SNL nails it: "Brett Favre for Open Fly Jeans" (comedy video)

After 35 years on the air, Saturday Night Live has had as many highs as they have had lows, but when they get it right, they really nail it. This week the late night comedy staple took on the recent Brett Favre sexting scandal with hilarious results.
 

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Katy Perry Fights Back on SNL's "Bronx Beat" (video)

Katy Perry and her boobs are all over the place this week. As I reported here on Friday, her musical number with Elmo was given the heave-ho from Sesame Street due to her low-cut, tits-out dress. She's been on the morning chat show circuit and was  featured in a story/interview on CBS Sunday Morning today, which I'm watching as I write this.

But it was last night's appearance as musical guest on SNL that gave Perry the chance to respond to the uproar over Boobiegate (yes, I just coined a new word).

Some critics this morning are panning her appearance on the 36th season premier over her lack of acting skills and vocals that would have benefited from a dose of Auto-Tune. It doesn't matter. What everyone wanted to see was how writers were going to deal with the controversy. They could have done much better, but instead they chose to pull an old character sketch out of mothballs, as they always do whenever a former cast member comes back as a guest host.

They had the California Girls singer take part in a sketch with host Amy Poehler and special guest and former cast member, Maya Rudolph reprising their "Bronx Beat" roles as bored Bronx housewives with a local access talk show, who kvetch about everyone and everything. Perry plays a neighborhood teen who has "blossomed" over the summer. The hook is that she's wearing a low-cut Elmo t-shirt that she is literally busting out of. Poehler and Rudolph spend the rest of the sketch obsessing over how much their former baby-sitter's boobs have grown.

Katy didn't have many lines in the bit, which made me wonder if maybe they had to cut them due to her lack of acting ability. I found it distracting and disappointing, as I really wanted to hear more from her. SNL really wasted a golden opportunity this time. Anyway, judge for yourself.

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New Wave Wednesday: "Pump it up", by Elvis Costello (music video)

Image via Wikipedia

Elvis Costello took the world by storm in the late 70's with his personal and sometimes highly controversial twist on pop music. New Wave music had become all the rage and Costello was booked on Saturday Night Live as a last minute replacement for the Sex Pistols on December 17, 1977. According to Wikipedia, Costello and his band The Attractions  were "scheduled to play Less Than Zero, he surprised the SNL crew by abruptly stopping the song mid-intro, and launching into Radio Radio. This stunt helped ensure he would not appear on the show again until 1989."

Costello is known for his use of double entendre in his lyrics and the song "Pump It Up" is a classic example. Costello says it refers to pumping up the music, but also to the need to take matters into your own hands when when your girlfriend won't put out. 

ELVIS COSTELLO - PUMP IT UP
Uploaded by huntylch. - Explore more music videos.

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The Best Betty White sketch from SNL: "Giant Dusty Muffin" (video)

(Editor's note: I originally was going to post a sketch that didn't make it from the dress rehearsal to the show that aired, but I changed my mind, because this one was funnier. However, I forgot to completely change the title of the post before the emial alerts went out. I've corrected that. Sorry for the confusion.) 

It's been the talk of the the web for weeks the Betty White would host Saturday Night Live's season 37 finale due to a huge FaceBook campaign..The show could have been better, but there were some golden moments for the golden girl, mainly because former female cast members, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolf and Rachel Dratch showed up to work with the comedy legend.

The veteran comedian's 65-year TV career began with her starring role in "Life With Elizabeth" in 1954, although she's best known for her roles as Sue Ann Nivens, the Happy Homemaker on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" during the 70's and as Rose Nylund from the 80's classic "The Golden Girls".

In what was perhaps the best bit of the night, Gasteyer and Shannon reprised their PBS sketch, "The Delicious Dish", with White showing up as a baker promoting her giant dusty muffin. It was certainly my favorite, although personally, I prefer Alec Baldwin's Schwetty Balls.

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St. Olaf Glee Club pays tribute to Betty White (video)

Image via Wikipedia

Three comics calling themselves The St. Olaf Glee Club pay a musical tribute to the legendary Betty White with a video montage of her 60+ years in show biz. If you subscribe via e-mail, you should really stop by the site for this one.

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Betty White's SNL Promo Video

As you probably know by now, ever since her appearance in the now-famous Super Bowl ad for Snickers, Betty White has been the subject of a FaceBook campaign aimed at booking her to host Saturday Night Live. The folks at SNL apparently agreed that it would be a great idea and confirmed a few weeks ago that White will in fact host the show this weekend.


Here's the new promo video for the much anticipated May 8th show.

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SNL Has Gone Schizo on the Gays (video)

What is with Saturday Night Live these days? Granted the 35-year-old show passed its prime decades ago, but it does manage to be humorous at times. In the opening sketch, Kristen Wiig did an awesome Greta Van Susteren and the Fox "News" discussion of "Don't ask, Don't tell" was dead on.

Later in the show, they did some half-assed sketch about a Roman emperor being distracted by his slave boy/lover and an obsession with grapes. If there was a punch line, I missed it. It seems the only message here is that gays are self involved and sex obsessed, which may not be wrong, but when the sketch isn't funny, it just comes off as insulting. Was there any comedic point to this one?

I have no problem with being the subject of a gay joke, if the joke is funny and I think most of us feel that way. The gay community does have a sense of humor about itself. Lord knows we put up with "Will and Grace" for a decade. But for SNL to put this pointless piece of crap on the air after having done such a good job with the Fox "News" sketch, just doesn't make sense. Were they thinking that the one good one gave them license to do an insulting one? You be the judge.

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(video) SNL Newbie Drops the F Bomb

Everybody is doing this story and it's already getting a little stale, but here goes.

After 34 years on the air, Saturday Night Live has gone through it's ups and downs in popularity and relevance. Some of the best moments of the show over the years have been when someone screws up on stage. That's the beauty of live TV. You never know what's going to happen.

I was only half paying attention the other night, with the TV in the background as SNL newbie, Jenny Slate started her sketch "Biker Chick Chat". I figured it was just another lame attempt by SNL to create a character that might coin the latest catch phrase. It was "frickin'" this and "frickin'" that, until Slate slipped and dropped the F-Bomb.

Check out the look on Slate's face as she realizes what she did.

I looked for a better quality video, but most were done with cam-corders aimed at the TV screen. Are there really people who do that?