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SNL: Queen Latifah

OK folks, some brief thoughts about tonight's SNL:

* I have now officially tired of debate parody. Will Forte is injecting his Bush impression with some sort of spastic energy that's just flat out annoying.

* Monologue... blah.  Pubic hair shampoo commerical... blah. 

* Prince talk show... ugh. Why is every other skit on this show a talk show of some sort? With all of the things ripe for comedy and parody... why are talk shows still the main drive of this show?

* Oh yeah, the racial tension headache commercial... blah.

* Wow, two shows and already a much needed break.  No new show next week.

* Hey great, the Vice-Presidential debate too!  Good lord, we're 30 minutes in and I haven't even laughed yet.

* Heh, I like it when someone asks the audience to sing lyrics to a song they've never heard before, as Queen Latifah just did.

* Sidenote: I love how the commercials for "Father of the Pride" are determined to prove that the show isn't for kids, and then shows Eddie Murphy's Donkey character from Shrek showing up.  Kids, don't watch!

* They cut Jimmy Fallon saying "Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy!" at the end of the Weekend Update intro. This was the only notable thing about this week's Weekend Update.

* Ok, I liked the basketball recruiting sketch, mainly because I like Kenan Thompson. "I'm gonna go buy the Millennium Falcon!" Robert Smigel's X-Presidents cartoon was good too. I sense this trend won't continue though.

* Oh... too soon for a Rodney Dangerfield skit. I realize it was kind of a tribute, but still... it just sucked the life out of the room when people saw Hammond there as Dangerfield.

* Wow, Chris Kattan was there for two seconds to introduce Latifah's second musical number. What a waste. And ugh, she just asked the crowd to give it up for her. "Make some noise for me!" That's not how that works. You ask the crowd to make noise for the band... not for yourself.

* I saw this "Zing" thing twice last week in E! reruns.  I didn't like it then and it still doesn't work.

I think one of the main problems this season is that there isn't that one breakout star in the cast to latch onto. There's no Murphy or Farley or Carvey or Ferrell who can boost any crappy sketch simply by being in it. Darrell Hammond seems depressed everytime he's on camera (which isn't often), Kenan Thompson is hardly used, and the majority of the other cast members have seemingly been poured out of a white guy vat into a broken Kevin Nealon mold.

Blah, bad show.

SNL: Ben Affleck / Nelly

"Saturday Night Live" kicked off their 2004-2005 season tonight with host Ben Affleck. Here are some thoughts and questions that you don't have to answer.

* Was that the longest opening sketch ever? What was that... 12-15 minutes worth of almost comedy? I'm not a huge fan of Will Forte's version of George W. He comes across sometimes as Robin Williams doing a Crispin Glover impression. It's improved a bit from last season though.

* Why is Don Pardo still announcing? He announced Will Ferrell instead of Will Forte. You have all summer to get it right, not to mention that Ferrell hasn't been in the cast for two years, and it still gets botched? Would anyone cry foul if he was fired? Is he that crucial to things?

* Alec Baldwin crashing the monologue... good stuff.

* So without Jimmy Fallon to giggle all throughout the sketch and break everyone up, the jokes in Debbie Downer consist of a camera zoom, a take, and a funny trombone sound? This is the 21st century right?

* Weekend Update might be completely unwatchable at this point.  Thank goodness for the hilarious Tony Soprano cameo.

* Ugh, that escalator sketch. You know how critics like to say that most SNL movies would have made a good 5 minute skit? Well, this skit would have made a good 10 second joke in a channel surfing montage.

* Affleck did a fine job, despite looking at the cue cards a few times too often. If he can come back and host every year he could be what Tom Hanks was to the show in the 80s and 90s.

* Oh, and I can't see myself owning a Nelly album... ever.