The only reason I even still do these “Saturday Night Live” recaps is because people need a place to gather and talk about surviving the unfunny experience, kind of like AA. Why on Earth Charles Barkley hosted I’ll never know — maybe NBC wanted extra incentive for the sports fans to stay tuned in after the Eagles-Cowboys Wild Card game? Anyway, the writing on for Saturday’s show was better than usual, but if I can borrow his speech pattern for a moment, Charle Barley wad turrible. Juh turrible.
It was a performance hypnotic in its awfulness. Barkley delivered his lines in an oddly soothing monotone, often a beat or two late, looked off into the wrong camera more than once, gazed intently at his cue cards and appeared on the verge of giggles throughout. [A.V. Club]
And how ’bout that Alicia Keys? Listen, as someone who lives in New York, I’m required by state law to love “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down.” But I’ve got a real problem with one of the lyrics, when she calls New York City a “concrete jungle where dreams are made of.” That makes no sense. It’s either a concrete jungle where dreams are made, or a concrete jungle that dreams are made of.
So which is it, Alicia? Is it a concrete jungle constructed of dreams? Or isit a concrete jungle where people dream and make their dreams come true? YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. Man, I haven’t been this mad about musical grammar since Paul McCartney sang about the “world in which we live in” in “Live and Let Die.” You only need ONE preposition, jerk!
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It’s, “concrete jungle WET dreams are made of.”
/no it isn’t
//shitty Monday already
I always thought it was a “concrete jungle of which dreams are made”.
What do I look like, an English major? *
* the correct answer is NO, since I have a job.
I don’t know man, I genuinely laughed during the game show one, and the golf one was pretty funny.
MacGruber needs to die though.
The golf one was a great concept that sucked because Barkley sucked. Game show was okay.
Barkley hosted back in 1993 (with musical guest Nirvana) and was just awful. He hasn’t taken any acting lessons since then, obviously.
I watched this week (because of a girl), and I thought the Reel Quotes bit was funny. That might’ve been the least stilted sketch, and Barkley’s awkwardness kinda worked with it.
The golf one was great for the cutaways of Barkley dropping brooms, fridge magnets and such.
I’m impressed you guys were sober enough to watch SNL after the football game. Saturday night NFL + sleeping kids = drunk UU
After straight weeks of hardcore boozing, capping it off with a three day binge over the new year, I took the weekend off.
Seriously, Matt, seriously? Charles Barkley is the best. The guy was hitting nothing but the bottom of the net all night long. He’s been consistently entertaining in interviews (and I mean Norm Macdonald levels of entertaining) and it was no surprise to me that he hosted the best episode of SNL of the season (maybe several seasons).
Here’s some classic Barkley (I knew he had to be a Mary Ann man. Nothing but the best for/from that guy): [www.thedailyshow.com]
Barkley is very entertaining in interviews. On Saturday night, he performed terribly.
To call Saturday’s episode maybe the best in several seasons is miles beyond retarded. It ignores some terrific work from Justin Timberlake and Jon Hamm, among others.
MOAR pics of Keyes Plese.
As long as Paul McCartney isn’t singing “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time,” I’m content.
The reason why it was so funny for me is because the writers managed to almost convince me that Charles Barkley didn’t have any lines. It almost seemed like they didn’t have a guest, Charles Barkley walked by, and they just threw him into the skits. Maybe that’ll be an easy spin into the show/Barkley being terrible, but for me it’s an achievement to write lines of dialogue that sound like they came from Barkley himself (and his hilariously disjointed thoughts). Maybe Charles Barkley performed badly (he probably did), but he entertained me greatly, and I could care less about a bad performance if it’s entertaining (and with Charles Barkley, it’s hard to even know when he’s performing and when he’s being himself).
I love Sir Charles but he should stick with what he’s good at. Commenting on sports and spitting on little girls.
No one in America is worse at his job than Seth Meyers. Not even Kristen Wiig.
I enjoyed the line “we have a great show. Well, some of it’s great, and some we’re gonna do anyways.” They should work that into the opening voiceover during the credits, right before they announce the host.
I always thought the lyric was “and in this ever changing world in which we’re livin’”…
Maybe I am selectively covering for the cute beatle…
I’d have to agree that Sir Charles was week- like many of the other hosts of the last few weeks (Taylor Lautner/Swift, etc).
However, I have to say that his poor hosting and delivery did not ruin the whole show for me. Kristin Wiig’s off-putting bombshell (the stripper pole bit was great, the Digital Short, along with some of weekend update made it tolerable. I think it is simply fashionable to dump on SNL in whatever current incarnation it is in, as it has been ever since the first three seasons (although Lorne Michaels’ didn’t do himself any favors in the mid-80′s and early 90′s)
Oh, and before the spelling police get me, I meant to use the word “weak” rather than “week”.
I know you’re not wrong about Barkley inherently sucking and yet . . . I laughed a lot. He was exactly what was necessary for the game show, and even the fucked-out MacGruber concept was funny this time (because of the writing, not him, but still). Also, calling the woman in the audience freaky and hot in a Jewish way was stellar. Bonus points for the Dan Majerle joke.
My favorite part of SNL was when I changed the channel and watched a rerun of Chappelle’s Show instead.
This was EASILY one of the best SNL episodes I’ve seen in a longtime. Maybe that tells us something about the state of SNL lately, but come on man. Sir Charles was awesome!
I love when they make fun of David Patterson. I saw a photo of him feeling his way down after giving his speech last week and laughed my ass off.
Also, am I the only one that got turned on by Kristen Wiig talking in that Marylin Monroe/ baby voice? I’m not the only one with his pants down, right?
La Schmoove – So what if I’m with you? So what?
And am I the only one who liked Kenan in the Scared Straight bit? I thought it was good. Samberg’s always brilliant and the only sketch I didn’t laugh at was MacGruber. SNL is steadily getting better I think (hope). It’ll never be at its classic level, but it’s becoming watchable at least.