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Christmas + Box = You Know What???

This episode couldn’t have come at a better time considering it was my second SNL viewing of the day, following the brilliant episode hosted by Annette Bening. I’ve recently started to transition into a graveyard shift schedule in order to be more efficient with my time over the next couple of months as I go through I try to clean up as many typos as I can from this blog. If you’re reading this in real time, you might already know that I had a third-party spellchecking issue where the software wouldn’t commit the changed the I made through the publishing feature of my blog.

Up until I got my new computer with Word, I used to type up this posts in my web building site because I hate typing in Open Office. Plus the grammar/spellchecking plugin that caused the problem, that I’m not going to mention because love the app and it was also mainly my own fault, only worked through my browser until I upgraded to Word. I would then copy and paste the finished product into an Open Office file for my backup. Since I was copying and pasting directly, any changes that I made to the document through the plugin would stick. Then, I’d hit start, and none of the changes would commit.

I should have been double checking, but I thought it was safe to assume that everything stuck since no spelling warning showed up in Open Office, which I used as my second set of spellchecking eyes since my dyslexic head is sloppy enough without the help of this problem. Years ago, when I was still in my wild and young days, I got my hand on some magic mushrooms, and rather than party on the things, I would buckle down in front of my computer and write. What followed made me wonder if I got to see first hand what caused my dyslexia.

I knew it would take a while for the shrooms to kick in, so I started to warm up with some random ramblings so that when the room began to twist, I’d already be comfortable with the writing process and not like I’m learning a new thing. As more and more of my ramblings spewed, I started to see my paragraphs become a collection of city blocks with the spacing being the streets and the letter count to each word determining the height of each text tower. The height differences made it impossible to read but also got me wondering if I was seeing an exaggeration of the real problem that I have when looking at words.

Throughout the night, the motif of how I saw text land on the page evolved but that very first image was the most significant since it triggered this exciting thought. So yeah, I watch two shows, so it was a blessing that they were both outstanding. Where I was surprised by the fact that I liked Bening’s show as much as I did, there were no surprises involved in this viewing. Tonight also made two shows in a row where all that it took was reading the sketch list for me to remember almost every second of each segment of the night.

Where during his last visit I felt that Justin was surprisingly good for a pop singer, tonight was the night where there was no qualifier needed, and Timberlake was understandably seen as a person worthy of eventually owner a Five-Timers coat. It’s interesting how I had the same response to both Justin Timberland and The Rock where I was totally won over by their comedic styles with only one visit when I wouldn’t have thought either would have been that strong. Only with The Rock, I was at least a fan of his wrestling work, unlike Timberlake who wasn’t on my become-a-fan radar at all. Then these two went on to both star in Southland Tales which inspired my first big challenge for this blog.

Then again, that movie was filled with SNL alumn, so I guess that not a huge surprise. Alright, before I go rambling on more about that challenge as my sleep deprived head struggles to keep any focus, I may as well wrap this one up, and in order to do so, I now give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a little ditty called Santa's My Boyfriend where Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig harmonized about the illicit relationship the three were having with the Christmas fat man while they decorated their Christmas tree. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Justin Timberlake then officially opened the show with a monolog where he sang the Chipmunk’s classic Christmas Song with Bill Hader as Alvin, Fred Armisen as Simon and Andy Samberg as Theodore.
Homelessville had Will Forte as a Salvation Army Bellringing Santa who faced competition from Justin Timberlake as Homelessville’s mascot, Cup-Of-Soup, which led to a battle of songs with Justin parodying hip-hop hits and Will sticking to the classics.
Target Greatland then returned for another installment of Kristen Wiig as the over-enthusiastic Target cashier who would randomly wander off to take advantage of any customer discovered good deals. Justin Timberlake played a stock boy who kept mulling his chapped, allergy-ridden lips while trying to provide half-assed support.
This was followed by the classic SNL Digital Short Dick In A Box, which I don’t think I have to describe because it is such a classic part of the show’s history and the future of SNL Digital Shorts.
Jimmy Fallon then dropped by for another installment of The Barry Gibb Talk Show where he and Timberlake played to Gibbs boys to put on their parody talk show. In this segment, Justin, as the Robin Gibb, bit his lip while Jimmy as Barry issued insane threats to his highly political guests.
Dry Eyes was a game show sketch that had competitors compete by seeing who could hold out the longest before caving into their emotions to cry while being reminded of the most heartbreaking, and heartwarming moments from their past.
Justin Timberlake then took to the stage to perform My Love.
Once again, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Darrell Hammond dropped by as Lou Dobbs to provide his solution to turn the plan for the seven-hundred-mile wall along the Mexican border into a reality. Fred Armisen and Bill Hader also returned as their newly married New Jersey stereotypes, who weren’t stereotypically gay, in order to comment on their civil union and the Christmas holiday.
Hip Hop Kids had a group of teenaged hip-hop artists who hosted a kids’ show where these kids ignorantly tried to dance their way out of a mine that they got trapped while trying to use a shortcut to school. Only every time they danced the movement and vibration from the music got the mine to start to collapse knocking dancers out one by one in the process.
St. Ambrose Academy had Kenan Thompson revise his stepmother character from when Jaime Pressly was on the show, this time to come to the rescue of her ghetto-acting stepdaughter, this time played by Justin Timberlake who coveted the role of an elf in the school’s winter play.
A Holiday Message From Nancy Grace had Amy Poehler as Mrs. Grace to bestow her judgment upon the story of a “the Duke lacrosse stripper who falsely accused three college boys of raping her.” She was mainly upset because she really bought into the account and fought for the team to be punished and wanted to find a way to get back at them even if they were actually innocent of the crime.
Justin Timberlake then returned to the stage to perform What Goes Around.
Finally, Justin Timberlake closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

There’s nothing better than going into a viewing knowing for sure that the show’s going to be good with absolutely zero concerns. That was the case tonight thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved Dick In A Box especially since I thought it could be played out by now only to end up thoroughly entertained. Next, I really like this week’s Target Greatland sketch because it was funny in general but I laughed-out-loud when he telegraphed his use of the comedic “rule of three.” Finally, I was a fan of the Homelessville Mascots sketch even though I felt the first one was better, the use of mascots will almost always get a laugh out of me.