SNL Annotated Week In Review: Tracy Morgan & Kelly Clarkson

STEVE MURPHY: I have to say, I’ve gained some love for Tracy Morgan this week, having seen a couple of episodes of 30 Rock I liked.  But I always hated him on SNL, and I’m dreading the return of the recurring characters he will most certainly bring with him.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Even on 30 Rock he stands out as making the least of generally good material. I figured this could go one of two ways- either SNL could build on the progress it has made, or fall back into the habits of the Tracy Morgan years, which were among the darkest in SNL history. Oh, this was also my introduction to Kelly Clarkson.

C O L D   O P E N :

STEVE MURPHY: I mean, this could have been worse, I guess.  At least it wasn’t a horrendous political cold open as usual.

HOWARD MEGDAL: So I checked with some people-this wasn’t a parody. It was just supposed to be funny becauser Tracy Morgan was punching friendly people in the face.

STEVE MURPHY: This is actually a nice analogy for the rest of the episode: Tracy Jordan punching the viewers in the face with his blunt attempts at comedy.  I think it might have been more satisfying if it was Tracy getting punched in the face.

M O N O L O G U E :

STEVE MURPHY: I didn’t know Tracy Morgan’s apartment burned down, and after watching this… I don’t really care.  NOT an auspicious start.

HOWARD MEGDAL: You had me at “Hello, white people!” And by had me, I mean that I realized the unsubtle, barely-qualifies-as-humor would be ruining SNL this week.

C O M M E R C I A L :   C H E W A B L E   P A M P E R S

STEVE MURPHY: Again?  Seriously?  3 times this season?  You have no other commercial parodies to run after all these years of classics?

HOWARD MEGDAL: I just take issue with running the same commercial three times. Don’t tell me it’s a new show, then run a re-rerun. Also, what Steve said.

B R I A N   F E L L O W ‘ S   S A F A R I   P L A N E T :

STEVE MURPHY: Aaaaaaand we’re wasting no time getting back into Tracy Morgan’s crappy old characters.  Every bit as entertaining as I remember from the old days:  not at all.  High point: a super-cute baby cow.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Okay, so I liked the cow, too. So much to hate here, so I’m going to go after them on punctuation. Why does he pronounce it “Brian Fellows”? It’s Brian Fellow. At least know the name of your own unentertaining character. Or better yet, kill him off forever.

STEVE MURPHY: See, SNL?  Even Howard’s funnier than you, and he’s doing this for free.

T H E   V I E W :

STEVE MURPHY: Every bit as entertaining as the real ‘The View.’  The only saving grace was Kristin Wiig’s Elizabeth Hasselback, which was dead on and hilarious.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Kenan Thompson’s Whoopi isn’t bad, either. The essence of what I hate about Tracy Morgan is that he manages to make himself the center of every sketch, even if he isn’t the center of every sketch comedically. Also that he shouts every line in the same voice and isn’t funny. That, as well.

S C A R E D   S T R A I G H T :

STEVE MURPHY: It’s like SNL is trying to make me cry.  I hate hate hate this sketch, every single time.  And now we’ve added Tracy Morgan into the mix, somehow making it even worse.  Tempted to fast forward, but I won’t for Howard’s sake.  This is so depressing it makes me want to eat.

HOWARD MEGDAL: No no no Steve, you missed the brilliance of randomly throwing in movie references! I know. I’m baffled. I just did eat after watching this- now I know why.

D A T E L I N E :

STEVE MURPHY: See, this is one of those sketches that maybe would make me laugh if the show had spent some time building momentum.  But instead the show crawled to this point, and so this sketch had to struggle to make me laugh (which it eventually did).  And another thing:  is “Dateline” still topical enough to warrant a sketch?  Isn’t there something a little more popular on television right now that we could parody, SNL?  I mean… House, 24, Lost, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Office, 30 Rock (???), Survivor, American Idol, Top Chef…. and SNL chooses Dateline as its big tv parody of the week.

HOWARD MEGDAL: You know who needs to be taken down a notch? Yes Dear.  And seriously- no 30 Rock? Is it like Lorne Michaels told Sarah Palin? “Honestly, not enough people know that show.”

STEVE MURPHY: Not doing a parody of 30 Rock and instead doing a parody of Dateline is absurd.  They had Tina Fey in the studio!  She didn’t do Weekend Update, and she didn’t do a 30 Rock bit… what a waste.  I’d also like to bring up that Jane Krakowski’s blonde ditz 30 Rock character was supposed to be a (probably differently-written) part played by SNL alum Rachel Dratch, and her removal from the show before it aired was a medium-to-large story at the time.  Maybe we could we work out a 30 Rock sketch with Dratch playing the part she would have originally played, and maybe even include Krakowski?  I’m just spitballing here.

A S T R O N A U T   J O N E S :

STEVE MURPHY: Character-Steve-Hates #2.  Lived up to my incredibly low expectations.  I can’t believe it, but I’m actually excited for Kelly Clarkson to give me a 3 minute break from these horrible sketches.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Let’s not get hysterical here. No one is looking forward to Kelly Clarkson. Is unsubtle self-aggrandizing the new satire?

K E L L Y   C L A R K S O N   1

( ” M Y   L I F E   W O U L D   S U C K   W I T H O U T   Y O U ” ) :

STEVE MURPHY: I’m not totally averse to pop music, and I think Kelly Clarkson has an amazing voice, but I’m not a fan of this song.  A couple years ago she performed “Up To The Mountain” on the Idol Gives Back charity special, and it was something very special vocally (click here to watch it).  But unfortunately she stays away from that kind of gospel sound most of the time.  This song is anthemic, and I can see it being popular, but not with me.

HOWARD MEGDAL: My life would suck less without having heard that song. What’s the deal here? Lots of people can kind of sing. It can’t be that she’s pretty- I mean, she’s not horrific to look at, but ridiculously generic. She won American Idol, I hear, right? Okay, a quick check of Wikipedia confirms this- and the accompanying pictures also force me to assume three things: 1) The American Idol program, which I have never seen, gives out enormous trophies to the winner, 2) The trophy was made of chocolate, and 3) Kelly Clarkson ate the entire trophy.

STEVE MURPHY: Howard, watch that video I linked to in my previous comment and tell me her voice isn’t fantastic.

HOWARD MEGDAL: That wasn’t bad, a good voice. Not in the top 1,000 gospel songs I’ve ever heard, though.

B O S T O N   M A R K E T   C O M M E R C I A L :

STEVE MURPHY: This was a regular ad that ran during SNL, not a parody.  A cubicle dweller wants some of his buddy’s Boston Market chicken, and he’s told he’ll have to ride the back of the copier repair guy for 8 seconds if he wants some.  I only mention this because it’s been the funniest part of the night so far.  Good work, SNL.  Way to be less funny than your advertisers.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Damn! I didn’t even get the Boston Market commercial! Just more Up Late NY, with some creepy guy at a club.

W E E K E N D   U P D A T E :

STEVE MURPHY: Bill Hader does a great John Malkovich!  I had no idea.  Tracy Morgan makes an appearance, and it’s incredibly unfunny.  You can actually hear individual people in the audience chuckling quietly, that’s how bad this had been so far.  Kristin Wiig flops as Barbie, which is predictable when you consider that Barbie is even less topical than Dateline, and has absolutely nothing to parody other than the fact that her movement is limited by her construction, something that she shares with every other action figure in history.  Wow, she can’t lift a glass… hilarious.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Bill Hader does a great everything! I don’t know how many individual cast members have impressed me more this year. Just tremendous. Unfortunately, the Malkovich sketch was written poorly-too much time on setup, as if they were afraid viewers wouldn’t know Malkovich well enough to get the joke. (Maybe while I was enjoying him, everyone else was watching the meteoric rise and planetary expansion of Kelly Clarkson.) Even the Weekend Update jokes were subpar- you could see Seth Myers acknowledging that with his face. But you’re not amused that Tracy Morgan likes strip clubs? I know. Neither am I.

B I G   L O V E :

STEVE MURPHY: Wow, it looks like we’ve finally moved into the here and now!  Abby Elliott does a really solid Chloe Sevigny, and looks so much like her I actually thought it was Chloe Sevigny for a second during the opening credits.  The Bill Paxton and Margene impressions were pretty great as well.  But then Tracy Morgan ruined it by being Tracy Morgan, as usual.  Luckily for you, SNL decided not to allow you to watch this one online.  So you’re spared Tracy Morgan squashing something moderately funny.  But don’t worry, you didn’t miss much.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Really agree on both Abby Elliott and Casey Wilson’s Margene. Can I just point out that I had no idea Abby Elliott was of the comedy family Elliotts? Can I just further point out that it is astounding to me that Bob and Ray’s Bob Elliott’s granddaughter is that attractive? Let alone Chris Elliott’s daughter? As an obsessive Bob and Ray fan and a non-blind American, I want to see more of Abby Elliott.

STEVE MURPHY: When she first appeared on the show, I recognized Abby Elliott.  But I can’t figure out from what.  I went on IMDB and looked her up, but there’s nothing she’s been in that I’d remember her from.  But she’s funny and pretty damn hot.  A good and not-often-seen combo.

D I G I T A L    S H O R T :   P A R T Y   G U Y S

STEVE MURPHY: A bunch of cliches, acted out literally.  No, thank you. Maybe if the show already had me rolling I’d be enjoying this more.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Below average digital short. One joke, not interesting.

S U P P R E S S E X :

STEVE MURPHY: Tracy Morgan manages to act like a normal person for a minute, until he starts stuttering so bad I have no idea what he’s saying.  A good idea (a drug you take so you don’t accidentally get an erection) that somehow was done so badly it made me wish I was watching a real prescription drug commercial.  Or maybe taking a real prescription drug.

HOWARD MEGDAL: This is a great example of what Tracy Morgan can’t do. He can’t do comedy. He can do “Being Tracy Morgan, which is hilarious to some people for some reason”- but not comedy.

H I G H   I Q :

STEVE MURPHY: FINALLY!  Funniest sketch of the night, by a mile.  Kristin Wiig’s horrible outfit and dance made me laugh out loud.  This sketch got funnier and funnier as it added more and more hilarious non-sequitor impressions, with great reactions from the contestants.  Not coincidentally, this sketch (a) had very little Tracy Morgan  in it, (b) was nearly devoid of any speaking parts, so the writers didn’t have a chance to ruin it, and (c) involved the entire, hilarious cast.  Give these people good material (or in this case no material at all) and they can make funny things happen.  Of course, SNL still managed to screw this up by not putting the funniest sketch of the night online.  So unless you managed to make it through all this unfunny crap to this point in the night, you missed this very funny moment.  Why not put all the sketches online?  Don’t they realize they’re only punishing themselves?

HOWARD MEGDAL: Maybe this was the funniest sketch of the night, but that phrase is too positive for what this was. And there was plenty of Tracy Morgan in it- he kept shouting! Or as Tracy Morgan seems to view it, talking like he always does.

STEVE MURPHY: I could just watch Kristin Wiig dancing horribly to that terrible carnival music all night long.  When other people started showing up, that was just gravy, I was already laughing.  I did really double over when Bobby Moynihan flew in as a fairy next to Jason Sudekis’ flying Neo, and at Keenan, the only black guy on the show, playing Harry Potter.

K E L L Y   C L A R K S O N   2

( ” I   D O   N O T   H O O K   U P ” ) :

STEVE MURPHY: Yeah, we know you don’t hook up.  You seem pretty mature.  This song is more up the alley of, say, The Jonas Brothers.  But Clarkson’s voice is still great, despite this terrible use of it.

HOWARD MEGDAL: As Michael Bluth would say: Her?

F A M I L Y   F L I X :   R O C K E T   D O G

STEVE MURPHY: Kristen Wiig again saves the day!  Her straight-man routine manages to keep it funny as she ridicules Tracy Morgan.  This actually got more and more hilarious as the clips got more and more absurd.   But this was all about Kristin Wiig’s understated performance.  Oh, and of course SNL decides to withhold this sketch as well, despite it being in the top 3 funniest sketches of the night!  I just do not understand what they’re thinking.

HOWARD MEGDAL: We clashed on Kristen Wiig- I didn’t understand what you saw in her. But when she is understated like this, she is great. This sketch made me laugh despite Tracy Morgan- it was all Wiig. Her subtelty is effective anyway- against Morgan, it is a salve.

C O M M E R C I AL :   G A S   R I G H T

STEVE MURPHY: Oh man a second commercial rerun?  And it’s also ass-related?  Could we at least have gotten a rerun of Colon Blow instead?  Thank god this is over.  I’m going to go watch something funnier, like Schindler’s List.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Farting is comedy gold? Ridiculous. Just to complete my rant on Tracy Morgan, the way people respond to him reminds me so much of how authority figures treat children in special ed. His uniform, uncomfortably loud rantings are treated as wit. But Tracy Morgan isn’t some child we need to prop up to help him succeed within a subset of our educational system. He’s a man who has wasted too much of our time, and at age 41, apparently peaked with a recurring role on “Martin”, yet is relentlessly self-referential, as if anybody knows or cares about the details of his troubled life. Apparently he’s had alcohol and health problems- I certainly wish him the best in combating both. I wish he’d do it in venues that I didn’t watch, and I wish he han’t returned to ruin an episode of Saturday Night Live.

NEXT WEEK:

A rerun of Steve Martin & Jason Mraz

Tags: Kelly Clarkson, review, Saturday Night Live, SNL, tracy morgan

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Arts & Culture, Humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.