SNL Week in Review: Taylor Swift

C O L D   O P E N :   FOX NEWS

STEVE MURPHY: This could have been worse… but there were a few quiet single-exhale chuckles in there.  Some solid impressions, some easy jokes, nothing brilliant here.  Am I wrong to hope for more after a three week break?

ZOË RICE: Starting off with Kristen Wiig is rarely a disappointment, and her Greta Van Susteren provoked an inward chuckle. Lampooning the way Fox News spins an election provides rich material, but this sketch suffers from its competition. Jon Stewart has cornered the market on Fox News ridicule, and he does it so well that this bit wound up feeling less fresh than I would have liked. Still, some funny material here. And it’s true–Jacko did die on Obama’s watch.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I really laughed at Wiig’s joke at the end- “from the right to the left”- with accompanying side-mouth movement.

M O N O L O G U E :

STEVE MURPHY: I’ll admit… I wasn’t excited for Taylor Swift.  At all.  But this was slightly funnier than I expected.  Could Taylor Swift actually turn out to be a good host?  I’m a little (cautiously) excited.

ZOË RICE: Well, this would turn out to be the highlight of Taylor Swift’s comedic skills, which–poor thing–are not all that strong. But she seems very sweet, a little cheeky, and ultimately likable. Seeing sweet Taylor say “douchebags” was a highlight, as was the relatively understated way they addressed the Kanye issue, which could have been handled very obviously.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Good comic timing here. Fortunately, SNL doesn’t employ anyone who could credibly handle a Kanye impression. Well, maybe Fred Armisen, who can seemingly do anything. Yay, lack of diversity!

C O M M E R C I A L :   SWINE FEVER

STEVE MURPHY: A simple, cute idea.  And once again… not terrible.  We seem to be surfing just ahead of the mediocre line tonight.  So far I am not unhappy… but I haven’t really laughed yet, either.

ZOË RICE: Not bad, not great. Overall that would also be my response to the show as a whole (and Steve, it seems like we’re on the same wavelength here). In 2002, a BBQ joint without foresight advertises you’ll get “swine fever!” by loving their ribs. Cue disclaimers that “swine flu” is a completely different beast–oops.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Well, I laughed quite a bit at this. And Steve, how can you not be happier to see Bobby Moynihan get his own commercial?!?

T H E   V I E W :

STEVE MURPHY: Underwhelming.  I’m lucky enough never to have heard Kate Gosselin talk in real life, so that may or may not have been a good impression.  I will say that Taylor Swift is coming off as an actress and not a singer trying to do some acting, which is good.  Andy Samberg as Nicolas Cage was a nice surprise… but really didn’t make any sense at all in the sketch.  This was more or less a string of disconnected jokes, none of which were particularly funny.

ZOË RICE: Oh poor Taylor Swift. They start her off by throwing her to the wolves with a pretty bad impression of Kate Gosselin. I admit I’m not all that familiar with the nuances of the View or Kate Gosselin, but I found Kristen Wiig’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck–and her descriptions of Gosselin’s hair–the funniest thing here. And kudos to Andy Samberg for getting Nicholas Cage’s voice just right.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I know I mention this quite a bit, but when the only target is odd celebrities- or in other sketches, no target at all- the comedy drags. It’s a common theme here.

D I G I T A L   S H O R T :  F I R E L I G H T

STEVE MURPHY: They just don’t know how to edit on SNL.  This sketch could have ended right when she lit the Bunsen burner and the Frankenstein monster freaked out, and it would have been a complete success.  Instead they drove it into the ground with two more minutes of unfunny parallels to Twilight.  I will say, however, that in a two minute preview I could tell Taylor Swift would have been a better choice than the girl who actually played Bella.  Of course, so would any number of inanimate objects, so maybe that’s not fair.

ZOË RICE: A good spoof of the Twilight movies, here substituting vampires with Frankensteins. Taylor Swift works as the ingenue, Bill Hader is amusingly convincing as Frankenstein, and my only critique is that there could have been something funnier to exploit with “the Franks” than accidental choking.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Agree with Steve- it’s downhill from the Bunsen burner.

H O L L Y W O O D   D I S H :

STEVE MURPHY: Funny!  There’s not a lot of things I like more than Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig making funny faces, and that’s just about all there was to this sketch… so I was pretty happy!  I loved when it really went overboard (around the time Hader spit water all over Wiig), and I found myself actually laughing aloud for the first time this episode!  The cut-back to Swift’s awkward laughter was a great closer.  Good work, writers, this one really came together!

ZOË RICE: You really have to love Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. There’s not much by way of concept here, just Kristen and Bill making funny faces. And that’s enough.

HOWARD MEGDAL: Synthetic Hollywood interviews also well-targeted. But it serves as an excuse- fun watching them both make a lot out of a little.

T R A A A P D :

STEVE MURPHY: Not bad!  Taylor Swift has impressed me some.  She was funny all the way through this one.  I also have always found amusement in what I’ll call ‘legislating stupidity,’ the idea that the law should prohibit certain stupidly dangerous activities while driving (texting, dialing a cell phone) but not others (putting on makeup, reading a book).

ZOË RICE: I’m not sure why I was so tickled by this sketch. Perhaps because young Taylor Swift is in her wheelhouse here, playing a teenager, or perhaps because the Awful Parent Driving scenarios are pretty spot-on. But likely because it was a mostly ho-hum show overall, and the writing here felt somewhat clever.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I’ll tell you why you both loved it- because if you give Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig the chance to be funny in an understated way, they never fail you.

T A Y L O R   S W I F T   1 :

STEVE MURPHY: Country pop candy.  It’s not my thing… but I’ve certainly liked plenty of other musical guests less.  She’s got good stage presence… and an inexplicably large backing band.

ZOË RICE: Aw, I like that this song feels like the theme of an after school special: When will the boy realize that the girl who understands him is way better than the cheerleading captain? If I had a teenager, I’d rather she listen to this stuff than Miley Cyrus. But I can’t say I’m personally going to rush out and buy a Taylor Swift CD anytime soon.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I first knew of Taylor Swift upon hearing about the Kanye uproar. I don’t feel like I missed much, though she seems to have some talent for this type of music. And isn’t it possible that the cheerleader is the deep one?

W E E K E N D   U P D A T E :

STEVE MURPHY: Political comedian Nicholas Fehn returns!  One of my favorite Fred Armisen characters.  They should have him debate Kristen Wiig’s ‘just kidding’ character.  That could go on for hours.  And then… Sarah McLachlan?  She’s so irrelevant I have no idea if this was a good impression or not.  I also haven’t seen these dog commercials so I am way not getting this one.  Luckily Seth Meyers’ reactions were hilarious.  “I, for real, broke my hand last year trying to get to the remote to change the channel when this commercial came on.”  And then Amy Poehler returns for my favorite thing on SNL: “Really?!? with Seth & Amy!”  I love it every time.  Overall a great Weekend Update for me!

ZOË RICE: Great first joke! New Yorkers are finally buying big ticket items again: Mayorships and World Series wins! Seth Meyers is sharp tonight, with some clever barbs and a welcome guest spot by Amy Poehler for the always enjoyable “Really!? With Seth and Amy.” But actually Nicholas Fehn is one of my least favorite recurring characters, and his one-note joke of never being able to tell a joke has just never worked for me. I am also at a loss as to which ASPCA commercial is being spoofed. I kind of think I remember pictures of dogs to a Sarah Mclachlan song, but I wasn’t into Abby Elliot’s impression. More Amy Poehler please! Really?! Yes, really!

HOWARD MEGDAL: While I am with Zoë on Fehn, I disagree with both of you on those ASPCA ads. I have seen them, and they were long overdue to be spoofed. Here’s the problem though- if nobody has seen them, is it a good thing to spoof? With such diffuse entertainment for the country, this is commonly an SNL problem, and really, a comedy problem.

P E N E L O P E :

STEVE MURPHY: SNL’s really hitting all my buttons here, Penelope is one of my favorite Kristen Wiig characters.  Funny as usual… but Taylor Swift was a little wooden and that made things go a little slower than they should have.  Also it seemed Kristen Wiig was supposed to be all over the set at different points and she was having trouble getting there, which also added some lag.  Not their best… but still amusing.

ZOË RICE: Penelope is definitely one of my favorite Kristen Wiig characters, if not my very fave. Her hyperbolic one-upmanship finds new ways to make me laugh every time. However, poor Taylor is over-matched in this sketch and comes across as weak in comparison.

HOWARD MEGDAL: And as someone who doesn’t care for Penelope, this just generally drags, with Swift, like you said, overmatched.

S C A R E D   S T R A I G H T :

STEVE MURPHY: Not funny.  As usual.  And Taylor Swift with a goatee was just… disturbing.  Also, Always Sunny did this ‘pretending a movie plot is actually my life’ bit much better last season.  I love when people break character on SNL, and there was plenty of that in this sketch (Hader, Swift, Sudeikis and Samberg).  What drives me crazy is that the only part of this sketch that made me laugh was when Sudeikis took that hilarious hop up onto the desk, a moment the writers surely had nothing to do with.

ZOË RICE: The Scared Straight inmate, for me, is Kenan Thompson’s most tolerable character. Which really isn’t saying much, because I just don’t enjoy watching Kenan Thompson. Taylor Swift was just ridiculous in this sketch, although her corn rows gave me a chuckle. Really, I’m never all that encouraged when SNL reverts to ass-rape humor. And here the humor is ass-raping it up about as much as ever. But Bill Hader always cracks up during these bits. Always. And that’s cute.

HOWARD MEGDAL: This was much too long. Movie. Ass-rape. Repeat. This is not a formula for humor.

R O O M I E S :

STEVE MURPHY: The new girl gets some screen time, and does a great job!  Andy Samberg does a great job of sitting there incredulously, but the new girl really makes this scene happen!  Good work, whatever you name is!

ZOË RICE: Uggghhh I found this sketch to be so annoying. The shriek-y girls, the one-note of the entire concept. What I did enjoy, though, was watching New Girl (and I confess I can’t even tell the two new girls apart yet) getting dragged across the floor by Taylor Swift’s blanket.

HOWARD MEGDAL: God, this was terrible- part of the SNL writing to create unspeakably obnoxious characters, and make normal people react normally to them. But they really did a good job of sending up… irritating people. You got yours, people I already knew I’d never sit in a room with!

T A Y L O R   S W I F T   2 :

STEVE MURPHY: Boooooring.  I think I like her more as an actress!

ZOË RICE: Well, Taylor Swift, you’re very sweet. And your dress is fine. I’m not all that impressed by your voice, however.

HOWARD MEGDAL: But I’m pretty sure her opening line was, “Untouchable, like a Dustin Diamond sky.” And that’s a cool image to contemplate.

B U N N Y   B U S I N E S S :

STEVE MURPHY: I love impressions of musicians, and some of these were damn good.  Taylor Swift did a really accurate Shakira, in that it was horrid, Armisen’s Randy Newman impression was great, and Bill Hader did a hilarious (but too brief!) Eddie Vedder.  Others fell a little short (Kenan), but overall this was enjoyable.

ZOË RICE: A strong end to the night. Fred Armisen’s Randy Newman was spot-on and made me laugh immediately. And I think Taylor Swift’s Shakira was one of her best acting bits of the night. Steve was definitely more impressed by her acting chops than I was. I say let the kid stick with musical humor and playing a teenager. And also she seems very nice.

HOWARD MEGDAL: I think it’s more that I expected nothing from her, and she handled comedy pretty well with a week to rehearse. I think she could go that route if she wants to. Liked Shakira in particular.

Tags: SNL, Taylor Swift

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under News & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.