SNL 12/09/06 - (H) Annette Bening (M) Gwen Stefani w/ Akon - Page 3

skatefan20 · 12-10-06, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magiccmom

Does anyone here watch Mad TV? I think that show is much more current and a lot funnier! I just dont catch any buzz on it at all, and wonder if anyone here watches one and Tivo's the other?

Like SNL, Mad TV is kind of on a downhill slope. The quality of the sketches and the cast members hasn't been that great the past recent seasons with the departure of some members.

But I do find it consistently funnier than SNL. There are always several bits I find LOL funny in every episode, making the show worth tuning into.

Goldberg74 · 12-10-06, 03:47 PM

Cold Open: Letters to Bush
What a great way to start out a show… another Bush sketch… yawn. However, I did get a kick out of what the 5-year-old wrote. D

Monologue
I’m one of the few that has never seen “American Beauty,” so I was lost… but I figured it out. Baldwin saved it for me. C

Apocalypto (Revised Trailer)
I chuckled. C

Good Morning! (I Hate This Town)
Said “ass” so much it got quite uncomfortable. Oh and Annette, stop reading the cue cards please. C

TV Funhouse: “Diddy’s Kiddies”
You know what… I still have no clue what Diddy does. F

Teacher/Student Relationship: The Musical (?)
Not sure what was dumber: the sketch itself or Samberg in the sketch. Oh, and as a reminder, Annette, please stop staring at the cue cards.

A-Holes at the Nativity
Wonderful sketch! Best of the night! Kids. Midgets. Little People.

Getting them to look in the manger by put her PDA in it.

The whole myrrh exchange.

Loved it all. A+

Digital Short
Not a fan of fast food, let alone leftovers. F

Buyer Beware
I thought it was funny. Especially Maya’s retorts. B

Gwen Stefani: Wind It Up
Kudos to her actually singing the song and bouncing back from having the kid. I like this song and the sampling of "The Lonely Goatherd" and the ties to "Sound of Music." For those of you who were caught up with her belt buckle, it was two mirrored "G"s (like in the music video). A

Weekend Update
Al “Ozone” Gore and fart jokes. No wonder we are in trouble. C

Monster Under the Bed
I liked this sketch… except for Annette gazing unblinkingly at the cue cards! B

Valtrex
Didn’t understand it then. Don’t understand it now.

Akon: "I Wanna Love You"
Looks like Gwen didn't want to do another song so they let Akon have one to himself. I would have rather have liked to hear "Locked Up" or "Smack That." F(ast forward)

Three Prudes walk into a Bar…
What a “mess.” (Except for the part about going to the bank and getting change for the juke box machine… Wiig is wonderful). Oh, what’s that… Annette’s staring at the cue cards again? Say it ain’t so. C

Cat Lawyers
I wish that they wouldn’t have cut it off so short, I was enjoying it. And Annette was finally comfortable enough to try to ignore the cue cards… B

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was an okay ep for me. The material was alright, but Annette and her preoccupation with cue cards was too obvious. I'm gonna give the whole show a C and hope that Justin ends this year with a bang.

Ranger · 12-10-06, 04:50 PM

Quote:

You liked Will Forte best when he was Jimmy Fallon?

Now it makes sense why I haven't seen leather for a while. Dunoo why I got their names mixed up. Stupid me.

IDrinkMolson · 12-10-06, 05:00 PM

'Jack Bauer is a pimp'.

lotsofdvds · 12-10-06, 06:16 PM

Cold Open: Bush is an idiot, Iraq is a mess. Really? Except for Sudeikis doing camera takes when he would start reading his letters, this was a total bore and way too long.

Opening Credits: Don Pardo has some sort of fit trying to say the name Gwen Stefani.

Monologue: I guess this monologue was left over from 1999, because it's all American Beauty jokes. Alec Baldwin shows up because he lives in the building now. He saves the bit.

SNL Re-Cut Apocalypto Trailer: Wow. The once pioneering sketch comedy series has decided to copycat something that movie nerds have been doing in their basements for years now. Surprisingly, even with outthe power of a major network behind them, the nerds make better re-cut trailers. This was fine, but it really was just adding subtitles to an existing trailer. Not that hard.

Good Morning I Hate This Town: Seems to be an excuse to say "dumbass" as many times as possible. A waste of a good idea, but Kenan was good though. And it was short.

Saturday TV Funhouse - Diddy Kiddies: What does Diddy do? Good stuff.

Teacher / Student Sex: A teacher is in love with her idiot student. Bening stares at the cue cards the entire time and still manages to stumble through her lines. Wow, that was pointless.

Next Week: Justin Timberlake

Two A-Holes in a Live Nativity Scene: This bit may have run its course.

SNL Digital Short: Weird. Matthew Fox is in this, so it was most likely cut from last week's show. And although it has nothing to do with Lost, it ends with a Lost-style graphic saying Happy Holidays.

Buyer Beware: Low budget public access-ish show (that looks too good, especially in HD, to be a low budget public access show). Kinda pointless, but Kenan is always good for at least a chuckle.

Gwen Stefani "sings": I'm not so sure she's even singing whatever the hell this is.

Weekend Update: Most of the jokes were pretty good. Hammond shows up as Al Gore in a bit that goes nowhere. Kristen Wiig's segment was equally pointless. Will Forte and Fred Armisen sing a protest song about gay marriage. Forte sounds like Steve Martin here for some reason.

Monster: There's a monster in Amy Poehler's bedroom and her parents freak out. Bening stares at the cue cards again. I'm not really sure what her presence is even contributing to the show at this point. I'll give this a touch of credit for Will Forte's dedication to staying in character.

Valtrex Commercial: From the Alec Baldwin episode.

Three Sheltered People Go To Some Restaurant: Bening stares at the cue cards, which gets in the way of an otherwise oddly interesting sketch.

Akon: Akon raps in a purple sweater and the dude from Fishbone is playing keyboards and saying "Yep, yep, okay" into the mic during the song.

Law Firm for Cats: A commercial (done live) for cats who have inherited money. And then in the middle of the sketch it gets cut off (for time, I'm guessing). Ricky and Ron must have formatted the script in two hour pages this week.

Well, that was... something. I see no reason why Annette Bening was the host, as she contributed nothing memorable. Sloppy in places, painful in others. D+

cornflakeguy · 12-10-06, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lotsofdvds

Ricky and Ron must have formatted the script in two hour pages this week.

Wasn't it that they left Word in 40 sec per page sitcom format instead of 60 sec per page hour long format?

Ah...who cares.

vegasbaby · 12-10-06, 07:53 PM

Why does anyone comment on this show anymore? Its completely unwatchable week in week out.

Seantn · 12-10-06, 08:42 PM

For the amount of good vs bad that is put out, why do people keep watching? I know you guys give some skits B-, B+, C-, F, etc... But if any show has consistantly C grade skits, why watch at all?

Goldberg74 · 12-10-06, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seantn

For the amount of good vs bad that is put out, why do people keep watching? I know you guys give some skits B-, B+, C-, F, etc... But if any show has consistantly C grade skits, why watch at all?

We're optimistic.

Charlie Goose · 12-10-06, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goldberg74

We're optimistic.

Amazingly enough, I still look forward to each new episode. It's like playing the lotto, there's a chance you might be a winner!

Rogue588 · 12-10-06, 09:37 PM

Monologue
Baldwin gets the A

A-Holes at the Nativity
Best skit of the night. Loved it. A+

Digital Short
Really no point to it, but it didn't bother me like other shorts have. C

Buyer Beware
Kenan and Maya made this skit. B

Gwen Stefani: Wind It Up
Gwen done lost her fucking mind. Did her son grab it on his way out? F-

Cat Lawyers
Predictable, but I chuckled once or twice. C

Everything else was c r a p and not work wasting my keystrokes.

vegasbaby · 12-10-06, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Goose

Amazingly enough, I still look forward to each new episode. It's like playing the lotto, there's a chance you might be a winner!

But, sadly, there's no chance.

Rypro 525 · 12-11-06, 01:22 AM

Akon: "I Wanna Love You"
Looks like Gwen didn't want to do another song so they let Akon have one to himself. I would have rather have liked to hear "Locked Up" or "Smack That." F(ast forward

Its funny, the original/real version of that song has Snoop Dogg (prob couldn't do it for fear of getting arrested) and the songs actuall title is "I Wanna Fuck You"

GuessWho · 12-11-06, 08:16 AM

SNL makes the third time in about a month that Gwen sang Wind It Up on live tv (also American Music Awards & Billboard Music Awards)

The fact that she repeated it again and didn't sing a 2nd song on SNL at all makes me think that they don't have plans yet for the new CD's second single.

lotsofdvds · 12-11-06, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cornflakeguy

Wasn't it that they left Word in 40 sec per page sitcom format instead of 60 sec per page hour long format?

Yep, and the show ended up being short. That's why I said they must have formatted in a longer format, since the show ran long.

lotsofdvds · 12-11-06, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Goose

Amazingly enough, I still look forward to each new episode. It's like playing the lotto, there's a chance you might be a winner!

I might have to steal this for my site.

El Scorcho · 12-11-06, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seantn

For the amount of good vs bad that is put out, why do people keep watching? I know you guys give some skits B-, B+, C-, F, etc... But if any show has consistantly C grade skits, why watch at all?

We're in an abusive relationship where we get smacked around every week but keep reminding ourselves of the good days and hope that they'll come back someday.

Detective Thorn · 12-11-06, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Scorcho

We're in an abusive relationship where we get smacked around every week but keep reminding ourselves of the good days and hope that they'll come back someday.

I think that sums up the situation perfectly. I have been watching SNL regularly for at least 10-15 years now and I know it can be a great show.

Cold Opening:
I missed this because of a DVR malfunction. (I forgot to set it to record SNL)

Monologue:
This is the first time they have used the audience Q&A monologue bit in a while. The thing with the real estate agents was rather weak. Alec Baldwin pulls out the save at the last minute.

Apocalypto Trailer:
I liked the “I smell bagels line” at the end.

Good Morning: I Hate This Town:
Not a bad idea for a skit, but the execution was severely lacking

Diddy Kiddies:
What does Diddy do? The world may never know.

Teacher Seduction:
Bening seemed to be staring at cue cards during the entire skit. It was really distracting. The song at the end was bizarre and didn’t add anything to the skit.

Two A-Holes in a Live Nativity Scene:
I have never been fond of these characters. Jack Bauer is a pimp, but this was still a fairly weak skit. It was one of the better Two A-Holes skits though.

SNL Digital Short:
Since Matthew Fox is in it, it appears that this was filmed last week. The extra week didn’t help, since it was still awful.

Buyer Beware:
This one was just annoying.

Gwen Stefani:
This was a really odd song.

Weekend Update:
I thought that the gay marriage song would never end.

Monster Under the Bed:
I liked this one. I like when they take a simple idea and go way over the top with it.

Valtrex:
Reused bit from the Alec Baldwin episode.

3 Socially Incompetent People Visit a Bar:
I believe someone in the thread already pointed out that this was essentially a repeat of a skit from earlier in the season. Once again Bening seems to be glaring at the cue cards. It looks very odd since her character is having a conversation without ever looking at the other people. It is really very distracting.

Akon:
This seemed like fairly generic stuff.

Stanfield & Partlow:
Typical end of show awful skit, which is mercifully cut short for some unknown reason.

I would have to give Annette Bening an 'F' as host. She was simply terrible.
I did enjoy the Monster Under the Bed skit and Diddy Kiddies, but the rest was awful.

My Rating: D

GuessWho · 12-11-06, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detective Thorn

DVR malfunction. (I forgot to set it to record SNL)

user malfunction

Jadzia · 12-12-06, 02:08 AM

I finally finished watching this today. I think I enjoyed this much more than the rest of you all.

Cold Open:
Pretty bland Bush opener. Some of the letters to Bush were cute, but that's it. I really miss Forte's Bush. This new Bush impression has no discerning feature whatsoever, just bland.

Monologue:
The funny thing is, as soon as I saw Bening walk out I quoted American Beauty: "I am going to sell this house today!" My husband said,"Maybe they will make a real estate agent joke." I thought it would be too far-removed so it was pretty funny that that was what they built the whole monolgue around. Unlike others, I really enjoyed this since I found her over-the-top real estate agent in American Beauty to be a classic character.

Apocalypto Trailer:
I thought this was hilarious and very well done. I don't get the complaint that it has been done before since I don't think anyone else thought to put Mel Gibson's own words in real life as subtitles to his movie. Simple, yet very clever and funny.

Good Morning: I Hate This Town:
I thought Bening was great in this sketch, she really sold it and her acting was top-notch. She made me enjoy this. I wondered if this skit was orgininally written for Wiig, their deliveries are very similar, and they even look alike.

Diddy Kiddies:
This was about the funniest thing I have seen on SNL all season. My husband & I had to keep running it back, we were laughing so hard. It was so spot on: all the hilarious "guest stars" in his videos, etc. I loved the bit about designing: looking at the clothes and saying "Yeah." Classic.

Teacher Seduction:
This wasn't good. Bening went from being terrific in the first skit to staring at the cue cards in this one. The writing wasn't there.

Two A-Holes in a Live Nativity Scene:
I have never liked these skits before, but I thought this one was really funny. I liked the line about how the baby Jesus didn't look anything like Santa.

SNL Digital Short:
This was pretty pointless and unfunny.

Buyer Beware:
I really liked this one. Just the premise of two old black people doing a consumer show was funny to me. I loved the lines about the Nintendo Wii and they even mentioned Furbys.

I also liked the stuff about membership stores like Sam's Club because I can see cheap old people complaining about paying to shop somewhere. Funny stuff.

Gwen Stefani:
I am not sure if I loved or hated this song, but I watched the entire thing straight through which is more than I do with most musical guests.

Weekend Update:
I thought all the Amy/Seth jokes were hilarious, but as usual all the guest segments stopped the momentum dead in its tracks.

Monster Under the Bed:
This was hilarious. The reactions of the parents, especially Forte was cracking me up. When the monster came out and sang a Xmas song at the end, I imagined the writers came up with this under pressure to do a "Xmas" themed skit a la Studio 60.

Valtrex:
Funny the first time around.

3 Socially Incompetent People Visit a Bar:
I couldn't believe how funny this was for an almost to the end sketch. I was laughing so hard, especially at the lines about them having sex at the end. "Making a mess" or whatever they called it.

I thought this whole sketch was comedy gold.

Akon:
Eh. Confused that there was essentially two musical guests. Has that ever happened beofre?

Cat Lawyers:
I was really enjoying this one and disappointed that they cut it short. When Bening started waving that laser pointer around, I about lost it. You have to be a cat owner to appreciate some of that humor.

I actually think this was one of my favorite episodes of the season, behind the Alec Baldwin episode.

I give it a B+.

movieking · 12-12-06, 07:33 AM

I actually enjoyed this episode, aside from Benings blatant card reading.

As for MadTV, I definitely find it funnier on a more consistent basis than SNL.

Rockmjd23 · 12-12-06, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jadzia

I give it a B+.

Ayre · 12-12-06, 07:18 PM

I am shocked.

This was the worst episode since .... since .... the previous one.

seymouru · 12-12-06, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegasbaby

But, sadly, there's no chance.

The way to keep the audience hooked (to both SNL and the lotto) is intermittent reinforcement -- i.e., you have to win something, at least once in a while, or you give up completely. This year's $5 payout was the Alec Baldwin episode on 11/11/06. Unfortunately, that'll keep me buying tickets for a while longer.

Also, today's NY Times had this blurb about Sudeikis replacing Forte as Bush:

Quote:

Washington is watching closely to see whether President Bush will change much when he faces a new, Democratic Congress. But his character on “Saturday Night Live” already has. Previously played by Will Forte, Mr. Bush is now being played by Jason Sudeikis. Lorne Michaels, the NBC television show’s executive producer, said that where Mr. Forte played Mr. Bush as whiny and beleaguered, Mr. Sudeikis is playing him as having “absolute confidence and buoyancy.” But in a sign that the world is starting to look past Mr. Bush’s tenure, Mr. Michaels said he was freeing up Mr. Forte to play a new political role eventually: that of one of the 2008 contenders.

bboisvert · 12-12-06, 07:58 PM

I haven't been a regular watcher for years, but I've actually watched 2 complete episodes this season. The good news is that the 1st one was Alec Bladwin. The bad news is that the 2nd one was this one.

That being said, I laughed at "Chickenella". That's it. That alone raises it to a D+. But just barely.

And, about Gwen Stefani... sampling The Lonely Goatherd for a dance tune? Potentially brilliant... I could really see that working. However, the end result? Not quite so brilliant. It just wasn't working for me.

Not to mention, didn't she recently sample If I Were a Rich Man for a tune? Not exactly breaking new musical ground there. Then again, I've been out of it since Led Zeppelin broke up, so I might not be the best person to ask.

12-10-06, 03:47 PM	#52
Goldberg74 DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Oct 1999 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 12,198	Cold Open: Letters to Bush What a great way to start out a show… another Bush sketch… yawn. However, I did get a kick out of what the 5-year-old wrote. D Monologue I’m one of the few that has never seen “American Beauty,” so I was lost… but I figured it out. Baldwin saved it for me. C Apocalypto (Revised Trailer) I chuckled. C Good Morning! (I Hate This Town) Said “ass” so much it got quite uncomfortable. Oh and Annette, stop reading the cue cards please. C TV Funhouse: “Diddy’s Kiddies” You know what… I still have no clue what Diddy does. F Teacher/Student Relationship: The Musical (?) Not sure what was dumber: the sketch itself or Samberg in the sketch. Oh, and as a reminder, Annette, please stop staring at the cue cards. A-Holes at the Nativity Wonderful sketch! Best of the night! Kids. Midgets. Little People. Getting them to look in the manger by put her PDA in it. The whole myrrh exchange. Loved it all. A+ Digital Short Not a fan of fast food, let alone leftovers. F Buyer Beware I thought it was funny. Especially Maya’s retorts. B Gwen Stefani: Wind It Up Kudos to her actually singing the song and bouncing back from having the kid. I like this song and the sampling of "The Lonely Goatherd" and the ties to "Sound of Music." For those of you who were caught up with her belt buckle, it was two mirrored "G"s (like in the music video). A Weekend Update Al “Ozone” Gore and fart jokes. No wonder we are in trouble. C Monster Under the Bed I liked this sketch… except for Annette gazing unblinkingly at the cue cards! B Valtrex Didn’t understand it then. Don’t understand it now. Akon: "I Wanna Love You" Looks like Gwen didn't want to do another song so they let Akon have one to himself. I would have rather have liked to hear "Locked Up" or "Smack That." F(ast forward) Three Prudes walk into a Bar… What a “mess.” (Except for the part about going to the bank and getting change for the juke box machine… Wiig is wonderful). Oh, what’s that… Annette’s staring at the cue cards again? Say it ain’t so. C Cat Lawyers I wish that they wouldn’t have cut it off so short, I was enjoying it. And Annette was finally comfortable enough to try to ignore the cue cards… B * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It was an okay ep for me. The material was alright, but Annette and her preoccupation with cue cards was too obvious. I'm gonna give the whole show a C and hope that Justin ends this year with a bang. __________________ "WHAT DOES THE BEAN MEAN!?" - Kevin on The Office Wii Code: 5525 6439 1664 4091 Mario Kart Wii Code: 1504-6291-6391 (Mikey) My Countdown Counting down to: Going to Chi-Town! Living it up in the Windy City!

12-10-06, 05:00 PM	#54
IDrinkMolson DVD Talk Gold Edition Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: DE Posts: 2,687	'Jack Bauer is a pimp'. __________________ My DVD Collection

12-10-06, 08:42 PM	#58
Seantn DVD Talk Limited Edition Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 5,526	For the amount of good vs bad that is put out, why do people keep watching? I know you guys give some skits B-, B+, C-, F, etc... But if any show has consistantly C grade skits, why watch at all? __________________ "Why don't you get a blog where you can tell others to get a blog?" - Parcher

12-10-06, 09:37 PM	#61
Rogue588 DVD Talk Reviewer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: WAS looking for My Own Private Stuckeyville, but stuck in Liberty City (while missing Vice City) Posts: 15,082	Monologue Baldwin gets the A A-Holes at the Nativity Best skit of the night. Loved it. A+ Digital Short Really no point to it, but it didn't bother me like other shorts have. C Buyer Beware Kenan and Maya made this skit. B Gwen Stefani: Wind It Up Gwen done lost her fucking mind. Did her son grab it on his way out? F- Cat Lawyers Predictable, but I chuckled once or twice. C Everything else was c r a p and not work wasting my keystrokes. __________________ Marshall Mann: "What exactly is your beef with humanity?" Mary Shannon: "I have no beef with humanity. It's the people I can't stand." "I'm not a fan of facts. Facts can change all the time, but my opinion will never change." - Stephen Colbert \| owned \| desired \| ditchin' \| listen Wednesday 10p \|

12-11-06, 01:22 AM	#63
Rypro 525 DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: a frikin hellhole Posts: 20,902	Akon: "I Wanna Love You" Looks like Gwen didn't want to do another song so they let Akon have one to himself. I would have rather have liked to hear "Locked Up" or "Smack That." F(ast forward Its funny, the original/real version of that song has Snoop Dogg (prob couldn't do it for fear of getting arrested) and the songs actuall title is "I Wanna Fuck You" __________________ "R rated and 133 minutes!!!!!. Now thats the kinda shit I'm Talking about. Bring it ON!" Chris sc77 on Park Chan-Wook's "Thirst "I stopped midway through a Keb' Mo' song to watch the video in the original post. It may very well have been one of the worst decisions of my life." invisiblegt in regards to a death metal video i posted

12-10-06, 06:16 PM	#55
lotsofdvds Suspended Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 4,790	Cold Open: Bush is an idiot, Iraq is a mess. Really? Except for Sudeikis doing camera takes when he would start reading his letters, this was a total bore and way too long. Opening Credits: Don Pardo has some sort of fit trying to say the name Gwen Stefani. Monologue: I guess this monologue was left over from 1999, because it's all American Beauty jokes. Alec Baldwin shows up because he lives in the building now. He saves the bit. SNL Re-Cut Apocalypto Trailer: Wow. The once pioneering sketch comedy series has decided to copycat something that movie nerds have been doing in their basements for years now. Surprisingly, even with outthe power of a major network behind them, the nerds make better re-cut trailers. This was fine, but it really was just adding subtitles to an existing trailer. Not that hard. Good Morning I Hate This Town: Seems to be an excuse to say "dumbass" as many times as possible. A waste of a good idea, but Kenan was good though. And it was short. Saturday TV Funhouse - Diddy Kiddies: What does Diddy do? Good stuff. Teacher / Student Sex: A teacher is in love with her idiot student. Bening stares at the cue cards the entire time and still manages to stumble through her lines. Wow, that was pointless. Next Week: Justin Timberlake Two A-Holes in a Live Nativity Scene: This bit may have run its course. SNL Digital Short: Weird. Matthew Fox is in this, so it was most likely cut from last week's show. And although it has nothing to do with Lost, it ends with a Lost-style graphic saying Happy Holidays. Buyer Beware: Low budget public access-ish show (that looks too good, especially in HD, to be a low budget public access show). Kinda pointless, but Kenan is always good for at least a chuckle. Gwen Stefani "sings": I'm not so sure she's even singing whatever the hell this is. Weekend Update: Most of the jokes were pretty good. Hammond shows up as Al Gore in a bit that goes nowhere. Kristen Wiig's segment was equally pointless. Will Forte and Fred Armisen sing a protest song about gay marriage. Forte sounds like Steve Martin here for some reason. Monster: There's a monster in Amy Poehler's bedroom and her parents freak out. Bening stares at the cue cards again. I'm not really sure what her presence is even contributing to the show at this point. I'll give this a touch of credit for Will Forte's dedication to staying in character. Valtrex Commercial: From the Alec Baldwin episode. Three Sheltered People Go To Some Restaurant: Bening stares at the cue cards, which gets in the way of an otherwise oddly interesting sketch. Akon: Akon raps in a purple sweater and the dude from Fishbone is playing keyboards and saying "Yep, yep, okay" into the mic during the song. Law Firm for Cats: A commercial (done live) for cats who have inherited money. And then in the middle of the sketch it gets cut off (for time, I'm guessing). Ricky and Ron must have formatted the script in two hour pages this week. Well, that was... something. I see no reason why Annette Bening was the host, as she contributed nothing memorable. Sloppy in places, painful in others. D+

12-10-06, 07:53 PM	#57
vegasbaby Needs to contact an admin about multiple accounts Join Date: Feb 2000 Posts: 2,464	Why does anyone comment on this show anymore? Its completely unwatchable week in week out.

12-11-06, 08:16 AM	#64
GuessWho DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Feb 1999 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 20,472	SNL makes the third time in about a month that Gwen sang Wind It Up on live tv (also American Music Awards & Billboard Music Awards) The fact that she repeated it again and didn't sing a 2nd song on SNL at all makes me think that they don't have plans yet for the new CD's second single.

12-12-06, 02:08 AM	#70
Jadzia Moderator Join Date: Jul 1999 Location: Michigan Posts: 14,471	I finally finished watching this today. I think I enjoyed this much more than the rest of you all. Cold Open: Pretty bland Bush opener. Some of the letters to Bush were cute, but that's it. I really miss Forte's Bush. This new Bush impression has no discerning feature whatsoever, just bland. Monologue: The funny thing is, as soon as I saw Bening walk out I quoted American Beauty: "I am going to sell this house today!" My husband said,"Maybe they will make a real estate agent joke." I thought it would be too far-removed so it was pretty funny that that was what they built the whole monolgue around. Unlike others, I really enjoyed this since I found her over-the-top real estate agent in American Beauty to be a classic character. Apocalypto Trailer: I thought this was hilarious and very well done. I don't get the complaint that it has been done before since I don't think anyone else thought to put Mel Gibson's own words in real life as subtitles to his movie. Simple, yet very clever and funny. Good Morning: I Hate This Town: I thought Bening was great in this sketch, she really sold it and her acting was top-notch. She made me enjoy this. I wondered if this skit was orgininally written for Wiig, their deliveries are very similar, and they even look alike. Diddy Kiddies: This was about the funniest thing I have seen on SNL all season. My husband & I had to keep running it back, we were laughing so hard. It was so spot on: all the hilarious "guest stars" in his videos, etc. I loved the bit about designing: looking at the clothes and saying "Yeah." Classic. Teacher Seduction: This wasn't good. Bening went from being terrific in the first skit to staring at the cue cards in this one. The writing wasn't there. Two A-Holes in a Live Nativity Scene: I have never liked these skits before, but I thought this one was really funny. I liked the line about how the baby Jesus didn't look anything like Santa. SNL Digital Short: This was pretty pointless and unfunny. Buyer Beware: I really liked this one. Just the premise of two old black people doing a consumer show was funny to me. I loved the lines about the Nintendo Wii and they even mentioned Furbys. I also liked the stuff about membership stores like Sam's Club because I can see cheap old people complaining about paying to shop somewhere. Funny stuff. Gwen Stefani: I am not sure if I loved or hated this song, but I watched the entire thing straight through which is more than I do with most musical guests. Weekend Update: I thought all the Amy/Seth jokes were hilarious, but as usual all the guest segments stopped the momentum dead in its tracks. Monster Under the Bed: This was hilarious. The reactions of the parents, especially Forte was cracking me up. When the monster came out and sang a Xmas song at the end, I imagined the writers came up with this under pressure to do a "Xmas" themed skit a la Studio 60. Valtrex: Funny the first time around. 3 Socially Incompetent People Visit a Bar: I couldn't believe how funny this was for an almost to the end sketch. I was laughing so hard, especially at the lines about them having sex at the end. "Making a mess" or whatever they called it. I thought this whole sketch was comedy gold. Akon: Eh. Confused that there was essentially two musical guests. Has that ever happened beofre? Cat Lawyers: I was really enjoying this one and disappointed that they cut it short. When Bening started waving that laser pointer around, I about lost it. You have to be a cat owner to appreciate some of that humor. I actually think this was one of my favorite episodes of the season, behind the Alec Baldwin episode. I give it a B+.

12-12-06, 07:33 AM	#71
movieking DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 11,678	I actually enjoyed this episode, aside from Benings blatant card reading. As for MadTV, I definitely find it funnier on a more consistent basis than SNL.

12-12-06, 07:18 PM	#73
Ayre DVD Talk Special Edition Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 1,669	I am shocked. This was the worst episode since .... since .... the previous one.

12-12-06, 07:58 PM	#75
bboisvert DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Apr 1999 Location: Docking Bay 94 Posts: 14,030	I haven't been a regular watcher for years, but I've actually watched 2 complete episodes this season. The good news is that the 1st one was Alec Bladwin. The bad news is that the 2nd one was this one. That being said, I laughed at "Chickenella". That's it. That alone raises it to a D+. But just barely. And, about Gwen Stefani... sampling The Lonely Goatherd for a dance tune? Potentially brilliant... I could really see that working. However, the end result? Not quite so brilliant. It just wasn't working for me. Not to mention, didn't she recently sample If I Were a Rich Man for a tune? Not exactly breaking new musical ground there. Then again, I've been out of it since Led Zeppelin broke up, so I might not be the best person to ask.