Category Archives: Good Humor

2010/04/18 · 9:03 pm

More Jumped The Snark Nostalgia: Best ‘SNL’ of the 00s

With the Saturday Night Live retrospective In the 2000s: Time and Again airing last Thursday, we thought it would be a great time to revisit our list of the best SNL sketches of the 00s from earlier in the year.  If you saw the show, you might recognize some of our selections.

(Belated) Top 10 SNL of the Decade

And here’s a clip that didn’t make the broadcast, a behind the scenes look at the Sarah Palin rap.  I will never, ever, get tired of seeing Jason Sukeikis as Todd Palin.

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And, for kicks, here’s one of our favorite sketches of the new decade.  Been meaning to work this one in for a while, and this seems like a good excuse.

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For the record my dad loves Burn Notice.

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2010/04/17 · 1:49 pm

‘SNL’: Say Fey Kid

(Title allusion here)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably know that Tina Fey has a new movie out.  Between her appearances on Oprah, Live!, and Late Night (leaving behind a wake of Jamie Foxx-Oprah rumors and charades losses), she’s been pounding the pavement drumming up excitement for Date Night.  The last stop on the promotional tour was coming home to host SNL.  However, in a way, it has  seemed like her talk show visits have also been to build enthusiasm for her return to studio 8H.  The means were also the end.  And with tween phenomenon Justin Bieber rounding out the card as musical guest, this SNL, the first in a month,  was shaping up to be a special instance of a white-hot host meets a white-hot musical act.

Did the show live up to expectations?  I’d have to say no, especially after getting off to a slow start with a census-centered cold opening that probably wouldn’t have been funny three weeks ago when it was still relevant.  And there weren’t any real knock out, “holy water cooler” sketches later in the show.  But there was a sense of excitement with Fey and Bieber in the house, and what may have lacking in humor was made up for with a bit of electricity.

More: Who’s more evil, Sarah Palin or the Devil?

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2010/04/09 · 6:51 am

Last Night on Late Night Was the Intersection of the Venn Diagram of the Things I Love (And One Thing I Hate)

*Editor’s note: Jumped The Snark has been and will be busy for the immediate future on another somewhat related but also not really project, and thus updates may be few and far between for the next two months.  We’re going to do our best to keep up regular posts, but they may be of the very brief variety.  That is all.

Jimmy Fallon.  Parks & Recreation.  Rashida Jones.  Fred Armisen.  Weekend Update.  A.D. Miles.  Dee Snider.  Last night was a convergence of all of those things on Late Night.

Fallon proves once again that his show is the place to turn for pitch-perfect parodies (see: “Real Housewives of Late Night,” “Late“), and this time the team turns its scalpels towards the unfortunate phenomenon that is Glee.  And not only does their version, “6-Bee,” capture the exact tone and rhythm (and hokeyness) of the show, it pits the Late Night glee club against the Parks & Rec squad, treating us to Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Jerry and Jumped the Snark long time favorite Rashida Jones (but wherefore art thou, Asiz Ansari?), as well as an appearance from another longtime favorite, Fred Armisen.  And it all culminates in a truly impressive take on Twister Sister’s classic anthem of rebellion “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

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(You may have figured out that the one thing I hate, as mentioned in the title, is Glee (the show, and by extension its cultural resonance).  A long time ago I intended to write a long blog post explaining why its characters are just caricatures, the tone muddled, the perspective confused, and that while I’m happy for Jane Lynch, her role in Party Down trumps her one-note performance as Sue Sylvester.  And this thoroughly enjoying Late Night interpretation shows that without the dramatic musical sequences Glee would just be a cut-rate Degrassi.  There, I finally said it).

And if that all wasn’t enough, later in the show we were treated to a charades battle of the former “Weekend Update” co-anchors, with Fallon and guest Tina Fey taking on Poehler (clearly pregnant by the way) and her old partner and current solo host Seth Meyers.

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And to top it off, arch-nemesis and top search term Justin Bieber!

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Keep up the good work, Jamie!

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2010/04/01 · 5:08 pm

Something That Maybe Should Have Been an April Fools’ Prank: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’

I would go see 120 minutes of this.

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2010/03/29 · 11:41 am

No ‘SNL’? No Problem? Jason Sudeikis Is Our Jam-a-Lam

I mistakenly thought that Tina Fey was hosting SNL this past weekend (so much so that I nearly flipped out on my DVR for failing to record the show).  But I must have jumped the gun, as the show doesn’t return with host Fey and musical guest Justin Bieber until April 10 (and now that I can use the tag “Justin Bieber” my page views are sure to skyrocket.  Thanks, SNL!), or maybe they re-ran the Fey-Carrie Underwood episode from February 2008.  Either way, there was no new show this week.

But don’t fear, we’ll fill that vacuum.  Instead of another edition of “What Up With That?”,we have Jumped the Snark hero Jason Sudeikis on Jimmy Fallon (an interview from earlier this month that, we admit, slipped through our cracks).  Sudeikis’ alcohol drenched description of his hectic work schedule explains his relative absence from the recent Jude Law-helmed SNL, a deficiency that we noted here.  Somehow everything this man says in hilarious.  New sketch idea: Jason Sudeikis reads the classifieds.  Could totally work.

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Part 2 after the jump. Plus: The return of Floyd!

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2010/03/24 · 12:21 pm

Pandering to the Masses

Since the top two searches leading visitors to this blog are “Jason Sudeikis dancing” and “Jason Sudeikis What Up With That” I thought that today we’d just give the audience what they want.  And even though I’ve been vocal about my dislike for this sketch, Sudeikis’ moves are the saving grace and definitely worth the time.

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Now if they could just deep six the rest of the sketch (except for Galifiankis.  He’s pretty incredible in this one).

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2010/03/10 · 12:14 pm

Four More Examples of How Jimmy Fallon is Killing it (and One That Shows Why He’s Not)

Talking up the good work that Jimmy Fallon and the Late Night crew have been doing is nothing new on this blog.  In fact, we’ve been complimenting their efforts as far back as last Fall.  But with the show celebrating its one year anniversary last week, and with the program demonstrating as much creativity and spontaneity as any show in late night today (effectively filling the absurdity vacuum left by Conan), we thought it fitting to highlight some recent clips to show how Jimmy continues to impress (and then one more to illustrate how in other respects he continues to disappoint).

Late Night has particularly excelled in slickly produced, exceptionally accurate television parodies, first with the Hills spoof 7th Floor West and then with The Real Housewives of Late Night.  The show has continued this hot streak by taking on the height of the pop culture phenomena, Lost, with their new recurring series, Late. Below is the 2nd episode, as the castaways (brought together by an elevator crash and now stranded on a creepy abandoned office floor) struggle to make sense of their new and mysterious surroundings.

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More Fallon goodness: California Dreams, Lazy Sunday & Blood!

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2010/03/08 · 11:32 am

“Presidential Reunion”; Or Will Funny or Die Kill ‘SNL’?

By now you’ve all seen this Funny or Die sketch (because it was uploaded almost a week ago, which this day in age classifies it as old) that brings together the all time team of SNL presidential imitators.  It’s great, right?  Totally awesome (especially Chevy, doing what Chevy does best).

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However, what concerns me is what this video, and videos of its ilk, means to SNL.  Why I am so concerned about a show that has basically been skating by since 1993, if not earlier, and has never really faced any real competition, I don’t know (and no, MADtv doesn’t count).  But the more I see the Funny or Die videos featuring both SNL and non-SNL talent I wonder how long the show will be able to compete (especially now that Funny or Die has its own show on HBO, although the one episode I saw was rather underwhelming).  And this Presidential Reunion, directed by Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard, really caused me pause.

Keep reading: Does this spell the end for ‘SNL’?

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2010/02/01 · 2:56 am

‘SNL’: Hamm & Cheese and A Bublé Disposition

PUNS!!!

Jon Hamm SNLIn yesterday’s SNL appetizer post I surmised that last night’s show had a 50% chance of being funny.  However, immediately after making this less than bold proclamation I realized that I should have at least given the odds at 51%, and more accurately probably around 75%.  With SNL returning after a week off, having proven they perform best with a little rest, and under the capable reigns of Jon Hamm, the odds were certainly in their favor.

And had I thought it through yesterday and gone with the 75% estimation I would have been right, as about 3/4 of the show was (surprisingly or unsurprisingly, I’ll let you decide) solid.  From the moment Hamm stepped out onto the stage for his monologue you knew you were in good hands (sorta like the way I feel during the opening credits of any Quentin Tarantino movie).  Obviously the easy thing to do here would be to compare Hamm’s hosting performance to 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 demonstrated his hosting prowess.  There’s really no reason to compare a Picasso to a Bazooka Joe comic.  We already know which is going to come out on top (well, I guess in that scenario it depends on the criterion, if we’re talking about which is the superior work of art or which serves as a better gum wrapper.  But I digress).  However, we’ll indulge that comparison briefly, because, like Jones’, Hamm’s monologue employed some Mad Men parody, and to far better results than the “Mad Mennies” bit in Jones’ monologue.  As Hamm’s big break has been his role as the mysterious, stoic Don Draper, he showed some clips from his earlier “roles,” but in each of these Hamm maintains the personality of the debonair Draper.  The first clip, a Saved by the Bell parody titled “Late for Class,” was the best (if only for the spot-on opening credits.  Oh, the early 90s!), but the second, Hamm on QVC giving Kristen Wiig the same tough love treatment that Don gives Betty Draper, and the last, Hamm as Draper doing Def Comedy Jam, were nearly as good.  By the time Hamm said “stick around, we’ll be right back,” he didn’t need to.  We were sold.

Read on: A funny and incisive cold opening?! Pork and Champagne?! Serigo?! Plus: the bottom 25th percentile.

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2010/01/27 · 3:22 pm

‘The Inbetweeners:’ It’s like ‘Skins’ Meets ‘Torchwood’ Meets ‘The Office’ Meets ‘Mr. Bean’ Meets Other BBC Programmes

Okay, so above the comparisons were mostly lies, but, as already been oft-said, British import The Inbetweeners is a like a sitcom version of Skins.  It’s to Skins as Undeclared was to Freaks & Geeks.  Which means it’s good, if a little lacking on dramatic depth.  The quick cuts and camera work also evoke shades of Arrested Development, if Arrested Development took place in the UK, featured teenage boys, and dispensed with the self-referential gags and cutaway jokes.  So, basically in no way like Arrested Development other than that it’s a one camera, handheld comedy.  Oh, and it has a narrator.

The first two episodes aired Monday night on BBC America and they were fit!  Below is my favorite scene from either show (stolen from PopCandy)

As my roommate so astutely pointed out, doesn’t series star Simon Bird look just like a young John Oliver.  Uncanny!

Catch a new episode tonight in its regular 9:30pm time slot on whatever channel BBC America is on your cable provider.  Don’t ask me to look it up for you.  You have the internet.

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