SNL Review: Josh Brolin

It was as if the writers threw in the towel this week on SNL.  "We have only three more episodes this season, guys.  Let's just wing this one and we might try harder in May."  Josh Brolin hosted for his second go around, while not really adding much.  Gotye performed their #1 hit song "Somebody I Used to Know," as well as "Eyes Wide Open."  On one hand, I've never seen Jay Pharoah get so much airtime.  But, the episode got off to a rocky start, showing a little glimmer of hope with a couple of SNL digital shorts, ultimately nose-diving into possibly the worst episode of the season.  This would be Exhibit A for someone making an argument that the show should be taken off the air.

Amusing
The first SNL Digital Short was Laser Cats 7 with an adorable cameo from Steven Spielberg.  In their basement-budget video project, Andy Samberg and Bill Hader battle space villains with their eponymous weapons in order to save the universe.  Nothing new really, except the welcome presence of the legendary director and innocuous references to a list of his films including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Terminal, Catch Me if You Can, and E.T. (partly in the form of a doll named EAT)

Vanessa Bayer plays a new kid at Woodridge High, where the principal explains to her about how one particular hallway operates.  It's a gimmick where all of the actors move in slo-motion set to "We Got More Bounce (In California).  It was kind of cool.  Taran Killam's work was pretty sick.  So talented, that one.


In Another SNL Digital Short Samberg and Killam play Gotye's #1 fans.  They spoof his "Somebody I Used to Know" music video wearing body paint and acting weird.

Negligible
In the Cold Open, Jason Sudeikis and Samberg play Romney and Santorum and sing a swan song that is two-fold.  They commemorate Santorum bowing out of the Republican presidential campaign, as well as the two actors leaving the show at the end of this season.  They sing "This Campaign Was the Time of My Life" to Green Day's "Time of Your Life."  They revisit refrains of the chorus after each previous front runner from the past year joins them at a bar.  Rick Perry (Hader), Michelle Bachmann (Kristen Wiig), Herman Cain (Kenan Thompson), and Newt Gingrich (Bobby Moynihan) all make appearances.

In his Opening Monologue, Brolin pokes fun at his gotee as "the official spokesman for the 90s." As he's pimping Men in Black 3, he drags out Jay Pharoah to do a Will Smith impression.

A Game of Thrones skit spoofs the series by depicting one of its creators as a thirteen year boy played by Samberg, who is obsessed with boobs and naked women.  Someone already made that joke a year ago about Fast Five being written by a kid with no taste for story.  And it was a lot funnier.

Soap Net presents The Californians with actors wearing blond wigs and referencing several major roadways in LA and local hot spots.  They talk in slurred speech and often break character.  Hader was the worst offender, but, I'm not going to lie, it was kind of funny when it got an extreme closeup mid-break.  "What are you doing here?" was a constant expression of Fred Armisen's character.  The more important question was: what was this skit doing here?

In America's Next Top Empire State of Mind Parody Artist, Samberg hosts as Weird Al Yankovic.  Kesha (Abby Elliott) is one of the judges, as well as Jay-Z (Pharoah), who attempt to find the next singing due that can create the best revision of the latter's hit song.  Strangely, there were more roadway references.  And this was the second time in the episode where they tinker with the lyrics to a popular song for "comic" effect.

This episode's Weekend Update with Seth Meyers showcased a segment Meyers called What Are you Doing? and hosted Garth and Kat, the blond-wigged improvisational duet, who insist that all of their "songs" are prewritten and not created on-the-spot.  They wore lime green Easter-themed vests over creme-colored turtles necks.  That's about as interesting as it got.

Killam returned with one of his many impersonations in Piers Morgan Tonight.  He lampoons the mishandling of the Trayvon Martin case, the Stand Your Ground law, as well as the state of Florida.  There are various other celebrity appearances including Ice-T (Armisen), Kanye West (Pharoah), Kim Kardashian (Nasim Pedrad), and the neutered Wire Dancer from the Super Bowl (Samberg).  I have to admit, Samberg ALMOST put a smile on my face, the operative word being 'almost.'

A skit depicting the Booker T. Washington High School Prom at the Ramada Inn ended things on a very sad, pathetic note.  (It was also the second non-funny high school themed skit)

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2011-2012 Breakdown (so far)


Best SNL episodes this season: Alec Baldwin, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, Emma Stone, 


Not Bad: Charles Barkley, Jimmy Fallon


Bad Host Tanks Through Really Good Writing: Lindsay Lohan


One-Skit Wonder: Steve Buscemi (the Miley Cyrus/Whitney Houston satire)


Willing and Able Hosts Fall Prey to Poor Writing: Eli Manning, Melissa McCarthy, Daniel Radcliffe, Jason Segel, Channing Tatum


Just Plain Bad: Ben Stiller, Anna Faris, Charlie Day, Katy Perry, Jonah Hill, Sofia Vergara, Josh Brolin


Haven't Seen: Zooey Deschanel