Goldberg74

This should be fun!!!

whotony

#NoThanks

TGM

is she hot?

astrochimp

I liked the Deflategate sketch and the monologue.

Count Dooku

This could be an interesting and telling show with regard to the ability of SNL's cast and writers.

Shelton will be the first host this season who is not a comedian or an actor associated with comedy. So they will either try to force him into sketches where he doesn't belong, resulting in disaster, or this will really be a chance for the cast to shine. They can leave Shelton on the sidelines for most of the sketches and the cast and writers can show us what they can really do with the freedom.

Throwing Copper

How as this?

It seems like it's usually the ones with a shit host that turn out to be good shows. Was Shelton or the show any good?

JeffTheAlpaca

The magic sketch was ok but Riblet on Weekend Update was annoying.

I think Moynihan wanted to reprise his Chozen character.

movieking

I really like Shelton since he's a funny guy and I like country, but from the half of the show that I watched last night, the material wasn't good. Magic Boot? Hee Haw? Farm Hunk? Family Feud? And that was the first half of the show. I haven't gotten to the dreck that is usually saved for the last...

slop101

They should've had a sketch on how all Bro-Country songs, like Shelton's, sound the same.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FY8SwIvxj8o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

MrX

For a non-actor I thought Shelton did a good job and it was better than I expected it to be.

Count Dooku

The Family Feud sketch is a train wreck.

When they did it with Timberlake it got by because of how funny Justin was doing an impression of Fallon.

They can't go eight deep with funny celebrity impressions that fit the Family Feud team structure. Plus in this case, the American Idol team did not even make sense since Minaj and Tyler aren't on the show anymore.

I know they don't want to do Celebrity Jeopardy because that sketch was owned by Ferrell and Hammond, Family Feud is not working as a replacement.

The Topeka Today sketch was okay.

It did not make any sense at all (and not in a funny way) that nobody was familiar with the song that was supposed to be a viral video.

Did anybody else get distracted by how beautiful Kate McKinnon looked in all those fake old photographs?

Hee Haw was like Laugh In meets Deliverance

Timely references for your show's target audience, SNL!

Riblet?

Good idea to have Bobby Moynihan come on WU and draw attention to how Che is doing a piss-poor job when all he has to do is read cue cards.

PatD

The "Shawshank Redemption"-like sketch was terrific.

"What do you want for your last meal?"

"A man."

anomynous

Riblet > Jost & Che

JeffTheAlpaca

Yes lol

TGM

I cannot fucking stand that skinny douche who played Steven Tyler. He sucks the life out of EVERY single fucking skit he is in.

LorenzoL

My DVR didn't record this episode.

TGM

you owe your DVR a beer.

cleaver

You should thank it

LorenzoL

For better or worse, I just record every episode and just fast forward the episode if it's painful. It's a tradition.

I guess I didn't miss much. I might catch some of the highlights on Hulu Plus.

mcnabb

For the first time in 15 years, I actually went out of my way to watch the opening of SNL because I knew they would rag on Brady/Belichick.

I actually think the downfall of SNL is the writers, because that skit should have been a layup. It was not funny AT ALL, and it was so obvious and just lazy writing. What made SNL great in its heyday was that it would take a subject like that and they would exaggerate the characters and the situation, but they wouldn't go word for word like what happened in real life. The SNL skit was just Brady and Belichick playing dumb and any idiot could have written it.

When they had great writers, they would take a situation like George Bush41 saying, "Not gonna do it!" or "Wouldn't be prudent!" When he never said them, yet the public started to believe he actually did say it and it was funny as hell! Or when they had Will Ferrell as the Unibomber go back to his highschool reunion in an orange suit and chains with cops saying hi to everyone and them asking what he has been doing in the past 20 years and pretending like nothing happened.

Skits like that were original as they thought outside the box for the character to make it even more ridiculous then it was. This skit was just pretty much taking Brady/Belichick word for word and nothing else.

creekdipper

Great analysis, mcnabb. Yahoo News had said the episode was pretty lame (which is why we rarely ever watch anymore) but singled out a few skits as being especially bad, so we pulled it up On Demand to see for ourselves.

Although my wife thought the Bachelor skit was funnier than I did (ran overlong) & we both thought the corny "magic boot" song had some laughs (and could actually be a CM hit), agree that one of the main problems with what we've seen from SNL lately is exactly what you say. They seem to think it's enough to do a close impression of a celebrity and then just do obvious, one-note bits (Family Feud...). We said exactly what you did...that they used to take a celeb & exaggerate their traits & do original bits that extended their outsized personas; now they just stick closely to mocking what the celeb actually said or did. And it's just not very funny (we also caught the Kevin Hart ep. & loved his opening monologue, but then they degenerated into one-note skits that went on far too long ("bad entry music," "musical theater", "long-lost son"). Maybe these things seem funny at table reads or rehearsals, but they need some better quality control judges...or better writers. B-level humor at best.

By the way...we both were put off by slipping the JonBenet joke into The Bachelor sketch. The murder of a six-year-old should be off-limits to use for "comedy" regardless of how long ago it was. That's not just tacky, that's just being morally irresponsible. It takes a pretty depraved mind to enjoy that.

rocketsauce

Just because you don't find something funny doesn't mean it's not comedy, you personally just don't find it funny. Fair enough, move on. So because it offends you, you want to censor them so no one can hear it? Nothing is off limits for comedy.

Plus her murder has been used as comedic fodder for a long time, why take this stance over a throw away line now?

movieking

Talking about not funny, lazy and old, the Pharell hat joke was all three.

islandclaws

This was easily the worst episode I've seen in years. Not a single laugh, not even during WU.

creekdipper

To begin, I've taken that "stance" about every bit of "comedic fodder" referring to specific innocent murder victims, whether six-year-old girls or O.J. Simpson's wife & her friend. I acknowledge that indirect references to historic crimes (such as saying that Presidents don't have a great track record when it comes to theater experiences) are common, but I don't see why a professional writer would feel the need to make allusions to horrendous crimes when there are millions of comic choices that could be made.

When did I say that wanted to "censor them so no one else can hear it?" I can censor them for myself with my remote. If others find "throw-away lines" that incorporate real-life murdered children "funny", that's their problem. I have "moved on" from watching such trash...surely you weren't suggesting that a thread about a specific episode isn't an appropriate place to criticize its content? That attitude would suggest that critics should "censor" themselves & keep quiet.

I find the idea that "nothing is off limits for comedy" to be a quite sad commentary. Yes, movies satirize everything from slavery/racism to the Holocaust to pedophilia (Skin Game, The Producers, Airplane), but they generally don't make references to specific murder victims...particularly strangled & sexually-assaulted six-year-olds. Historical murders are often referenced (Lincoln's assassination), but surely there is some things that ought to be beyond the bounds for people who have a conscience. I'd give a pass to homicide detectives, soldiers, coroners, EMS personnel, etc. who might engage in black humor on the job if that helps them deal with the horrible effects of crime.

IMO, the problem with saying that "nothing is off limits for comedy" as though anything is fair game (again, not talking legal censorship...talking self-censorship) becomes a problem in coarsening attitudes toward other humans. I don't see that as a good thing.