Earlier this week comedy.com published their list of the 10 Funniest SNL Sketches Inspired by Presidents and I wanted to share it with you for a number of reasons.
1. As was the impetus for the list in the first place, it’s relevant, as it was uploaded in anticipation of President Obama’s State of the Union Address this past Wednesday night. Now I don’t have much to say about the address, as I only saw about the last 20 minutes of it, and it was closed-captioned at a bar, but I feel pretty confident that on tonight’s SNL they will lead with a parody, mining jokes from Joe Biden’s seal clapping and Nancy Pelosi’s emphatic, frenetic applause. Sorta like this:
2. In my recent list of the Top 10 SNL Sketches of the 00s, I decided to only include one political sketch, so the comedy.com list rather fills that void (and saves me from doing more work). If I were to add one more in, it would probably be a debate, but in terms of personal preference I have a real affinity for this Obama commercial:
Vodpod videos no longer available.3. This is something to whet your appetite for tonight’s new episode, featuring the return of, you guessed it, a beardless Jon Hamm! First hosting last decade, in October of 2008, Hamm proved that he’s more than just a handsome face, just as skilled at comedy as he is staring into the nothingness, drinking whiskey and smoking a cigarette, and looking dashing doing it. I’ve already included many of the sketches from his last go-round, so here’s one from later in the show that I have yet to employ:
Vodpod videos no longer available.4. On Sunday night NBC goes back to the well and serves up another SNL compilation special, this time, in honor of the Super Bowl and in lieu of a game, it’s SNL Sports All-Stars. Like the Christmas special, a show made up old sports-themed sketches is nothing new. However, also like the Christmas special, Sports All-stars will be “hosted” by characters who originated in the last two seasons and are already over-exposed. In the Christmas special it was Gilly, whom I’ve already wrote many words about hating, and whom I thought might actually ruin Christmas. This time around it’s ladies’ sports commentators, Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink (Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte respectively), with Twinkle always finding a way to plug the latest feminine hygiene sponsor and Stink being generally clueless, unprepared and often a bit creepy. When these characters first debuted in Ladies’ Billiards last October, I thought it was a success, an unorthodox sketch that Sudeikis and Forte made it work. The kind of sketch that comes late in the show for a reason. So I was alarmed when the sketch turned up again so quickly, this time in the form of a Bowling final, and again two weeks ago in the Sigourney Weaver episode in the guise of a darts competition. It was a fun sketch to start, but now they’re stretching it thin, showing it three times in half a season, and it’s only a matter of time before they exhaust these characters. However, I will say that Twinkle and Stink are a much better choice to host a compilation show, and I’m actually interested/excited to see how they might expand these characters. Can’t be any worse than Gilly.
And here’s one of my favorite sports sketches, an all-time classic that I assume will be included in the special:
Vodpod videos no longer available.And don’t forget: Jon Hamm tonight. There’s a 50% chance it’s going to be funny!
Jumped The Snark 