Pages tagged “saturday night live”

Once a year or so, a super-mainstream pop song manages to defy all logic, completely endear itself to me and lodge its overblown, Auto-Tuned self squarely in my cerebral cortex. I'm usually a few months late to the game (I somehow managed to not hear Rihanna's 2007 smash earworm “Umbrella” all the way through until sometime this year) but when I fall, I fall hard. 

Your weekly guide to Music on TV for the week of Oct. 27, 2008

Hillary Clinton's done it. So has John McCain. Sarah Palin, too, just last week. Now it seems it might be Barack Obama's turn on Saturday Night Live, if rumors are to be believed. The junior senator from Illinois will supposedly appear on the show on Nov. 1, just in time, before the election (finally) comes to a close on Nov. 4.

Shot through the history of comedic cornerstones like The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Spinal Tap is comedian Harry Shearer. His newest project, Songs of the Bushmen, takes musical aim at the Bush Administration, lampooning Colin Powell (“Smooth Moves”), Paul Wolfowitz (“Wolf on the Run”) and Karl Rove (“Turd Blossom Special”) amongst others. The album’s cover even features a portrait of George W. Bush with a bone through his nose—offending Clear Channel enough to get banned from billboard advertisements.

Last week's Saturday Night Live was in no small way surreal, what with Tina Fey's Sarah Palin (briefly) meeting The Real Sarah Palin, and an oh-my-god-how-pregnant-can-a-person-be Amy Poehler pretty much handing The Real Sarah Palin's beehive to her with that incredible, Bullwinkle-slaughtering Weekend Update rap.

But what about that "Fartface" sketch? Do you remember this, or has your brain since stashed it away in that little Awful Things To Conveniently Forget About For The Sake Of Your Sanity And General Human Decency lobe?

Let's be serious: Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live these past few weeks has been exactly what we needed to cope with this increasingly absurd election (Joe the Plumber, anyone?). Now, news has emerged that Palin wants to be in on the joke and will make an appearance on the show tomorrow night. (She apparently thought the first sketch was hilarious...even with the sound off.)

In the words of Amy Poehler and Seth Myers, "Really?" Really, SNL, you're going to open another Thursday night special with a fake debate? Really? Where last week's episode was filled with laughs, this week's fell flat at almost every turn. There's only so much humor you can wring from Joe the Plumber, and while Fred Armisen does a pretty good Obama, he's yet to be given a single memorable line. And Seth, really? You can't read a teleprompter? This is prime time, baby. It'd be forgivable if your jokes were half as funny as last week, but this felt like the final half-hour of a typical Saturday Night Live where all the sketches that bombed during dress rehearsal go. There's a new SNL on Saturday Night, and I can only imagine that it's eaten up most of the writers' effort. I mean, the crazy lady from the McCain rally? Really?

If you were to take Saturday Night Live during the election season, remove all the skits that aren't funny (meaning all of them but the opener) and the mostly uninspired musical guests, you'd be left with SNL's Weekend Update Thursday—the best idea Lorne Michaels has had in years. Even without a guest appearance by Sarah Palin—I mean, Tina Fey—the show had plenty of laughs. In the opening debate, both Obama and McCain deliver straight talk to questioner Bill Murray about how the Cubs won't ever win the pennant, much less The World Series.

We recently looked at the 10 best male cast members of Saturday Night Live. Now it's time to look at the show's funniest women.

10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#6-10)

10. Ana Gasteyer (1996 - 2002)
“Oh, I’m so sorry! If I wasn't such a nice person, I’d think I was a showoff!”
The Groundlings alum was at her best as a talk show hostess, both with her fictional creations like Margaret Jo McCullen of NPR’s Delicious Dish, Gayle Gleeson of Pretty Living or MTV VJ Kinkaid, and impersonating actual TV celebs, Martha Stewart, Joan Rivers or Sally Jesse Raphael.

10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#1-5)

After the brutally unfunny debut of Saturday Night Live last weekend, we thought it was a good time to remember that this show has wavered between periods of greatness and painful droughts throughout its 33 years. To commemorate the men and women responsible for the former, the staff at Paste voted on the 10 Best Male and Female Saturday Night Live Cast Members. First the men...

10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members

10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members

Check back here at 11:25 p.m. EST for a Saturday Night Live live-blog, where I'll be joined by Paste publisher Nick Purdy. Will Michael Phelps be funny? Will Lil Wayne meet FCC standards? Will Barack get an SNL bounce? And will Tina Fey come back to play her doppelgänger, Sarah Palin? (She looks more like Palin than Laura Roslin). We're just glad SNL doesn't suck these days.

11:25pm:  Well, Barack's not going to be a part of the show - Hurricane Ike making it in appropriate according to his spokesman....still thinking TIna Fey will do Palin but we'll have to wait and see.  Also got to figure Phelps & Lil Wayne should do something together given their whole Olympic connection.—Nick

11:30pm: There's Tina as Sarah!  Nailing the accent right off with Poehler as Hillary.—Nick

11:35pm:  That's just downright spooky. Already this is better than the USC-Ohio St. game. Tina Fey obviously has an advantage over anyone else who's done an impersonation of a president, but damn was she spot on. Nice nod to the "Tina Fey" glasses too. Tim are you with us?—Josh

11:37pm: Wow. Amy Poehler with the quick wardrobe change. Already gone from Hilary to Michael Phelps' mom. And there's Shatner! Looks like a game show coming up.—Josh

11:46pm:  Unless Tina Fey plans to do this all Fall, I think they should have had Kristen Wiig do the Sarah Palin bit.  The bit was decent but the jokes were a bit mailed in to me.--Nick

11:47pm:  1st skit post-monologue was a particularly uninspiring quiz show apropos of nothing - but did include new cast member Bobby Moynihan who clearly is attempting to fill the Belushi-Farley role.  Kind of eerie actually.--Nick

11:52pm:  What the hell is this retarded swimming locker room skit?  Did they seriously just have Will Forte just dance around in front of most of the cast for nearly a whole minute?  The huge, long trailer for  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist has been more entertaining than the skits.  Yikes.--Nick

How do you top a Saturday Night Live season premiere already slated to pair Michael Phelps as host and Lil Wayne as musical guest (UPDATE: And Barack Obama)?

Michael Phelps’ Olympic screen time is up for now, but viewer interest has persisted beyond the 14-time gold medalist’s sports coverage. In the last week, he’s been picked up as a presenter on MTV's Video Music Awards, and on Sept. 13 he will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, accompanied by musical guest Lil Wayne.

The type of sappy eulogizing inevitable after a celebrity passes away would likely have disgusted George Carlin (case in point). We can be relatively sure, however, the tribute NBC has planned in Carlin's honor would have been to his liking. The network is not talking about him. It's always generally been a good call to shut up and let Carlin do the talking, and in that spirit, NBC is replaying one of his finest and funniest moments.