SNL Review: Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell must have been getting over a cold, because he sounded congested as host of this week’s SNL.  No matter, the consummate professional brought his A-game for his duties and helped deliver an episode that was “not bad” to “pretty solid,” and quite possibly could have been the best episode of the season.  Musical guest Usher performed “Scream” and “Climax.” 

In the cold open, President Barack Obama (Fred Armisen) visits a petulant Joe Biden (Jason Sudeikis) sulking in his room upstairs, because he got no credit for coming out on marriage equality first.  Biden also has imaginary friend George W. Bush (Ferrell) hiding in his closet. 

In the opening monologue, as it’s Mother’s Day today, Ferrell brings his mom up on stage.  She looks just like a feminine version of him, pretty adorable.  He delivers an unscripted speech in her honor, that just wouldn’t have been funny had it been anybody else. 

The Mother’s Day portion of the monologue in its entirety:

“Mom, the words I am saying now … are my words … from my brain place … to my mouth hole.  Mom, I have love.  I love, I love the way you be … you be a big old mommy.  Wait, hold on.  You went into a hospital building, right?  A long time ago.  And, strange men pulled me out of your lady parts, wait.  That was bad.  That was bad, that’s bad.  God, why is this so hard?  Is it the piano?  It’s the piano, isn’t it?  The piano player is awful, I’m sorry Mom.  He’s terrible.  You know what?  I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna think about all the things you did for me, Mom-person.  You made milk for me … like the lady on the cover of Time magazine.  Mom, what I’m trying to say is I want to celebrate you.  Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say.  I wanna, I want to cover you in Super Glue and roll you in flowers?  That’s, that’s not bad.  Right?  Okay, I got it, wait, wait, this is perfect.  If you, if you were attacked by a dozen Ninjas, wearing crotchless panties, I would fight them.  I would fight them hard.  There, I did it.  The perfect Mother’s Day speech.”  He ends it on a touching note and kisses her.  I loved it.

Pretaped Cold Commercialwhere Ferrell’s outrageous sneeze (imagine Ferrell yelling “How” really loud) keeps interrupting Wiig while she tries to do the advertisement.  Their chemistry is pretty fantastic.  I didn’t like it first, but damn, did it grow on me quickly.

At Wilson High School’s first LGBT prom Anna Gasteyer guest cameos with Ferrell for the return of Bobbie and Marty Culp. 

ESPN Classic airs the Lady’s Long Drive Championship 1994 (ESPN Golf) with hosts Pete Twinkle (Sudeikis) and Greg Stink (guest cameo Will Forte).  Twinkle provides coverage of the event while sticking in plugs for Stay Free maxi pads, and Stink continually misunderstands his questions.  Forte is pretty brilliant as the dopey sportscaster who can’t catch a break.  Ferrell plays an onsite news reporter Randy covering the OJ Simpson chase (Sudeikis keeps reminding us it’s 1994), although he never seems to be ready when the camera’s on him.  Talking to a potential date over the phone, “I’ll tell you exactly how big: four inches.  Around? … oh, I’d probably say like a McDonald’s straw … what’s that? … oh, it’s a forest down there.”

Tampon euphemisms:

“When you have your monthly booboo, put one of these near your hoo hoo”; “it’s the downstairs’ patch for your baby hatch”; “I see London, I see China, I see one very happy vagina”; “where uterine lining looks like the elevator from The Shining.”

For the SNL Digital Short: 100^th Digital Short, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone celebrate their greatest hits while singing about sucking their own dick tonight.  Cameos galore: Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman, Michael Bolton, Jon Hamm, Usher, Ferrell, Lorne Michaels.  Pretty clever and Ferrell got the best line: “I do endorse this song.  My name is Will Ferrell and I’m sucking my own dong.”  Hamm, adorned in an awful long greasy black wig and wearing suspenders without a shirt while playing the saxophone, I swear I’m finding sexier the more comedy he does.  It suits him quite well.

For Weekend Update, Meyers actually gets a couple of good jokes this week.  There were some real zingers.  On Limbaugh’s uproar to Obama’s coming out for marriage equality, “He wants it to mean something, if he gets traditionally married for the fifth time.”  He also conducts another edition of Really? Criticizing the latest Time magazine cover with a mother nursing her four-year-old (or so) son, asking “Are You Mom Enough?”  “It’s a good cover, but if you wanted a great cover, you would have photo-shopped out the chair.”  (as a result, the kid looks he’s hanging from his mother’s breath by his mouth)  There was my favorite “Get in the Cage” with Nicolas Cage (Samberg) and this week’s guest Liam Neeson.  Cage has names for all three of his testicles, two of which descended into his stomach while he watched the Taken trailer.  [5/15 NOTE: I noticed that there was a link to Bobby Moynihan playing The Hulk as a special reporter, but I don't remember this airing while I watched the West Coast feed.  Considering Meyers' mention of The Avengers "shattering box office records," I don't believe it could have been from the previous episode.  When Eli Manning hosted the week before, The Avengers had only been out less than 48 hours and the numbers weren't quite official yet.  Stange.  Perhaps, it got cut for time.]

C-SPAN hosts the 2012 Funkytown Debate with moderator Michael “Monkey Sweat” James (Taran Killam) singing while interviewing various politicians set to music.  I can’t get over Kate McKinnon’s crazy eyes.  Usher cameos. 

Broadway Sizzlewith Darius and Cara has the little used (this week) Bill Hader and Wiig as some low-rent musical theatre producers.  Because of the choreography, Kenan Thompson kept having to switch where he looked at his cue cards, causing him to lose his train of thought for a brief second.  He covers pretty well, but almost breaks to Wiig’s amusement.  However, it’s Ferrell that takes the stage and steals the show as John Timberly Crisp who keeps messing up his audition.  He first sings “Damnit Pam” from You Can’t Hold Me Back There Like That.  It’s not until the end of the song that he realizes he sang the wrong part.  “I’m leaving you Tom, you can pick up your own boots …”  “Wait, wait a minute.  Don’t applaud.  This is a woman’s song.  I thought I was yelling at Pam, but I guess I am Pam.”

He makes the same mistake again.  As he slowly turns around from behind, he sings, “I went to the cupboard, we were all out of jazz.  Who had the last of the jazz?  If you finish the jazz, you gotta tell somebody, or at least replace the jazz, with some ma-tazz … Now, let me put my bra back on, before my Dad walks in.”  “Oh, wait a minute, this song is for a woman too.  What gives?  Darnit!  Darnit to heck!  What the durn?  I just goofed again.”  He looks for another song, but can’t find one.  “Darnit, fudge me to durn.”

For Vince & Angela’s 25^th Anniversary Party at the Radisson, weird freaks from other hotel functions keep taking to the stage in the room to offer them congratulations.  The only relative who speaks (Ferrell) explains his new occupation: “You didn’t know I was going to be psychic, but I knew.”  Armisen is dressed like the lead singer from AC/DC.  Forte, by far, steals the show towards the end of the skit, however, as a creep in a blond bob wig with a low, raspy voice who isn’t a fan of our president.  “I’m a distant cousin.  I’m here to celebrate this old dying couple.  For twenty-five years, their great heterosexual love has remained unchanged, steadfast, strong, WHITE, and, come November, America will honor their silver anniversary when it fires a giant silver bullet into the heart of the socialist wolf that howls over this land.  And I am loathe to say his name, so I will say it backwards, Amabo: kcarab Hussein Amabo.  On an unrelated note, for anyone headed to the men’s room: give it five.”  I hesitate to laugh, because there are people like this man who are serious and no laughing matter. But, Forte does such an excellent job sending up the irrationality behind these people and their less dedicated company.  

There’s a repeat of Almost Pizza, where a Stepford mom/wife played by Wiig inexplicably tries to sell her husband and daughter on consuming a product which she conspicuously tries to sidestep isn’t actually edible (even though it appears it is) and more like one of the face-huggers from Alien.  The funniest bit is still when Wiig pretends to eat the pizza.  

In conclusion, I wasn't a fan of Ferrell while he was on the show, figuring him to be humorous every now and then.  Perhaps it's age, but I'm finding his brand of schtick to be hilarious these days.  If you find yourself in the same boat, then the episode is worth checking out.  If the link is still good, you can watch it here.

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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: Anna Faris, Eli Manning, Melissa McCarthy, Daniel Radcliffe, Jason Segel, Channing Tatum


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


Haven't Seen: Zooey Deschanel