10/11/03 Host and Musical Guest - Justin TimberlakeCold Opening - Hardball with Chris Mathews - Darrell Hammond, Amy Poehler, Jeff Richards, Kenan Thompson For some reason I have been catching a lot of the real Chris Mathews on TV and I have say Hammond does him perfectly. This particular one was not that good, I didn't really like Poehler's Ann Coulter, she was pretty much doing what she always does. Thompson's Gary Coleman was not that good either, it didn't really remind me of him. The sketch overall was so-so. Grade - C Opening Monologue - Justin Timberlake The part with the guy from the audience coming up for Justin to sing to was pretty funny, especially when he started singing along. A couple demerits, however, for Justin going into one of his regular songs with full band in the monologue. It seemed like he just wanted to work in an extra musical performance. Grade - B- Punk'd - Barely Legal - Justin Timberlake, Jeff Richards, Horatio Sanz, Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph, Chris Parnell, Finesse Mitchell Using Barely Legal in the title gave me the impression this sketch was going to go in an entirely different direction than it actually did. Timberlake had some of Kutcher's mannerisms down, but none of the Pranks were actually that funny. This could have been a lot better. Grade - D Schwarzenegger on CNN - Darrell Hammond Hammond's Schwarzenegger was much improved over last weeks. There were some funny lines in this, and the wording reminded me of how Schwartzenegger talks. Grade - B A Message From Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson - Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake Neither Fallon or Timberlake really reminded me of Lachey or Simpson, but the lines were funny. How could they resist poking a little fun at the Newlyweds? Grade - B Benny's vs. Omelettville - Chris Parnell, Justin Timberlake This sketch was a complete failure. I think it only made it in because the Justin fans in the audience cheered every time he sang, maybe making this seem better than it really was? It could have possibly been funny if it had acutally gone somewhere and not just been an excuse for Justin to sing little song parodies. Grade - D Direct TV with Gary Busey - Jeff Richards Richards does a good Busey impression, but I didn't find this funny. I think it's because everything he was saying was not any more outrageous than Busey already is. Grade - C- Sully and Denise go out to dinner - Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch, Justin Timberlake, Horation Sanz, Seth Meyer, Chris Parnell These are not among my favorite returning characters, but there is usually a funny line or two. I think though, they are played out. The only line I liked was the "I'll take you down like Don Zimmer," especially since the incident had just occurred that day, so it was a last minute toss in. Timberlake's pyromaniac little brother was not working for me, and Sanz didn't throw in anything all that noteworthy (though he is usually the best part of these sketches). Grade - C Musical Performance I don't grade the musical performances and I am not a fan of J.T. but I have to say everyone who normally uses a lot of synth and programmed drums in their songs always sound better with a live band. Grade - N/A Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey A really short weekend update this week, but I thought it was pretty good. I liked Fallon's kind of dumb founded reaction to Fey's "Lerm" during their Swedish speak section. The Star Jones shoes filled with butter joke was also funny. Grade - B The Sharon Osbourne Show - Amy Poehler, Justin Timberlake, Horatio Sanz, Fred Armisen I can't help but find Amy Poehler very annoying. Her Sharon Osbourne impression is not that bad, but I think she always overdoes everything. Armisen's Quentin Tarantino could have been really good. He had the voice down but he needed to pull back on everything just a little bit. He seemed a little like Tarantino on speed, which is completely unnecessary for Tarantino. I'm trying not to compare it with Norm MacDonald who did a surprisingly near perfect Tarantino a few years ago. I'm not all that familiar with Michael Bolton's persona, so I don't know how Timberlake did. The line about the kid looking sexy with Bolton's old hair was good. Timberlake did a fairly good job singing like Bolton but it would have been funnier if he had really gotten into the way Bolton does, I guess he was trying to save his voice. This is the third time Timbelake sings in something not including the regular performance. Grade - B- Timberlake and Kermit - Justin Timberlake, Will Forte More singing from Timberlake, this time it's a duet with Kermit the frog gone awry. I wasn't really into this although Forte does a pretty decent Kermit the Frog voice. Grade - C- Carl Weathers for Governor - Carl Weathers Carl Weathers? This was an unusual surprise. I'll give it bonus points for being comepletely unexpected. While not being laugh out loud funny it was pretty clever. I liked plays on words he threw in. Grade - A SNL Women like Justin - Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Justin Timberlake This was a little embarrassing to watch. Maybe it was time filler while they got set up for the next musical performance. I almost felt bad Poehler had to wear that horrible outfit. I guess the one good thing I can say is that it was good to see Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph acting completely subdued for a change. Grade - D Musical Performace Hard to believe this is only the second musical performance of the night. Grade - N/A The Barry Gibb Talk Show - Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake, Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, Jeff Richards And lets have some more singing from Justin Timberlake in case anyone missed the first six times. At least this time we got some singing from Jimmy Fallon too. I'm not sure what to make of this sketch. I think it would have been very bad if it hadn't been for Fallon being so into it, you have to admire Fallon's enthusiasm for the show. His Barry Gibb voice was funny and it was also funny that Timberlake couldn't help but laugh at it. Another highlight was Horatio Sanz as Cruz Bustamonte saying their singing his name was "delightful." Timberlake really did look like Robin Gibb, which was kind of weird. So I guess I'll say this was a good sketch, especially for it being the last one of the night. Grade - A- I think this was an improvement over last weeks episode, which in it's own way is disappointing considering last week they had Jack Black, who is funny and this week they had Justin Timberlake who isn't funny. Oh well, the Dan Ackroyd episode from last season wasn't funny either when it should have been. On a very incidental side note - Seth Meyer was dressed as a cowboy during the closing credits, even though there was no cowboy sketch in the episode. Does he like dressing that way or was he expecting to be in something that got cut at the last minute? Weird. |
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