Given that I never saw the humor in the cowbell skit, I think they way overplayed that, and the musical guests mostly sucked. Still, it was an enjoyable bit of nostalgia.
Chevy Chase is a ringer for doing Dick Cheney skits now.
Given that I never saw the humor in the cowbell skit, I think they way overplayed that, and the musical guests mostly sucked. Still, it was an enjoyable bit of nostalgia.
Chevy Chase is a ringer for doing Dick Cheney skits now.
He used to do a lot of OJ material, and a jackass NBC exec was friends with Simpson. Instead of backing down, he kept putting OJ mentions in his Updates.Originally Posted by Digital_Man
I thought Miley stole the musical segment tonight hands down.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Just watched as well
Bill Murray was great singing Jaws
Chris Rock was as usual funny
Overall I thought they did a good job
Miley Cyrus and Kanye West were awful and not sure why either were there.
No sign of Al Franken.
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
Miley is ok. Not a big fan of Kanye. I think Macca should have done more as he was only in it for a split second in the beginning. I like Paul Simon but wished he would have done a different song. But yeah over all it was very good. Lot's of cool cameos.
Do not suffer through the game of chance that plays....always doors to lock away your dreams (To Be Over)
or Dennis Miller and Conan O'Brien.
^Yep. Both MIA. So was Dan Akroyd(other than the Blues Brothers skit).
Do not suffer through the game of chance that plays....always doors to lock away your dreams (To Be Over)
I DVRd it and haven't watched it yet, so I scrolled down without reading a word.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
Some news woman just said that it was nice to see Eddie Murphy appear and that it was his first appearance since leaving the show. Is this actually true? That doesn't seem right. It seems like he must have hosted the show at least once since leaving.
Do not suffer through the game of chance that plays....always doors to lock away your dreams (To Be Over)
I thought he did a great, although raspy voiced (prolly due to last night's concert) version of "Maybe I'm Amazed". You did catch that, right?
Yep, thirty years gone by since he last appeared. He hosted while he was still on the show.
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
After the Beyonce bit, Maya Rudolph has vaulted into my "funny women I'd like to boink" vault, right next to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Something about a gal that can make me laugh...
The whole thing was pretty self congratulatory. Man, talk about a lot of kissing up to Lorne Michaels. His sphincter must be as moist as a spongecake.
I suspect Franken was a no-show because he's battled for people to take him seriously for a while. Not so much these days now that he's into his second term but I can see why he wouldn't go back. I used to work with a guy that went to high school with Franken. When Al started his run for the Senate someone asked my coworker if Franken had the stuff for the job. His answer was always the same, "Al went to Harvard on a math scholarship. If anything he's too smart for the Senate".
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I certainly think they were a lot of funnier. Watching the reruns on VH-1C, there's one from I think Christmas 77, where NYC gets invaded by giant lobsters. One of them attacks John Belushi. Robert Klein (the host that week) launches into this Hindenberg-esque commentary, saying something like "Belushi had his whole life ahead of him...well, 2 or 3 years, anyway". It's scary to think they'd make a joke like that, and of course, that pretty much came true, Belushi died like only about 3 years later.
In another episode (the one where Elvis Costello famously broke off his second song, after only like half a minute then launched into Radio Radio), they had the winner of the "Anyone can host Saturday Night", which turned out to be this elderly woman. So Buck Henry (who I guess was acting as MC or whatever, I dunno, if the old lady was the host, I'm not sure what his function was) says she's acting really weird. Belushi reveals that he shared a joint with her, and I think it's Jane Curtain who says, "You shared one of your joints with her?! No wonder she's acting weird! Did you give her one of the ones with the rhino tranquillizer in it?!"
So I'd say they were at least very daring back then, don't know if they're still "on the edge". Most of the SNL stuff I've seen from the last 20, maybe 25 years, I haven't really liked. I do like the Phil Hartman stuff I've seen. Him and Dana Carvey doing Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon was hilarious. There was also a good bit that parodied a credit card commercial, I think, with Hartman as a customer and Roseanne Barr (or whatever she's calling herself now) as a snarky customer service operator.
One bit I liked was that segment they did just after September 11, with Rudy Guiliani. Producer Lorne Michaels, looks to the mayor, and with a sincere, straight face, asks, very seriously, "Can we be funny?!", like he's asking permission. Guiliani looks at him, looking confused, and says "Why start now?!". And Lorne has this look on his face like, "Yeah, I walked into that one, didn't I?"
One of my favorite SNL bits is the old Navy recruitment commercial they did back in the 70's. As a camera zooms in on a ship at dock (accompanied very exciting instrumental rock music), a voiceover announces, "Port of call: Bayonne, New Jersey!". And then rest of the ad, instead of showing the "adventure" stuff the real Navy ads showed, they show the "job" side of it, showing sailors cleaning latrines, working in the auto pool, swabbing the deck, ya know, all the stuff the military usually doesn't show in their ads. At the end the voice over comes back: "The Navy! It's not just a job, it's $94.67 a week!".
Belushi doing his Joe Cocker impression, as a duet with the real Joe Cocker was great too.
The Coneheads bits were great too. So was Gilda Radner as Candy Slice, a waaaaaay out of it Patti Smith style rock singer. Aykroyd doing double duty as a DJ on both an FM rock station and an AM "easy listening" station simultaneously is another great one. On the FM station he says, "If you were at that Grateful Dead show last night out at the Garden, you're probably feeling exactly the way I am right about now".
Neither did I. I remember when I finally got to see it, and I kept waiting for the funny bit to happen, and it never did.
I saw an interview with Eric Bloom, and he said he remembered being more bewildered than actually amused when he saw it, though I gather he and the rest of the band have a sense of humor about it.
Oh yeah,a nother favorite bit: Lorne Michaels offering The Beatles $3,000 to perform on the show. Then, I forget how much later, George appeared as a musical guest, and there's this great bit in the opening where the two of them are talking about how he's only getting paid $750, and Geroge says, "It's a bit chintzy, don't you think?". Then Lorne mentions that whoever says "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" gets paid an extra $200 or whatever it was. So George looks into the camera and says it, thus launching the opening credits.
Those of you old enough to watch the first season may remember the show was originally called Saturday Night (no Live in the title) because ABC had a show called Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell. I once saw an interview where Lorne Michaels says he wanted to call the show Saturday Night Live Without Howard Cosell, but NBC wouldn't let him.
"Friggin' Giuliani"
Eddie Murphy's Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, and his "kill all the white people" reggae skit -- they would never have the BALLS to try anything like that now.
Al Franken was in the audience... there was a lengthy shot of him at one point. Can't remember who was on screen at the time.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
I thought it was okay. It would have been nice to see more classic skits, instead of some of what they did. That being said, it was fun to see Akroyd (sp?) redo the Bass-a-matic routine.
The whole Californians thing was way too long and a waste, IMO.
I thought McCartney should have chosen a different song. He just doesn't have it for "Maybe I'm Amazed."
Was Lorraine Newman anywhere to be seen?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
She was there with Dan doing the Bass-o-matic skit.
-=Will you stand by me against the cold night, or are you afraid of the ice?=-
"I'll take whore ads for $200".
Last edited by walt; 02-16-2015 at 11:55 AM.
"please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide
"I'll take whore ads for $200,Alex".
That was a very funny skit. Can't really say I got a lot of good laughs out of this show though. One thing that was really disappointing for me was all the build up around Eddie Murphy (one of my fave SNL alum) and all he did basically was say "thanks".
Last edited by Klonk; 02-16-2015 at 09:57 AM.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
The former was probably too busy going down on Glenn Beck, and the latter just ain't funny.
Just awful. And Simon wasn't much better.
High praise, indeed!
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
I saw a tweet that said the only way Kanye's medley could have been bearable was if the walls closed in like the Star Wars trash compactor. Really, they had no need for musical guests for this show.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
For me, I thought it was a bit sad. He was slow and couldn't pump out the words like he used to. Mid way through, I was wishing they used the original.
Agreed. Also, many of their skits run too long; they don't know when or how to end them. This is what I have always seen as SNL's main problem.
I hope his voice doesn't consistently sound like he needs to clear it. That phlegm sounded like it was going to bring him down. He warbled his way through it.
The Bass-O-Matic skit.
I have another hour or so to finish. Did they give props to Mr. Bill other than in the opening song/dance junk? Watching Jimmy Fallon in the beginning reminds me that I am getting tired of seeing him. He's turning into the Dave Grohl of comedy entertainment.
Not only that, but if they had to have a few musical guests...why him? PUHlenty of others to choose from.
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