Sunday, December 18, 2011
SNL - JIMMY FALLON & BUBLE
2011-12-17 – Saturday Night Live (SNL) - JIMMY FALLON &; BUBLE
(Note: that's Buble as in “BooBLAY” not “bubble”. ... Not "bubbela" either).
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Sparked by Jimmy Fallon's energy this was one of the liveliest and funniest SNL's. Even the few less funny skits were interesting, and the funny skits were very funny. But ENERGY is what sparked this show.
Also alumni. Lots of alums: in addition to Jimmy Fallon, alums Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and a whole bunch of others showed up.
Here’s some notes on the show:
Cold Open – Prom – Long past their glory days, a high school couple in Boston comes back to crash the prom. I didn’t quite get the point of the sketch -- except perhaps that it was an intro to this alum-heavy and energy-rich show – but it had a quirky manic energy that was entertaining.
Monolog – “So good to be home” – Again, the genial energy of this monolog sketch was the best part.
The Today Show – A fierce send-up of the women on the Today Show. The Regis part was not quite so effective.
Buble Album – Buble is like the polar opposite of everything else on the show, so it was satisfying to tie together the Buble spirit with the SNL style in a sketch that parodied the formulaic star-studded old-fashioned duet album.
Mirror – Nice; clever in concept, skilled in execution, tho' not particularly funny, Fallon asks his “mirror” image how he’s doing so far. Notable for the shirts he and his mirror are wearing.
1928 Holiday Party – Kristen Wiig was hilarious in her (frequently played) guise as a compulsive event interloper. In this case, after her, “You made us sing and dance!” … Every time the music intro comes to her cue, she does something other than sing her song.
One Man Show – Playing “Part Jewish, Part Italian, Completely Neurotic,” in an OOB house, plying a life story (in this case it’s a familiar kind of humor for SNL, the so-bad-it’s-funny comedy) to the one audience member. (I’ve been in that audience and it’s a strange feeling! No matter how good the show may be. –In real life, the hardest part of putting on a show OOB is getting an audience.)
Christmas Greeting – Fallon sings while other alums – Chris Kattan, Stacy Morgan -- do … something.
Buble – Even though this Buble’s music – style and content -- could not be more out of sync with the rest of the show, or the usual musical guest for that matter, it somehow kind of worked.
Weekend Update – There were some good jokes, with some “interview” sketches…
Get in the Cage w/ Jude Law on Weekend Update-- The first of the “interview” segments kind of worked. But it was all the usual Nicholas Cage jokes, and Jude Law (along with Sherlock Holmes) was pretty much ignored.
Joke-Off on Weekend Update – The title was the funniest part of the sketch. Starting from a pretty good joke on Weekend Update, Jimmy Fallon challenged Seth Meyers to a Joke Off. Alums Amy Poehler and Tina Fey came in to help. But the new jokes were not really better than the first joke. (There was a weird moment when Jimmy Fallon seemed to brush away a kiss tendered by his teammate Tina Fey.)
Beethoven in Vienna – Beethoven introduced the members of his orchestra. It was interesting, but not particularly funny, except when Ludwig got upset about one player offering a moment of music from Mozart instead of Ludwig. Also there was an unfunny Hitler joke. Hitler is not funny.
War Horse – The best sketch of the night. In an OOB house a version of War Horse with the puppet horse replaced by a Human playing the horse. And for the second act, the other Human was replaced by a hand puppet.
Jesus visits Tebow – Jesus comes to tell Tebow and the Broncos they’re making him work too hard – along with the other Country Music Award winners, and Beauty Pageant winners he must constantly help, along with all those other contestants that thank him for deciding contests in their favor. The sketch isn’t particularly funny, but it’s a good point.
The cast seemed to have fun at the closing gathering on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.
For SNL clips:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/
And here are two memorable sketches from the show:
WAR HORSE
TEBOW
Labels: Buble, Jimmy Fallon, Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Tebow, War Horse, Weekend Update
