Let me just say I was dreading last night's Saturday Night Live. Charles Barkley? A former pro basketball player and current color commentator, who's not even playing the game anymore? This must be a train wreck, right? Actually, it ended up not being totally bad. Barkley's contributions were pretty minor, and his monologue was pretty weak, but he grounded the funniest series of MacGruber bits since that time MacGruber was strung out on heroin.

Saturday Night Live was very funny this weekend, and everyone seems rightly surprised about that, but they also seem very surprised that Blake Lively did a decent job, which seems unfair to me. Being a good SNL host is probably more about having a great, I'll-tackle-anything attitude than it is about having actual talent, and Blake Lively always seems like an energetic, relentlessly fun and likable girl when she doesn't have her Serena van der Woodsen Thanksgiving catsuit on, so I figured she'd do a good job. And she did, in what little screen time they (wisely) relegated her to. She may be a pretty blonde lady, but let's not January Jones her for it, OK? That is some kind of profiling and it is probably offensive! But I digress -- on to the best sketches of the night!

It's not a good sign when I don't rush to watch Saturday Night Live either live or first thing the next morning. Usually if I see a million people Twittering about something funny, I run to my DVR to catch it ASAP. This weekend, not so much with the twittering, so not so much with me running to the DVR. And while I have been known to enjoy some movies with Gerard Butler in them, I'm not a big super fan of his, so that lacked some urgency as well. So the show collected dust in my DVR and then I just ended up watching it online today. There were some hits and misses, and some actual funny stuff, but no clips that I'm going to watch over and over again like any of the digital shorts of yore. There are a few that are worth a look for a quick chuckle, if you are bored at worked and skipped the Saturday night airing as well, and some that you probably want to avoid at all costs.

In comparison with last week's season premiere, this week's Ryan Reynolds-hosted episode was a vast improvement. Lady Gaga appeared as musical guest (and got some screen time in sketches), while Madonna, Elijah Wood, and Reynolds' wife Scarlett Johansson also made the SNL rounds.

So Jenny Slate said the F-word in her first episode, during a sketch about biker chicks who say "Frickin'" constantly. OK! I can see how that would happen. And the sketch aired at about the 12:40 AM mark of the episode, so I'm pretty sure no truly innocent children were too corrupted by it. NBC will probably be fined, because those are the rules, but clearly, the poor girl won't be fired. Her gaffe alone entered a lackluster premiere heavily into today's news cycle, and besides, I've seen her perform, and she has a lot to offer. I think she'll be alright.

It's time for a new Saturday Night Live season to start up, which among other things means we have to deal with who got canned and replaced for the next season. This year the casualties are relatively light, as we're only losing Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins (and not Bobby Moynihan, apparently, though we should), but it's always sad when these things happen. Remember Jerry Minor? Probably not, but I miss that guy! Anyway, in the wake of this (semi) tragedy, let's review where these ladies may have gone wrong, shall we?

My expectations were pretty high for this episode. I mean, I love Neil Patrick Harris, but I feel like they just didn't give the How I Met Your Mother star enough good material to work with. When he had a decent bit, he ran with it and made it sparkle. Because that Today show sketch had about gotten on my last damned nerve, until he showed up in aerobic wear. And I can't stand that one-upping Penelope character, but he handled her well (and it didn't hurt that Liza (!) showed up there too... though i would have preferred that Liza be in the Broadway sketch, where it would have made sense and she could have sung more). But NPH's shining moment had to be during his opening monologue where he referred back to how he was almost on the show once before, back in his Doogie Howser days, but he lost out to the Wonder Years' Fred Savage. Awesome.

Ostensibly Paul Rudd hosted this past week's Saturday Night Live, but the show was stolen right out from under him by one Mr. Justin Timberlake. The former host (whose "D**k in a Box" clip still cracks me up) showed up during Weekend Update to give a quick blow-by-blow of what next weekend's Thanksgiving-themed episode would have looked like if he hadn't had a scheduling conflict. This fast-paced rundown, followed by Timberlake's surprising cameo in heels and a leotard in a fake Beyoncé video shoot, were hands down the two funniest moments of the night. Rudd was forced to merely stand on the side lines and pretend to direct Sasha Fierce in the chaotic "Single Ladies" video while Timberlake shook and grinded (ground?) and got all the laughs.