Christopher Walken Hosts, Panic at the Disco Performs
Hello, again! It's Erin Fox, and I hope you had a lovely little break from
SNL the last few weeks. I actually had a life last night and saw some theater, so that's why this is coming to you the day after the show. So, what did you guys think of
Christopher Walken? I'm a big fan of his past performances on the show, but as some of you said in the blog last week, his last few hosting gigs have been kind of... stale. I know "The Continental" sketch has been overdone, but I'm sorry, it cracks me up every time. Let's see what they come up with for Mr. Walken tonight.
Cold Opening
A screen reading "Hillary for President" flashes across the screen. Darrell Hammond and Amy Poehler play Bill and Hillary who discuss having to release their tax return information under scrutiny from Obama's campaign. Hillary says they made about $109 million in the last five years. Most of that coming from what "Bill loves to do most: Talk to people." Bill agrees by saying, "That is what I love most in the world: Talking to people... and nothing else." Heh. Hill and Bill continue to mock the tax return inquiry by reminding us that the sums they were paid to write their memoirs were published in every paper... so it should be no surprise that they are rich. It's pointed and snarky, and I love it. The best part is when Hillary says, "So I think at this point I think it would be in the best interest of the party for me to step aside for the Obama campaign. Psych! That's never gonna happen." Ha!
Roll opening credits....
Monologue
Walken says it's his 100th time hosting... ha ha. He's going to answer questions from the audience, but to make sure they're good, he wrote them himself. The first question is "Which do you prefer, acting in movies or live performances?" Walken thinks this is a great question! He answers, and the next question (which he wrote, remember), "What is your favorite color?" He berates the woman who asked his question for such a lame request, saying "That was a stinky question." The next question is, "What do you like to do when you're not on camera?" Walken bristles and says, "Please don't come at me with questions about my intimate behavior." LOL. He continues, "I have a question for you: You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Annuale Commercial
We've already seen this brilliant commercial about year round birth control during Tina Fey's hosting episode. It still makes me laugh so hard, I had to pause the TiVo to regain my composure. "When you finally do get your period, hold on to your f--king hats." HA!
Grease Sketch
Walken wears a hilariously bad wig as a musical theater director of
Grease who is worried that the show's lyrics are too dirty. Andy, Keenan, Bill and Jason are the high school kids in the production and they launch into "Grease Lightning," and Walken stops them with, "Whoa!!! The chicks will what (cream)? That's dirty! Do you know what that means?" Andy whispers in his ear, and Walken says, "Yep that's it, congrats. Tell your friends, they want to know." Hee. Walken chooses another ridiculous rhyme for 'cream' that makes no sense. This continues until the song is so completely unrecognizable, it's pathetic. Yet funny.
Goodbye Office Party Sketch
Jason's leaving a company and they're throwing him a goodbye party. Walken plays that creepy guy... you know you all have one at the office... that kind that thinks he knows you really well. So Walken approaches Jason at the party and tells him how sorry he is that Jason's leaving. Actually, you can see he has a very scary one-way man crush, bodering on stalker relationship with poor Jason. He says things like, "You're so positive. You're like a breath of fresh air, or a moist towelette after a large delicious plate of ribs." People from the office come over to say goodbye, but then leave quickly as to not interrupt his time with Walken. Jason pleads with them all not to leave, that this guy is a freak. But, no one listens and it just escalates in awkwardness. Including that Walken made him a mix CD and a painted portrait. Jason is really skeeved out now, and it keeps getting worse. At the end as Jason runs to escape the psycho, Walken says, "Part of me wants to let him go, and part of me wants to run after him in the parking lot, come up behind him and choke him to death. Then make love to his corpse for the rest of my life." Wow, that just got disturbing on so many levels, yet I'm laughing.
SNL Digital Short
Bill and Andy barge in on Lorne Michaels at a dinner with Senator Dodd to talk about their newest digital short. Lorne knows what it is already: Laser Cats. This is the weirdest sketch ever, yet because they intertwine stuffed animals with real cats and a pug puppy I couldn't help but chuckle. They are basically playing laser tag but the cats shoot the lasers. Weird, right? But funny. And the pug puppy is so damn cute!
Surprise Party Sketch
Kristin Wiig is the star of this sketch, wearing a dorky wig and awful sweater, she plays a woman that gets ridiculously excited by helping throw Walken's granddaughter a surprise party. She freaks out over every detail, and literally looks like she's about to explode. This turns into a Mary Catherine Gallagher meets the Target lady sketch. She bashes a bottle over her head and crashes through each window from her excitement. My husband cracks up at this sketch, but I find it funny at first, and then annoying. Although crashing through the window is always chuckle-worthy.
Panic at the Disco Performs
Fun and upbeat with their band dressed in high school band uniforms. That's just mean.
Weekend Update
Amy begins with the Clintons tax return story, saying that their income was mostly from Bill's speaking engagements, book deal and stud fees. HA! She continues with the Olympic torch arriving in Beijing, and immediately suffering an asthma attack and dying. Hahahahah. Two for two, Amy! Seth nails his first joke about Hillary comparing herself to Rocky: A washed up, over-the-hill contender who despite a Herculean effort, is soundly beaten by the charismatic black guy." Well played! Andy comes out as the pregnant guy who was on Oprah. He invites Amy and Seth to his baby shower. He says there will be lots of beer and even a stripper... who is also pregnant because it's a celebration of life. Seth is grossed out, until Andy says, "Do you want to feel my stomach?" Seth says, "Oh my gosh, I feel it kicking!" Andy ruins it by saying, "No, that's my dong." They are on fire tonight! Bravo!
Family Reunion Sketch
Every cast member wears a Walken wig, and sports his accent/speech pattern. This is the funniest sketch of the night. Hader's "Walken" is the best, but everyone puts in an A+ effort. It's just so awesome.
Plant Expert Sketch
Walken plays a plant expert who's "very scared of plants." He's in another ugly wig and spraying water on his plants from a distance. The cacti all have "Googily eyes" on them, which is so weird, but really goofy, so it makes me laugh. I'm realizing that most of the laughter is not about the actual skit, but about Walken's delivery of all his lines. Genius.
Top Chef Sketch
After the success of the
Project Runway sketch, the team decides to spoof
Top Chef. Walken plays a chef who clearly has no idea what he's doing, just wants to talk to the other contestants. The ingredients they have to use to make pizza are really funny: Beets, cous cous, stale peeps, etc. Walken is fully reading the cue cards, which is my biggest pet peeve about the show. I know everyone does it, but he's not even shy about it.
Panic at the Disco Performs
What is there to say? They are fun and sound good.
Larry King Sketch
Fred plays Larry, and Darrell plays Jimmy Carter. This guy is the master of all impersonations. The voice is dead on, as is the stiffness is hilarious. I wish Fred would play Larry more clueless... you know, like he is in real interviews.
And... scene! I mean, end of show. Hope you enjoyed Walken as much as I did. Next week Ashton Kutcher will host and Gnarls Barkley will perform. What did you think about this week's show?
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