Giantrobo

To be honest the stuff I saw tonite was pretty funny. I'm not much of Paris fan but I thought she was actually pretty decent.

Now it's 1am so I'm going over to BBC America to see some real comedy gold....The Kumars at No. 42.

IMRICKJAMES

I think Paris Hilton did suprisingly well as host, but I don't know if she actually did a good job or it was my low expectations I've had all week knowing she was going to host. I mean with low expectations a bad job looks ok and an ok job looks great.

TheKing

She did far better than I expected. It was a decent episode, far better than Giamatti (not that it was his fault, but the writing was at least better this week).

Cheapkids.net and Merv The Perv were obviously the standouts. The barbie skit was OK.

I'm amazed that they didn't even touch on the State Of The Union address, but perhaps they've finally realized that the Bush sketches this year have been horrendously bad.

Still, here I am watching the Classic episode they're showing, and it's like it comes from a different planet. Of course it's from '78, stars Steve Martin, and features the debut of The Blues Brothers

Other great bits:
Two Wild And Crazy Guys
Theodoric Of York: Medieval Barber
Steve Martin's performance of King Tut
Ackroyd calling Jane an ignorant misguided slut on Update

Basically it's one of the best episodes of all time. Sure would be nice if they could do something even 1/10 as good as this.

Timmio

I can't believe people thought Paris did a good job. She was terrible. She couldn't even act as herself in the Donatella skit....

The entire show was garbage. Also am I the only one that thought the cheapkids bit was utter crap. This show is painfull to watch anymore. I think it's finally time to kill it off and move on. I flipped the channel during the show and came across an infomercial selling the best of sets and it's just sad to see how funny the show used to be. Sure they had a bad season every now and then, but this is like 3 or 4 bad seasons in a row...

Goldberg74

Nope, you're not.

I thought those commercials were the worst part of the show.

To Merv the Perv! "... But his father has a Porche."

jeffkjoe

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the STEVE MARTIN/BLUES BROTHERS episode on NBC last nite, King.

I think this episode ranks as one of the all-time greatest SNL's of all time. The only other one that was as solid as this one was probably:

the first time that JERRY SEINFELD hosted - with Stand Up and Win, Elijah the Prophet, Jerry's monologue....

Jack Straw

Agreed, and I was hoping she would flub lots of lines causing very uncomfortable live TV moments.

invisiblegt

Horrible episode. Paris was one of the worst hosts I've seen in a while (only De Niro I think was as bad this season).

They milked that cheapkids.net commercial for all it was worth, that's for sure. The only thing good about this episode was Merv the Perv, and only because that one's always a classic.

mikehunt

every one I've ever seen is like that all the time
even hilton's was shaking

Tommy Ceez

Are we comparing SNL against comedy in general or just against itself? Because in the whole comedy scale SNL is bottom of the barrel now.

TheKing

SNL is far from the bottom of the barrel when compared to all comedy.

It is, however, approaching 80-81 and 85-86 levels of SNL crapitude. In some ways I'd say it's already surpassed those.

They need to clean house, get new writers (which I think is the biggest problem), and a whole new cast (maybe keep Armisen, Parnell and Poehler) wouldn't hurt either.

Tina Fey is supposedly going to head up a sitcom in the fall, which would hopefully lead to her stepping down as head writer.

big whoppa

Paris was ok. Not exceeding funny. Just ok. I mean she read her lines well. However, I felt she was staring at the cue cards a lot. She did a good job of hiding it apparently. She always has that totally model fake gaze. It's very tiring. Also irritating is how much she thinks she's hot. But I do admit to watching her and Nicole Richie in The Simple Life.

Trump skit stunk. Bear City too.

Donatella skits always make me laugh.

Geek phone sex hotline was cute and good for a chuckle.

SMB-IL

I see the Paris Hilton Hate Train is still running on time. God, you guys are SO predictable sometimes....

She was a fine host and if it had been anyone else, you all would have said the same thing, but it's more popular these days to trash Paris than to actually be objective. I went into the show planning on fast forwarding through most of it and ended up actually watching everything except the Trump skit (tiresome) and the Bar and Bear City (which just hurts my mind). Most of the rest was FAR funnier than most of the crap we've seen this season.

Bill Needle

Fey may be leaving? Perhaps there is hope.

BTW, your sentiments on SNL agree with mine completely.

Rogue588

Yeah, I was gonna get off at the "OMG Paris is SO HOT and she drops to her knees at every sight of a videocamera lens so she MUST be talented!" station, but I was bored to tears and missed it.

However, i'm sure it's not as much fun as the train that...ah, nevermind...sometimes it's just too easy...like Pa.....okay, i'm going to stop.

Chew

Keane was just about the only thing worth watching on this one.

Charlie Goose

That reminds me of an old cartoon. They show a little Mexican hairless dog shivering. The voiceover said something like, "Don't worry about this little dog, he's not cold, he's just very nervous.", and the dog replied, "I don't know about you, senor, but I'm freezing!"

pezboy

I'm on the Keenan Thompson (sp?) train. He impresses me week after week.

--I still laugh when I think of the "Good Times" sketch from last season. "Damn, damn, damn!"

--His gospel singer with one line on the Paul Giamatti episode was great "No, not too well"

--His Mrs. McNabb was damn funny too. "Boy, they gonna beat you like Payton Manning. And you ain't no Payton Manning" "I like my son, but I loves my money"

I think he should be encouraged to do more characters. He clearly has a great time in every sketch. I hope he's used more like he was this past week.

Slow Hands

Supposedly Joey Buttafuoco was supposed tomake a cameo on SNL last week.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/39473.htm

BabiG

Speaking of hate trains, I'm not sure the Tina Fey one is deserved. I guess there's the whole thing about the general being responsible for the troops, but as far as her actual writing...the only thing we know for sure that she writes is probably her weekend update jokes, and those are often the funniest part of the show. Having watched the reruns on E! a lot lately, there's definitely a style and quality difference between Tina's joke's and Jimmy's (and now Amy's) jokes.

Larry David was a writer for a whole season and got all of one skit actually on air. Tina Fey obviously has more influence then he did, but the ultimate decision as to what gets on the show or not is up to Lorne and the host. So I'm not sure if getting rid of Tina Fey would change much at all, and there's a good chance it could get worse.

Bill Needle

Those on the Tina Fey needs to go train (yours truly included) would certainly disagree with WU being the funnniest part of the show. In fact, since Norm MacDonald left it is the most reliably UNfunny part of the show (discounting some of the skits within update). It (and usually the musical guest) is the one part of the show I never feel bad about dozing off during. WU has become filler at best, except for the occasional Armisen or Hammond bit, which I am sure Fey has nothing to do with writing. Maybe her delivery has something to do with it. Bottom line: She just ain't funny.

mikehunt

norm was kind of pathetic though on WU. far too often he had to laugh at his own jokes or explain the punchline to get the audience to laugh

big whoppa

Don't get me started on Norm McDonald. That's a much deserved hate train ready to leave the station.

Tina Fey does a very good job on update. She and Fallon were very good team. I didn't care for Amy Poehler at first but she's growing into the position.