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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Sorry you didn/t like Betty White's muffin. I thought it was hilarious. At first I thought the MacGruber sketches were going to be too much shameless self-promotion, but working Betty in there and still making it great was excellent. (And you can't blame them for the selffish plug.) Overall, Betty was fantastic, and you nailed it on the head with the return of Maya, Amy, Ana, and Tina. The guys can stand on their own, but SNL should not be relegated to repeatedly bringing those classic ladies back just to step it up. Don't get me wrong, I liked it but wow, outside of Kristin the other ladies pale in comparison!
With all the hype, it was impossible for the episode to be the GREATEST THING EVVAAARRRR but I was still impressed and laughed throughout. I just adore Betty White. She can do no wrong in my book.
One of my favorite sketches of the night was actually the digital short and I'm really sad that it hasn't popped up online yet.
And the census sketch!
Last comment, I promise: "Really?" during Weekend Update was great since Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were back at the desk with Seth Myers.
Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston on Weekend Update was my favorite part of the show. I thought Betty did a solid job, but I agree that the return of SNL female all-stars highlighted the current lack of depth, other than Kristen Wiig.
Scared Straight needs to be retired. I don't know why guest stars like it so much, but I ffwd. Past-female-cast-member-I-don't-remember... on the left for NPR, was clutch in supporting roles this ep. This was also the first MacGruber that I didn't totally hate.
You are absolutely correct about the lack of female talent. I really like Abby Elliott but I can't quite tell the other two women apart and neither of them are special.
mityorkie, you're thinking of the awesome and underrated Ana Gasteyer, who basically served as a female version of Phil Hartman (with a better singing voice) for many years on SNL.
Apparently you've been reading my mind, because as soon as Betty White came out during the Manuel Ortiz sketch, I turned and said to my mother, "she looks just like ET when he put that wig on in the movie." Glad to know I wasn't the only one who had that reaction!
really? i'm the only one who is tired of kristen wiig? the reason why she's in nearly every sketch is because she's got seniority. if poehler, fey, rudolph or any of the other past female cast were still on the show, she'd still be in the background - which is where the newer girls are, probably because writers are writing for wiig and not for them. and unless they are writing their own sketches and those get approved for airtime, they'll continue to stay in the background. but kristen wiig is no amazing talent. she does the same damn facial twitches, hand gestures, shoulder shrugs, and crazy voices for most of her characters. yawn.
I don't think "Scared Straight" was Betty White's fault, it was just shorter then it usually is. For some reason the didn't do the usually comedy rule of 3 for that sketch. It seemed rushed. I also think Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad are really good and will break out next season.
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