Sunday, April 6, 2008

Christopher Walken on ‘SNL’

Last night’s “Saturday Night Live” was one of the funniest in recent memory. Christopher Walken was cracking me up from beginning to end.

And Kristen Wiig broke through with a performance that reached high heights of unbridled silliness.

I’m not a fan of any of Wiig’s recurring characters – not one – but this sketch was killer:

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Walken is always reliable. My favorite sketch was Indoor Gardening Tips from a Man Who's Very Scared of Plants. It's just full of wierd lines that only Walken could properly deliver: "Then they become dirt eyes." "Winston Churchill once said the eyes are the windows of your face". I was disappointed that we didn't get to see The Continental. That creep is Walken's trademark.

Undercover Black Man said...

I forgot about the plants! I laughed at loud at the Winston Churchill line.

Kellybelle said...

Her other character is the hyperbolic topper? This kinda reminded me of that character is Molly Shannon did it. I laughed when she flung herself out of the window.

Anonymous said...

Another thing I'm noticing as I rewatch the show is that they gave Walken different hair every sketch for no apparent reason.

Invisible Woman said...

Andrew--lol...I didn't notice that :-)

Walken is my favorite host next to Alec Baldwin I think. CW is always so weird, yet so wonderful. I watched for the first time this season last night.

Unknown said...

kellybelle: Yes that's her. She also does The Target Lady, she's the female half of the two a-holes and my favorite is she does this female on-the-spot reporter who develops a huge crush on her (female) interviewee and starts asking really inappropriate questions.

She's my favorite.

Undercover Black Man said...

Kellybelle: Kristen definitely is reminiscent of Molly Shannon in this sketch. This also seems like a role Will Ferrell could've played. Just love her balls-to-the-wall commitment to the moment.

Undercover Black Man said...

Walken is my favorite host next to Alec Baldwin I think.

IW, you echo the opinion of my boy Alan Sepinwall, TV critic extraordinaire.

Walken has definitely done great things with "SNL," apart from "More cowbell."

One of my favorites was the piece with Tim Meadows as a census taker. It was real low-key but totally absurd, and Meadows played it perfectly deadpan.

Undercover Black Man said...

She's my favorite.

Mike, I'll still take Amy Poehler. But I definitely will be viewing Kristen in a new light now.

Anonymous said...

He was great, as usual, but I only watched hoping he'd do The Continental. I like that actress too, especially when she does the woman who goes to the heights of insanity to one-up everybody. By the time the sketch is done you want to reach into the TV and slap her. I hope Loren Michaels never tries making a movie based on that character.

Anonymous said...

CW is great, even when he's reading all his lines off the cue cards. I loved the Walken Family Reunion sketch.

Anonymous said...

Funny sketch. The window jump was unexpected and off the hook.

But, could they have sprung for duplicate sets of cue cards for CW? He has too much talent to be reading the cards stuffed under the camera.

Anonymous said...

"Back when I was an army clown"

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! :)

Anonymous said...

David: Oh, I remember the census sketch. Meadows' response at the end after Walken tells him all this insane bullshit is a terrific payoff.

I think the writers often let her down, but Wiig is a pretty good performer, particularly with the reporter sketches, which arent' that funny but I enjoy watching because she so nails someone with severely compromised social interaction.

larscien said...

I actually attended the dress rehearsal for this show. You cannot blame the SNL staff for CW reading from the cue cards. They had at least three sets for each scene he was in. It seemed to all people there that he never viewed them prior to the show and no matter where they were held he read directly from them.

Anonymous said...

My apologies to the stage crew of SNL.

My estimation of CW's current desire to perform was optimistic.

I used to work with a guy whose uncle was a carpenter for NBC and worked on SNL in the Old Days (30 years ago now). My friend would get called in occasionally to lend a hand (as a glorified gofer) and had some pretty good stories of the old cast and guests.