Cubicle Fight - okay, but I wanted Fred Amisten's character to continue his screaming from the hot coffee after the clueless boss left after asking for the Higginson report.

How is this band famous?

Im not that big on that song and even less so after hearing it live.

SNL needs to get rid of everything they have now but sanberg, and just start over completely. this could go down as the worst episode of SNL ever

"He was subdued by the new 'Give-Me-A-Reason Bert'."

That was pretty good.

This may be the worst skit ever

THAT was the shot they took at Studio 60?

I think they should have started the show with Lorne coming out during a dumbass Forte/Bush skit saying how the show hasn't been funny for years, etc... lol

"No, this is real, it's not supposed to be funny, stop laughing!"

The Killers' drummer is workin' that Earl look.

This show sucked. Torn on the letter grade here. There were just enough laughs to save it from being an F. Trying to decide between D and D-. Since this is the very first episode of the season, and they had the whole fucking summer to write comedy, it gets a D-. I'm at the point that I'm really trying to justify the time and effort to do this anymore.

South Carolina comptroller
Apparently GWB is reduced to helping out local elections, because no one else wants his support. He's bored and talkative during the speech, but the others on the dais want to hear the speech. Same with the audience, because nobody laughed. Deadly opening.

Monologue
I liked the youtube jokes, but the bit about the suicide was flat.

Airport security
Homeland Security teaching airport guards, who are near morons. A couple of laughs.

Venezuela TV
Hugo Chavez as host, played by Armisen. His guests are Ahmadinejad, Mushmaraff and Kim Jong Il. Bad.

Cubicle fight
Office drones in a brawl. I'm bored to tears right now.

Pacino gets his bank balance
I've been wondering when Hader would pull out his excellent Pacino impression again. The impression was all there was.

Weekend Update
Hammond as Clinton and Rudolph as Rice do their very best to kill the segment. Samberg comes on as new porn start Dustin "Screech" Diamond and saves the day by playing Screech as almost retarded.

Water guys
What the holy fuck? Forte and Cook as two water delivery guys who keep all the water for themselves. Wiig as a supervisor coming to their apartment to find hundreds of big water bottles. They did a Family Guy style bit with the bottles coming out of the closet for over a minute. Then the bit ended with Forte saying that he's sending it to SNL. Obvious inside joke, probably funny to about five people in the world.

Farrah Fawcett for Oceansave
Poehler as Fawcett. She's a space case chasing the camera to another sketch.

Bar
Sudeikis and Cook as two abusive bouncers chasing everyone out at 2 am. They should've done it at the writers' meeting.

Geico
Commercial with a real person and a celebrity. Whitney Houston talking about her drug abuse. Quick and okay.

What the hell was up with Poehler's "Farrah Fawcett" thing?

Looks like everyone took the summer off at SNL.

Thought alot of your reviews last season were too forgiving but you got that one right on Only time i laughed is when Dane mentioned youtube in the monologue.

Seth's first Weekend Update "joke" kind of bothered me. (The Bush and 9/11 commission one) It didnt even seem like a joke. I can laugh at Bush just as much as the next guy, but that just seemed like pure hate.

They should have just let Brian Williams do update. He's has shown a good sense of timing from his apperances on the Daily Show, and Seth Myers blows.

Jamie Pressley next week. I have $100 that says Appalachian Emergency Room is one of the sketches

Tina Fey is a genius. Not a comedic genius, mind you, I'm referring to the fact that she somehow managed to leave SNL with the illusion of credibility even though the show arguably experienced it's worst writing ever during her reign as head writer.

Personally, I think she ruined Weekend Update and whenever I watched it with her as an anchor I was amazed that "The Daily Show" can come up with four solid 30 minute episodes a week whereas SNL comes up with 5 horrible minutes two out of every three weeks with a summer vacation.

Still, even if you did watch the episodes where she was head writer and thought her WU work was good you have to understand that she OK'd every piece of shit sketch that made it on whether she was in it or not. The fact that she made only a handful of non-WU appearances as a castmember could also be interpreted as a stroke of genius, as those who aren't aware of what her role as head writer entails might not associate her with all her crimes against comedy.

I hate Dane Cook (he's the comedic antichrist) and I think it's ridiculous that Chris Parnell got the axe while Kenan Thompson and Darrell Hammond are still in the cast so I didn't watch tonight's episode but Tina Fey's absence in the head writer's chair can only be good news for SNL.

So, if I want to participate in the reviewer game, can I just list the sketches and put "It sucked" next to it?

das

Abysmally unfunny.

Before tonight I actually thought I couldn't find Dane Cook less funny. I was wrong.

Open: Bush sketch. The joke? Nobody running for office wants him to show up for them. The way to make it long enough for a sketch? Have him blab on. Terrible.

Credits: I like the look of the new credits, but it's comical that they kept them the same length as usual with so few players this year. It had the effect of making it sound like Don Pardo had narcolepsy and had to be nudged awake before every name. Shortening the intro would have been the better course of action, but that would have left them with more time to fill each episode. Hammond looked sort of like a corpse.

Monologue: I've never been a Dane Cook fan, but I think he has actually grown less funny since his last SNL appearance a year ago. Apparently his only jokes are about committing suicide and using YouTube. The laughter sounded canned. Was it so bad the audience was unwilling to laugh? Did they know that going in?

Homeland Security: Airport screeners are morons. Keen insight, writing staff. I'm starting to wonder if Tina Fey was actually the only funny thing about the show these past few years. The political commentary inserted was also really weak. If you're going to nail the political angle, really nail it. Forte did make me laugh with the gel line.

Next Week: Jaime Pressly/Corinne Bailey Rae -- I have never heard of the musical guest, but I approve of Pressly. At least there will be something worth looking at most of next week's show.

Chavez: Armisen as Chavez was actually promising. I'm guessing we're going to see a lot of Chavez this year if they can find ways of exploting that character. The gestures were way over the top. Rachel Dratch would have been a better Kim Jong-Il. Hussein as Andy Rooney was pretty good. It was a shadow of the old Sinatra panel show sketch, but it was still the funniest thing to happen yet this season on SNL.

Cubicle Fight: The first digital short of the year was only midly amusing. Did the cast and writers finally get around to watching Office Space last weekend or something?

Al Pacino: It's a good Pacino. Hell, it's a great Pacino. The idea of Pacino transferring money into his account every time he needs it was pretty hysterical. This was the highlight of the night for me.

The Killers I: I had never heard of them, and nothing I heard before fast forwarding persuaded me to check them out.

Brian Williams: Getting him to show up really worked nicely. They made him look funnier than half the cast.

Weekend Update: The opening graphics are just fine. The political stuff was very hit and miss. It used to be that SNL was always on when they addressed politics. The George Allen stuff was very good. I'm a Virginian, and I'd rather have fake George Allen representing the state than the real one. The Miss Cleo and Elmo jokes did manage to close things out on a strong note.

Poland Spring: This sketch was just surreal. Forte really cracked me up again. He has been the best thing about the cast so far. It has to be impossible to make him laugh. He's the anti-Sanz. Breaking the fourth wall at the end just made it all the stranger.

The Killers II: I'm still not listening.

Farrah Fawcett: I see the people behind this show watched the Bill Shatner roast. The continuing destruction of the fourth wall was still strange.

Closing Time: I liked it better the first time when it happened on an airplane. Buh-bye.

GEICO commercial parody: Why couldn't they have done this earlier in the night and really polished it? It's a ripe target, but the execution was lacking.

Overall: C- The last hour was better than the first thirty minutes, reversing the usual format. Dane Cook was a waste as host, and entirely too many of the concepts were either ill advised from the start or were poorly executed. I'm not sure whether to be hopeful that better hosts and improvements in chemistry will lead to better shows or worried that having only a week to write a new episode will lead to disaster. I guess I'll find out next week. My grading scale is actually designed to allow SNL to get an A, which is why it might be a grade or even two higher than that used by others.

I missed the show tonight, and was about to download it, but now I'm not even sure if I'm going to bother. They should have done everything that they could to provide a blow-away show tonight, what with this being the first show after all of the changes and all.

What has Dane Cook ever done that he gets to have a monologue 5 times longer than anyone else. Not that its even a monologue. Its not like he is the only stand up to ever host.

Anyways, besides that, he isn't even funny. I didn't laugh the first time he hosted...didnt laugh this time. In fact, I dont think I have ever laughed at Dane Cook doing anything.

Maybe I'll laugh when Dane Cook commits suicide and we find out he just took pills and didnt have a crazy scheme to pull it off

Jamie Pressly for next week??

Seriously, Lorne Michaels needs to inject some experienced comics as hosts to jumpstart this cast.

I'd fall back on a heavy dosage of former cast members like Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, hell even David Spade, and tried and true hosts like John Goodman, Chris Walken, etc., not someone who will just be eye candy.


With Jamie Pressly, I gaurantee next week will be a grade-A snoozer.

Looks like I didn't miss anything.

for the record, I still can't figure out Dane Cook's popularity....

Open: Bush sketch. -- Cute enough joke, but in no way long enough to fill a whole sketch. C-

Monologue: It was Dane Cook. Either you like him or you don't. I do; I laughed. A

Homeland Security: Not groundbreaking, but decent comedy. B

Chavez: Interminably boring. F

Cubicle Fight: Not bad. B

Al Pacino: Solid skit, but nothing we'll be quoting for years to come. B

The Killers I: Again, either you're a fan or you're not. I'm a fan. This wasn't the kind of performance that will live down through the ages, but a solid performance from a solid band. B

Brian Williams: Brilliant. A+

Weekend Update: I thought it was a solid weekend update, with the exception of the Clinton/Rice bit, which threatened to drag the entire Update down. B+

Poland Spring: This one totally worked for me, from the "I'm boning a lady opening" to the cascade of water bottles to the discussion of how this incident would wind up on SNL/30 Rock/Studio 60. A

The Killers II: See above. B

Farrah Fawcett: Odd, but short enough that it didn't bother me enough to fail it. D

Closing Time: This would have gotten a much worse grade but for the fact that what's her name said "And I'm Farrah Fawcett!" That line cracked me up, and it alone saved the skit from a D. C-

GEICO commercial parody: On target. I give it a B+

Overall grade: C+

Writers meeting Monday,
Lets have the opening monologue last for 10 minutes. We will just have Dane do his comedy act, that way we won't have to write anything. The musical guests and commercials will take up another 45 minutes. Ok we need 35 minutes of comedy. Hey, careful with that empty water jug ... *ding* I got an idea !!!

This was one of (if not) the worst episode I have watched in recent years. The formula hasn't changed a bit. George Bush opening skit was pathetic. Weekend update was void of humor. The set look like it was pilfered from a closed elementary school in Cleveland. I swear we had those same maps on the wall in third grade. The funny is left to personality of the players and not the writers.

This show needs to be re-invented. Reducing staff due to budget concerns is the equivalent of "Give us one more shot". If this is their last shot at keeping this show on the air, they are in serious trouble.

Poehler did great without any lines. She has genuine comedic talent. Andy Samberg could be the next player to make it in the movies. The others simply couldn't rescue the show from its own bad writing.

I can't believe they let Chris Parnell go. I thought he was one of the ones who'd come back.

SNL needs to stop doing political humor. By the time they get to it, the Daily Show (and the Intertubes) have done it to death. Hire some writers from the Onion or get your old writers from The Daily Show back.

The only skit which had me in tears of laughter was Wells Fargo Presents: Al Pacino Checks His Bank Balance. That was an A+ for me. Other OK skits were the TSA skit and the water bottle skit. The Brian Williams bit was also solid.

Everything else was disastrous. I watched it with four other people and there were very long stretches of silence. It was bordering discomfort. The episode itself is an F.