As Barack Obama? Sheeeeeeit.Yo, Lorne Michaels... blow me! I told you nine months ago who to hire.
UPDATE (02/24/08): As for the whole show... it was so-so. Tina Fey + Steve Martin = funny. Any time, anywhere.
And I like the new cast member, Casey Wilson. She is the first zaftig woman in the 32-year history of “SNL.”
I’m not the world’s biggest Kristen Wiig fan, but that hot-air balloon sketch was deliciously absurd.
“I Drink Your Milkshake,” on the other hand, was plain awful. It was like all of those horrible parody movies that come out nowadays... like it’s supposed to be hye-larious just to repeat a few catch phrases from other movies.
Plus, the line “I drink your milkshake” was officially played out on February 5, 2008.
Man, I'd defend it if Armisen did a good job (Darrell Hammond is great as Jesse Jackson), but he sucked. And I usually like Armisen.
ReplyDelete^ I never liked his Prince either.
ReplyDelete^ Good Gene Simmons, though.
ReplyDeleteI agree, dude was lacking. The joke had to be set up around him. He couldn't carry a sketch like Amy Poehler does with Hillary or Hammond does with everybody he does.
ReplyDeleteI put in my vote for Jordan Carlos after reading the same Observer article. He is a comedian best known from Stephen Colbert's show.
ReplyDeletehttp://55secretstreet.typepad.com/anovelista/2007/05/obama_on_snl.html
Also, here is a piece he did in WaPo for the "Being a Black Man" series.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010501613.html
I think Armisen's Obama was intentionally lame as an inside joke. Everyone knows they've been looking for someone to do him, but haven't found him yet, so they had Armisen do basically nothing. If that was the case though, they needed to hang a bigger lampshade on it.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Obama was not too good either.
ReplyDeleteBut… the first time that Will Farrell did President Bush, it wasn’t that good.
Knock on wood, he’ll grow into it. You can tell by the lack of dialog that he doesn’t feel comfortable with the Obama voice yet.
fred armisen's characters just don't make me laugh. his prince, his barack or the guy who used to play the drums with the gold tooth. i dunno -- he's a funny straight man but that's about it for me. let's hope they find someone quick! amy poehler's hillary was funny though. hell, she's just funny. i guess maya rudolph is gone???
ReplyDeleteApparently, only male comedians get to be fat on SNL, lol. Go Casey!
ReplyDeleteL
Kellybelle: Welcome, and thanks for commenting. You're right, they're gonna need an Obama who can drive the joke.
ReplyDeleteNichelle: I've never seen Jordan Carlos in action. But I refuse to believe that Lorne Michaels can't find a black comedian who could rock an Obama impression.
Exactly - I refuse to believe that SNL can't find a black comedian to do Obama.
ReplyDeleteJordan Carlos came to my attention thanks to that WaPo piece, but whether it is Carlos or Warren Hutcherson or whomever, there is no way that a black or biracial comedian capable of doing an effective Obama is not out there - and possibly inundating Lorne Michaels with this clips!
*his* clips...
ReplyDeleteand yes, Maya Rudolph is gone. Lorne Michaels mentioned it in the NY Times. He said he's going to "keep calling her until she changes her phone number."
^ I may be one of few people who never thought Maya Rudolph was all that funny.
ReplyDeleteWHAT! No more Maya! She was holding it down for the sisters! Dang, man!
ReplyDeleteI thought Armisen was okay; the sketch overall was lame (except for Amy, of course), so he basically rose to the level of the material ;^)
ReplyDeleteI also like his Prince. And I loved Maya Rudolph.
The best part of the show last night was Tina Fey's pro-Hillary rant during Weekend Update. Now *that's* how you tell a funny bitch joke :-D
^ Touché.
ReplyDeleteHeh, that was directed at Penn Jillette, really.
ReplyDeleteHi UBM,
ReplyDeleteI heard on NPR that SNL was actually considering letting Maya Rudolph play Obama, as a last resort.
I'm not kidding; that's what a producer of the show said.
^ Oh God, that's crazy, MDC! I mean, Amy Pohler doing Ross Perot is one thing... (She does do Perot, right?)
ReplyDelete^ Actually, I meant to say Dennis Kucinich.
ReplyDeleteAnd I meant to spell Poehler's name right.
Maya as Obama would have been great! Why did she quit the show? Other than it sucks, that is.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFirst zaftig woman? Not Victoria Jackson?
ReplyDelete^ Indeed not!
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Julia Sweeney.
ReplyDelete^ Julia Sweeney crossed my mind. But, ummm... to be as gentlemanly as I can, zaftig means pleasingly plump. :^)
ReplyDeleteJulia Sweeney's not unattractive. And she wasn't the only non-thin female cast member... Ellen Cleghorne came to mind also.
But the thing that's different about Casey Wilson -- and it's clear after only one show -- is that her curvy body is being put forth as cute.
She reminds me of those fuckin' hot Playtex bra commercials on YouTube. YAYUH!
w/e people, the whole sketch was what you'd expect, he hardly spoke when he did it was moderately robotic, which is funny, ?, yea, and his face didn't change, its not like you could flip through channels stop on him and not know who he was, which i'm sorry but, IS, the point, and it wouldn't take long to figure it even if they never mentioned his name. darrell hammond as trump though, all in all, a strong 74 percent for the episode, the catchphrase shit was typical.
ReplyDelete