SNL Review - 1/15/10 (Gwenyth Paltrow & Cee Lo Green)

Overall, this was a decent episode for Andy fans. Andy was in four skits. You got to see Andy naked and with Pee-Wee Herman. =^)

Unfortunately, Andy was also in one of the worst skits of the night, Record Meeting.

The links below will take you to the individual video clips.



Cold Opening - Fox News: Greta Van Susteren, "Embracing Civility"
Greta Van Susteren hosts a roundtable that truly embodies a balanced political views.

FOX NEWS COLD OPEN

Kristen Wiig - Greta
Bobby Moynihan
Nasim Pedrad
Jason Sudeikis - Glen Beck
Bill Hader - James Carville
Abby Elliott - Rachel Maddow

REVIEW: Kind of amusing. Kristen does a great job with Greta. I didn't feel like this one attacked Republicans as hard as past versions. It seemed to attack both sides a bit more equally (which is what they claim to do, but it doesn't often work out that way). This is Kristen's third appearance as Greta. Bill Hader's James Carville is always hilarious (along with Jason's Glen Beck).
Score: 3/5 - Amusing, but I guess I don't care too much about these political media wars.
Top players:
(1) Kristen Wiig
(2) Bill Hader
(3) Jason Sudeikis
(4) Bobby Moynihan


Monologue - Gweneth Paltrow
Time: It starts at 6:25 in the video above.

Gweneth plugs Country Song and her performance at the Country Music Awards. She seems to think she knows her country music. Which leads to a duet with...
Jason Sudeikis - Kenny Rogers
And of course she doesn't know the words.
Kristen Wiig - Dolly Parton
C Lo Green - Plays himself

REVIEW: Amusing. This will make you smile. Jason knocks his Kenny Rogers out of the park. This is Jason's first Kenny Rogers. This is Kristen's first time doing Dolly Parton. There aren't any huge laughs here, but it's fun and sweet. Could be much worse.
Score: 4/5 - No big laughs, but they keep it moving and enjoyable throughout.
Top players:
1. Gweneth Paltrow
2. Jason Sudeikis


Commercial - The Cape Spinoffs
If you like super heroes who get their powers from pieces of clothing, then you'll love these new NBC shows!

REVIEW: Kristen gets a laugh with the fist shot of her swinging her bolo tie. The gun shots from her tie fail to get a laugh. That's the problem with a taped piece like this... you can't cut jokes from the live show. You're sort of stuck with what you got when parts aren't funny.
It was funny at the beginning with the Scarf (Nasim Pedrad), Andy Samberg made it funny being naked with the Leg Warmer, and Jason Sudeikis was pretty funny as the Scrunchie. Other than that, the joke was getting old fast. Bobby bookends this piece as the Spanks hero. He doesn't really get a laugh. The joke had already stopped being funny.
This was genius on NBC's part, because making fun of their own show is a great way to advertise it and make it live potentially longer than the show itself. =^)
Score: 3/5 - Some hilarious bits, but there were even more dud bits here that helped push the score down.
Top players:
1. Andy Samberg
2. Nasim Pedrad
3. Jason Sudeikis


Game Show - Secret Word
Back to the game show where the contestants try to guess a word but the gusts never let them.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Titsie Bismarck Tumlinson
Bill Hader ... Lyle Round
Steve Higgins ... announcer (voice)
Taran Killam ... contestant
Kenan Thompson ... contestant
Kristen Wiig ... Mindy Gracin

REVIEW: This is the sketch's fourth appearance (two this season and two last season)...
11.21.2009
03.13.2010
10.09.2010
I have to say that this one was the funniest (the last two appearances seemed more annoying than funny). Kristen's character made me laugh a few times in this version (I think she's getting better at crossing her Mindy Gracin character over from annoying to funny). Gwyneth and Kenan were funny together, but her phrases were a little annoying. Kenan's still the best straight man on the show, but I also loved Taran Killam's facial expressions in this skit. Bill was mostly annoying as the game show host here.
Score: 4/5 - Despite the shudders, Kristen and crew had some big laughs.
Top players:
1. Kristen Wiig
2. Kenan Thompson
3. Gweneth Paltrow


Digital Short - Shots!
An innocent shot kicks off a wild night for Andy and his friend, Pee-Wee Herman.

Featuring Andy Samberg, Pee Wee Herman, Anderson Cooper, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, and Kenan Thompson.

REVIEW: Think of all the poor kids hearing Pee-Wee and his chair curse like that. =^)
Well, I laughed out loud at least once, and I'm a huge Pee-Wee fan. Pretty good for a non-musical digital short.
Little known fact... Pee-Wee started out at the Groundlings, in the same class as Phil Hartman and others in the mid 80s. In fact, Phil helped Andy get his show going and starred on Pee-Wee's Playhouse as the Fisherman friend. So that's Paul Reuben's connection to SNL.
What we have here is an enjoyable romp with several Pee Wee references. No appearance from Gweneth, but that's okay.
Score: 4/5 - Really good, but it's hard for a non-musical digital short to be perfect. Even this one could have mostly been done live.
Top players:
1. Andy Samberg
2. Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens)


Skit - Jacob's Bar Mitzvah
TIME: 21:35 (there is no clip of this one; you'll need to find it in the full episode above)

Taylor Swift and many other greats play at Jacob's rocking bar mitzvah.

Fred Armisen - Jacob's dad
Vanessa Bayer - Jacob
Gweneth Paltrow - Taylor Swift
Jay Pharoah - Jay-Z
Nasim Pedrad - Alicia Keys
Abby Elliott - Katie Perry
C. Lo Green - himself

REVIEW: A Jewish Taylor Swift song. Hilarious! Best skit of the night. C. Lo Green comes out to play himself (that's three skits C. Lo was in). This was another excuse to parade impressions, but it really works sometimes! Although Abby Elliott looks great as Katie Perry, the voice wasn't perfect and it wasn't overly funny. Still enjoyable to watch though. Despite the one blip and Fred thinking he's being funny (but isn't), so much amazingness happened here (especially with Gwyneth and Jay), so this one deserves...
Score: 5/5 - Gweneth's Taylor Swift was spot on and hilarious, and Jay Pharoah gives a mean Jay-Z (supported well by Nasim's Alicia Keys).
Top players:
1. Gweneth Paltrow
2. Jay Pharoah
3. Nasim Pedrad
4. C. Lo Green


Skit - Record Meeting
Cee Lo Green's hit song has some controversial lyrics that his record execs want to clear for television.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Karen Antonelli
Cee Lo Green
Paul Brittain ... Rodney
Andy Samberg ... Larry
Jason Sudeikis ... Keith

REVIEW: Worse skit of the night. This gag of using non-cuss words just isn't funny to me. I thought this was a waste of the talent in the skit. I also thought Gweneth was overacting too much. Plus it didn't even end with a joke.
Score: 1/5 - This one came dangerously close to a score of zero. I'm not sure how they let this one get on (unless they had nothing else). Taran needs to propose some skits. It shouldn't be too hard to lead a skit if stuff like this is getting on.
Top players: No one could save this skit.


Musical Performance "Forget You"
Cee Lo Green


Weekend Update
Garth and Kat return, and Vanessa Bayer interviews Christina Aguilera and Cher. And Former New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan (Kenan) talks about his run for president.

Seth Meyers
Bill Hader ... announcer (voice)
Kenan Thompson ... Jimmy McMillan
Vanessa Bayer
Nasim Pedrad ... Christina Aguilera
Bill Hader ... Cher
Bobby Moynihan ... Chaz Bono
Fred Armisen ... Garth
Kristen Wiig ... Kat
Gwyneth Paltrow ... Kim Castle

REVIEW: Fred and Kristen keep Garth and Kat fresh by mixing in Gwyneth Paltrow as their similar friend, Kim Castle. Vanessa Bayer amazingly writes herself into a straight-person role to interview Nasim's amazing Christina Aguilera. Bobby follows up with some funny transgender jokes. Bill's humorous as Cher, but not amazing by any means. Kenan's being himself again. Seth also does fairly well this week. Overall, the real winner was Nasim's impression of Christina Aguilera, which makes me want to see it more.
Overall Score: 3/5
Jimmy McMillan (Kenan): 2/5 (almost amusing)
Garth and Kat: 3/5 (good but mostly already done)
Vanessa's Interview: 4/5 (Vanessa is a bit wooden)
Top Players:
1. Nasim Pedrad
2. Bobby Moynihan
3. Seth Meyers


Skit - Globe Theatre
This skit is not available online and is not in the online full video. That probably means it had some music without permissions.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... actress
Fred Armisen ... actor
Vanessa Bayer ... audience member
Bill Hader ... actor
Steve Higgins ... announcer (voice)
Taran Killam ... actor
Bobby Moynihan ... actor
Jay Pharoah ... audience member
Andy Samberg ... audience member
Jason Sudeikis ... audience member
Kenan Thompson ... audience member
Kristen Wiig ... audience member


Commercial - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 20th Anniversary Collection
There were a few cut scene from Fresh Prince that were cut for good reasons.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... police officer
Paul Brittain ... announcer (voice)
Jay Pharoah ... Will Smith
Kenan Thompson ... Alfonso Ribeiro

REVIEW: Once again Jay breaks out his Will Smith impression. This time, instead of showing it off on Weekend Update (with current Will), he brings us to the old Fresh Prince Will. And he nails it, as usual. Jay Pharoah is definitely sticking around SNL and going places. Kenan supports well, but his obvious body-type difference distracts you from seeing him as anyone but Kenan.
Score: 5/5 (this is perfect, the best skit of the night)
Top Player:
1. Jay Pharoah


Show - ESPN Deportes
Even in Spanish, the ESPN sportscaster phrases are the same.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Sofia Cortez
Fred Armisen ... Esteban
Paul Brittain ... Ramon Zaragoza
Steve Higgins ... announcer (voice)
Taran Killam ... Paco
Bobby Moynihan ... clown
Nasim Pedrad ... girl
Jay Pharoah ... Kevin Garnett

REVIEW: My guess is Paul wrote this or came up with the idea. Otherwise, I'd imagine that Fred would be up there with Gwyneth (if it came from another writer). Regardless, Paul pulls out his second hilarious character in what will probably be a recurring sketch. Way to go, Paul! However, it's much more the concept that makes this skit funny than any one actor. Bobby is hilarious as the clown that comes in, and even Taran delivers an awesome look. Also, Jay plays a great straight man with his Kevin Garnett impression (I love how they put Jay up on a higher platform than Fred to create a bigger height difference).
Score: 4/5 (some slow parts, but it comes through)
Top Players:
1. Paul Brittain
2. Gwenyth Paltrow
3. Bobby Moynihan
4. Jay Pharoah
5. Taran Killam
6. Fred Armisen


Musical Performance "Bright Lights Bigger City"
Cee Lo Green


Sketch - Spitzer Auditions
Eliot Spitzer is having trouble finding a co-host.

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Heidi Klum
Fred Armisen ... David Paterson
Bill Hader ... Eliot Spitzer
Taran Killam ... Skip
Nasim Pedrad ... Christiane Amanpour

REVIEW: This is amusing but not overly funny. Fred's brief appearance as David Paterson makes you want to see him instead of this. That said, Bill is fun to watch as Spitzer.
Score: 3/5
Top Players:
1. Bill Hader
2. Fred Armisen


OVERALL NIGHT:

Score: 3/5

Top Players:
1. Gweneth Paltrow - 17 pts (Monologue, Secret Word, Jacob's Bar Mitzvah, ESPN Deportes )
2. Nasim Pedrad - 12 pts (Weekend Update, Jacob's Bar Mitzvah, The Cape Spinoffs)
3. Jay Pharoah - 11 pts (Fresh Prince, Jacob's Bar Mitzvah)
4. Andy Samberg - 10 pts (Digital Short, The Cape Spinoffs)
4. Kristen Wiig - 10 pts (Cold Open, Secret Word)
4. Jason Sudeikis - 10 pts (Cold Open, Monologue, Cape Spinoffs)
5. Bobby Moynihan - 9 pts (Weekend Update, ESPN Deportes)
5. Bill Hader - 9 pts (Cold Open, Spitzer Auditions)
6. Paul Brittain - 5 pts (ESPN Deportes)
7. Fred Armisen - 4 pts
7. Pee-Wee Herman - 4 pts
7. Kenan Thompson - 4 pts
8. Seth Meyers - 3 pts
9. C. Lo Green - 2 pts
10. Taran Killam - 1 pt
11. Abby Elliott - 0 pts
11. Vanessa Bayer - 0 pts

So Andy came in fourth place this week behind Gweneth, Nasim, and Jay. Go featured players go!

Enjoy!