It's usually not a good thing when you watch SNL live, and by the next day, have trouble remembering any of the sketches, a problem I faced upon waking up this morning. Last night's Adam Levine-hosted episode was bland, boring, and inoffensive, not unlike Maroon 5. The writers kept as much tough material out of Levine's hands as possible, and even when he only had to play the straight man, like in "Janet," he was stuffy and couldn't take his eyes off the cue cards, which you could clearly see reflected in mirrors at times, to the point of distraction. (Note: I will likely copy and paste this paragraph for next week's episode, just replace Adam Levine with "Justin Bieber.")
It was a mediocre episode, with few-and-far-between highlights — Lonely Island returning, lots of Nasim, "Moves Like Jagger" only being played twice, Kendrick Lamar kicking ass — that we'll have a hard time remembering come season finale time. In M5 terms, it will not be loved. (I'm sorry, I was 15 when that album came out.)
Great concept, completely undone by weak material. MLK wanting to talk about Beyoncé's butt and Michelle's New Girl bangs, instead of political discourse and dream-having, produced a few minor chuckles, when, had the cold open been written with any bite to it, it could have been great.
Cameron Diaz and Jerry Seinfeld showed up for some reason as Voice judges giving Adam Levine hosting advice, as did Andy Samberg, which made a bit more sense (especially later). “I starred in over 100 digital shorts and over three live sketches!" was great, but the rest, from the use of the spinning chairs to Samberg getting the aforementioned best line, was a flashing red siren that the writers did not trust Levine to deliver their material. They were right to do so.
One of the better pre-recorded sketches of the season. It took a topic everyone is familiar, learning a second language with Rosetta Stone, and added a great, creepy spin to it, by showing that the program is popular among balding dudes learning Thai. My only complaint: shoulda been Muzzy.
"Hey guys, what if we did another Brian Fellows, but made it less funny and threw out all subtext?" Though I will admit I laughed at Kenan spelling, “You’re as gay as a gay goose in a gay goose parade.”
Any excuse to hear Kate McKinnon's Edie Falco impression is a good one. Excellent idea, excellent execution.
I hated this sketch at first, but, wisely, it used the Sideshow Bob rake principal, in that if you do something enough times, it'll eventually become funny, then annoying, then funny again, and by the time Bill Hader, whose voice the entire thing is built around, is screaming about Don't Trust the B's cancellation, I was laughing. *shudder*
...And I think I hate it again.
Welcome back, Lonely Island.
And a good #yolo to you, too. The first Digital Short since last season's "Lazy Sunday 2" started slowly and was mixed oddly (had trouble hearing the lyrics at time), but it got better and better, and by the time the guys in Lonely Island had gone teeth-pulling crazy from #yolo-inspired paranoia and Kendrick Lamar showed up, I was on-board. Plus, it's never not good to see Danny McBride.
Could IRL Ray-Ray descend to Heaven, or fall to Hell, and leave us forever? Please?
Nasim Pedrad was front and center this episode. That is not a bad thing.
She can...wives with...knives me anytime she wants? I dunno. Blame the Maroon 5 vs. Train vs. Jason Mraz vs. John Mayer whatever — yet another sketch that laid out a hilarious idea, but failed to execute with, y'know good jokes; it's as if the writers stopped after establishing, "Soft rock turf war" — for draining my sense of humor.
Indeed, Vanessa Bayer. Indeed.
Well, at least I've got a new pen name in “Ace Applebees." Other than that, yeesh.
OK, I guess, but not nearly weird enough. Needed more Ass Dan. R.I.P. Ass Dan.
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Some obvious themes:
- A gay person doesn’t realize he is in fact gay
- A gay person who doesn’t realize that he’s gay when everyone else clearly knows he is
My palm hasn’t quite hit my face but it’s definitely approaching.
I should add I’m 30 minutes in on the DVR.
It (doesn’t) get better.
Badge Whore.
Yup.
Badges?
Archer badges are way more worth it
The Sopranos Diaries just kept building and getting better, once the “critics” acknowledged the timeline being off. “Call me Ishmael, you sonuvabitch!” was the perfect cherry on top.
My reaction to the monolog went from “YAY, ANDY!” to “UGH, CAMERON” way too fast. SNL needs to stop encouraging Cameron Diaz. She is not funny.
I liked the Digital Short, especially since Akiva and Jorm were in it.
And, yes, the soft rock sketch was weak, but I’d like a whole sketch of Hader’s John Mayer impression.
Agreed. Cameron Diaz is neither attractive nor funny.
Musical guest was terrible. Holy shit, why would anyone listen to that? You generally at least have something that resembles a “hook.”
You are entitled to your opinion because this is America and that is how we do things, but allow me to state that I disagree with you very much and leave this as a counterpoint to your “every song needs a hook” argument.
Have a great day.
And this too, because now I’m awake and down the Youtube rabbit hole.
I listen to drone sometimes, that doesn’t need a hook. It’s not really music, either, except in the same way a vaccum cleaner or urinal installation is modern art. Kendrick Lamar is no Wu Tang or Slick Rick and his hookless music seems to be appreciated based on image to credulous and impressionable people.
But… his songs have hooks.
Uh, the hook on “Swimming Pools” is fucking killer. IDK wtf you’re yammering about.
[www.youtube.com] Nope, he has hooks. good ones too.
this is ludicrous. Kendrick was superb and if you’re gonna sit there and say Swimming Pools doesn’t have one of the most massive hooks then you’re just trolling
Kendrick Lamar is brilliant, and I’m not some impressionable person who just like him because he’s hype now. been listenning to him since his Overly Dedicated mixtape. Swimming Pool has a killer hook, and his version yesterday was killer, maybe even better than on record, so yeah like, shut up dude, as they say on Stereogum. (i still find Poetic Justice kind of boring though)
@I never met my pops : Best song of 2012! Jay Rock’s verse is perfection.
Swimming Pools has two very obvious hooks. The song STARTS with a hook (“Pour up” DRANK etc.) and then before the first hook comes back around we are introduced to a second one (“Why you babysittin…”).
To suggest that Kendrick doesn’t have hooks on his songs is crazy. “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Backseat Freestyle”, “Money Trees” and the instant classic “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” all have ridiculously catchy hooks.
…Shit, guys. I think I just fed the troll.
Can one of you kindly pinpoint the hook in Swimming Pools by giving me the seconds cue point to check it out on YouTube. I only listened to the first SNL song, so if that was Swimming Pools, there was no hook.
And this… ?
“[www.youtube.com] Nope, he has hooks. good ones too.”
Apparently, you don’t know what a hook is?
Ahhh, okay, Gimpy. Sorry, took a while to get down to your comment
So that explains it. You just have terrible taste. When that whole “drank” bullshit was going on, I was just beginning to think to myself “what the fuck? this passes for anything?” That is the most pathetic shit I have ever heard.
Worst. Episode. Ever. I’ve seen corpses with more personality than Adam Levine. And Kendrick Lamar is nothing special. Thank god for the digital short, though. Otherwise, last nights episode was a big steaming turd. The end.
I was genuinely shocked when the crowd went nuts after the first Kendrick Lamar song. I know they always applaud loudly because I’ve been to tapings before and they pump you up before the show and tell you to make a lot of noise for tv, etc. but I really thought this was going to end similar to the way Sinead O’Connor’s performance ended when she ripped a picture of the pope. I expected near silence with some confused, brief clapping. It seemed like a comedy sketch from the 80s on the Kids In The Hall or something. Like the point was “most boring rapper ever” or “guy has no talent but thinks he does.” It seems like you would have to really try hard to write such tuneless drivel.
Maybe that’s how people know he’s serious, cuz he ain’t got time for that catchy hook, see? He ain’t got time to learn how to rap decently, either, apparently.
You think that was bad? Wait til Bieber.
At this point, the bar is set so low that Bieber could very likely knock it out of the fucking park. Now wouldnt that be a sad state of affairs?
Ok you’re just trolling now, right? Or just don’t like hip hop anyway.
This is why we can’t have nice things!
I like Kendrik, though I think Swimming Pools is about 2 minutes to long.
Worst Episode ever? It’s not even the worst episode this season. That belongs to Daniel Craig
Nah, Jeah-Ralphio, I think if you think about it honestly you’ll realize even Andy Samberg writes better songs. Get yourself a Macbook and you could make album after album of Kendrick Lamar type go-nowhere bullshit with ease.
God that Craig episode was awful.
Ok, I take it back. I had blocked that Craig episode from my brain.
As crucial as Bill Hader is, Bobby Moynihan is pretty fucking solid too.
Yeah, I’m really starting to dig Moynihan more and more each week.
He’s definitely earning his seat at the big kid’s table.
He’s coming into his own this year
Agreed.
I truly want to like this show. But even now I’m having a hard time backing up the fact I even watch this. I honestly can’t remember a good sketch this whole season…
I just come here for the recaps. Saves a lot of time that way.
I liked that song so much I would actually pay real American dollar money to buy his CD. No lie. I mean, I’m not. Where does one purchase “Compact Discs” any more, anyway. BUT, if we still had the infrastructure for physical CD sales, I would go get it now.
Best Buy, dude. Hop in your car and go look for one that’s not closed down yet.
If Biden runs for president in 2016 & his campaign slogan is ‘NUTS, FACE…BIDEN TIME!!!!’, he has all 17 of my votes.
Only if Sudeikis is his running mate. And by that I mean “running man”, red track suit and all.
Audience-free YOLO
Thanks Chet!
Thanks. The YouTube version is much cleaner and clearer.
Take the week off, SNL. You’ve certainly earned it after putting on two completely forgettable episodes following a month off for the holidays. Great job!
A sad but true perspective.
But wait, the Beiber episode is next!
We need more Kate McKinnon (that Edie Falco impersonation was great). That musicians “fight” sketch was just brutal and it could have been greatly improved if the writers had some lines for Bill Hader/ John Mayer saying some douchey things because that would instantly connect with Mayer the man and the persona.
I thought this was actually a very solid episode. Their hit-to-miss ratio was relatively high, and I think you’re drastically underplaying how funny Andy Samberg was in the monologue. I don’t really care that they didn’t give Adam Levine much to do; frankly, I didn’t want him doing much anyway. But getting a Digital Short filled with that much star power was worth an entire episode, and that’s on top of Sopranos Diaries, Keenan’s Ray Lewis segment, Bill Hader and Bobby Moynihan basically being great all the time, and Nasim Pedrad finally getting some screen time. Add Kendrick Lamar, and I was very, very satisfied with this episode.
Andy Samberg making funny faces for laughs pretty much sums up the Happy Madison virus.
I wasn’t feeling YOLO. He’s got a few years before he becomes ANOTHER SNL cast member who never does a good thing after leaving the show
How can one cleanse themself of the Happy Madison virus? I actually like Samberg, but, holy shit, YOLO was bad.
So based on the past 2 weeks, it’s a GOOD thing I’ve been watching “Smackdown” instead of SNL???
Yay, Sloppy Swish badge!!!
This is on the DVR, and I know it’s going to stink. Why do I do this to myself every week?
I like The Boondock’s version of MLK better.
And were those Maroon 5 band members behind Adam in the Train skit?
If so, love the lack of applause for them.
what I want to know if those were really Train behind Taran in that skit, also lack of applause
Yup, they were. Can’t forget the heroin junkie-looking motherfucker with the long hair.
Does anyone have video of this skit? I presume it wasn’t on Hulu because of the damn musical copyrights.
The writers and cast need to do more drugs.
I think Adam Levine might have the douchiest collection of tattoos of anyone ever. I mean, is that a freakin’ tiger on his arm?
Yup. I know this because my younger brother is for some reason a fan of Maroon 5. I hate him with a passion for it.
You don’t watch enough NBA games in HD then. But yeah, his are pretty douchey too.
His voice sounds like the soul of auto tune. I don’t know if he uses it but he sounds like EVERYONE else that uses it
BTW, Aidy Bryant is awful.
But fat people are supposed to be funny, right?
Maybe she’ll lose weight and join a pretty good sitcom and actually be funny on it like Casey Wilson
She wasn’t the problem this episode.
if it wasn’t for Adam Levine this would have been my favorite episode of the season. i personally thought most of the sketches were great. the only weak one was the Catfish bit IMO
YOLO and Sopranos killed it
I’m not defending Adam Levine anymore after this sad SNL episode, he sucked.
SUCKED
He was the suckiest suck to ever suck in the land of suckville
I just learned the most successful way to watch Adam Levine is to put my hand up to block out his ugly face and to mute the volume. As a silent headless body, he’s not bad.
Episode was not solid but had some sneaky funny moments.
Yes, sneaky funny! In at least five or six places which is a huge step forward for this crew. Or maybe I’m going soft in the head.
This episode was shit
Indeed.
wtf was up with the Catfish sketch? That had so much potential. I think it was Josh who said the obvious thing to do would’ve been a Manti-Catfish sketch. That would’ve been great because they could tack on weirder and weirder shit. Instead they went with the old SNL standby of one of the characters jumping up and reminding everyone what his name is.
Can’t believe the pre-recorded stuff was the best. Not even Stefon could’ve saved this episode.
If Stefon was on THIS show, I’d be screaming like Bill Hader’s character, who was practically Stefon.
And seriously, if they want someone with actual comedy experience as well as musical guest, why has Donald Glover/ Childish Gambino not hosted?
That’d be too logical for NBC. I’d imagine many people who watch SNL watch Community, so it’s not like they wouldn’t know who Glover was.
Holy shit, I thought this was a terrible SNL. It was Jay Leno funny and you never want to be Jay Leno funny.
Nasim looked incredible in that terrible Hader skit, however. The YOLO song wasn’t even that good either.
I have hope that Beiber will actually want to take many jabs at himself. If he does, it could actually be a decent SNL. Otherwise, we’ll get two straight episodes of garbage.
Seriously, why are they letting all these singers host this season? Get more comedians to host, damnit!
Did we really expect anything great to come out of this episode? It’s Adam Levine.
‘Circle Work” is a blatant rip-off of Men On ANything from In Living Colour. Bah,
janet skit was great, i love bobby mohinihan (sp?) more and more. digital short was decent, some good lines in there. weekend update was decent w the ray lewis skit and sopranos was pretty good too.
I know I’m late to the party, but HOT DAMN AM I EXCITED ABOUT A MOKIKI BADGE!
Obligatory: [www.youtube.com]
Is there a reason Seth Myers keeps pronouncing Guy Fieri’s name as Fietti? It’s not like it’s an ethnic pronunciation…his real last name is Ferry.