As a live sketch comedy show, SNL is defined by its charming set of recurring characters and its ability to turn topical humor into something timeless. By bringing out Dana Carvey, SNL showed us this week that those two things aren't actually all that different from each other. That is, most characters are defined by their time, and as Carvey points out to us in his monologue, his characters' (and his) time was from '86-'93. During that period, it was easy to enjoy Wayne's World or Church Lady. Public access channels were something anyone with a TV had a vague idea of. However, today, in the era of YouTube, these characters felt out of place even if they were talking about current stories. Of course, acting like 2011 didn't do very much to help most of the other sketches this week.

In the long tradition of people making a big deal out of non-actors appearing on SNL to awkwardly poke fun at whatever half-cocked gossip fodder they're involved in, I'm here to make a big deal out of Mark Zuckerberg "confronting" Jesse Eisenberg on SNL this weekend. As usual, it was much ado over nothing. Andy Samberg's wig was the funniest thing about it, and the only really remarkable thing was how Mark Zuckerberg, a non-performer and full-time basement nerd, was cool as a cucumber, while Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg teetered somewhere on the nervous scale between cardiac arrest and epileptic vomit hose. Apparently, being a zillionaire does things for your confidence. Go figure. Anyway, on to the rest of the show.

It's been quite some time since I was actually still thinking about an SNL episode two days after it aired. Not just one funny sketch, but a whole episode. And while I'm not going to say that every sketch was a winner, there were some pretty amusing things, and even the lame sketches weren't as bad as some of the ones earlier this season, so good for SNL. Way to end the year on a high note, though I presume this means that the next three episodes will suck since they used all the good material here. Whatever, I'll take the funny where I can get it. I could have lived without the general store (though Jeff Bridges' hair made up for a lot of lame jokes), Jeff's prank show (though again, Bridges' enthusiasm helped), the Hanukkah It's a Wonderful Life (not as funny as the Vincent Price sketches) and Brad Pitt doing the weather. But there was Stefon, a catchy Lonely Island song, Miley and Julian Assange and bonus Cookie Monster!

After Week 1's pretty terrible Amy Poehler episode and Week 2's disastrous Bryan Cranston episode, SNL started to find its way back with Jane Lynch this weekend. It wasn't exactly a stellar episode, but they at least made a better effort to use Lynch effectively (unlike how they just stripped Cranston down to his underwear and shoved him in a corner all episode long last week), and there were a couple honest-to-god highlights. Still not convinced Jay Pharoah should be working in this format, and I'm baffled as to why Bill Hader's been but a minor presence so far, but it was only the third episode of the season, so I digress. Here are the best and worst sketches of the night:

The much anticipated hosting duties of Bryan Cranston on SNL came to pass this weekend, and it... didn't go very well. Cranston was barely used at all, and when he was it was for stupid crap like dancing in his underwear or asking if we got a bottle of sparkling apple juice 900 times. It was a very sad missed opportunity. It was also as bad as January Jones' episode, but at least that week they had an excuse in how inherently unfunny and unwilling to try to be funny she so clearly is. So what is this week's excuse? Bryan Cranston is a very funny and versatile actor! They could have done so many great things with him! Anyway. Here are the few highs and many lows of the episode.

Saturday Night Live premiered over the weekend with an awesome host in Amy Poehler and a relevant musical guest in Katy Perry, but somehow the episode as a whole was a real miss. Every episode has a few great sketches and a whole bunch of bad ones, but this week's episode felt like the ratio tipped far further in the direction of the bad ones, especially for an event episode that should have brought everyone's a-games. Suffice it to say that it was no placeholder for Parks & Recreation. I've listed the best and worst sketches of the night after the break, so watch and play along.

After eight seasons, one failed movie and about 800 million fake MacGruber explosions, Will Forte is leaving SNL. It's reportedly his choice and the split is amicable, but still -- pretty sad. MacGruber's not my favorite thing in the world, but Forte is brilliant, and was always the best at coming up with truly great, bizarre end-of-show sketches. The show is going to be weird without him next season. To give him a little send-off, I've rounded up a few of his finest and most popular works currently available on Hulu as a sort of half-assed yet fun eulogy. Watch these at work and laugh so hard you annoy your officemate! Angel loved it when I did it!

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.

The Internet marks another win this weekend, as due to popular Facebook demand, Betty White is finally hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time. I joined a conference call with the former Rose Nylund just last week to discuss her reaction to the Facebook group, why she finally agreed to host SNL and what kinds of jokes she hates (spoiler: it's jokes about weed, just like real old people!). Read on for highlights.