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My Post Birthday Episode: Year 26

I shared my love of the Olympics back when Nancy Kerrigan was host but it bears repeating considering how tonight’s host, Jonny Moseley, would’ve, at best, been a special guest on the news if it wasn’t for his involvement in this year’s Winter Games and we would have missed out on a pretty funny episode. As a Leap Year Baby, I’ve always felt a connection to both the Presidential Election and the Olympic Games because up until 1994 all of these events followed the same four-year pattern of my birthday.

In 1994, the Winter Games split to be on a different four-year rotation but I was eighteen at the time, so I was already a committed fan. Then, to add to my interest, more often than not, since ’94, I’ve always managed to be either in between jobs or working from home while the Olympics were being aired and I would watch the games obsessively, so I get excited when I see an Olympian host.

Though I know for a fact that I was a Moseley fan during the games, enough time has passed to where I forgot the specifics of his personality that made him interesting. This meant that I went into this viewing with an open mind, especially considering the surprising success rate of sports figures as host, who at worst have been slightly above average and at best, better than a legitimate comedic host. Thankfully, Moseley landed someplace in the middle.

First off, Moseley’s energy alone was enough to make for a really fun show even though he had the acting abilities of a contest-winning fan. When it comes to the world of sketch, bad acting isn’t necessarily a flaw to me, but it definitely is noticeable. Even though none of his spoken lines felt natural and you could see glances to the ground to make sure he hit his mark, the fun being had was infectious making this an entertaining episode to watch.

Where this season started pretty soft because of the events of 9/11, the middle of the year has been pretty strong and between tonight’s episode, with a none acting host, and the line up of hosts to come, I’m pretty excited about the upcoming shows that I’ll get to watch. Not only that but with the newbie Not Ready For Prime Time Players finally seeming to take more ownership in their roles, I’m now super excited to see what’s going to come next year.

With that said, it’s not time to wrap this thing up and share what I saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where Will Ferrell as George W. Bush added Enron to his Axis Of Evil list following their recent scandal. He then went on to add other personal annoyances to the list before he eventually announced, “Live from New York…”
Jonny Moseley then officially opened the show with a monolog about why coming in fourth place at the recent Winter Olympics was more satisfying to him than winning the gold at the prior Winter Games because the losers knew how to party even harder than the winners who just stood on a stage to smile during their National Anthem.
Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch’s ever recorded Boston Teens Couple then returned where this time the two argued on a ski lift while Jonny Moseley who was just a random skier who was forced to sit in between them to fill the mandatory three peoples to a seat and wasn’t interested in their bickering because all he wanted to do was ski. If things weren’t bad enough when the two lovers were fighting, it got a little awkward while they tried to make up with Moseley still in the middle seat.
This was followed by a parody of The O'Reilly Factor with Jeff Richards as O’Reilly in order to share that he doesn’t believe facts over opinions when it comes to anything then yelled at all of his guests no matter what they believed.
We then got a parody of the MTV dating show Dismissed where Jonny Moseley had to choose between a slutty Maya Rudolph and a one-legged Amy Poehler as to who would be his best mate.
Jonny's Journey was a parody of Winter Olympics coverage were Jonny Moseley’s signature Dinner Roll jump went so big that it launched him into an airborne trip around the world where he solved many of the world’s problems both big and small as he traveled.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week, Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler dropped by as a pair of Canadian skaters who politely asked to take over the hosting duties in order to complete the second half of the show because they won both gold and silver medals while Moseley won nothing so they thought it would only be fair. Chris Kattan also dropped by as a character named Hollywood in order to share some celebrity gossip only he was completely out of the loop.
Outkast then took to the stage to perform The Whole World.
Super Buzzers was the parody of an early game show from the ‘80s that was new to the Game Show Network show that featured a huge panel of celebrity guests in an effort to get ratings only there was no real point to the game but it did end with the introduction of the real Rip Taylor who got to share several of his jokes.
Typhoid Mary: The Musical was a sketch where Ana Gasteyer played Carol Channing’s understudy who had to take over the starring role only to end up putting a damper on the quirky musical with all of her demanding needs and limiting ailments to where she could only perform from a stool.
Jack Handey then gave us another installment of My Big Thick Novel where this time we learned that our hero couldn’t take his girlfriend back to civilization because she was a headhunter who wouldn’t fit in.
Outkast then returned to the stage to perform Ms. Jackson.
Extreme Wedding had Jonny Moseley as an extreme groom at an extreme wedding that is far too extreme for his bride to be Amy Poehler.
We then got another installment of My Big Thick Novel where this time our hero’s new space alien girlfriend couldn’t comprehend the planet Earth.
Finally, Jonny Moseley closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Again, even though I’m not a huge fan of sports, I’m always surprised by how much I end up loving athlete hosted shows but they are usually fun thanks to moments like this from my three favorite sketches of the night. First, I loved Jonny's Journey where Jonny Moseley got stuck in his signature Dinner Roll that sent him around the world to solve all of our problems because it reminded me of the Running F@##*t, Running Free sketch from The Kids In The Hall. Next, I really liked the Super Buzzer sketch because, before there was cable television, these old celebrity panel game shows seemed to be the only daytime syndicated content to watch, plus how could you not like a sketch that features the real Tip Taylor. Finally, I was a fan of the parody of Dismissed because I’m a fan of Amy Poehler’s one-legged character.