Scarlett Johannssen hosting SNL Tonight- Page 3

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 12:49am

I think for that skit, that was a pretty obvious character choice. She wouldn't have wanted to be looking her husband in the eye with that discussion.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 12:51am

I'm hoping she's staring at the cards the whole show on purpose, because she knows the stuff is ****e.

[fflagg]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 12:54am

God bless Gilda Radner. She was not only a comedienne but also an actress who brought humor and warmth to her characters. It's a shame no one knew how to use her after she left SNL. The last truly great performer on SNL was Eddie Murphy.

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 12:56am

The last thing in SNL memory that I really laughed at was the Chronic(what?)cles of NARNIA!

Donuts?

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 12:59am

They've got talent on the show. Too bad the writing has gone so far downhill.

[joliz]

Posted: 1/15/06 at 1:56am

The only good thing to have come out of this season was Chris Parnell and Andy Sambergs Chronicles of Narnia rap

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 9:25am

Dissenting opinion! To a point. I've hated the show for two seasons, but though it may be grading on a scale ... I thought they found some of their teeth last night, taking on Pat Robertson more fearlessly than they would a year ago. And (again, minority view) I thought the sweet 16 sketch resonated. But then, I loathe the way children are raised today.

They've done far worse shows this season.

[LorelaiGilmore]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 10:29am

not THAT bad, but not the greatest

i know fantabulous commented on this already, but what was with ALL the singing, they sung in most every skit


and did anyone else get the free Samberg and Parnell rap on iTunes?

oh and Andy Samberg is hot

Posted: 1/16/06 at 10:38am

Who's the musical guest?
I want Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferell back. The show has been getting old recently.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:00am

I'm with Auggie and GovernorSlaton. Although I really value Rathnait's negative opinions on SNL, (which she starts sharing about 15 minutes before the show comes on), I'd love to hear some more positive things, about what sort of live television comedy sketch show works better for her.

The Narnia sketch was just a few weeks ago, but people are acting as if it was from 1977. Fact is, it gave the show some momentum which they ran with this weekend. The show just can't win because people forget what was funny about 3 seconds after they're laughing but boy do they always seem to remember who or what they found not funny.

[Criticizing the use of cue cards is ridiculous, sketches are dropped and re-written as late as the time between dress rehearsal and the show that airs. Even the saintly original cast relied on them.]

The cold opening cartoon of Pat Robertson reading to children was very funny. The monologue with Amy singing the duet with Scarlett was terrific and I'm surprised it didn't inspire seven threads about how great she would be ON BROADWAY! Deep House Dish with DJ Dynasty Handbag and Tiara Zee was hilarious. The songs snippets the various performers did were great.

The Swedish food show wasn't funny but it was completely redeemed by the Swedish chef ringtones commercial.

The Darwin cartoon was sheer unadulterated GENIUS. Especially with the commercials for the other shows, I mean COME ON. Bryo the Gay Stem Cell and Celi-bots. If you didn't laugh at that, why even tune in to a comedy show, you have no sense of humor. One of the best TV Funhouses they have shown yet.

The chandelier sketch was a throwaway but still funny. The "Live Duluth" show was hilarious, almost as good as the favorite Will Ferrel sketch with "more cowbell."

The news was good, but they have done better this season. Loved Rachell as Alito's wife. The Phantom of the Opera joke was great: "And it is the most successful show ever about a burn victim that rapes an opera singer."

Why people have not held up the Sweet Sixteen parody as the highlight of the show I can not figure out. I just wonder what comedy IS to people who didn't laugh their asses off? In it, Scarlett uttered one of the greatest lines in SNL history: "This party is literally worse than The Holocaust."

The jewelry store sketch was fine. "Obvious character choice" (snicker) and all. The submarine sketch didn't work for me. Neither did the Jane Austen sketch.

Death Cab for Cutie suck unwiped ass. There, I said it.

All in all, way more hits than misses. Even in the precious "golden age," (which of course means different eras to different people) there were that many sketches that didn't fly.

But seriously, I would love to hear from people who automatically go on about the show sucking say exactly why they didn't laugh and what exactly they are looking for?

Updated On: 1/16/06 at 11:00 AM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:04am

Really, Namo, if you go back and read SNL threads from the past, you'll see that I was one of the last holdouts, someone who found it amusing long after most others who comment on the board.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:14am

Yeah, the Sweet Sixteen party had authentic satiric power -- ask some parents out there, or just go to a mall and take a good look. This sketch managed to accomplish in a few minutes what many an attenuated 90 minute film does not.

As for Scarlett's depenence on card-reading, folks, more critically she committed to every sketch as an actor -- not a "personality." (Hillary Swank ande Alec Baldwin did the same.) That meant she knew the value of pace, rhythm, and a sketch comedy requirement: precision. This stuff only works if it moves along. She clear opted to stay on top of the words to hold the pace, and (you actors out there should know this:) pick up her cues. She kept dead air out of even the lesser material. And I'm so not a Scarlett groupie.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:15am

Yes, Auggie, that's what I said earlier - she was 100% committed to everything. Total pro.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:18am

"This sketch managed to accomplish in a few minutes what many an attenuated 90 minute film does not." Absolutely true, Auggie.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:45am

C'mon Namo, we know the cue cards are used for every sketch and that sketches are dropped. But new ones are not added at the last minute. Two hours of show are written and rehearsed during the week. A dress rehearsal audience comes in at 8 and sees the entire two hours. After that, 30 minutes of show are dropped, and at 11:30 we see what's left. Every sketch has been rehearsed and rehearsed. I'm saying that she never turned away from the cards for one second, while most other hosts are able to. I was always aware that she was staring at them. Anyway, I'm one of the people who thinks the show has been stinking for years. They don't have to improve because the ratings are there-they have no competition.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:51am

As you know, the show lives or dies by the host. The ensemble gels and evolves on its own, and generally, just when an ensemble begins to achieve greatness, somebody leaves.

I just think people overlook what's hilarious until five years later, then it's all, "It's nowhere near as great as back when they did the CLASSIC Sweet Sixteen sketch." Mark my words, I've been following this phenomenon for 30 years.

Comedy is hard. Writing little action steps inside asterisks is easy.

*sips coffee*

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:54am

But let me ask you this-when you look back to the "hay days" of SNL, I don't have to list the great cast members and hosts for you, don't you see a gradual, if not drastic, decline in quality on the show in general?

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:55am

I have to say, as far as cue cards, look at Christopher Walken. He NEVER looks away from them, and yet everyone thinks he's a genius.

(I don't, but that's besides the point.)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:57am

I see peaks and valleys over a 30 year span. Honestly, I remember the first "Saturday Night Dead" article I ever saw was half-way through season 2 after Chevy left. "It's lost everything that made it great."

I think this year is much better than last and I LOVE almost all of the cast.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 11:59am

Well, I'm not saying no other host stared at the cue cards. I'm saying that when Scarlett did it, it was all too obvious to me, I guess because I didn't think she was doing a great job to begin with. There was nothing to divert my attention from her staring at them. Just my opinion, now! I'm a big fan of Scarlett, believe it or not. I LOVE her looks and voice. She has charsima and many performers are successful based on charisma (Hello Madge).

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 12:31pm

Some sketches are totally rewritten between dress and air. Sometimes large sections of dialogue are lost or moved around. Beats are added and removed. There is very little time to go over all the changes with the talent (since the dress usually ends about 10- 10:15). Since notification of the changes come so fast and furious everyone has to rely on the cue cards to keep abreast of the changes.

[Jane2]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 12:40pm

Yes, but you're talking about something which occasionally happens there. I'm saying Scarlett stared straight at the cue cards for the entire show. Every single sketch wasn't rewritten betw. 10:30 and 11:00. As long as we're talking about rewriting, though-I was in a sketch where the thing was changed while we were doing it! Members of the crew were on the floor pulling our pants legs to exit the scene, lol!

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 12:59pm

Something interesting about SNL is that it seems to thrive on either being really good or really bad, according to public opinion. Water-cooler talk is either "did you see that blah blah blah funny SNL skit last night?" or "did you see now much SNL SUCKED last night?" Either way, people are tuning in, because even the things that "suck" are memorable - as in, "did you see how much that Jane Austen skit SUCKED last night?" Oddly, this seems to be the strength of SNL, that even when it flops, it can keep people talking until the next genius cowbell sketch.

I think the humor is best when it's brought closer to home, at least for me. The guy in the jewelry store is someone that I have (and anyone who's ever worked retail has!) waited on. The Chronicles of Narnia rap is funny because we all know people who are that dorky. Sweet 16 - we know teenagers like that, and so on, and so on. I will disagree with Namo, though, that "This party is literally worse than The Holocaust" is a catchphrase in the making - I think that 50 years is still a little early to say that at a boring bar mitzvah.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 1:26pm

Oh no, I never meant to suggest it was a catchphrase in the making. What I said was it was one of the funniest lines in the history of the show.

The thing about comedy is, people laugh but they don't remember at what. I've seen (literally) hundreds and hundreds of comics perform and audiences roar, but ask any of them to quote more than two things that made them laugh in a 40 minute set and they, generally can't.

I think this is something that works against SNL.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/16/06 at 1:59pm

I agree with what Namo said about the classics on the show. Memory creates the "classics," but sometimes you can sense one that will enter the SNL lore. It's a good guess about Sweet Sixteen.

I am personally still gaga over one on the Will Ferrell DVD that I don't recall landing when it aired -- the Professors Cloven in the hot tub (hotTUB!, as Will intones) with Drew Barrymore. I cannot even think of it -- Rachel eating spicedlamb shanks -- without laughing. I remember seeing it, and giggled, but assumed that the actors breaking up blocked it from classic status (my own litmas test). Wrong. It's a killer.

Only time -- as Enya sang, infamously -- can help us find out how memorable this comic work will prove to be.