Hey, this was a pretty good one! Lady Gaga is another game host and this time most of the sketches had at least one or two funny bits in them, which is more than I can say for the majority of this season.
COLD OPEN: A solid opening skewering the crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, that also manages to get a dig in at 60 Minutes for being the only news program that will unquestionably believe everything he says. Bobby is a pretty funny Ford, even though a lot of the jokes poke fun at everyone's inherent Canadian mannerisms (if there's anything that story doesn't need, it's extra material to be funny).
MONOLOGUE: Lady Gaga comes out ready to play tonight and gives a great performance monologue, where she sings "Applause" in a kind of jazzy form that segues into a celebratory version of "New York, New York" to kick off the show with style.
PAXIL 2ND TERM STRENGTH: A funny, short commercial for pills President Obama can take to cope with the various problems currently plaguing his second term, and it gets in a shot at John Boehner for dealing with enraged Tea Partiers.
WAKING UP WITH KIMYE: Jay and Nasim's spot-on impressions of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are finally taken advantage of with a talk show that pairs the two of them up to fully expose how conceited Kanye is and how stupid Kim is, but the funniest stuff are mostly their impressions, as some of the jokes are just ok. Gaga gets in a good poke at herself though, when she plays an Apple Store nerd who makes fun of people who use fashion to hide their true selves.
WORST COVER SONGS OF ALL TIME: One of those collection skits where the cast shows off their impressions of famous singers doing horrible cover versions of famous songs. A couple funny ones, but Gaga once again steals it with a dig at herself copying Madonna's "Express Yourself" (she's really being a good sport tonight, huh?)
WEEKEND UPDATE: Starts off lame with some jokes that fall flat and Kenan's only mildly funny as Mr. Senior, a new character who hates Christmas coming earlier and earlier, but then Taran totally rescues Update with a new character of his own. His critic "Jebidiah Atkinson" from 1853 who hated the Gettysburg address and all other famous speeches is hilarious and even when he screws up he quickly saves it and makes his mistake even funnier. Ok, that one will be back, I guarantee it.
NEW YORK CO-OP BOARD: A short skit with eccentric apartment dwellers questioning new tenants and freaking them out with their odd habits, but not a whole lot of genuine laughs here. Gaga's in it, but what's notable is how exact her Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny impersonation is, even though it's only about five seconds.
SPOTLIGHTZ: Eh. The one big dud of the night, and I actually liked it the first time they did it 2-3 years ago. It's kids recreating famous movie scenes again, but no big laughs in this one (Gaga once again takes the sketch by really giving it her all for Sally Field's death scene in Forrest Gump- that was good).
BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO: Three long-time employees of Blockbuster are let go when the chain finally closes all its stores, and they wander through the streets in a daze, looking for like-minded VHS lovers. It's not really laugh out loud funny, but but it is kinda quirky and amusing.
LADY GAGA: I gotta post this one because she does my favorite song off the new album, "Gypsy" and it's great, despite some audio issues.
TALENT PAGEANT: Ok, now this was surprisingly funny! It reminded me of old-school classic SNL as two stage parents freak out and start dancing to their daughter's performance at a talent show. Gaga's the mother and some guy who I did not recognize is the dad and the whole bit is short enough that it works (although seriously, who's the guy? Is he a new cast member?)
OLD LADY GAGA: It's the future and an ancient Lady Gaga tries pathetically to get Kenan the building super to recognize her and remember who she was. It's an ok one that at least gets her to play bits of her famous songs.
ROSE ZONE: A final ad for the best of reality women on TV that makes fun of how so much of it is catfights for entertainment. It's all right.
So, yeah, this was a decent episode and for not having any truly painful skits tonight, it gets a solid B (nothing painful, but nothing especially great either). If you're wondering what I might consider "especially great" for SNL, I'd have to say stuff like the Betty White episode from a few years ago or even the Martin Short Christmas one from last year- where every single sketch was consistently funny and the host was outstanding. Even the Melissa McCarthy one last season I thought was great, because she could literally be an SNL cast member and come out of it a huge star- she made everything funny. But Gaga was surprisingly good tonight and managed to elevate or at least make her own bits work pretty well. Next up it's Josh Hutcherson from The Hunger Games- see you next week!
