SNL 4/4/09: Seth Rogen and Phoenix

4/7/09 Update: We added 9 videos, including the hilarious Phone Voices! Watch it if you haven't!!! Originally posted 4/6/09.

Bonus update: We also updated the 2/14/09 Alec Baldwin and Jonas Brothers episode with a Michaela Watkins video that's hilarious! It's her blogger character on Weekend Update.

http://andysamberg.blogspot.com/2009/02/snl-21409-alec-baldwin-and-jonas.html

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Wow, what a big episode this week for Andy Samberg! Let's dig into it...



SNL Promo: Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen

Seth is angry and Fred is annoying.



Funny stuff. This one is much funnier than the Bill Hader gags. Look like mostly Fred's jokes, but the best one is the middle one, where Fred is annoying.


SNL Promo: Seth Rogen and Bill Hader

Seth and Bill on the roof garden.



The roof garden made famous by Andy and Shia!!!

Bill and Seth just aren't all that funny here. These are obvious gags that are more silly than funny.

It makes sense that Seth picked Bill for this (his promos in his last hosting gig were with Andy Samberg). Seth and Bill are good friends. They both met as minor characters in You, Me, and Dupree, and then Seth liked Bill so he invited him to be a minor character in Knocked Up. They continued to hit it off, so Seth basically wrote Super Bad around their cop characters. And Bill's gotten a lot of Apataw roles in the process.

Now we know that Seth and Andy also hit it off (starting with the Ron Google skits at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, and then they did a lot together when Seth hosted last time and this time), so are we going to start seeing Andy Samberg in Seth Rogen movies too? Please? :)



Cold Opening Obama's Business Rulings

Pres. Obama makes some tough business decisions.



Fred Armisen ... Barack Obama



Fred really needs to find some humor in this character. He needs to exagerate the character more. This was mildly amusing, but still a bit dry, mostly because Fred isn't going anywhere with his Obama impression. He's starting to make fun of how Obama's plans edge toward socialism, and they should use that a lot more and take it to higher extremes. They should also make fun of how many of his speeches sound like sermons. Just listing companies was slightly amusing, but the character isn't funny enough to carry the gags.

Fred's impression is slightly amusing, but it is not as hilarious as Sudeikis' Biden (the one where he trashed McCain while saying they were best friends), Tina Fey's Palin, Will Ferrell's George W. Bush, Dana Carvey's Ross Perot and George Bush Sr, Hammond's Bill Clinton, and Poehler's Hilary Clinton. It's almost like Obama is the first president where SNL is too afraid to make fun of him; so instead they just act like him and try to come up with other jokes. Fred Armisen has the mannerisms down, but he needs to be willing to make fun of President Obama. Until that happens, this character just won't compare to the greats.



Monologue: Seth Rogen

Host Seth Rogen opens the show with some Q&A.



Seth Rogen
Abby Elliott ... Lisa, audience member
Bill Hader ... pizza delivery man
Bobby Moynihan ... Matt Banksford
Jason Sudeikis ... audience member
Kristen Wiig ... audience member



I love it when they do these Q&A sessions for the monologues!

All are good gags here. Jason and Kristen make fun of Seth doing a mall cop movie (after Paul Blart Mall Cop was successful), Bill makes fun of Seth's weight loss (and weed habits), and Bobby and Abby have a hilarious bit about a guy who can't pretend to be Seth anymore. I think they ended with the funniest gag, but they were all pretty good!



Commercial: The Fast & The Bi-Curious



Seth Rogen ... guy
Abby Elliott ... girl
Andy Samberg ... Blake



Hahahahaha. Essentially they're calling this a commercial so that they can get two digital shorts in the same episode!



Save The Funnies

Seth Rogen ... Hagar The Horrible
Fred Armisen ... Sudoku
Abby Elliott ... Veronica
Will Forte ... Jon
Bill Hader ... Archie
Darrell Hammond ... jumble maker
Bobby Moynihan ... Garfield
Paula Pell ... Far Side woman
Andy Samberg ... Cathy
Jason Sudeikis ... Dick Tracy
Kenan Thompson ... writer
Michaela Watkins ... Marcy
Kristen Wiig ... Peppermint Patty
Casey Wilson ... Helga

Come on NBC, you have to post this one!!! We need you to post it to help build up popularity so that we can get more of it!!! Everybody, head to NBC.com and leave comments on the SNL videos! Let's get NBC to post this one!!!



Show: La Rivista Della Televisione



Seth Rogen
Fred Armisen ... crew member
Will Forte ... crew member
Bill Hader ... Vinny Vedecci
Bobby Moynihan ... Vinny's son



Bobby Moynihan is hilarious! This is mostly making fun of Seth Rogen. Funny stuff. Is this Bill Hader's best character?



Film SNL Digital Short: Like a Boss



Boss-like in every way

Seth Rogen ... interviewer
Abby Elliott ... coworker
Bill Hader ... coworker
Bobby Moynihan ... coworker
Paula Pell ... coworker
Andy Samberg
Jason Sudeikis ... coworker
Jorma Taccone ... mail guy
Akiva Schaeffer ... gun guy
Kristen Wiig ... Debra
Casey Wilson ... coworker



This song is from Andy's The Lonely Island CD, Incredibad. Fans want Boombox next, but this one made sense because the voice features Andy Samberg. Looks like they remixed the intro voice to use Seth Rogen's voice. Jorma Taccone makes a guest appearance as the mail man, and Akiva makes a guest appearance as the man who sells Andy the gun (which is appropriate, as members of The Lonely Island). We also see Paula Pell (a writer) in one of her rare face appearances (usually she just lends her voice).

Some people have already critized this one a bit, saying it's a rehash. It definitely has a similar setup to Natalie Raps (from about 3 years ago), and the shock gags are very similar to Sloth and Giraffes. The large fish muppet is a new concept. Jorma used to use muppets more before The Lonely Island joined Saturday Night Live. Specifically, I'm thinking of Stork Patrol and an episode of The Bu where they replaced Sarah Chalke with a muppet version. Of course, their love of Muppets also led to Andy Samberg doing the Swedish Chef role; the third in that series was also in this episode.



Phone Voices

Phone mannners 101.

Seth Rogen ... guy
Fred Armisen ... Mr. Ferguson
Bill Hader ... guy
Andy Samberg ... guy



Hahahahaha!!! Nice. Good gag that starts out normal and they take to extremes. I think this one was written by Bill and Seth. Andy's sexy voice and Scottish voice are amazing!!!!!



Musical Performance "Lisztomania"

Phoenix





Weekend Update

Seth Meyers
Jason Sudeikis ... Rod Blagojevich
Kenan Thompson ... Jean K. Jean
Kristen Wiig ... Madonna
Abby Elliott ... Angelina Jolie



Update: Rod Blagojevich

The former Governor stops by.



He's no longer in office, and he's still around. Good play between Jason and Seth. "Con Hair" was good.



Update: Jean K. Jean

France's comedy favorite weighs in on Obama's visit.



I wonder what French people think of this character?



Update: Madonna & Angelina Jolie

These baby-hungry ladies face-off.



Hahahaha!!! Hilarious! The Russian baby gag is great! Even the gag at the end is great!

This is Abby's third appearance on Weekend Update as Angelina Jolie. She needs to do an Angelina Jolie show!!!!





The Presentation

Seth Rogen ... Lee
Fred Armisen ... Greg Blesinger
Abby Elliott ... Celeste
Bill Hader ... Jeff
Darrell Hammond ... Mr. McCullen
Andy Samberg ... Frank
Kenan Thompson ... Todd
Kristen Wiig ... Natasha



Show: Milestone High

Seth Rogen ... Lance
Fred Armisen ... teacher
Andy Samberg ... Eli
Jason Sudeikis ... teacher
Kenan Thompson ... teacher



Commercial: Easter Album

Clancy T. Bachleratt and Jackie Snad Sing Easter Songs about Spaceships, Toddlers, Model T. Cars & Jars of Beer

Model-T cars and aliens mean everything.

Seth Rogen ... Kirby Spabblespoov
Will Forte ... Clancy T. Bachleratt
Kristen Wiig ... Jackie Snad



Amusing. This is just Will Forte having fun with his silly randomness. Gets a little painful.



Musical Performance "1901"

Phoenix





Muppets Hit & Run

The Muppets have a run-in with the law.



Seth Rogen ... Rowlf
Fred Armisen ... Zoot
Will Forte ... Kermit
Bill Hader ... Animal
Bobby Moynihan ... Gonzo
Andy Samberg ... Swedish Chef
Jason Sudeikis ... Fozzie
Kenan Thompson ... Nipsey Russell
Michaela Watkins ... Janice
Kristen Wiig ... Beaker



Andy's third skit as the Swedish Chef. His first skit was the Swedish Chef ringtones in his first, 05-06 season. Second, he returned last season (07-08) with the Muppets band, where Maya Rudolph played the woman, Janice, Hader played Animal, and Seth Rogen (the host then too) played Rowlf. Now the Muppets return with even more characters including Beaker (Kristen is hard to recognize here), Kermit, Gonzo (yay Bobby!), and Fozzie the Bear.

I think the funniest new addition here was actually Jason Sudeikis as Fozzy. I liked that Bobby was holding a chicken. Andy got a good laugh when slapping Beaker and talking to him in um, smorgy borgy.

What, no Miss Piggy? I think Casey or Abby could do a good job with it.



Overall: Wow. It seriously looked like Andy Samberg and Seth Rogan wrote most of these skits (with a few in there written by Bill and Seth). Andy was in 7 skits in this episode, which is possibly his record. Abby Elliott also appeared 6 times, and Bobby Moynihan appeared 5 times. So those newbies really got to shine in this episode as well. Plus Jorma Taccone was in "Like a Boss," which makes sense because that song is from The Lonely Island CD, Incredibad. Overall, there were a lot more ensemble skits than usual.

Also, a few of Andy Samberg's characters have expanded to become ensemble skits. Andy returns as Cathy a third time (after just appearing with Justin in the last episode), and this time he brought Hagar, Garfield, and more (what, no Dilbert?). That skit could probably be done 6 more times with some different characters and be different every time. Plus Andy returns for a third time as the Swedish Chef, and this time the group is even larger than last time. So it's great to see Andy's characters expand to full ensemble skits.


Enjoy!