Shannon Elizabeth wants to do a digital short with Andy Samberg

From Shannon Elizabeth's twitter:

I would love love love to do a digital short with Andy Samberg ( @thelonelyisland ) one day!!! He's amazing!!!

8:27 PM Dec 6th from TweetDeck

Is Andy Samberg's Mark Wahlberg impression "played out?"

ZOË RICE: Andy Samberg and the animals. It’s all fine and cute. I can’t imagine anyone going gaga over this sketch, but it’s a better end to the evening than the previous one, that’s for sure.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Enjoyable enough. This one might be played out, though.

STEVE MURPHY: Cute as usual. Not laugh out loud funny, but a nice, short little dessert to a pretty funny Christmas show!


Excerpt from:
http://perpetualpost.com/?p=4130
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What do you think? Is this skit played out? I think it was still great, but I think Andy could mix it up a little better than this and make it a little fresher and more different (but still good).

Enjoy!

Charles Barkley SNL Promo (with Jason Sudeikis)

So what will it be like with a former sports star and current sports caster (commentator) hosting SNL?

Here's a taste:



Jason's bit at the end is hilarious! That's far more useful! The other two weren't amazing, but they were still cute and funny. Great job Jason!

What will Andy Samberg and the SNL cast do with Charles Barkley (and don't forget that Sigourney Weaver is next week, and John Hamm is rumored)?

Well, this week, like this promo, we should expect a LOT of basketball jokes and scenarios. I also expect Charles to appear as sports guest on on Bill Hader's "Greg is not an alien" show (called "Game Time with Randy and Greg), seing how that's also a sports show (it was last shown on 10/17/09 with Gerard Butler, so that's enough of a time lapse for a repeat).



Side note: The "Game Time" show was originally debuted on the 3/7/09 episode with The Rock. The show was called, "Game Time with Dave and Greg," where The Rock was Dave Delmonte, and Kenan played another commentator, Randy Dukes. Since they wanted to repeat the skit, they changed it to make the show focus on the SNL players, so Kenan became the co-anchor to Greg, and his character was promoted. In the second version (on 10/17/09), the show was called "Game Time with Randy and Greg" instead. So if they did the skit a third time this week, then Charles Barkley might play himself as a guest commentator on the show.

Enjoy!

Did Andy Samberg hit it right with The Tizzle Wizzle show?

ZOË RICE: Is the short sending up Yo Gabba Gabba here? I’ve never seen it, but I would imagine it’s something like this, and perhaps I would be struck more if I got the reference. I smiled by the time we got to knives and pills, and James Franco hit the right chord at the end. I’m not gushing about this short, but it’s okay.

HOWARD MEGDAL: It was also short enough to revel in the absurdity.

STEVE MURPHY: If every sketch was this funny, SNL would be the best show on TV. Way out there, surreal, fast, a single great idea done smoothly and well. Andy Samberg just gets it completely right sometimes.


Excerpt from:
http://perpetualpost.com/?p=4130
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I agree that this was great, and it wasn't a "normal" musical digital short, even though it relied on a song. This is further proof that TLI should get their own show.

What do you think?

Enjoy!

Where to get Andy Samberg's Tizzle Wizzle jammies

Some of our Anonies found out where you can find Andy Samberg and James Franco's pajamas from the Tizzle Wizzle Show! Thank you, Anonies! (Maybe there is even a Target coupon code available for JAMMIES.)




From the Anonnies:

The "JAMMIES" that Andy is wearing can be found at Target.

The "JAMMIES" that Andy wears in the short can be found in the women's pajama section [of Target]. They have a front zipper.

I'm pretty sure that the ones James is wearing are from Target too. Women's pajama section too. I think the ones that James is wearing has some kind of [bottom] flap.

===============



Thanks again Anonies, for checking it out and getting us the info! Go to Target Andy fans! Swoop in! Attack!

Enjoy!

Did Andy Samberg steal the What Up with That? Christmas skit?

HOWARD MEGDAL: Chances Mike Tyson thought this was a real show? 80 percent. But Andy Samberg as John Stockton steals the show from even Sudeikis.

Excerpt from:
http://perpetualpost.com/?p=4130
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I think that's very generous of Howard to say that Andy Samberg stole the show in this sketch. I think Bobby Moynihan's Jake "the Snake" Roberts is still my favorite "What Up with That?" dancer, but I do admit that Andy had a fresh appearance and dance that helped make the third version of this skit great.

What do you think?

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg went to the SNL after party with Taylor Lautner

The 17-year-old actor, along with the night's musical guest Jon Bon Jovi, hung with the cast of the show at New York hotspot Matsuri. While chilling out with "SNL" stars Andy Samberg and Seth Meyers, Lautner dined on a sirloin steak, according to MTV News sources.

Excerpt from:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1628174/20091214/story.jhtml
=================

That's it. Just a brief announcement that Andy was at Matsuri after the Taylor Lautner episode. Andy typically goes to all the SNL afterparties (usually with Joanna Newsom) and then leaves earlier than most of the cast memembers, after about an hour or so. There was one report where (before Joanna), Andy partied a lot longer at those afterparties, and he would sometimes go off by himself to talk on the phone.

Enjoy!

Is Andy Samberg SNL's savior?

Editor: So this guy is right, but he obviously doesn't know Andy well. Check out my comments at the end.

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He’s a star in the making. Saturday Night Live’s fastest rising featured player since Will Ferrell. I wish I could have called this four years ago. If I had, I would’ve looked like a goddamn Nostradamus. Instead, I’m just one of the many people hopping on the Andy Samberg bandwagon.

[Editor: Star in the making? He hosted the MTV Movie Awards this year! And I guess I'm Nostradamus, because I've been blogging about Andy for four years, and I called that he was going to save SNL the moment that Lazy Sunday aired. It was obvious then that Andy Samberg was going to lead SNL.]

A few years back, Tom Hanks was hosting SNL. I hadn’t watched the show in years, mainly since Ferrell and a host of others left, and the sole reason I turned it on was because of Hanks. After all, Hanks is my favorite actor and I miss him in nothing.

Anyway, there was one skit that stood out to me. It sounds stupid, but I remember it making me laugh harder than anything else. It was a song called “Testicles” and it featured Hanks and some other dude, dressed as gay German pop singers called Ariel and Efram.

The bit was kind of stupid, but the way Hanks and the other dude got into it was what made it work. The other dude was of course Andy Samberg.

[Editor: I agree that I thought that skit was hilarious.]

Here’s the thing about SNL: it’s a show that has to be carried by one or two stalwarts in order for it to be successful. Think back on its history. Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell. These are the people who’ve carried the torch.

In its bad years, it’s been carried by no one. The show needs a leader. What’s the reason it has fallen off in the past few years? The lack of a true stalwart. (The only memorable ratings stretch over the past five years was the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin show – more of a lucky coincidence for creator Lorne Michaels).

Actresses like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are great. Jimmy Fallon is a funny dude. Horatio Sanz – eh I could go without him. None of them could carry a show ala Ferrell. Until Samberg arrived in 2005, the show really didn’t have anyone in that realm. They didn’t have the go-to guy.

Samberg is that guy. If Michaels and company were smart, they’d make him the star. They’d continue to showcase him in the always funny Lonely Island skits. They’d also continue to let him flex his muscles as a great impressionist (his Mark Wahlberg is dead on). They’d give him meaningful characters like Myers’ Wayne Campbell or Linda Richman.



In an SNL skit from two weeks ago, I watched Samberg perform as “Shy Ronnie” alongside Rihanna. Typically, Samberg’s musical performances are met with high energy. This one was met with dead silence. After all, the guy’s name is Shy Ronnie. It worked beautifully. Even in silence, Samberg brought it.

It’s been said that Phil Hartman was the glue that held the late 1980s, early 1990s cast together. Undoubtedly without Hartman, names like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley would likely have as much meaning to us today as Gary Kroeger. Not that those guys weren’t talented. Obviously they were. However, with thriving SNL behind them (thanks to Hartman and also Mike Myers), they were able to showcase their talents to a wide audience and eventually leverage that into a movie career.

Hel!, freaking Rob Schneider launched a successful movie career and I know he’s not talented.

If Lorne Michaels is smart, he’ll give Samberg a chance to carry the show (alongside the immensely talented Bill Hader) and the magic might just happen again.

From:
http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/entertainment/tv/2009/12/andy-samberg-snls-savior/
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I think they're using Andy well. Especially this last episode featured Andy Samberg in Fraternity, the digital short (which Andy sang), and his new Mark Wahlberg skit. So I think Lorne is using Andy. I agree that Andy doesn't have enough characters, becuase Andy isn't a chameleon. He's just funny. So the writers don't write characters for him very often because they don't know what he can do (at least not compared to the other performers).

Enjoy!

SNL Promo: SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas

No Gilly in this promo, but Kristen's at the end...



Enjoy!

James Franco SNL promo

James Franco will be busy on Christmas. This promo is with Kenan Thompson.



Kenan is funnier than usual in this promo. Very amusing.

Enjoy!

Bill Hader reveals a few details of "What Up with That"

Bill Hader: "I can vouch that Swift, who I can’t say enough good things about, does a really good Kristin Stewart impression,” Hader said. And another sketch he’s enjoying this season: Keenan Thompson’s “What Up With That?” musical interludes.



In the skits, Thompson plays D’Andre Cole, a talk show host who “takes on the issues of today with soul” while Hader plays perpetually bumped guest Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac fame. The series has also scored a number of special guest stars, including Al Gore, whom they nabbed while he was shooting a “30 Rock” guest spot, and “friend of the show” James Franco. “With James, he was originally in another sketch that got cut, so we just decided to stick him in ‘What Up With That,’ which started the whole visiting guest star thing,” he said. “Mindy Kaling we just grabbed on the way to the stage. She was just hanging out watching the show, and then she was sitting next to me asking me what to do.”

Excerpt from:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/12/01/snls-bill-hader-on-working-with-taylor-swift-on-firelight-scoring-james-franco/

Check out the two “What Up With That” sketches below (only two currently exist):





Enjoy!

MacGruber movie review

Thanks to Marie for the scoop.

This is a review of the pre-screening of the film. It doesn't give anything away about the plot. Enjoy!
==================================



When given the opportunity to see an early screening of MacGruber, I was wary that it would follow in the path of prior Saturday Night Live films. Most sketch concepts generally flourish when they’re just that - sketches. A full-length comedy falls into the trap of relying on the same old recycled jokes to the point where you not only loathe the film, but you retroactively dislike the sketches they were based on. You might not believe me when I tell you this, but there’s no doubt: MacGruber was amazing.

Like any action movie, MacGruber begins with the diabolical plan of an evil genius to acquire and detonate a nuclear warhead. MacGruber (Will Forte), having sworn off the life of an action hero, is approached by the U.S. government and informed of the plan of his arch enemy Dieter Von Cunth (Note: the “h” is virtually silent). MacGruber, with his badass mullet, is the only one with the know-how and experience (his achievements include “starting tight end for the University of El Paso”) to save the world, and accepts the challenge. It’s time for MacGruber “to go pound some Cunth.”

Forte, who plays MacGruber with a perfect mix of confidence and ignorance, portrays a character with more depth and personality than has ever been established in the short SNL sketches. In addition, the writing for Forte’s character is smart, quick, and witty, albeit sometimes asinine. MacGruber spends the movie driving around in his red Miata, completely embracing all that was 80’s pop culture. He doesn’t use guns, but he always manages to come through. “Classic MacGruber!”

15 seconds, MacGruber!

Unlike other comedies, MacGruber isn’t completely tongue-in-cheek. The characters surrounding MacGruber play their roles more seriously, resulting in outstanding rapport between the hero and his cohorts. Ryan Phillippe is excellent in the role of Special Agent Piper, a young rookie whose tendency to follow the rules clashes with MacGruber’s no-holds-barred attitude. In addition, Val Kilmer, as Dieter Von Cunth, manages to take MacGruber completely seriously and in one scene asks his henchmen why they didn’t capture MacGruber, to which they reply that they “didn’t think he was a threat. They actually thought he was mentally retarded

The second star of the film is the hilarious and talented Kristen Wiig, who, as usual, delivers the performance expected of a comedian on top of her game. Wiig plays MacGruber’s new love interest, the impressionable and naïve Vicki St. Elmo. Wiig, in her most substantial movie role to date, is the needed passivity to Forte’s aggressiveness. The three heroes come together perfectly, each adding a necessary ingredient to the delicious dish that is MacGruber.

5 seconds, MacGruber!

MacGruber is the best SNL film since Wayne’s World back in 1992. It manages to take the concept of the original sketch and infuse it with new life. It generally works at all times, and manages to combine physical comedy, witty banter, and awkward sex. If you enjoy a good comedy, go see this movie when it comes out next year. Trust me, this movie is…



From:
http://thevertexblog.com/reviews/movie-review-macgruber
================

Andy's not involved in this film, but we're glad to see that the director and writer, Jorma, is doing well.

Enjoy!

Should SNL show Andy Samberg digital shorts instead of domestic violence?

A lot of people thought Kenan's Tiger Woods skit was in poor taste.

"Saturday Night Live" is receiving heat for its sketch surrounding the Tiger Woods controversy, as some feel it made light of domestic violence. The sketch had Kenan Thompson as Tiger Woods holding multiple press conferences
, each time trying to cover up the beating he'd just received from wife, Elin Nordegren, played by Blake Lively.

It didn't help that Rihanna was the night's musical
guest. When in recent months your musical guest has been the poster child for domestic abuse victims, maybe it's not the best week to try out your new "domestic abuse can be hilarious" sketch. Maybe the folks over at "SNL" should have thought that one through just a little better...

It was indeed several minutes of the same joke over and over again, which pretty much sums up every single "SNL" sketch in recent months. The moral of this story? If you're going to write a controversial sketch, in which you try to find a humorous spin on domestic violence, you'd better be damn sure that you wrote some actual jokes.

Excerpts From:
http://www.actressarchives.com/news.php?id=19881
================================

I thought the skit was funny, but I agree that Andy and TLI should graduate from SNL in a year or two and talk Lorne into producing a show for them.

Plus the reviewers aren't thinking about what they're doing. Because they're making the skit more of a success by turning it into a news story. So it's more likely to get more follow ups or similar sketches because they're complaining about it. They should use their heads.

Enjoy!

Rumor: John Hamm to host SNL again in January

We just finished recording our podcast where we interviewed Rich Sommer about Mad Men (what, you think we talked to him about Tiger Woods?), and when the subject came around to leading man Jon Hamm, Sommer mentioned that Hamm will be hosting Saturday Night Live in January.



[If true,] that's great news; one of the funnier episodes of the last few seasons was Hamm's hosting stint last year. "Jon Hamm's John Ham" alone would have made the episode a classic, but his James Mason impersonation, among other sketches, made it a near-classic.

From:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/12/08/jon-hamm-to-host-snl-in-january/
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What do you think?

Enjoy!

Taylor Lautner SNL promo featuring Kristen Wiig

Update: Added a temporary YouTube version for you non-staters.

Kristen was a werewolf once too.





What do you think of Kristen's hair?

Not overly funny. Not like Andy's! In Andy's Blake Lively promos, you can tell that he isn't improvising like Kristen is here. Andy prepares his jokes!

Enjoy!

SNL Christmas Special - A Very Gilly Christmas (Dec 17)

"SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas" will air Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. The two-hour special, the first for "SNL" since 2002, will be led by Wiig's Gilly, an ever-smiling Annie-lookalike who delights in violent mischief.

The special will feature new sketches with Gilly and highlights of classic holiday "SNL" sketches.

Wiig, roundly considered a standout performer on the NBC sketch comedy show, has built Gilly into a popular character. In a phone interview Monday, she said part of the fun of Gilly hosting is in her slim vocabulary, which consists mainly of the simple catch-phrase "Sorry."



"That can be a tough one to work around," Wiig said. "There's going to be no long monologue. Maybe her five-word vocabulary will stretch to 10 or 11."

A Gilly sketch is a very structured thing. It's always set in a classroom where an uncertain teacher (Will Forte) questions his students (Kenan Thompson, Bobby Moynihan) on the source of some trouble making.



Wiig and Paula Pell, a writer on the show, came up with the sketch while writing something else, but the idea continued to stick.

"We just kept doing the smile and we did it for a couple weeks," said Wiig. "We were just like, `Let's write it.' Maybe she's this bad kid. We just started saying `Sorry,' and it came organically from there."



Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will also make guest appearances on the special to help introduce clips they've appeared in as hosts, including Baldwin in "NPR's Delicious Dish and the Schweddy Balls" and Martin in "A Holiday Wish."



If pressed for a holiday favorite, Wiig cites John Malkovich's maniacal reading of "`Twas the Night Before Christmas" last year.

"Since `SNL' has been on for so long, it's 35 years of at least two or three shows a year kind of based on Christmas stuff," said Wiig. "There's a lot of good material there."

From:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3Vz6MFu9L9LhvT7cxyHOFIdZCpAD9CF9T4O0
=======================

Yes, Kristen. That's why they do Christmas specials almost every year. =^)

Well, I guess if Andy got to host his digital shorts special awhile ago, then Kristen can host her own special as well. Heck, even Ace and Gary got to host their own special.

Glad that Alec and Steve will also show up. I'm curious what they will do with Gilly skits and still keep it fresh.

Enjoy!

Did Dave Matthew's Ozzy Osbourne save Andy Samberg's Mellow Show sketch?

The Mellow Show- So, we've seen this one done before. Jack Johnson (Andy Samberg hosts a mellow show with other mellow artists such as Dave Matthews (Bill Hader) and Jason Mraz (JGL). First half felt very old, though the "freaky fiddle player" from DMB made me laugh and JGL did a great impression of Jason Mraz. Who really surprised me though was the real Dave Matthews who did a super impression of Ozzy Osbourne and made fun of himself in the process.

Excerpt From:
http://livefromnewyorkitssaturdaynightlive.blogspot.com/2009/11/jgldmb-review.html

Disagree?

Andy Samberg - rehearsing for Family Feud (photo)

From the Ryan Reynolds Family Feud sketch:



Enjoy!

New Blake Lively SNL promo

Jason is in good company.



Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - Rehearsing the Meagan Fox flight attendant sketch (photo)

Rehearsing the Flight Attendant sketch. Jenny and Nasim are in the center. Hannibal Buress, one of the new SNL writers, is seated next to Nasim in the foreground.



Enjoy!