Tag Archives: the devil

This Is What a Teenage Starlet on ‘SNL’ Looks Like

Miley Cyrus came by SNL this week and, despite generally positive reviews, we still found it pretty average.  Nothing egregious about it, nothing particularly horrible, but really nothing to write home about.  And the feedback for Cyrus was mostly polite, praiseworthy even, commending her for at the very least not embarrassing herself, at the best acquitting herself remarkably well.  But we really weren’t surprised by that.  It’s no fluke that she was a star of a hit cable show and a pop music phenomenon.  She’s got talent.  Sure, she might have headlined a terrible, cloying cable show  for Tweens, and she might perform grating, insipid kidz bop, but she’s been tremendously successful at it, and there’s really no denying that she has some kind of talent.  So by all rites she should have been fine on SNL.  And she was.  And she parodied her image, parodied Justin Bieber, parodied Fergie, all to perfectly okay results.  But nothing transcendent.  Nothing special.  Nothing that resonated like a sketch from a few years ago that featured an at the time teenage superstar.  Lindsay, show Miley how it’s done:

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Sure, Miley had fun.  She sang and danced.  She even impersonated Lohan.  But, unlike Lohan, none of Cyrus’ sketches will be remembered in five years.

Oh, and Jason Sudeikis reprised his Satan on “Weekend Update” and it was pretty cool.  The dude can do no wrong (Sudeikis, not the Devil).

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‘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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