Comments on: January Jones Was the Worst Host Ever On the Worst Episode of ‘SNL’ Ever http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/ A Visceral Thrill Ride Tue, 22 May 2012 14:09:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: ‘SNL’ Shake-Ups & Sensationalism: Slate & Sudeikis « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-475 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:04:10 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-475 [...] for his relationship with January Jones.  After Jones hosted SNL last season we were not shy with our criticism of her performance, and we also didn’t hide our feelings about her work on Mad Men (quick [...]

]]> By: Jude Law is One of Our Finest Actors, and a Look Back on the Last Three Weeks in ‘SNL’ « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-316 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:24:51 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-316 [...] Even though last week people had proclaimed the Zack Galifianakis-hosted episode as the strongest of the season before it had even aired, I think that show suffered  from a sentiment that the show would be funny on the virtue of Galifanakis’ presence alone.  Indeed, he did appear in the best bits (and probably the highlight of the night was his monologue, which was just borrowed from his usual stand-up act), but when he wasn’t on screen the show kinda fizzled.  Even some of the sketches that featured the bearded one, another Kissing Family, the CNN Situation Room, were half-baked.  And to confuse matters even more, I found the show hosted by Jennifer Lopez the week before to be surprisingly okay.  She wasn’t a legendary host, and nor were there any real buzzworthy sketches, but after the Olympic break the cast seemed to come back with Olympic fever, energized to put on a good show, maybe not hilarious, but one with spunk.  We’ve talked before about the correlation between the host and the quality of the show, and the chicken or the egg question of does a good host makes for good sketches or vice versa.  Well, I think these last few weeks, and really this season as a whole shows that there’s no easy solution to this puzzle.  You can have a host like Joseph Gordon Levitt who was literally climbing the walls.  But that didn’t mean the show was especially hilarious.  And you can have a host like Charles Barkley, who cue-carded his way through ninety sweat-soaked minutes to rather superb results.  So obviously it helps when the host is genuinely funny (Galifianakis), supremely charismatic (Jon Hamm) or filled with childlike exuberance (Taylor Swift), but we’ve seen that a lot of it also just depends on the quality of the material and the energy of the cast, whether the host is Jude Law or January Jones. [...]

]]> By: ‘SNL’: Hamm & Cheese and A Bublé Disposition « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-224 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:58:27 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-224 [...] that of his Mad Men co-star, Ms. January Jones.  Of course, that’s entirely unfair, because Jones was clearly over-matched and out of her element, and Hamm has already his hosting prowess.  There’s really no reason [...]

]]> By: SNL & James Franco Hit Christmas Break Early: You Can’t Squint Funny « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-93 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:57:18 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-93 [...] is not to say he was anywhere near January Jones territory, not even in the same stratosphere.  He was enthusiastic, confident and capable.  But [...]

]]> By: SNL: Blake is Lively, Astronaut ‘Tater Chips, and the Muppets are Just Killing it Lately! « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-80 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:47:09 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-80 [...] despite a dearth of good sketches; so far we’ve learned that if the host is a trainwreck (January Jones) or possessed by flubber (Regular Joe Gordon Levitt) then the show can make waves without being [...]

]]> By: ‘SNL’ & JGL: Full of Sound and Fury Signifying…What, Exactly? « Jumped The Snark http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-71 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:36 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-71 [...] raucous enthusiasm, and, perhaps, with the scathing reviews after last weekend’s January Jones episode, the cast and crew felt they had something to prove.  And they came out and put on an [...]

]]> By: Michaela Watkins http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-70 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:58:46 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-70 [...] January Jones Was the Worst Host Ever On the Worst Episode of ‘SNL … [...]

]]> By: binky http://jumpedthesnark.com/2009/11/16/january-jones-was-the-worst-host-ever-on-the-worst-ever-episode-of-snl/#comment-64 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:35:13 +0000 http://jumpedthesnark.com/?p=829#comment-64 Your assessment of January Jones is pretty spot-on. I find her character on Mad Men and her performance on that show pretty faceless, which I guess is what it’s supposed to be. As someone still alive who actually lived through the 1960s, that’s what upscale homemakers were really like in those times. But her blandness was stultifying the other night. I still wouldn’t know what she looked like if I knocked her over in my local CVS.

I also think Wiig is running out of invention. Penelope is what she’s best at, and everything they’ve got her doing seems to be a crib of that persona, in one way or the other.

Keep up the snarkiness. Maybe Joseph Gordon Leavitt will offer some inspiration this week.

Binky

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