Someone just put Andy Samberg out of business, ya'll. SNL shouldn't even bother making a digital short this weekend and should just show Carly Fiorina's "Demon Sheep" online attack ad over and over. It kicks "Laser Cats" ass! I've watched it and laughed and laughed many times. I especially enjoy the part where the T-888 disguised as a sheep comes from the future to kill John Connor and Carly Fiorina's chances at becoming senator.
There are some slang terms I'd like to murder. Like "playa hater," which won't die no matter how old the phrase is or "shawty" (*shudder*), but two terms that have caused me to spit up my Maxwell House are "grown and sexy" and "cougar."
One term is ludicrous, used to describe those tacky over 21 night club soirees that are always filled with decidedly "not grown" old people who dress like teenagers and think adulthood is about Stacey Adams and wearing a Jersey over your wife beater and that "sexy" is about illicit fornication with strangers who smell like Sean John and menthols.
The only thing unrealistic about this is that Colin Powell totally would have buried Dick Cheney's ass. Those dudes hate each other. Other than that ... HILARIOUS!
Personally, I think this could have been A LOT funnier. The notion of Barack turning into "The Rock" in the ultimate celebrity mash-up had promise, but this left me a tad flat. Which is sad, because Dwayne Johnson and Barack Obama actually have a lot in common. Both are half black people, raised in Hawaii with Johnson being half-Polynesian and Barack having Asian/Polynesian friends and relatives. They both have a friendly, laid-back vibe going for them. They're both charming. And Dwayne is incredibly good looking in an "over-the-top," borderline ridiculous way. (Barack is also good looking, but in a normal, regular guy way.) But the writing seemed like a massive fail to me, missing on what could have been golden parody manna from heaven.
But I'm not sure yet what I would have done differently with "The Rock."
How did you see it? Was it a success to you or another case of "SNL? Comedy? U're doin' it wrong!"
Ever since Barack Obama popped up on the scene with his handsome mug, gorgeous family and fascinating multicultural background people have become obsessed with recreating the look, either in parody, in respect, in art, in advertisement or just for poops and giggles. I have become fascinated with collecting this army of "FakeBamas," mostly because they are (well, most of them are) even better looking than the original model. Some don't look like him at all, but that's the point. Obama has become the black, multiracial "everyman" for the unnaturally good-looking FakeBama. Here is my collection of who is "hawt" and one who is not.
1) The biggest crime here is that this is a craptastic impression of New York's governor. I mean, really, he doesn't sound shit like David Paterson. Fred Armisen is officially just screwing with me now.
2) And is he really going to play every non-fat, notorious black man? Because he sincerely isn't good at it. Really. Darrell Hammond, a white man, does an outstanding Jesse Jackson impression despite the handicap of not being an actual black man. Almost makes me forget how annoyed I am over SNL not employing any black people. That's how good it is. Almost.
So what is your DEAL, Fred? Why are your black people so lame? I thought we were getting somewhere with the last Obama "Cool" sketch. I really thought you were improving. And now this abomination.
3) It goes without saying that Lorne Michael's needs to DIVERSIFY his staff, but ... whatever. We all know SNL isn't Mad TV and when they do hire any minorities they don't know what to do with them, and by "minorities" I mean the occasional black person, half black person, Latino and whatever Fred Armisen is (I believe he's part Lebanese). Asians Bobby Lee and Aasif Manvi need not apply.
If they're not going to take the integrated world seriously I don't know why they just won't make the whole show Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg. Or just Andy Samberg. Or just this digital skit here, shown in a loop for perpetuity. (I also love this one, and this one, and this holiday themed one and especially this one.)
4) New Jersey bashing: The one liners and put downs were funny, but, once again, what did that have to do with David Paterson?
5) Gov. Paterson has a lot of funny things about him that are fair game (some of which he, himself, has made fun of). While the Mr. Magoo shit Armisen did was in poor taste, I wasn't surprised because this is comedy. Mocking the blind gets cheap laughs. But the real thing that annoyed me was how they made it seem like Paterson couldn't do his job. No one as far as I've heard or read has ever said Paterson was unprepared to take on the job. Both Democrats and Republicans and Illinois were pretty happy to see him take the post because Paterson is considered to be highly intelligent, self-deprecating and pragmatic. Alluding that he's incompetent to do his job even though he was dully elected as the replacement for former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, made no sense.
Much like how Armisen's original portrayal of Barack as a clueless neophyte didn't make any sense based on who Obama is and how he actually carries himself. But maybe this is the default here. All black politicians are comically unprepared even if they are not in real life. Insert joke.
Hardy, har-har! Lame, SNL! Lame, Fred Armisen! LAME!!!
It only took Fred Armisen and SNL a year, but they finally did a Barack parody that made sense and was funny (I do enjoy 1960s Rat Pack vibes). This is largely because they finally gave (fake) Barack a personality other than have him play the foil or straight man to Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton and Darrell Hammond's John McCain. I am interested to see where they will take this new, Lithium-like approach to Obama's modus operandi.
It's a vast improvement compared to their spoof of the second Obama v. Clinton debate where Armisen simply repeated back everything Darrell Hammond's Tim Russert said as if Obama were incapable of independent thought. Parody is, after all, supposed to be rooted in some truth and I don't know anyone who thinks Barack is a dullard. This spoof at least got at something that both fascinates and maddens people about Barack, his unflappability.
I don't know if taking time out for Saturday Night Live in the middle of a heated campaign was a smooth move for John McCain, but it was a hilarious move.
Reliving some of his SNL glory days, John McCain did a great parody of John McCain (including the nervous blinking, but I don't think he was doing that on purpose), with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, perfect as ever ... going rogue by threatening to never leave the national stage. It's either the White House or "the white Oprah." Brava and bravo, Fey and McCain.
McCain was also pretty good on the Weekend Update segment introducing new political moves like "The Double Maverick" and "The Sad Grandpa" in which he said the strategy was to whine that Obama would have plenty of chances to be president and it was McCain's turn. Once again, what will SNL do once this is all over? The comedy show will be doing a special election episode on Monday on NBC.
The show also had some fun at MSNBC's Keith Olbermann expense. The sketch was a bit wordy and ran long (just like My Fair Keithy). It was also more than eight minutes and starred the evenings co-host Ben Affleck who kept cracking himself up while trying to shout all his lines. It eventually hit the funny button hard when Affleck did a cheesy send up of Olbermann's sometimes self-righteous "Special Comments" by making it about him trying to get a three bedroom apartment that wouldn't take him because he owned a cat. A fluffy, white, fey as all get out, cat.
There was even a sketch of "The View" and while it wasn't as good as the above three, if you closed your eyes Kristen Wiig's Elisabeth Hasselbeck was so good it was horrifying. Fred Armisen's Joy Behar was both right and wrong and one-dimensional and Joy's not that bad. As for Kennan, your Whoopi sucked, but you're the only black person on the show. I guess you can only do so much with what they give you. And Casey New Girl What's Your Face? That was a Jennifer Aniston parody? Was that the ONLY celeb they could think for you to do (or the only celeb you could do)? Lame, new girl. Very lame.
Senator John McCain will appear on the popular "sketch comedy" television program Saturday Night Live this weekend. McCain hosted the show in 2002, so he's no stranger to their fun-loving antics. The only difference is that this time out, McCain is, we're told, running for president, and the election is on Tuesday. So, sure, hanging out in New York City sounds good, why not. Barack Obama was rumored to be considering an appearance too, but it seems like he might spend the weekend before the election campaigning in swing states?
Personally, I would be obsessively hitting western Pennsylvania and Ohio trying to flip those states in my direction, not chatting it up with Lorne Michaels and Seth Myers, but I'm not going to tell McMaverick how to do his McMavericking. He's obviously a professional at pulling jack moves. And since the Obama Campaign has decided to show NO MERCY and start airing ads in Georgia, North Dakota and McCain's own backyard of Arizona, it's Murderball out there, people! Make your own rules!
That said, what is SNL going to do with this election is over? The race for Commander-In-Chief of What Bush Broke will be dunzo in a matter of days. They'll have to go back to relying on Paris Hilton and Laser Cats -- and maybe it's my ovaries, but I don't find Laser Cats funny at all.
Friday, February 5, 2010 at 11:05AM
