Saturday Night Live goes out like a punk

Oh sigh. Saturday Night Live, even with Alec Baldwin hosting, you sure did stink this weekend. What the hell happened? Just last week, your Betty White episode was pretty swell. It wasn't perfect, but for this season, it was pretty damn good.

But Saturday's episode? What a god damn train wreck. By my count, there were three funny moments - Meyers' jokes during Weekend Update, the appearance of Stefan in Update, and Baldwin as an abusive swim coach. None of these were original features, and only one used the considerable talents of Baldwin, who seemed on autopilot the majority of the night.

Dear Saturday Night Live, PLEASE stop making Kristen Wiig play some awkward, horrible shrew in every god damn sketch. If you don't have faith in Jenny Slate or Abby Elliott to do anything, then please, just do all-male sketches or something. Heck, you haven't even done "What's up with that?" lately, which is normally a guaranteed way to kill six to eight minutes.

Grade: D

TV Review: SNL merely average with sub-par host

Hey, Saturday Night Live still has new episodes this year! For some reason, I find this surprising. Because of their rigorous writing and rehearsal schedules, it always feels like they start later and finish sooner than every other show out there.

In an iffy season like this one, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The best part of last night's show was the embed clip above, which was actually by one of the show's writers, not even a cast member. I definitely agree with his take on Girl Scout cookies; I could eat boxes of those god damn Thin Mints at any point of the year. (As a bonus, Seth Meyers and I apparently think alike - I wrote my blog earlier today about the Lane Bryant models before his thing on the Charmin bears with toilet paper stuck to their ass.)

Beyond Weekend Update, the only other skit I really enjoyed was the recurring one with Tina Funnylastname, the doorbell tone saleswoman. This time though, she was working on alarm clocks. Much like "What up with that?" and Astronaut Jones, the sketch is just so silly and weird that I can't help but laughing every time I see it. While Jenny Slate will probably still be remembered mostly for dropping an F-bomb on her debut show, I like this character of hers.

Beyond that though, the show was very meh. Gabourey Sidibe sucked as the host, which didn't really surprise me. Her, uh, unique look kind of limits what sort of skits and roles she can be in, so I was subjected to her as an angry black lady in an apartment complex and as a disgruntled federal worker. Also, she apparently studied for her hosting stint by reviewing nothing but Jimmy Fallon tapes, since she flubbed lines and cracked up laughing at several points.

If you didn't catch this episode, then I recommend you just watch Weekend Update and the alarm clock skit - it's about 10 minutes after Update - instead of subjecting yourself to the entire thing.

Grade: C-