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My Post Birthday Episode: Year 36

For the past couple of days, I’ve been talking about how some sort of switch feel like it’s been switched to where, for the first time in my life, I actually feel confident in my efforts to do something more with my writing than just continue to refine my style in an effort to find my voice. Though I don’t think that I’ve found it, and am still exploring, I no longer feel like I am faking it until I make it. Up until this week, I’ve still been in my screenwriter’s head where my biggest concern was whether or not a producer accepts my work, only with an imagined audience taking the producer’s place.

Just like with my scripts, I was still going to do my thing no matter what, but my expectations for rejection had me second guessing everything, worried that I could scare someone off with a simple/innocent thought about how I interpret my world. I’m now in the mindset that I’m going to work on this blog to improve my writing whether I ever make money or not and no one can take that away. Hell, even if we end up back in the stone ages, from the terrible worldwide leadership issue going on, I’ll share what I witnessed by writing in the dirt with a stick.

Keep in mind, it’s the fact that I fit the stereotypical description of a pathetic, live at home, loser that leads me to feel this way, and not that anyone else is actively attacking my effort. It’s as if the twenty-years I lived out on my own ruthlessly stumbling into adventures before my midlife meltdown doesn’t count for anything in other’s eyes. It’s just hard not to feel that way after growing up in a home where the only one there on the regular was a mother’s drunk boyfriend who eventually became the stepfather who tells you you’re worthless on a daily basis while you’re just trying to navigate junior high.

I don’t know why this affects me so much because the guys been dead for years. I do know that this is the reason the visit from Lindsay Lohan always bums me out a bit because the way that they playfully laugh off all of her struggles takes me back to my pre-meltdown life where I thrived off the laughter towards my many flaws rather than opting instead to seek help. I used to laugh because I related, now I sometimes have to hold back the tears because I relate even more and no longer find trainwrecks to be a laughing matter.

As I said the past couple of time Lindsay Lohan was on, I’ve only seen her in Mean Girls, or when she does cameos, other than that, I’m aware of her projects but mostly know her from the tabloid stories about her wild life, or at least from the time period of this appearance. Based on the previewing legwork, unless there is another chewing incident like last night, I’m expecting a weaker episode, similar to the first few shows from this season, and not closer to one of the shows from the solid chunk that started after Ben Stiller visit.

I’m expecting to be entertained, but I’d be surprised if this ends up all that high on my favorites list. With that, it’s now time to hit play so that I can share my real-time viewing experience. As I keep pointing out recently, though I don’t typically like the political content that’s been opening the show for the past two seasons, I’ve really been enjoying these opening segments with Jason Sudeikis as Mitt Romney. This is because they make fun of his character and not his policies while putting him in situations outside of press conferences, so we’re not just seeing a talking head.

As I just said, I’m over the trainwreck-based humor because the genre now reminds me at all of my own laughed at humorous cries for help that everyone bought as me just having a dark sense of humor. I don’t blame them, because the technique wasn’t meant as a way to not bother anyone while hinting at the demons I battle. I probably would have laughed along at the monolog back during these days, but now I just feel sympathy for this former child star still jumping through hoops trying to please whatever audience is crucial to her. Meaning parents, family, or friends who she’s trying not to let down and not the crowd in the seats who outsiders may see as her need. Or at least that’s how I read the trainwreck trope-living human beings, including me.

Having four sisters and no brothers, I know enough about Disney Princesses for The Real Housewives Of Disney to be pretty funny, even though I’ve never seen an actual The Real Housewives Of... anything shows that seems simple enough that it would be impossible for the non-Disney references to go over anyone’s head. The psychic award show also didn’t go over my head, but it was just adorable in a way that didn’t inspire that much more to say about it. Actually, the sketch did go over my head due to my lack of focus which just made it ten times funnier when I did zone back in a realized the rewards were being given for the psychic’s achievements for the upcoming year and not the present.

As always, I love the Scared Straight series and this installment aired at just the right time. The monolog had me a bit bummed, the Disney sketch loosened me up to have fun, the adorableness of the psychic sketch got me back in a better viewing mood, and this one just got me to laugh, especially due to the fact that Lindsay played herself as a prisoner. I think I’m much more comfortable with her still making these jokes now that I’m older. I’m still hung up on SNL making these same jokes when the poor girl was just a sixteen kid, and with two of my sisters being over a decade younger than me, I can feel a little paternal a times.

I like what I’ve heard from the White Stripes, but I’ve never owned an album or have listened to Jack White out on his own. I could see there being a time when I would have liked this music a lot, but right now it was just okay. Now that I seem to be rekindling my love for comedy through this challenge I’ll have to start another challenge to rekindle my passion for music someday. Music just has too much of an effect on my mood, especially the stuff that I’m drawn to.

Speaking of moods, the slight slip into sorrow is now gone, but I still wasn’t into this weeks installment of the news, as always, because I hate the current events from this time and not really anything to do with Seth or the segment itself. Unless there are guests who entertain me, I typically tweak my notes at this time while keeping one eye on the action. I did laugh a couple time when Bill Hader as James Carville kept going on and on about alligators though.

Going back to the, all sister’s thing, as I often point out, with me not being the oldest child, I didn’t have any control over the shared TV and got stuck watching movies like Grease more than any straight guy should. Because of this, I got a kick out of the Grease era musical theater dancing delinquents doing their thing in the middle of the street and laughed each time Fred Armisen as a woman would get hit by a car. I also liked that it was kind of an update of a similar sketch where they joked about introducing cheerleaders to NASCAR.

The gigantic afro from the SNL Digital Short was funny to look at, and it was cool that it sounded like Jack White and his band provided the music for the song, but it wasn’t a Digital Short that I felt was good enough to ever inspire me to seek out to share. As a Howard Stern fan, I liked the sketch that made fun of the Morning Zoo format because it was always fun to hear Howard impersonate these cut and paste morning wild guys and their nonsense the same way as this sketch.

Just when I was back to having some fun, I was hit by a repeated fake ad which I can’t stand, especially considering that these newer shows have no excused since they took place while we had the modern internet. The sketch that followed was hilarious with Kristen Wiig freaking out Lindsay Lohan as her potential house sitter when she thought she was being stalked by her butt dials. And then we got another repeat of another fake ad from just a couple of weeks ago.

This had me annoyed going into the second song from Jack White which was too bad because it was the better of the two songs performed, probably because I heard it before. Then I was annoyed again because the show went back to giving us fake commercials. Though they weren’t repeats, I can’t stand when they put so many of the same types of sketches in a row.

It also annoyed me that this ad was followed by one of the most laugh out loud funny sketches of the night with Andy Samberg as Rude Buddha who was the complete opposite of the real guy, and then we want to part two of the above-mentioned commercial. This pissed me off on multiple levels. For one, the series didn’t fulfill the rule of three, but it also wasn’t spread out enough to be a running joke to come back to throughout the night. They should have taken all of these dumb ads and just given us another solid standard length sketch.

Either way, by the time that Lindsay Lohan returned to the stage to say her goodnights, I was happy for the show to be over, and even more happy that it ended up blowing my expectations away. This is why I’m not afraid of self-fulfilling prophecies when sharing my thoughts at the start because I love more than ever when I expect for a show to just be average and it turns out to be really good. Granted, it’s still not near the top of my list of favorites, but it’s much higher in the middle than I thought it would when I hit play.

With that, it’s now time to dig deeper into the details of each sketch to see what made it such a well-done episode, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a parody of Fox Report where Bill Hader Played a creepy Shepard Smith who wards of “Mother” ala Psycho while trying to interview Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig as Mitt Romney and his wife with other cast members also joining in a Romney’s children. Other than the Psycho element, the interview was another attempt for Mitt to connect to the commoners only to fail once again. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York...”
Lindsay Lohan then officially opened the show with a monolog about how she fine despite all of the recent reports of her latest troubles from the time. Cast member after cast member purported to trust our host, but they said this while double checking to make sure she wasn’t up to anything that might violate her probation. We also got to see the Jon Hamm was backstage on standby just in case she was to slip up.
We then got a parody of The Real Housewives Of Disney where had our host and female members of the cast dressed as Disney Princesses to do a Disney version of a “The Real Housewives of...” show.
This was followed by fake coverage of the 2012 Psychic Awards which was a quirky award show to highlight the best psychics of the year and then got to see said psychics act like weirdos as they accepted their awards.
Scared Straight then returned for another installment where this time Lindsay Lohan played herself as Kenan Thompson’s prison mate/sidekick to attempt to scare kids out of a life of crime, but as always, the kids catch on quickly that the two are just quoting movie lines.
Jack White then took to the stage to perform Love Interruption.
Once again, Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Bill Hader returned as James Carville to comment on a string of the most recent controversial comments from Rush Limbaugh as well as a couple other Republican gaffes. Bobby Moynihan also returned as Snooki to comment on whether or not she’s pregnant and then went on to reveal that she was having Jon Hamm’s baby. (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
Delinquent Girl Teen Gang took us back to the days from the movie Grease where Lindsay Lohan Fred Armisen and Abby Elliott played a clique of teenage girls carelessly danced in the streets after getting released from jail for dancing in the streets just earlier in the night. It started out fun like it would in an older film like this until Fred Armisen kept getting hit by passing vehicle.
We then got another SNL Digital Short/music video called Afro where Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig sang about their grown together afros as a video invitation to their upcoming wedding.
B108 FM was a parody of a morning zoo formatted radio show with Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan as the wacky two guys and Lindsay Lohan as Illiterate Lisa who was their token female broadcaster that gave them the excuse to get away with their sexist content.
We then for a repeat of the fake ad for Chantix from earlier in the season that made fun of the fact that this anti-smoking aid was more dangerous than actual cigarettes.
House Sitting had Kristen Wiig as a homeowner who hired Lindsay Lohan to housesit because she was leaving town on vacation. The only problem was that Wiig wouldn’t leave the house due to the endless calls from a crazy stalker. Overhearing these snippets of conversation led Lindsay to second guess her decision to keep the gig. Then, by the end of the sketch, we learned that it was actually Wiig butt-dialing herself.
This was followed by another repeat of a fake from just a couple of shows ago. This was the ad for Verizon where Bill Hader was a little too into technical jargon when trying to sell cell phone service to an old/confused Fred Armisen.
Jack White then returned to the stage to perform Sixteen Saltines.
70's Album had Jason Sudeikis as a weird guy who poked around the fireplace while reminiscing about ‘70s music in an effort to sell a new album.
Rude Buddha! had Andy Samberg as the polar opposite of Buddha who made disparaging remarks about his disciples behind their backs right after dispensing his words of wisdom and encouragement upon them.
70's Album II had Jason Sudeikis return to do the same exact thing only this time he burned his hand in the process.
Finally, Lindsay Lohan closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Though I entered this viewing in somewhat of a somber mood, thanks to these sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments, I was delighted by the time it was done. First, I loved The Real Housewives Of Disney because I’m a fan of when a sketch can parody a real show that I have no interest in ever seeing for real but can get me to like the sketch anyways. Next, I really liked the 2012 Psychic Awards because everyone looked like they were having so much fun doing their adorable performances that it put me in a better mood plus, it really cracked me up when it caught my attention enough that I realized that they were actually giving awards for the upcoming year and not the present. Finally, I was a fan of Rude Buddha! and want to see this character more often because it was funny to see the peace-loving religious leader the way that he is behind people’s backs, at least as this skinny Andy Samberg version.