BLOGS
So Betty White finally hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend, and she manned up and kicked ass in actually live sketches, including one that relied entirely on about 97 jokes about how her vagina is gross, and brought in mega ratings, all while remaining admirably gracious throughout the episode. She threw herself into it, and everything went fine, which is really more than you can ask of an 88-year-old woman at midnight. Bravo.
But really, the episode's inclusion of former female cast members -- particularly Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph -- illuminated the glaring lack of confident, capable female talent on the show right now. The new girls may grow into their jobs eventually, but this week's episode just made me long for the days when Kristen Wiig didn't have to do everything, you know? Anyway, not a great show overall, not a terrible one either. On to the best and worst sketches of the night, as I see them.
Best: The Lawrence Welk Show sketches always make me laugh, and though this one didn't exactly shake up the formula, it was still pretty hysterical.
Worst: The female answer to Schweddy Balls: Betty White's Muffin. I hate this shit. You probably loved it, and that's cool, but personally, I just hate this shit. Everybody's different!
Best: This recurring sketch is annoying every time, but this week it was redeemed by the fact that when Betty White puts on a long blonde wig she adorably resembles E.T. on Halloween.
Worst: I usually like "Scared Straight," but something was off this week (though Bobby Moynihan nailed his delivery of "We beat up a kid 'cause he's poor!"). I'd like to pin it on The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory being too immediately obvious, but then I remembered the whole point of the sketch is that they exclusively use movies that are immediately obvious. So I don't know! I hate to say it, but I think this one might have been Betty White's fault.
Best: Gingey. Perfect for Betty White, hilarious work by Amy Poehler, and it sort of affirmed my years of asserting that the little girl from Meet Me in St. Louis is, in fact, a lesbian.
Best/Worst: The MacGruber sketches woven throughout the episode did a good job of promoting the movie without being too whorish, but sometimes they were funny, sometimes they were extremely tiresome. Still excited about that movie though, so I guess they couldn't have been too bad.
Honorable Mention: The Deleted "Bronx Beat" sketch was amazing up until Betty White and Andy Samberg showed up to creep everybody out. This show needs more effortless pros like Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph again in a bad way.
Your favorite Betty White sketches? Thoughts about your muffin? Go crazy in the comments.
See a ranking of this season's best SNL sketches.
Hear what Betty White had to say about the Facebook phenomenon right before she hosted.
Check out five more theme shows that SNL should do.
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