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An Autobiography Of A Lip Sync Incident

It’s interesting to think that if it weren’t for this episode, I probably wouldn’t have been impressed at all by the fact that ABBA put up a huge disclaimer openly admitting that they were lip syncing when they were the musical guests in the ‘70s. Apparently, due to an issue with their luggage, they didn’t have a lyric-less sound bed to sing to so they had to lip sync to a track with words. I was so blown away by this openness, specifically with this episode in mind.

Meanwhile, I don’t know how this started a scandal, if you go back and watch Janet Jackson’s performance, it was clear that she was lip syncing and she seemed to think she put on a very believable performance. It’s funny how lip syncing because a big thing after that where it appeared to be heading back to a time of live performances but then things changed again, and now nobody seems to care. I guess people are fine listening to a recording live in exchange for a more elaborate dance performance.

I didn’t really care back then, and I don’t really care, but I did think it was messed up how at the end of the night Ashley Simpson tried to blame the whole thing on her band. I also just thought it was interesting considering this was the first thing to come to mind with ABBA and now that it’s actually happened, ABBA is back on my mind.

Other than that, this was just an okay episode. I’m a fan of Jude Law because he danced around in the indie film world in between major films back when that was still my thing. That said, I never saw him as being all that funny, so between that and the fact that this year’s Presidential Election cycle has been so horrible for this season, this non-comedic host started in a hole that I could see hard the show to overcome.

Then, the show started with one of my pet peeves when Jude Law joked how he got laughs for his looks and not for his talent or the fact that he was actually funny. As I always point out, this is a brilliant joke as long as it turns out not to be true. To be clear, I think Jude Law is a great actor, so when I say talent, I’m talking about in the world of sketch which is the only way for that lack of talent comment to be true.

With all that in mind, I wouldn’t say that Jude’s sketch work was all that terrible. It’s just between all of the political content this specific election that bores me, and the pet peeve of a start, it took me a little while to open up enough to change my views from a negative “meh,” to a positive just okay.

And that’s all I’ve got for this one. With that, it’s now time for me to move on and share what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with another parody of Hardball where once again, Darrell Hammond played Chris Matthews, this time to berate his guests Seth Meyers, as the always smiling Ed Gillespie and Will Forte, as the hotheaded Zell Miller, while trying to discuss John Kerry’s campaign. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Jude Law then officially opened the show with a monolog about how most people know him from his films, but he actually started out doing live theater. He then thought back fondly on those good old days, remembering the exact moment he realized how good looking he actually was. This sent him into a song about how great it is to live the life of a good looking person. The female members of the cast eventually joined our host as background singers and dancers who would fawn all over our host whenever they got the chance.
Green Screen was a parody of the making of Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow where we got to see Jude Law’s behind-the-scenes struggles with performing in a movie that was entirely shot on green screen.
This was followed by a fake ad for the Dyson Toilet which was marketed as a toilet made by the vacuum company that offered a product with enough vacuum power to flush down an entire bowl full of ravioli without any need to plunge.
The Presidential Debates jokingly claimed that this was the ninth debate between Will Forte as George W. Bush and Seth Meyers as John Kerry. The central joke of the sketch was that these two have been debating so much that they are starting to repeat themes that have already been well covered in all their other debates. Once again, I’m not feeling the debate sketches from this year because this real-life election cycle was such a bore.
Paris Hilton Apologizes had Maya Rudolph as Paris Hilton and Jude Law as her sister Nicky, so that Paris could publicly apologize for her recent use of the n-word in a recent sex tape, claiming she’s not racist, and Nicky was just there to back her up.
Ashlee Simpson then took to the stage to perform Pieces Of Me.
Once again, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler gave us the news. This week, Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch dropped by as The Ghost Of Babe Ruth and The Ghost Of His Hooker in order to discuss the Red Sox curse and how it will affect the upcoming World Series.
Bush And Blair had Will Forte as George W. Bush and Jude Law as Tony Blair in order to hold a joint press conference about their new collaborative efforts in adding more troops to the Iraq War, while both desperately tried to deny the fact that they were both just puppet leaders.
We then got a parody Promo Of The Apprentice where Darrell Hammond as a Dracula-clad Donald Trump recorded a Halloween theme promo for his season two of his highly successful show.
Jane Eyre brought the classic piece of literature to life with Rachel Dratch in the titular role where she helplessly watched her employer, Mr. Rochester, as played by Jude Law, sneak off to the attic for sex, which I’m guessing had something to do with the real story.
Ashlee Simpson then returned to the stage and attempted to perform Autobiography only to get caught lip syncing before she runs off the stage.
We then got the first installment of Bear City which was a city that’s been overrun with bears following an apocalyptic event that took out all of the humans and left the bears in charge. For this introduction, we got to see how two bears handled an automobile accident.
The Adventures of Peter O'Toole & Michael Caine had Jude Law as Peter O’Toole and Seth Meyers as Michael Caine so that the two could have a drink together where ever they choose even if they’re not entirely sure where they are.
We then got the second installment of Bear City where we witnessed a bear get caught mimicking his boss only to promptly end up fired.
Finally, Jude Law closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Not my favorite episode in what’s wind up to be a not my favorite year, but after getting over the politics, it was still sort of fun thanks to these three sketches that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved The Debut Of Bear City because I completely forgot about this segment until my heart fluttered when I saw that it was going to be on. Next, I really liked The Green Screen sketch because I still hate CGI and love these jokes that highlight why the green screen is so terrible. Finally, I was a fan of The Adventures of Peter O'Toole & Michael Caine because Jude Law and Seth Meyers seemed to be having a blast while doing their impersonations.