or...

A Slow Second To Last Show Of The Year

Though I’ve never seen the Spiderman movie that Kirsten Dunst was on the show to promote, I am a huge fan of Bring It On and an even bigger fan of Drop Dead Gorgeous and more of her comedic work which led me to have high expectations for the night. Unfortunately, I feel that her visit came too late in this inconsistent season because even though she had the right energy that I would normally love, I still felt the show came off rather flat due to the writing and not the acting efforts.

I was concerned that this was going to be the case when I felt the same exact thing happened yesterday with Alec Baldwin’s appearance, considering that eight out of ten of his appearances have been really good. I figured, if they’ve gotten to the point where they can’t pull off a good episode with a host they are used to, the final two hosts didn’t really stand a chance, even as actresses of whom I am a fan.

Again, I felt like the right energy was there throughout the night to where I would love to see Kirsten Dunst get another chance in the upcoming years. There was one saving grace in that the second half of the show was better than the first but then again, this situation only makes things worse because I find it hard to change my mood when there are no real laughs until after the news when I’ve already written the episode off.

As usual, even though this episode wasn’t all that inspiring to write about, if I were just viewing the show I’d be perfectly fine with what I saw since not every show can be perfect. I know I always bring this up when I go negative but that’s just because I want to be clear that I’m not totally dumping on a show that I love.

With that, it’s now time to move on and share what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a White House Cabinet Meeting where Will Ferrell as George W. Bush faked his political knowledge in order to keep up with the discussion about recent activities in the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine that he was being briefed on by Maya Rudolph and Darrell Hammond as Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney. Of course with this being the opening sketch it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Kirsten Dunst then officially opened the show with a monolog about how she was on the show as a little kid back when George Bush Sr. was the President and then showed us a clip with her, Dana Carvey as Mr. Bush and several other kids who all announced, “Live from New York…” When we came back to the stage Dunst was interrupted by an upside down Horatio Sanz in a Spiderman suit in his attempt to sneak a kiss from our host like the one in the Spiderman movie.
This was followed by a fake ad for a new pregnancy test called Clear Results that had Ana Gasteyer as her, very pregnant, real self while she waited for the results just to be extra clear that her child filled belly was real.
This was followed by a parody of Last Call With Carson Daly that made of the former TLC host’s new extra late night show where Jimmy Fallon as Daly attempted to hit on Kirsten Dunst as a hack of a pianist who was the best guest he could get considering the super late time slot.
TV Funhouse then gave us a fake trailer for a digital reboot called Bambi 2002, which modernized and extreme to the point where it was no match for the old Bambi flick which, the ad kept reminding us, was locked away in the Disney Volt.
This was followed by a fake ad for Demilon that had Kirsten Dunst, Will Ferrell, and Ana Gasteyer as family members of Rachel Dratch who played an old woman with Alzheimer’s. This drug was marketed as a way to keep Alzheimer patients completely in the dark and even more confused in order to take control of their wills without them having a clue.
Overacting Background Actors had Chris Kattan and Maya Rudolph as actors who tried to get through a very serious restaurant scene only to have Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, and Kirsten Dunst as background actors constantly ruin the performance with their over-the-top background acting.
We then got another installment of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz’s college webcast series called Jarrett's Room where this time the two accused Kirsten Dunst as a co-ed of stealing their idea for a show and then got to see her webcast to see that they might actually have a point.
Eminem then returned to the stage to perform Without Me.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week, Kirsten Dunst and Maya Rudolph dropped by as the Hilton Sisters just to drunkenly interrupt. Chris Kattan then gave us another one of his Terrible Re-Enactments where this time he shared what it was like during the Queen’s run-in with a streaker. Chris Parnell finished things off with a rap where he pretended that Kirsten Dunst was his girlfriend.
This was followed by a parody of CourtTV that had Kirsten Dunst as Anna Kournikova during her lawsuit against Penthouse where in the world of the sketch the trial quickly devolved into a Laugh-In-style go-go scene.
Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch then returned for another installment of their high school produced morning talk show called Wake Up Wakefield where this time the show went on location to a slumber party at Kirsten Dunst’s house where they gossiped and played slumber party pranks.
The DeMarco Family then returned for another installment where Chris Kattan and Chris Parnell play a pair of dancers who get overly interpretive with their dancing during their audition only this time Kirsten Dunst played their sister and the three auditioned for Eminem.
Jack Handey then shared another chapter of My Big Thick Novel where this time our hero had to explain to his young daughter what they do with old horses.
Finally, Kirsten Dunst closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Though I liked the energy more than the actual show, these three sketches that contained my favorite moments kept this episode at least somewhat fun to watch. First, I loved the Overacting Background Actors because it reminded me how I used to be obsessed with thinking of the background actor’s backstories when I used to work on films. Next, I really liked The DeMarco Family because I like this series of sketches enough when it’s just the two brothers and I liked it even more with Dunst as a third sibling. Finally, I was a fan of the CourtTV sketch because the Laugh-In based humor actually did get a chuckle out of me.