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Host Me Baby One More Time

She didn’t again but I wouldn’t say “Oops,” about this appearance because it was even better than the last time which was already pretty good. The first time Britney Spears hosted SNL, I felt that her acting was a little stiff but she had the right energy and seemed to be having fun. I felt the same about this visit only since, by this time, she had experienced more time in the spotlight and seemed more comfortable in her efforts to act.

I’m not all that surprised because before she had he head-shaving meltdown she seemed more like a goofball and less gun shy when it comes to sharing her personality. Though I would fear a modern day Britney hosted show, I knew this era Britney would do just fine. Then again, I could be reading more into this than is actually there considering how I’m so much more subdued and closed off after a meltdown of my own.

Another reason that I really liked this episode was how it felt like Britney wanted to show off her comedic skills and wasn’t given the hot host treatment where she was mainly treated as a prop for the cast members to hit on, which could have easily been the case. There was the sketch where Astronaut Jones told her to take her clothes off and show him her ass but the fact that she was playing an alien in the scene made it more about the fact that Jones was a kinky freak who was turned on by a non-human being that making it about Spears herself the way they would if it were the type of hot host-style show that really bothers me.

Well, that’s all that I’ve got for this one. With that, it’s now time to shift gears in order to share what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody coverage of Winter Olympics: Women's Skiing where special guest, Dan Aykroyd, and Will Ferrell played Mormon missionaries who accosted Amy Poehler as skier Tiffany Lane and attempted to get her to convert in the middle the skiing event she was competing in, making fun of the fact that the games were being held in Utah. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Britney Spears then officially opened the show with a monolog where Chris Kattan came out as Britney only to be interrupted by the real Britney Spears who attempted to correct Kattan on his identity crisis, but even special guest, Justin Timberlake, who was dating our host at the time, struggled to tell the two apart and even suggested that he had sex with Kattan due to the mix up.
We then got a repeat of the Loose Bear ad from earlier in the season which was a cold medication where the hallucinogen literally scares the poo out of users by giving them visions of a wild loose bear in their proximity.
Brian Fellow's Safari Planet then returned for another installment where this time Tracy Morgan, as Fellow, was too preoccupied with thoughts of his first guest’s rabbit’s potential off-stage antics to be able to focus on the rest of his animal sharing show.
Inside Barbie's Dream House shrank us down to doll size so that Amy Poehler as Barbie could reveal the truth about her wild youth to her “kid sister,” Skipper, who was played by Britney Spears where we all learned the Barbie was actually Skipper’s mom after a one night stand with a Han Solo action figure.
We then got another installment of Jimmy Fallon’s dorm room webcast series of sketches called Jarrett's Room where this time, he and his sidekick Gobey, AKA Horatio Sanz, had on Gobey’s girlfriend, Britney Spears, on as their guest in order to partake in the Super Bowl Of Marijuana that they planned to smoke during the Super Bowl.
This was followed by a fake ad for Camp X-Ray: U.S. Detainment Facility #240678129934-AH-29J that pretty much made fun of Gitmo by treating it like a tropical incarceration paradise for its prisoners.
This was followed by A Message From Martha Stewart where Ana Gasteyer as Martha discussed her contingency plan following the fact that K-Mart, the main store that sold her good, had just declared that they went bankrupt.
Britney Spears then switch to musical guest mode to perform I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week, Seth Meyers dropped by as a character named Joe Palindrome, who was kind of like an Olympic judge, in order to give Jimmy a point based on a Ciccoline Joke. Darrell Hammond then checked in via satellite from Mogadishu as Geraldo Rivera to brag about himself while in the middle of reporting on the current war. Jimmy Fallon also performed a parody of the Winter Olympics’ theme song while Will Ferrell interrupted to state that he thinks his song, America would make for an even better theme song and then went on to perform the song with Gay Ice Skating Hitler.
We then got the debut of Astronaut Jones where Tracy Morgan started in a ‘50s style sci-fi show that mainly focused on the theme song with the actual show being nothing more than Astronaut Jones meeting Britney Spears as a troubled alien who shared her woes and asked for help only to have Astronaut Jones tell her to strip naked and show him, “dat ass.”
This was followed by another parody of HBO: First Look where this time the film in focus was a fictional Gemini’s Twin feature film called Damn My Dixie’s On Fire, with Britney Spears as their latest new member.
9 News Morning Edition made fun of a morning news show that went out of control due to stolen chairs and a handful of technical gaffes.
Britney Spears then switched back to musical guest mode to perform Boys.
The Leather Man was a sketch where Jimmy Fallon played a shop owner of a leather store who was completely obsessed with his leather clothing and shared his love while trying to assist Britney Spears and his leather clothing kept squeaking to the point where he could barely be heard. About halfway through the sketch, Dan Aykroyd dropped by to join in on the fun
Finally, Britney Spears closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

I’m happy to see that the show has recovered from what I hope was a one episode second half slump because this episode ended up being rather fun thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved The Debut Of Astronaut Jones because he’s always been a character who cracks me up and reminds me of the movie Amazon Women On The Moon. Next, I really liked Inside Barbie's Dream House because I liked the way Amy Poehler and Britney Spears acted as dolls while telling a well-written story with funny references about popular toys from the time. Finally, I was a fan of this week’s installment of Brian Fellow's Safari Planet because once again, Brian Fellow might be my favorite SNL character of all time.