Saturday Night Live – Neil Patrick Harris; Taylor Swift

(Season 34, Episode 12)

There was a lot of excitement about Neil Patrick Harris hosting Saturday Night Live, particularly around the secret hidden CliqueClack home base. Expectations were high, which is always a dangerous thing. My expectations were fairly high for Hugh Laurie too, and I ended up hating that episode. Luckily, NPH (and credit has to go to the writers too) delivered a great episode of SNL. It was definitely one of the better episodes of the year, and certainly the best since the election ended.

I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t have a skit about the recent lunch meeting between the five current/future/former presidents. I think that could have been a really funny scene. Oh well, I won’t look this gift horse of an episode in the mouth.

• Cold Open: I liked the jabs about how white-washed the Senate is, with Roland Burris longing for the days when the Senate would have the same percentage of African Americans as Utah or the country music awards. It really would have been funny if they had mentioned SNL too, as it is nearly as white-washed as the Senate is. Sudeikis as Blagojevich was funny, if only for that horrible wig that somehow was less horrible than Blagojevich’s actual hair. Unfortunately with the election over I don’t think we’ll ever get the epic cold opens that we were seeing a few months ago.
• Monologue: If How I Met Your Mother and those Harold and Kumar movies have taught us anything, it’s that Neil Patrick Harris is one funny bastard. As such, this was one of the funnier monologues of the year, in particular NPH reminiscing about his Doogie days and his girlfriend, with her asking why he wouldn’t kiss her. He’s obviously a good sport.
• Today Show: Kristen Wiig as Kathie Lee Gifford? Awesome. Between the mooning for the camera and the big wig, this skit was really working for me. Best line of the sketch had to be “Kathie Lee” on her New Year’s Eve activities: “I ate a whole tray of mini-cannolis and thought about the ’80s.” I would love to see SNL move beyond the funny dancing skits, but any scene that ends with Kathie Lee Gifford getting punched in the face is OK in my book.
• Save Broadway: Maybe it’s because I hate musicals, but I thought this was one of the funnier skits that has been on SNL all season. Every joke worked. I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll just let the sketch speak for itself:
• Group Therapy with Penelope: It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Penelope. She is funny, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so they say, so I don’t mind these lengthy layoffs. The bizarre Liza Minnelli cameo was amusing. Whenever I see her, though, I just become sad that Arrested Development isn’t on anymore.
• Digital Short: Awesome. I’m bummed they didn’t post this over on Hulu. If you missed it, it was NPH playing the Doogie Howser theme song on the keyboards, gradually being backed up by more and more people in Doogie costumes, culminating in Doogie dancers.
• Musical Guest: Taylor Swift has the sparkliest guitar I have ever seen.
• Weekend Update: It was a little sad to see the new WU open with no mention of Amy Poehler. We miss you Amy. The graphic of Bush cradling a Leap Frog made me giggle uncontrollably. The joke wasn’t even that funny, but I want that graphic as my computer desktop. Will Forte’s songs usually annoy me, but I thought his tune this week about all the “awesome” things he loves was pretty funny and a nicely scathing condemnation of the BCS.
• Two First Names: A decent concept for a goofy skit. The Billy Bob Thornton advertisement was pretty funny, and thankfully they didn’t drag out the sketch too long. I think I could have watched five minutes of Kristen Wiig shoveling yogurt into her mouth, though. Funny stuff.
• Air Traffic Control Ladies: All credit for this scene goes to NPH. His performance was brilliant. Too bad the skit dragged on and didn’t really go anywhere. What a waste of NPH in drag.
• Frost/Other People: Getting David Crosby to admit that he is a “coked up walrus,” was worth the price of admission for this skit. The subject seemed spot on as well. I don’t understand how they made a movie about a TV interview, but I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t really judge.
• Whopper Virgins: I love that they were making fun of these stupid and bizarre commercials. For the last bit of the night, I actually cracked a smile and that’s all I can ask for.

Well I thought NPH delivered one of the best episodes of the season. What did you think?

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 11, 2009 @ 11:22 EST5EDT