake to see H.P. Lovecraft’s Madness Out Of Time on the stage. Whatever your plans, you can start getting prepared while still at work with a new section on the Sundance Digital Shorts minisite. It features trailers and clips from ten of their favorite scary movies. They run the gamut, from the creepy Japanese thriller Cello, to the nearly real-time French fright-fest, Them. Clips from both of those are embedded after the jump, and you can watch all ten of the videos at the Scare Tactics website.

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With Halloween just around the corner, it seems fitting that we turn our web series attention toward something with a bit of a macabre twist. Dead and Lonely, new this week from IFC, looks rather unassuming at the start. We follow along as two people, Lee and Justin, meet through exactly the kind of dating site you’ve seen a hundred times on the Internet. Well, almost exactly. The look is there, but as the name of the site (dateordie.net) suggests, there is something a little bit different about the way things work on this one.

I don’t want to give away the big reveal tucked away inside of the first episode, but I will toss out this bit from the about page. “In this series, two lonely Los Angeles singles are brought together via the popular Internet dating website DateOrDie.net. The only problem is…one of them is a vampire.” That was enough of a hook to get me to watch. I think of it like … with Seeking Simone online dating has never been so gay, and with Dead and Lonely, online dating really bites.

Of course, there has to be more to it than that. “One of them is a vampire” is a good hook, but there has to be something more to keep you coming back. With three episodes released as of now, that something is the mood and style of the piece. It’s all very deliberate, and taking its time working toward things. Through long scenes just watching the characters there is an undercurrent of background music that borders on creepy, but never gets too over the top. It’s very cool to watch, and sets the mood as we head toward that first meeting.

We’ll have to keep following along to know how it all really plays out. With episode three, our possible match has just met, and one of them is about to get a very big surprise. Here’s the first episode. The next two are already available at the IFC Dead and Lonely site.

And since I brought up Seeking Simone, I thought it would be a good idea to start highlighting some of the past shows from the Webisode column each week. The real trick with these shows is keeping up with all the various release schedules. So I’ll try to update a couple of them each week, in case you meant to go back but just didn’t get around to it.

Seeking Simone: The episodes continue to roll out at a leisurely Canadian pace, with the latest being episode 4, “A League Of Her Own.” That one is notable because Simone finally gets some, so we have the hot girl on girl action going for us, which is nice. Even better than that though — and the reason the show remains one of my favorites — is Simone herself. Renee Olbert is outstanding — easily bouncing between adorable and sexy, all while being laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Lumina: The last chapter of the Lumina run, “Endgame,” is now available. If you haven’t been following along, I do recommend you take a few minutes and go watch the whole thing. What started off as a remarkable example of just how great a web series can look turned into quite a story as well. I’m eagerly awaiting any new projects from Jennifer Thym.

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Once again, there above’s this week’s hint for where to find the hidden alien for the South Park‘d contest. Good luck to y’all, and remember who to give a shout-out to when you get animated!

This week was a hell of a lot funnier than the past few episodes, picking fun of a show that totally deserves it: Discovery’s Whale Wars. The show’s “star,” Paul Watson, has been criticized plenty of times for lying for his cause, and his “reality” show has been called a sham by many. To see a big fat “TURD” on an actual photo of Watson hanging in the “Sea Shepherd,” then the rest of the Whale Warriors being called “incompetent, vegan pussies doing absolutely nothing and turning it into drama” was gold. Unfortunately I know a few other shows like that.

More quotes on Watson:

Larry King: “But their old captain, Paul Watson, was an unorganized, incompetent media whore who thought lying to everyone was OK as long as it served his cause.”
Critic: “Yes, of course. Everyone knows that Paul Watson was a smug, narcoleptic liar with no credibility….”

Let’s not forget another appearance of Guitar Hero with the hilarious rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” by Cartman, playing as a montage of Stan’s Real Whale Wars took place.

The icing on the cake was Stan’s dad, when the Japanese decided to stab, mutilate and eviscerate all the “real” ones responsible for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima, the chickens and cows: “Great job, Stan. Now the Japanese are normal, like us.”

Damn, I’d hate to be the guys who were really piloting that plane….

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I hear so many people say that they gave up on Lost during the third season. I will admit that the short block of episodes that opened the season was probably the lowest point in Lost’s history. The entire Jack, Sawyer, and Kate in cages story line just didn’t work. However, once the season got going it turned out to be just as great as the rest of the show, culminating in an amazing season finale.

Yes, I talked about “Through the Looking Glass” in my column last week, but the episode did include more than one great moment. After talking about the flashforward twist last week, this week I want to turn my focus to Charlie’s death.

Through a lot of season three, there was a big will-they-won’t-they dynamic going on with Charlie’s fate. Desmond was having visions of the future, with the vast majority of them ending in Charlie’s death. Every time Desmond changed his foretold events to save Charlie, he would have another one predicting Charlie’s demise. After so much build up, we pretty much knew that Charlie was going to drown. Heck, even Charlie knew that he was going to drown in the Looking Glass station, even if everyone was hoping that he wouldn’t.

The knowledge that Charlie was most likely going to meet his death in the episode didn’t take away from the impact of the scene at all. Like Penny and Desmond’s phone call in season four, I think the production of this scene was just perfect. The quiet music that played as Charlie frantically wrote on his hand in slow motion, trying to get the message to Desmond set the mood perfectly. Each little touch really worked well.

It was hard to say goodbye to Charlie, but at the same time it was great to see such a satisfying story arc completed for the character. To think that Charlie started the series as a selfish washed up rock star junkie and ended up being, most likely, the purest hero of the series is pretty incredible. In a show filled with flawed characters, Charlie’s sacrifice for the rest of the 815ers underscored how good of a person Charlie really was.

If Juliet’s sacrifice at the end of last season actually worked, perhaps she and Charlie will both get different (and hopefully happy) endings.

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Okay, you wonderful commenters helped me determine that last week’s episode of Community was, in fact, out of order. So I was willing to disregard Britta’s bizarre bitchiness toward Jeff as just interrupted storytelling. However, the more we see of Britta, the more I’m confused as to what Jeff sees in her; she’s really annoying.

Last week, it was a whole bunch of, “I can’t believe you’re trying to be my friend as well as being sexually attracted to me; that’s gross,” which was confusing, and this week it’s just, “I’m going to be completely tone-deaf and not understand social cues in any way.” Even Abed would have looked at her bathroom rant about the evils of day spas and been like, “Dude. You should probably dial it back a bit. You’re being weird.”

Britta routinely mocks Jeff for being attracted to her, makes fun of the things her friends enjoy, and is just generally difficult to be around. I understand that the group has this whole weird Breakfast Club thing going on, and that’s why they hang out with her, but it doesn’t explain why Jeff is so head over heels.

I know I talked about it last week, but it’s worth mentioning it again, because as Oprah would say, it was really an “a-ha moment” in the show. Jeff is a good-looking dude. He is also funny and charming. To illustrate this, let’s go to the video of Jeff pointing out, “look how handsome my face is.”

He says that he’s doing all of this because he likes her, but why? Yes, she’s pretty, but as Jeff pointed out, he can get pretty girls. She constantly berates him for liking her, doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor, and is just generally prickly. What does she bring to the table?

Community is one of my favorite new comedies, but I’m getting really tired of this whole Britta thing. Every other character has something to offer, and they all make me laugh. Britta though, is consistently proving to be little more than a downer for everyone– both on the show, and for the people at home.

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I continue to be amazed at the sheer number of shows that are out there on the Internet, just waiting to be watched. And, happily, by the fact that a lot of them are really good. This week, we return to the comedy realm to check in on the guys from Guess Again. The show, at its core, is dead simple: Dean (Paul Carganilla), Jeremy (Keith Toll), and Rex (Max Abrams) are roommates, and they have strange conversations. It never really gets much more complicated than that, and that’s okay. Because the real gem of this one is in the writing.

The three main characters play very well together. If you’ve ever spent any time living in a house with a bunch of guys, you’ll recognize the dynamic. Jeremy is basically a good guy, but has some anger issues. Dean is an actor, kind of, and the most level headed. And Rex … well, Rex isn’t the brightest bulb in the drawer, but he is the funniest.

There is an ongoing gag where Rex tries to use a phrase, but just doesn’t quite get it. After learning that Jeremy would go gay for Obama, Rex can understand it. After all, Obama is “a good looking milano.” Or later, he tells Jeremy that he is “so anally receptive.” It’s very funny. With all of the episodes taking place in their living room, the wordplay is a big part of the attraction.

And that wordplay is at the center of my favorite of the six episodes released so far. “Black Ian” centers around a discussion about whether or not it’s racist for Rex to refer to his friend Ian, who is black, as Black Ian. Like the show itself, it’s a simple idea, but the execution is fantastic. Have a look for yourself at the embedded episode below.

And if you like that, there are five more episodes available at the official Guess Again site, as well as the usual assortment of links to various twitter and facebook treats. They’ve even gone so far as to create a website where you can get acting lessons from THE Dean George. Fun stuff all around. One final note … if you’re watching at work, or on your Nanna’s computer, you should know that the boys use their grown up words on occasion.

Episode Two: “Black Ian” from Guess Again on Vimeo.

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Surprisingly, no SNL Digital Shorts tonight. Here’s some quick thoughts on each of the sketches of the night. Videos and thoughts embedded below.

Cold Open: The Rock Obama — Oh look, another president sketch. Actually, when the real joke of the sketch was revealed with the Rock cameo, it was pretty funny. When Biden entered, though, it started to fall apart and get a bit awkward.

Monologue: Gerard Butler — Given that he’s mostly known for the two things he made fun of during his monologue, Butler did a decent job with the material at hand. I thought for sure Sean Connery had hosted a few times before, making him the record holder of most guest spots from a Scotsman.

Commercial: Fuquay Satin’s Grand Hoochie Skank Rose Champagne — For pouring down the cracks of ladies’ asses. Use no other champagne for the very best of that crack-tacular taste. This was an OK commercial; no great shakes though.

Game Time with Randy and Greg — This turned out to be pretty hilarious when Butler grabbed Greg the alien’s tail. I definitely burst out laughing at Bill Hader’s screaming. They did hit a note with a lot of these sports talk shows, though, where you’ve got the serious dude sitting their with the sidekick that everyone’s really watching for.

Beauty and the Beast — This sketch was surprisingly not so bad. When I saw they were doing Beauty and the Beast, I groaned, but they were able to make something pretty funny from it. “How does she know we call it an ass castle?”

Musical Guest: Shakira — Was it just me or did that first outfit have a weird design to it that made her appear pregnant or fat? Oh, and the drummer looked like he was sitting behind a fancy Rock Band drum set. Anyway, her music’s not my thing but it sounded OK. She just seems think she looks a lot hotter than she is these days.

Weekend Update — What can I say? It’s consistently one of, if not the best part of the show. Loved how they mocked the balloon boy non-news. If you saw the whole sketch, you’ll know the best quote: “Well, thank you for coming.”

300: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — Wow, the skits tonight actually don’t completely suck! This was another one that turned out pretty funny and didn’t run on too long. I think everyone’s made fun of how gay the movie 300 appears, so having Butler participate in its smack-down was especially great.

What Up With That? — This season seems to be all about throwing on the random guest star cameos, this time it was with James Franco … who said and did nothing. Best part of this sketch was all of the bizarre background guests, especially whatever Jason Sudeikis was supposed to be with his frantic dancing.

Trina the Assistant — This is right up there with Gilly. Sorry, I mean down there, because I mean it’s annoying as hell and just plain sucks. This needs to go in the big pile of fail right away. At least there’s no Trina theme song … yet.

Daveheart — A sorta funny idea that could have been better, but for the last sketch of the night, what do you expect? It’s moments like this, though, when I miss the old “Everything Scottish” sketch from days of yore. “If it’s nah Scottish, IT’S CRAP!”

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It’s that time of year kids. Halloween is right around the corner. And in my little world that means horror movies. Lots of them. With blood by the bucketful. You can’t just jump right in to a crazy Friday The 13th marathon without warming up though. You might pull something. Thankfully, the fine folks over at Uncanny Entertainment are hard at work on the perfect pre-bloodbath prep. That would be The Scare Game. The show is a horror comedy from writer/director Phil Hughes, and for fans of horror, it has the potential to be a very fun ride.

The story revolves around a group of friends that play the game from the title, always trying to up the ante when it comes to scaring/murdering each other. In that regard, there’s a lot to like. The first episode hits on many of the classic horror bits. The hot girl in the very steamy shower …  the masked killer … the frantic call to 911 … boobies. It’s all there. But that only hints at what is to come from the series. Later, a quirky librarian with a strange and dangerous past will arrive, dropping the gang in the middle of a mystery “that may lead them down a path they can never return from.” Who doesn’t like that? The world would be a lot more interesting with more quirky, strange, and dangerous librarians, right?

The first episode goes live today on the official The Scare Game website.  Phil Hughes tells me that the release schedule isn’t finalized, but his hope is to get to doing two episodes a month for the first 13 episodes. Also be sure and take a look at the Scare Game Youtube page for some behind the scenes footage, and an oddly disturbing how-to video on pumpkin carving. Here’s the first teaser for the show.

I should note that if you watch the show on the official site it qualifies as NSFW. If that’s a concern, head over to the Youtube channel to watch.

And, boobies.

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I would be remiss to talk about my favorite moments of Lost and not discuss Ben and Locke’s trip to Jacob’s cabin in “The Man Behind the Curtain.” For so long, we had wondered about Jacob, details trickling in slowly (very slowly) over time. Heck, we didn’t even know his name for a few seasons. Then finally the moment came late into season three, when Locke had had enough and insisted on seeing this mysterious “Jacob.” The results, having been built up for three years, were spectacular, making for one of the best moments in one of the best episodes of Lost.

The entire scene in Jacob’s cabin was a huge moment of Lost weirdness. I can remember pouring over every shot and every prop in the cabin, wondering if any of them held significance to the larger Lost story. There was no shortage of interesting things in and around the cabin: an old painting of a dog, jars of unknown liquid, a curious rocking chair, a circle of ash surrounding the small wooden building.

Of course the best moment came when, for a split second, someone appeared in Jacob’s chair. At the time it was assumed that it was Jacob, but that is up in the air after the season finale of season five. Most likely it was Jacob’s nemesis, who was trapped in the cabin with the circle of ash, but that’s really only a theory at this point. I remember when I first watched the episode. I was so enthralled that I did notice the figure in the chair, but it was so quick it didn’t settle in my brain, and by the end of the episode I had completely forgotten about it until I rewound to watch the scene again.

Aside from the contextual elements, it was a really expertly crafted scene, too. The mood surrounding it was downright creepy, the interior of the cabin just light enough to make everything look slightly scary. Everything is scary in the dark. The scene built up perfectly, with Ben talking to the empty chair. Was he just pulling one over on John? Did he really see someone? Why couldn’t Locke? Then it happened: Locke heard a voice say “Help me,” turned on his flashlight, and all hell broke loose.

There’s no doubt this was one of the finest moments of Lost.

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I remember many years ago that, when a guest was scheduled to appear on SNL, it was a near certainty that at least one skit would be all about some movie or TV show that the guest was associated with. What the hell happened to that? I miss those days of SNL. I think we all do.

Cool thing about this week’s post: ALL of the skits AND musical numbers are embedded below!

Cold Open: Presidential Address — Surprise! Another presidential address, and I think everyone was with me in knowing it just had to be about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize … for “not being George Bush.” Yowch. Really a weak open, just because it short on the funny and really didn’t have much to it.

Monologue: Drew Barrymore — I had no idea Drew had hosted so many times (six) before. As she said, it’s the most any other female has hosted the show. I always love when a celebrity makes fun of themselves, but maybe this one went on for a bit too long.

Gilly — Anyone else done with this skit? I’m not sure there’s any way to make it funny. I especially can’t stand that it has a frick’n theme song. A theme song! As if this was supposed to be a separate TV show people would actually tune in to. “It’s Pat!” was at least funny a lot of the time. Gilly/Gigli was never funny, was it? At least throw it into the last half hour, not this early!

Celebrity Ghost Stories — This is a real show! I haven’t watched it before, but yeah, BIO has this show. Justin Long was a surprise cameo and did a great Matthew McConaughey. The best part of the skit was the beginning quote: “Welcome to the Biography Channel. Hey, I know it’s not my place, but … open the blinds.”

Commercial: University of Westfield Online — Y’know, I’d been wondering if having an online degree would actually work against a person when they try to get a job. Do hiring managers throw those resumes right in the trash, before going another word further into it? Now, if they could teach the fine skills that U. Westfield is teaching, graduates wouldn’t have to worry. Really liked this skit. The vague mumbling of the university’s name reminded me of a bunch of skits Chevy Chase had done. Remember “Land Shark?”

La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci — I loved that Vinny’s list of staff conquests included numbering them all (87 in all). Other than that, at this point of the night I was wondering if it was a bad idea to have stayed up to watch the whole thing. It usually only gets worse as the night goes on, right? Well, after Weekend Update, that is.

Musical Guest: Regina Spektor — I honestly have never heard of Ms. Spektor before. Pretty good coffee shop music and she’s decent on the piano, but there were some vocal notes I didn’t dig so much in the first number.

Weekend Update — Bill Hader’s James Carville was the highlight of the Update tonight. If you’ve ever seen this guy on TV before, Hader was dead on with his mannerisms and attitude.

Tampax to the Max Tournament of Champions — Funniest part of this bit was all of the Tampax slogans that “Pete Twinkle” kept coming up with. Favorite one: “Tampax. Helping you relax when Mother Nature attacks your slacks.” I even think I saw a bit of a smirk come out of Sudeikis on that one. But yeah, the skits aren’t improving after this.

Cooking al Fresco with Fran & Phil — What do you get when the city birds get picky with just breadcrumbs? Foodie birds! The Guy Fieri impression was the best part of this skit. It really had a lot of promise but, for some reason, it didn’t fully deliver. I think I expected a more outlandish reaction out of Samberg when the birds attacked, for example.

Larry King Live — Wieners! Did anyone else think for a second that, at some point, the joke of this skit would be about “wieners” being something other than a penis? No? Well then you can a penis a wiener way too often.

SNL Digital Short: Brenda & Shawn — Proven again that SNL can’t produce two cult favorite shorts two weeks in a row. I thought the poor film quality was great and they somehow were able to make the whole thing appear as though it was a locally broadcast cheap commercial. Other than that, I was wondering where the hell you get those glowing thumbs.

Hamilton — The best part of this skit was finding out the author had just finished reading her entire book to the people in the store. Oh, and Drew going full-out spread-eagle for Hamilton, with two book fans helping to keep her steady.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Saturday Night Live seems to go through many up and down cycles. Heck, even from episode to episode the quality of the show can vary greatly. Through it all, though, one thing has remained constant: SNL has always satirized and mocked the politicians and current events of the day. The program has hysterically lampooned just about every politician who has found him/herself on the front page of the papers. Some say that Tina Fey’s scathing impersonations played a big part in the downfall of the McCain/Palin campaign. I’m not sure if that’s actually true, but it brings up the question: Is SNL the most important political show on television?

It seems like a completely ridiculous question, right? I never even would have considered the question, if I hadn’t seen this commentary article on CNN. It really got me thinking about the power that SNL has when it parodies politicians. Ed Rollins framed his article around the cold open of this past week’s episode which featured Fred Armisen doing a particularly weak Barack Obama impression, talking about all the things that Obama has not completed yet in his term. The video in question is embedded below. Rollins wonders if the skit is going to start a rash of criticism toward the president.

Rollins believes that the Palin skits from a year ago did play a role in the election. He also brings up Dana Carvey’s George H. W. Bush and Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford as lasting impressions that have overtaken the actual images of the former presidents. It’s hard to argue with that. Practically all of my memories of the first President Bush involve something that SNL made fun of back in the day.

I found the article interesting and wonder just how powerful satire and humor can be. There are certainly a lot of serious political shows on television, especially in this day and age of 24 hour “news” channels. They just don’t seem to have the same impact that SNL has, though. When SNL comes out with a great political sketch it is instant water cooler talk, becoming a point of discussion on all of those news networks. Maybe there’s something to it. Perhaps a good skewering at the hands of a bunch of comedians can be a whole lot more damaging than anything any of those talking heads can spout.

What do you think? Is SNL the most important political show on TV?

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