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Saturday Night Live: Six Sketches That Were as Funny as an It's Always Sunny Episode

Hey! That wasn't half bad. I mean, sure, I completely zoned out and lost all interest during two sketches ("Dolphin Movie" and "Getting Freaking With Cee Lo") but overall, "Charlie Day/Maroon 5" was maybe the most enjoyable episode of Saturday Night Live I've seen in recent memory. The ratings say that I'm not alone: It drew the best ratings the show has had in over a month, which is especially impressive considering that Charlie Day is significantly less famous than Melissa McCarthy. While I credit some of my satisfaction to fast-forwarding through the bulk of Adam Levine's screentime, it was mostly just a tight, well-written episode. Here are the sketches that worked the best:

"Monologue"
The bit about how much New York City has changed since Day was two was cute and fun, but the obvious draw here was the Danny DeVito cameo. As soon as the audience started hollering about a person walking up to "interrupt" the monologue, I automatically cringed in preparation for a lame Andy Samberg appearance or something, but instead we got to see some of the banter between Day and DeVito that makes It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia so hilarious. I could've used a "Day Man" reference during the piano segment, but I'll take what I can get.




"Comedy Tour 2"
SNL reprised last year's "Comedy Tour" gag with even more jokes about horrible comics. It was pretty awesome. As annoyed as I often am by sketches running too long, I prefer that to the past few seasons where every single joke on the show followed the Rule of Three format. They even got in a jab about using "vagina" as a punchline -- take that, every single series on TV this fall!




"Kardashian Divorce Special"

There was going to have to be a Kardashian joke in the episode, and this was just plain amazing. Day as the Kardashian lawyer seemed a little shoehorned in there, but I'll forgive it thanks to how great Vanessa Bayer's Kourtney and Kristen Wiig's Kris Jenner impressions were.




"Greek Gods"
I'm a pretty big Greek mythology geek, so this one was hysterical to me. Levine was on the screen as Yanni for longer than he needed to be, but I appreciate that the show asked a question I've always wondered: Why are there so many stories about gods turning into animals to have sex? Also, can Samberg sneak in that Poseidon character into everything he does from now on?




"Weekend Update: Judy Grimes"
Kristen Wiig once again delivered a great performance as the Judy "Just Kidding" Grimes, saving what I thought was an otherwise pretty awful Weekend Update (except for the Real Housemice joke, natch). Maybe the success of this sketch will convince SNL to encourage its performers to remember their lines.




"Crime Scene"
The sketch -- especially the ending -- was a little raw, but I'm okay with that because of how original and weird the premise was. I think by this point, it's a universal truth that the show is the funniest when its guest host is a talented actor and comedian, and if you needed any proof, watch "Crime Scene." Because Day can pretty much sell me anything at this point, his character not having any idea what Seinfeld (or even baseball) is was really, really funny.




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11 Comments

November 7, 2011 10:24 AM
Leah
Reply

I can't remember laughing as hard as I did at the Greek Gods sketch in quite some time. Genius.

November 7, 2011 2:34 PM
Claire
Reply

Disagree about the Weekend Update segment. The Judy Grimes character isn't actually funny, she's just an excuse for Kristen Wiig to show off her (admittedly impressive) rapid line-reading skills. The Euro crisis and Rick Perry bits were much funnier.

November 7, 2011 2:49 PM
Jack
Reply

The only remotely funny segment was the Kardashian bit.

November 7, 2011 4:52 PM
asldfkj
Reply

Note to self: Never watch "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Apparently it's only as good as an SNL episode other people think is funny.

November 7, 2011 5:55 PM
Jared
Reply

Not a chance that Wiig's Grimes character is even close to Sunny at its worst.

Good sketches were the Greek Gods and the Kardashians. I thought they underused Charlie.

November 7, 2011 10:39 PM
Jason/Lantern7
Reply
replied to comment from asldfkj

"Sunny" is funny. I got hooked on the repeats on Comedy Central, and I started watching new eps on FX. Basically, it's like Seinfeld to the Seinfeld-th degree, in the sense of the main characters being scumbags. Oh, and there's Danny Devito, who's made a rep for playing scumbags. Lots of shit can and will happen.

Oh, and I dug SNL this week. I'm just curious . . . aside from Devito and Day, do the other "Sunny" actors got stuff going elsewhere? I know Day was in Horrible Bosses, but I'm not sure about the other three.

November 7, 2011 11:18 PM
Scott Wyler
Reply

I don't think the Seinfeld sketch was original. The same premise was done in the movie "The Other Guys" with Michael Keaton continuously saying lines from TLC songs while claiming ignorance about doing that.

November 7, 2011 11:18 PM
Scott Wyler
Reply

I don't think the Seinfeld sketch was original. The same premise was done in the movie "The Other Guys" with Michael Keaton continuously saying lines from TLC songs while claiming ignorance about doing that.

November 8, 2011 12:46 AM
Fred Smith
Reply

Did anyone else have to check IMDB to see who the hell Melissa McCarthy is?

November 8, 2011 9:11 AM
Mike
Reply

The Kardashian parody was a grand slam. Those three nail that impression every time.

December 1, 2011 4:03 PM
Izalika
Reply

Are these clips available on any players that show outside the USA? I never get to see what you're talking about, because Hulu doesn't like Canada... :(

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