Saturday Night Live

[littlegirltree]

Fake beard (you rock me like the real thing)

[A Shot Glass of Humor]

Host has a lot of control over what type of skits show up. Or maybe Zach being the polite, surprised he's even here type of guy that he is didn't really push his weight around and they just wrote whatever they usually write... recurring heavy material.

Or maybe
They tried a lot of weird Zach style skits at dress and the audience didn't laugh... Lorne seems to go for the audience reaction.

Also, notice Zach would just relegate himself to the background in quite a few skits... What's Up with that, Kissing, CNN, it's like certain sketches he didn't care for and would just take smaller roles in them.

[aenemaTron]

Why couldn't the whole episode have been like that last sketch?

Yeah. That, the filmed bit and the bidet thing were pretty much the only good parts. Oh, well.

What was the story with that Mo Nique thing? Couldn't that have been anyone? Was that based on her actual speeches? Don't answer that, I don't even want to know.

[luvrhino]

Why couldn't the whole episode have been like that last sketch?

Agreed. I wonder if they dropped some jokes after Zach cracked up after stumbling over the Bojangles line. Going into this episode, i figured they have Zach playing variations on that character and his My Two Ferns persona. I also figured they'd have Seth Galifianakis on Weekend Update, even though that wouldn't be substantially different from Seth appearing on other talk shows. I suspect that A Shot Glass of Humor is correct that the more Zach-oriented sketches may not have tested well in dress rehearsal as they were too bizarre for whatever dress audience they acquired.

On the whole, i was disappointed. Monologue was very good, even though we've heard most (all?) of those jokes before. Even Zach couldn't sell the bidet sketch for me. I didn't find the over-affectionate family humorous the first time ("Ooh, boys are kissing!"), let alone whatever attempt this was. It was still better than the average SNL episode among those i've seen this season.

Aside from underusing Zach, i found myself missing Nasim. I've found her delightful, despite never having heard of her before. She gives good facial expressions.

[I love nny]

Is it possible they filmed the good night before the last sketch? I mean I know it's live or whatever but for the later feeds it could be plausible.

[douglass]

It was a real waste, to me, to have Zach on and do another lame Obama cold-open, What Up With That, and the kissing family.

The only things that really worked were the pure-Zach things: the monologue and Zach on The Set. And Vampire Weekend, they were solid. The bidet sketch was just a dressed up poop joke being repeated repeatedly.

[John?]

Is it possible they filmed the good night before the last sketch? I mean I know it's live or whatever but for the later feeds it could be plausible.

No, Zach definitely had a fake beard on. It's kind of creepy...

[Jixby Phillips]

ugh this vampire weekend stuff sucks dick

come on put your cocks into it you little faggots

[Jixby Phillips]

THIS SUCKS

[Itslikeimsayin]

I liked the bidet sketch, loved Zach on the Set and the Today Show sketch, both before and after Zach's part. Pageant sketch was good, too. The Obama opening took way too long to get going, and that kissing sketch was horrible. I pretty much enjoyed everything Zach did other than the kissing sketch, which was beyond salvation.

[darrylduffy]

My Two Ferns.

[aenemaTron]

The cold open might have been the worst one ever. It felt like there was something wrong with the cue cards and they just made the whole thing up, except that would probably have more jokes than what they ended up doing.

[BillBrasky]

Yeah. That, the filmed bit and the bidet thing were pretty much the only good parts. Oh, well.

What was the story with that Mo Nique thing? Couldn't that have been anyone? Was that based on her actual speeches? Don't answer that, I don't even want to know.

Yes, Monique took her time delivering her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. Remember Doug Benson's joke ("Monique walked to the stage with all the speed of a parade float")?

Aside from the cold open and the opening sketch, I thought everything was OK. The best sketches were the bidet, the filmed sketch, and the last sketch, certainly. I would argue against the idea that more Zach-oriented sketches would have been "too weird" for that audience; they seemed like a pretty pro-Zach audience to me (they reacted with delighted recognition when he went to sit down at the piano during the monologue, and they seemed to like the 'Zach on the set' piece).

[SlyBattery]

I would also like to point out how great it was that the first thing we saw of Zach on SNL was him yelling at the audience to shut up and stop clapping.

[smartbunny]

So he shaved and was basically Seth for the pageant sketch (which was AWESOME) but you're telling me his beard was back for the goodnight? (I missed it)

HER COMES THE CHOO CHOO!

-also: I read the bidet sketch as being a sex joke not a poop one. (because I like sex better than poop?)

[BillBrasky]

Zach wore a fake beard during the goodnights.

Seth Meyers tweeted this after dress:

Dress was a little sleepy. But they were very helpful.
about 14 hours ago via web

I don't know if he's talking about just Weekend Update or the whole show, but if they cut funny stuff because of a bad dress audience, that's a shame; the actual audience for the live show was pretty receptive to weirdness.

[willweldon]

Man, Monique wishes she looked as good as Kenan Thompson in that weekend update bit.

[schley]

Is it my imagination, or does Seth Meyers wear exactly the same jacket and tie every week? Has this been asked before?

[seanwnewman]

the bidet, pagent, yeah everything that was more Zach, but that's been said. and Vampire Weekend was solid too

[luvrhino]

I would argue against the idea that more Zach-oriented sketches would have been "too weird" for that audience; they seemed like a pretty pro-Zach audience to me

There's a different audience for the dress and the actual show. The dress may have been less accepting of the absurd. I'm not sure how each is acquired, but i assume that, all things being equal, an audience would going to be more responsive live than in dress (due to the energy and the "hey, i'm making noises on live TV" aspects).

It'd be interesting to compare the composition of the people in the dress vs. live audience. I suspect someone here can explain this.