South Park Turns 16 – Respect It’s Authoritay, pt.1

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ilmozart

Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine

I bet everyone remembers where they were the first time they saw a South Park episode.  For me, it was the first time I saw The Spirit of Christmas, the short video-card Trey Parker and Matt Stone did in the early 90’s that got them noticed.

http://youtu.be/jO98gDuFm7U

From this very early video, we see the beginning of one of the most irreverent, hilarious, and socially conscious cartoons ever.  There’s the ongoing commentary about Kyle’s Judaism, “He’s come to kill you because you’re Jewish Kyle”, Cartman’s foul foul mouth, even the frequent guest characters Jesus and Santa. And of course the immortal phrase “Oh my god! You killed Kenny!.

There is an even earlier iteration of the Spirit of Christmas, where Cartman is Kenny and Jesus battles Frosty instead of Jesus.
http://youtu.be/ApI4bvwNBtI

However, both shorts do have the moment of brevelation which so many subsequent episodes contained.

From those humble paper cutouts has come a show that gave us Mr. Hankey, Cheesy Poofs, Starvin Marvin, and Butters.  Since the show premiered in 1997, they’ve covered every topic from alien abduction to the economic crisis to puberty to Paris Hilton.  In fact, it’s probably easier to think about the topics the show hasn’t covered.

In honor of South Park turning old enough to drive, I thought we’d take a walk down memory lane, looking at both the funniest and most important episodes of each season. And yes, these will all be completely subjective.

Season 1 – in which we are introduced to the world of South Park and the characters who live therein
It’s hard to look at season 1 and pick either the funniest or the most important.  This was the season that really lay it all down for us – who these boys are, who the town was, and what the rules were.  We got used to Kenny dying and coming back to life, to Mr. Garrison talking through Mr. Hand, and the adult being as childish and idiotic as the kids. But since I have to choose…

Funniest: Weight Gain 4000.  Mostly this is for Cartman and beefcake.  Also, who doesn’t want to shoot Kathy Lee Gifford?
Most Important: Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo.  The musical aspects of this show still stand out and the volatile subject matter (mostly feces + Christmas) really showed how Matt and Trey would do anything for a laugh, or to prove a point.
Runners-Up: Mecha-Streisand, Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride, Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut 

Season 2 – in which the world of South Park expands and manages to get even weirder
Having established the basics, Matt and Trey seemed to use season 2 to experiment and see how far they could start pushing things. Gay cowboys eating pudding, anyone?

Funniest: Chickenlover. Booktastic bus, the chickenlover himself, and Cartman coming into his own by demanding people respect his authoritay. Just preposterous.
Most Important: A tie between Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus and Gnomes. I chose Gnomes because it is a great early example of Matt and Trey using the show for social commentary while maintaining the show’s inherent absurdity (see Chef Aid too).  Terrance and Phillip was an episode that caused a huge uproar; season 1 ended with the cliffhanger “who is Cartman’s dad?” and rather than give us an answer, season 2 started with an entire episode devoted to the Canadian fart fanatics.  Fans were furious, but it put the show on the map.
Runners-Up: Conjoined Fetus Lady, Chef Aid, Chef’s Chocolate Salty Balls

Season 3 – in which things get stranger, the boys do some traveling, and we get a three-episode arc

This was a very tough season to judge and I could very well turn around and pick totally different episodes tomorrow.

Funniest: Another tie between Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery and  Red Badge of Gayness.  The image of Cartman hauling the Antonio Banderas blow-up love doll through the graveyard humming Christmas carols has been known to pop into my head on many occasions…many inappropriate occasions.  I have been wanting to try Jagerminz S’more-flavored Schnapps for many years now.  And General Cartman Lee’s Ken Burns-esque letters about Stan and Kyle were a stroke of genius.
Most Important: Cat Orgy/Two Naked Guys in a Hot Tub/Jewbilee – this meteor trilogy hints at future greatness such as Do the Handicaped Go to Hell, Imaginationland and other longer story arcs.
Runners-Up: Chinpokomon (this was very close for funniest),  Hooked on Monkey Fonics, Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics

Season 4  – where the boys move up a grade and we meet Timmy

Funniest: Cartman Joins NAMBLA.  I think all that needs to be said is Cartman joins NAMBLA.
Most Important: Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?/Probably.  These episodes show how wily Cartman has become since season 1.  His ability to sway the masses has become a big part of his character and he starts being less stupid and a jerk and more crafty and a jerk. These are also the episodes that show us Matt and Trey’s incredibly odd image of god.
Runners-Up: Timmy 2000,  Trapper Keeper, Helen Keller: The Musical (Gobbles!)
http://youtu.be/Yof4tm1b2SE

Season 5 – where we reach a turning point and see how truly evil Cartman is; plus Kenny dies

Funniest and Most Important: Scott Tenorman Must Die.  A lot of people think of this as one of the best South Park episodes ever.  But this is also a definitive episode for Cartman. Building on his craftiness from season 4, the Scott Tenorman episode turns Cartman from a jerk into true evil.  His complex plan to get back at Scott Tenorman smacks of genius, but even Matt and Trey think this is one of the darkest episodes that they have done.

Runners-Up: It Hits the Fan (which has Scott Tenorman not aired this season been the most imporant), Butters Very Own Episode, Kenny Dies
http://youtu.be/-up8ebz06yA 

Season 6 – where we meet Professor Chaos, build a ladder to heaven, and John Edward gets his comeuppance

Funniest: Simpsons Already Did It.  Could also be most important but I am sticking with funniest for Cartman’s sea people dream and his grand welcome for said sea people.  It’s also a reminder that there’s very little out there that’s original, it’s all about how you present it.  And remember, the Simpsons stole too…

Most Important: Red Hot Catholic Love. Not only does this episode take on the entire Catholic church abuse scandal, but it ties in the B plot of Cartman figuring out how to defecate out of his mouth into this plot line, which is in support of religion rather than completely eschewing it.  South Park has preached rationality more frequently than pure revolution.
Runners-Up:  A Ladder to Heaven, Free Hat, Asspen – which has the first version of the montage song from Team America

http://youtu.be/CQvNu8LoTo0

Stay tuned for the funniest and most important episodes from seasons 7-12 tomorrow, as well as thoughts on tonight’s premiere.

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Friends with Kids, A Rom-Com for 2012

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ilmozart

Whenever the movie Kissing Jessica Stein is on cable, I’ll watch it.  It can be in the middle, towards the end, or even at the beginning.  I will watch it. And I will watch it gladly. Of course the trailer below was cut to look like an episode of Friends but don’t hold that against the movie.
http://youtu.be/PCRSXG1tg_w

Co-written by its 2 leads, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, it’s a movie about a straight woman in NY who is so tired of the bs with men that she tries out a woman.  But add in some very snappy dialog, insights into people’s actions, and some very realistic emotions and the movie rises above it’s basic description.

A different look at "having it all"

Jennifer Westfeldt, also better known as Jon Hamm’s significant other, recently wrote and directed a new movie whose parts make the whole.

Co-produced with Hamm, Friends with Kids stars Westfeldt, Hamm, Adam Scott and essentially half the cast of Bridesmaids: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd.  Scott and Westfeldt play best friends who never really managed to become more.  They are surrounded by their friends (everyone else listed above) who have paired off and started procreating. And that procreating changes them, not always for the better.

So Scott and Westfeldt decide they’ll have a kid, share custody, and then find their “person” without the pressure of having children.  They think they can beat the system and have it all, without falling into the same problems they see with their friends’ relationships.  An odd sort of concept, which is met with high skepticism by their friends, and in the end doesn’t really work out in the way they expected.

This isn’t a movie that sets out to defy your expectations.  We all know all the romantic comedy tropes and overall the movie follows them – there’s the perfect man who just isn’t “the one”, the moment when one of the main characters realizes they’ve always been in love with the other (thankfully not in the rain here), etc.  But what happens in Friends with Kids is that the darker side to all these things is explored with the same wit you’d expect from the writer of Kissing Jessica Stein.

Westfeldt isn’t afraid to make her boyfriend a jerk and Hamm does well in the role. Sure he’s had practice as Don Draper on Mad Men (back on March 25!!) and his character in Bridesmaids was, let’s face it, a dick.  But what is different here is that he’s not just a jerk to be a jerk.  There’s a reason.  Adam Scott’s character can also be seen as a bit of a jerk – he openly lusts only after women who have big breasts and is totally unapologetic about it.  But he’s not a blowhard to be a blowhard.  He is caring and funny and you understand why he and Westfeldt’s character have been friends for years.  He is just flawed like people are flawed.

The end is inevitable, but the road we take to get there isn’t exactly.  There is a long scene with the whole cast at a ski lodge where everyone has to face some sort of truth, but it’s not played for laughs.   I’m still thinking it.  You see the dissolution of a relationship that at the start of movie was comprised of 2 people who couldn’t keep their hands off each other.  You see a woman actually take ownership and control of her emotions in a way that doesn’t happen in the typical Katherine Heigl flick; her self-protection has reasons and isn’t there just to be a plot point that needs to be overcome.

And what I really loved was that the movie didn’t end with some big montage of everyone being happy together, at a kid’s birthday part, at a wedding, or at any other of the many many scenes that end these sorts of movies.  It ends and you think, “well…is it going to work?” But you don’t get an answer. You think so. You hope so.  But there’s no real answer.

The supporting cast is fabulous. Maya Rudolph should be in everything. She brings a humor and warmth to her characters that started with Away We Go and continues through  Friends with Kids. Chris O’Dowd is goofy and loveable and seems like a guy I’ve met at some point. Kristen Wiig is worlds away from the annoying character actress she’s become on SNL and she handles the scene at the ski lodge with real delicacy and emotion.  Hamm manages to be the aforementioned jerk without being wholly unlikable.  As the possible romantic solutions, Megan Fox and Ed Burns aren’t immediately wrong just so the main characters find their way to each other. And who new Megan Fox didn’t have to be in awful…?

Scott and Westfeldt as the main characters just click.  They have great timing together and their real-life friendship pays off on screen.  You don’t want them to end up together because the movie tells you to – I’m looking at you pretty much every other romantic comedy in the past few years – but because it makes sense.  Which seems like such an outlandish idea, it just might work.  For me, it most definitely did.

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A Hot Boy Who Dances His Feelings

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ilmozart

Thank you The Masked Man for creating this amazing gif from the end credits of this past weekend’s episode of Bob’s Burgers.

Jimmy Jr. sure does love to dance with himself.  Yes. With.

Jimmy Jr. dancing his feelings “DON’T TELL ME NOT TO DANCE DAD!” - Jimmy Jr.

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Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ilmozart

19 days to go to season 2…

Apparently someone has been making The Game of Thrones (as in the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire, not the all encompassing name) into a graphic novel.  The first collected volume will be published on March 27.

Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, vol 1; adapted by Daniel Abraham, illustrated by Tommy Patterson

Adapted by Daniel Abraham, illustrated by Tommy Patterson and covering the first six issues of the graphic novel, this looks to be a fascinating addition for anyone who is even slightly obsessed with the series. (As we all are, I’m sure)

One of the interesting things this version seems to be able to do that the HBO show cannot, is keep the characters their real ages.  Everyone in the books is significantly younger than they are on the show.  Which makes sense for a number of reasons: no one wants to see a 9 year-old girl kill someone or will believe anyone will follow a 14 or 15 year-old boy into battle.

Plus, a graphic novel doesn’t have the same budgetary constraints that a television show does. So we could see a world that is far more fantastical than we see on screen.  And the Targaryens will have their violet eyes.

Very curious about this…

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Batman: The Musical

Posted on March 13, 2012 by ilmozart

Yes, I’m sure many people have seen this, forwarded it to their friends, etc. But it is just too good not to post, on the off chance that someone somewhere hasn’t seen it.

I’m mostly very impressed with the singer’s Arnold impression.  Granted ever since he declared “It’s not a tumah!” in Kindergarten Cop, those impressions have been wide spread and in varying degrees of success.

The guy singing for Clooney (who openly and gleefully admit to destroying the franchise, till Chris Nolan came around) also does a serviceable job.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado…BATMAN: The Musical.

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SNL Classic: All Things Scottish

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ilmozart

Who doesn’t love So I Married an Ax Murderer?  It represents some of the best of Mike Myers before he became the sort of person who would do The Love Guru.

One of the best things about Ax Murderer was Myers as Stuart Mackenzie, Myers playing his own father.  A precursor to Myers’ Austin Power years and very Eddie Murphy-esque of him…
http://youtu.be/zCrT96QJBfQ

Anyway, Stuart Mackenzie himself had his origins in an old SNL sketch, All Things Scottish. This was from an episode hosted by Kyle MacLachlan, during Twin Peaks and pre-Showgirls. He even copies his own joke about all Scottish food being based on a dare.

Did he think I wouldn’t remember? I do. I really really do. And now so will you.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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The Belchies R Good Enuf – Bob’s Burgers Returns!

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ilmozart

I am truly ashamed to admit…it took me to the end of the episode to get the title.  The Belchies. I thought it was like an award, like the Emmys or Tonys.

No. It’s a riff on the GOONIES.  Sometimes I’m just not that quick on the uptake.

The Belchies...with Sloth/Taff, Cyndi Lauper, and everything!

Anyway….yay! Bob’s Burger is back!  And with an all new exterminator during the credits too! (Stan Mermin, The King of Vermin, sorry no screen grab available).

And with the beep of a metal detector, the show is back.  The kids are looking for buried treasure at the beach: Tina hopes they find tinfoil so they can recycle it; Gene hopes they find a shovel so he doesn’t have to dig with his hands.  At the beach we also meet Zeke, Jimmy Pesto Jr’s testosterone driven new friend.  They wrestle together. Tina enjoys.

It is Teddy who tells the family of the mystery of Caffrey’s treasure, hidden in the taffy factory.  Teddy’s uncle, who was a maid which was a job men did before women entered the work force and stole their jobs thank you very much, told him the story of the treasure…and tricked him with the butt drawing.  Louise remained convinced that the treasure is real, butt map and all because, if you were going to draw a map, what shape would you draw?

That’s right. A butt.

While the kids are sneaking out to explore the taffy factory before it’s demolition the next day, Bob and Linda go into their room for some wild, scheduled sexy times.  It is absolutely as awkward as it sounds.  They use a pair of “sexy dice” to spice things up, which never works as well as one would hope. The chair hug is probably my favorite.  Jon Benjamin let’s his Archer side come out here – never let it be said though, that Bob doesn’t try for debonair.

Bob and his mustache enticing Linda

The episode unravels pretty much the way you’d expect: the kids and their uninvited friends – Jimmy Jr., Zeke, and Jimmy’s weird younger brothers Ollie and Andy (I have a funcussion!) – explore the taffy factory looking for treasure.  Gene runs around licking things. The kids get stuck in an elevator, as you do, and Louise who is hellbent on finding the treasure won’t stand for that. She finds a way into the taffy factory’s tunnels and via one of Caffrey’s booby traps, finds a taffy guard whom she calls “Taff” (yes, now I realize Taff=Sloth).  They become best friends and she even tells him she’s going to take him home, and he’s going to live with her now.

Linda quickly puts the kibosh on that.

As always, what works on Bob’s Burgers are the little moments, the offhand comments.  For example, Bob’s raging erection caused by Linda slipping a little viagra into his cassarole.  We never see said erection, it is a kid’s show, but its effects are clear when Taff remains stuck to Bob…in the groinal region.  And of course another is Gene yelling “Let’s find butt treasure!” at the top of his lungs. That’s a keeper.

There’s also the running plotline of Tina using a pulp romance novel she found on the beach, I believe it was called “The Darkest Crevice”, as a guidebook for how to win over Jimmy Jr.  But her strong womanhood asserts itself and by the end of the episode she declared she is tired of hiding who she is just to attract ” a hot boy who dances his feelings”.

But I think my favorite call back in the episode is Teddy’s 3 bean salad party, bring your own bean. “Can I put you down for garbanzo?” he asks Bob. And then the construction worker has a great throwaway line where brings up the “bring your own bean” concept again.  It is so patently absurd and so wholly in the world of Bob’s Burgers.

Was this the funniest episode they’ve done? No.  It changes every so often, but mostly I give that title to Art Crawl.  But The Belchies was a good welcome back and I look forward to another great season.

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Game of Thrones – Now with even more trailer!

Posted on March 11, 2012 by ilmozart

It only took 80 trailers but we finally get some Margaery Tyrell!  And Renly making out with…a woman?

There’s also more Tyrion in this, repeating Ned’s line from season 1, “We’ve come to a dangerous place”.  Kings Landing meant death for so many in the past and means death for so many more over the course of the season.

And of course, Cersei.  So much bitch.

21 days to go….

http://youtu.be/r6Uo0XTBKjs

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John Carter – Mars (and Texas) Forever

Posted on March 11, 2012 by ilmozart

Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs series, John Carter (which should have been John Carter of Mars), reminded me of one of the great movie quandaries: How do actors get through their lines in certain types of movies with a straight face?

What kind of movies? Science fiction and fantasy movies are an obvious choice.  Religious films, especially where the character in question has to speak some secret language (this applies to TV shows too, Supernatural I’m looking at you) are also in this list.  And it’s always the most respected actors who have to say the silliest lines.

This is not any different in John Carter.  Willem Defoe as Tars Tarsus, the Jeddak of the Tharks, has that honor in this movie.  That sentence alone was a tongue twister.  Luckily, Defoe is doing a voice and we don’t actually have to watch him say these things.  We do have several actors from HBO’s Rome reuniting for John Carter: Ciaran Hinds (Julius Ceasar) as Tardos Mors the Jeddak (ruler) of Helium, James Purefoy(Marc Antony) as Kantos Kan, Hinds’ right-hand man once again, and Polly Walker (the scheming Atia of the Julii) voicing the Thark Sarkoja.  All of them at one point or another is called upon to say something silly.

Kitsch/Carter and Collins/Dejah meet cute on Mars

It is a testament to Andrew Stanton that none of it seems terribly silly.  The movie opens on a battle between two warring factions on Barsoom, our Mars.  Mark Strong, who has been making a good career for himself playing the baddie, shows up as Matai Shang, a somewhat omnipotent being, who gives Seb Than (The Wire‘s own McNulty, Dominic West) the brute leader of one of Zodanga, the other warring faction, the “9th ray” which allows him to create and destroy.

But before we get into Martian politics too much, we’re back on Earth following Tim Riggins. I mean John Carter (Friday Night Light‘s Taylor Kitsch).  He no sooner sends a telegram to his nephew Ned (Edgar Rice Burroughs himself) then he passes away, leaving his vast fortune and personal diary to his nephew.

The diary reveals that when searching for a cave of gold, Carter managed to transport himself to Mars. And that’s when the real story begins.  He hooks up with the Tharks, four-armed 9-ft tall green aliens with giant tusks and a combative society, befriends Woola (more on him later), and saves a princess, Dejah Thoris played by Lynn Collins. Carter’s ability to jump over great distances due to the difference in gravity between Mars and Earth, makes him an invaluable asset to the Tharks and later to Helium in their fight against Seb Than and the Zodangans.

Taylor Kitsch as John Carter with Defoe's Tars Tarsus

I have not read the Burroughs Barsoom novels, but as convoluted as the above paragraph seems, it is not hard to follow in the film.  The names and words become clear through dialog and action and if you can follow any of the Lord of the Rings films, this is not different.

Everyone does a decent job in the film. Kitsch was a bit too low-key throughout, but managed the stoicism of a Civil War vet who lost it all.  Lynn Collins’ accent was serviceable and she had a good sense of fun and adventure throughout.  Dominic West clearly relished having a really bad guy to sink his teeth into and Mark Strong was sufficiently mysterious/malevolent as Matai Shan.  But of course, as so many animal sidekicks are wont to do, Woola steals the show. What is Woola? I will leave that to the image below:

Woola - the new dog/lizard breed that will be on everyone's Christmas lists.

Stanton, who directed Pixar’s Wall-E and Finding Nemo (my 2 favorite Pixar films actually) paired up with a few other writers on John Carter’s script, including Michael Chabon (!) who wrote among many others, the brilliant Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  So the script could have been better, the pacing more uniform, dialog tightened up here and there. But the action sequences worked well. The effects were mostly seamless, and even without opting for the 3D experience, you are immersed into the wide vast aridness of Mars.  The accompanying soundtrack by Pixar standby, Oscar winner and Lost composer Michael Giacchino was exciting and non-instrusive.

However, as competent and occasionally thrilling as the movie was, I left thinking “it could have been better”. Between its amazing pedigree (Stanton, Chabon, the slew of talented mostly British actors) and a well-fleshed out mythology to work with, the movie should have ended with my immediate desire to see it again.  But that didn’t happen.  While you knew much was at stake, it didn’t always feel that way.  The viewer’s connection with the characters didn’t go much deeper than the surface.

It is currently being declared a dud at the box office, losing out to another mythical creature, the Lorax.  It is unfortunate because John Carter’s creators clearly had the best intentions in mind and hit their marks more often than not.

It might not have been a success, but at least this wasn’t another Green Lantern.

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Jonah Hill on SNL – He Really Tried

Posted on March 11, 2012 by ilmozart

Following La Lohan’s disastrous SNL hosting, pretty much anyone could do better. (Not Anna Farris, as much as I love her. That was a tough episode.) So, how did Jonah Hill do?

Mr. Hill is extremely important now that he's been nominated for an Oscar

It was OK. It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t great.  It had it’s moments that I’ll rewatch, but it had quite a few that made me scratch my head.

The Highs:
– Monologue:  Rather than have Hill sweat it out on the stage, they did a really funny video showing how the Oscar nomination turned him into quite a douche.  It was the smaller glasses/larger scarf bit that did it for me, along with his dismissal of Kristen Wiig’s nomination. But of course what sold the monologue was the arrival of Tom Hanks and his twin Oscars, showing Hill how one really becomes a d-bag with an award.

The kiss all America has been waiting to see

– Weekend Update:  I don’t remember too many of Seth’s jokes, but you bet I remember Andy Samberg’s inept impersonation of Sarah Palin – he was just close enough visually that you almost thought he could have pulled it off…before he opened his mouth; and we finally got Stefonback!  Bill Hader could barely hold himself together describing “that old Pakistani woman that looks like a California Raisin” and lost it completely on the Hoomba (midgets attached to skateboards who roll around eating garbage off the floor).  And Stefon got his liplock with Seth Meyers, a long time coming.

– The Coolio Proposal:  For some reason the final sketches have become the dumping ground for most insane and crazy ideas the writers have going around in their heads. And those are the sketches that slay me. This week’s proposal set to Coolio’s homeboy anthem “C U When U Get There” was great. Bizarre, had some white boy rapping, some fly girls grinding on him, and the clapping guy.  Plus, we now know that Coolio is going to die in the next millennium.  Did it make any sense? Absolutely not.

The OK

– Digital Short:  As the Simpsons have taught us, nothing is funnier than a guy being hit in the groin, it works on so many levels.
http://youtu.be/IyBJVCIR4jk
So why wasn’t this short about Jonah Hill being hit repeatedly in the groin with tennis balls a high?  Not quite sure… McEnroe was entertaining, the ghost tennis ball thrower was OK, and Dr. Darius Rucker Jr. was OK.  But it just didn’t reach the hilarity that I’ve come to expect from the shorts after all these years.

– Benihana:  Repeating a character he played the first time he hosted, Jonah Hill played Adam Grossman, a very precocious 6 year old who is essentially the reincarnation of a Borscht Belt comedian.  This time instead of pimping out his dad to the lovely ladies seated at their table, he lobbed scarcastic remarks about his dad’s newest girlfriend, Vanessa Bayer in her best middle-aged Jewish accent.

– JPop America Fun Time Now: This is a limited sketch by design, but Taran Killam and Vanessa Bayer continue to bring something funny to their utterly oblivious racism, and Jason Sudekis brings it home as their faculty adviser who desperately tries to distance himself from them.  Jonah Hill came on as their friend from summer camp who liked to dress up as a Samurai. OK.  He broke character a few times but that just helped the sketch.   His voice garbled the lines a bit, but the one about not telling his mother he cut himself with a sword again was pretty good.

The not-so-good:

– Cold Open:  Let me say I think Taran Killam did a great Rush Limbaugh, really getting the voice. The problem is that the script didn’t live up to that. At this point if you’re going after Limbaugh, you go after him. This attack focused on a string of d-list advertisers rather than really putting it to Limbaugh himself.  Plus you could tell the crowd just wasn’t into it, which isn’t a good sign for the beginning of the show.

– Brutus the Ape:  Watching Jonah Hill’s talking ape talk about how much Hill really just like to have sex with the primate made long for Mr. Peepers.

– Liza Tries to Turn Off a Lamp: SNL has a Kristen Wiig problem.  They either forgot how to use her effectively or just let her run rampant with her ideas that aren’t worth a full sketch and always go on way too long.  This is the second week in a row that a Wiig focus sketch just bombed.  It was only mildly better than the homesitter sketch last week, if I want to be generous.  If this really is her last season, I’ll miss her in some things (her tiny handed/large foreheaded singing sister never gets old for me) but I won’t miss these sorts of sad sad sketches.

So overall? Jonah Hill is game and we know he’s funny.  With a better script from the writers, he should definitely come back again.  With Tom Hanks and his kick-ass twins, of course.

Tom Hanks knows who the true love of his life is.

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