Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp#1
Posted: 3/11/12 at 1:37pm
From last night's SNL. Made me smile.
Liza Tries to Turn Off a Lamp
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #2
Posted: 3/11/12 at 1:55pmToo Funny. Her Paula Dean sketch was also pretty good.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #3
Posted: 3/11/12 at 1:59pmThis was the single most UNFUNNY thing I've ever seen on SNL in my life. If this is any indication I'm glad I stopped watching YEARS ago!
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #4
Posted: 3/11/12 at 3:18pm
One of Kristen Wiig's worst impersonations.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #5
Posted: 3/11/12 at 3:27pm
I think it was more about the inability to turn off the light without being all showbizzy pizazz that was the point over the accuracy of the impersonation. Wiig's Ann Margret in "Ann Margret Tries to Throw Away a Piece of Paper" sounded a bit more like Kitty McPhee showing Ivy the vibrato in "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" than it did our beloved Kitten With a Whip, but there you have it.
"Let's do this..."
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #6
Posted: 3/11/12 at 3:31pmI usually love Kristen Wiig (rarely watch SNL anymore) but that DID NOT work! Give me Christine Pedi any day!
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #7
Posted: 3/11/12 at 3:36pm
Namo's right. The humor of the sketch isn't found in the accuracy of the impression. It's the idea that Liza Minnelli has created such an artificial persona that the mere idea of her doing anything mundane is funny.
And then it went on too long, but that's SNL (Stefon excepted).
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #8
Posted: 3/11/12 at 4:21pm
I get the premise that "Liza Minnelli has created such an artificial persona that the mere idea of her doing anything mundane is funny," only to me, it wasn't funny, or executed successfully.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #9
Posted: 3/11/12 at 4:44pm
Awful. Simply, awful.
It makes me wonder whether Radner and Belushi could have done anything with that material.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #10
Posted: 3/11/12 at 4:54pmI challenge you to go back and watch entire episodes with the celebrated original cast. You will be surprised how many big fat stinking sketches there were. We remember the good stuff, just like we do every five years when a new cast is derided as not being as good as the "classics" from six years before.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #11
Posted: 3/11/12 at 5:14pm
There are a thousand drag queens who doa better Liza.
Just like you can walk into any bar in Wrigleyville and find five guys who do a better Harry Caray than Will Ferrell.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #12
Posted: 3/11/12 at 5:28pm
That stank. In conception and in execution. And it seemed to go on forever.
In fact, I don't even believe that was really Kristen Wiig. I've seen Kristen Wiig and she's funny.
That must have been some bad drag queen doing a bad imitation of Kristen Wiig doing a bad imitation of Liza Minnelli.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #13
Posted: 3/11/12 at 6:05pm
Namo is right. The criticisms of SNL have remained constant from day one. "Saturday Night Dead" has sprung from many a TV reviewer's creative mind, more times then can be counted over the years. Each time they believe themelves the first and chuckle at how clever they are. The sketches: unfunny, go on too long, they don't know how to end them. Yet, it is one of the only shows of it's kind in existence. A live sketch comedy show.
It has always had it's clunkers even with the original cast. Yet, each show they manage to pull of at least one or two funny bits.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #14
Posted: 3/11/12 at 6:29pmThe first time I saw the Saturday Night Dead headline was when Bill Murray replaced Chevy Chase.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #15
Posted: 3/11/12 at 7:29pm
I don't Wiig has been pretty one-note for a few seasons now, If she had actually put in ANY effort on her impersonation it would have been GREAT but it was just really unfunny. she can be funny that's not my problem with her, it's that she's being overused and it's cheapening her.
Updated On: 3/11/12 at 07:29 PM
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #16
Posted: 3/11/12 at 7:30pmYes, and it resurfaces almost everytime there is a cast change. That is until the cast grows to become "Oh that was my favorite cast! They were awesome!"
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #17
Posted: 3/12/12 at 8:13am3:39 of my life I'll never get back. It didn't make me laugh -- didn't even make me smile. That was supposed to be funny?
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #18
Posted: 3/12/12 at 8:27am
It was a little odd that the setting for this sketch was 30 years ago.
I guess Liza is too old and too "fragile" to make it a current joke? They must think it's a low blow to do it "now," but making fun of her in the '80s is better?
It only made this one-joke sketch all the more archaic. And weird.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #19
Posted: 3/12/12 at 10:13am
I did enjoy a couple of the lines that might have landed better if the impression were better.
"Will a Fosse neck do it?"
"Ben Vereen, it's long!"
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #20
Posted: 3/12/12 at 10:22amI appreciate it for her physical comedy, even though the impression wasn't spot on.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #21
Posted: 3/12/12 at 10:25am
Best, I think they set it thirty years ago because that is the time of the iconic Liza look that has become so enblazen in our minds.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #22
Posted: 3/12/12 at 11:32am
Sadly unfunny. Wiig is being overused on SNL. They think if they throw her in, she'll get a laugh. She's also feeling very comfortable on SNL because she is breaking up more, as she did in this skit. She was sleepwalking on this one.
I love Wiig, but this skit was the pits.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #23
Posted: 3/12/12 at 1:20pmI guess this was a follow up to an earlier "Ann-Margret Tries to Toss a Wad of Paper Into a Wastebasket" sketch.
Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp #24
Posted: 3/12/12 at 2:18pm
It was a funny idea that was almost funny for about 30 seconds. But it was mostly embarrassing to watch to the point of feeling uncomfortable. I felt like she knew it wasn't working and was desperately trying to fill out the time until it was over.
It was a little odd that the setting for this sketch was 30 years ago.
That was actually my first thought when it started. The current Liza is still pretty eccentric and fun and in the public eye. This concept seemed so forced because it relied on a part of Liza's persona that really wasn't that iconic. She was less prevalent in the public media then than she is now and this persona has mostly been portrayed to audiences through impersonations rather than examples. It was like the audience was laughing because it was just physically silly, not because they really connected the dots.
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