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All Caught Up Once Again!!!

Alright, this is going to be my second viewing a review from today to make up for taking yesterday off and get back to legitimately have watched an average of one episode a day. Part of me wants to wait for tomorrow but then I started to think, I know nothing of Sofia Vergara, other than the times that I’ve seen her, she seems like she can be a host whose energy alone will be enough to keep the show fun. That’s all I’ve got for this one, I don’t even feel like rambling off topic, so, I’m just going to make this a quick one and hit play to get right into sharing my real-time viewing experience.

I think this is the season of Sudeikis. I’ve been a fan of his post SNL work, but I missed a lot of the years that he was on the show and this seems to be the year that he really started to find his voice. Not that he’s been bad up to this point but considering the fact that he makes Mitt Romney a likable character I now look forward more to seeing him in a scene. I also like how even though it was a C-SPAN-themed sketch they took us all over the place and it wasn’t just another talking head introduction. Of course, it was also lovely to see Kate McKinnon making her show debut in the background.

Sofia Vergara’s monolog was really funny. She might have delivered some of the most well-structured jokes of any non-stand-up comedian host and was even better than a lot of them. If she didn’t have to slow down her delivery to make sure she was clearly understood, she could have fit in a couple more jokes and probably would have gotten me to laugh harder than I already did.

The Just Friends Booty Shorts ad also had me laughing because it took me back to the days when I, as we used to say, used to “gay off” like this with my friends. As I often say, at the time I didn’t see this as homophobic, as if it’s a joke to be gay, but more as a way to show acceptance in a warped way. As I also often say, I’m a fan of genuine quirky and the whole Manic Pixie Dream Girl idea even though I think we’re supposed to be against it. Either way, as a fan of the genre, I liked the Zooey Deschanel sketch.

The ad for Almost Pizza may have been one of the funniest fake ad that I’ve seen in a while, or at least so far this season. This routine where news or sports team can’t coordinate for the filming of the most straightforward promo material has been done several times is funny to me every time because I did come across these people when I used to work on films. Hell, I was this type of person whenever they would drag me in to be an extra. I completely freeze whenever I know I’m being recorded.

I always love seeing Gilly, so this sex ed visit was just the right thing for me to keep me focused on the show. That said, so far it’s been far better than I expected. I was thinking there was going to be much more physical humor playing off of Sofia Vergara’s high energy even more than they did. Instead, they used the right balance to where the fun didn’t feel forced.

I know of One Direction because all of their product from when they were big filled our clearance bin the entire time that I worked in Walgreens. Other than that, I know a lot of people sing their songs on singing reality shows, so I knew their first song from it being covered, this is my first time hearing it from them, unless they have a version in a commercial or it’s played in the background of one of these mentioned reality shows. I could see it being on a show like Biggest Loser as well. Either way, I heard it enough that it held my attention because I knew the words to the song.

The news was the news, I liked that it was short, and I’m always a fan of seeing Drunk Uncle. As I’ve pointed out each time that The Manuel Ortiz Show sketch gets another installment, I remember loving this sketch back in the day when everyone watching would dance along making it much more entertaining. Now, I still see it was a rip off of What Up With That, only with just dancing instead of dancing and singing.

I zoned out a little during the Ortiz sketch and stayed in my head for the repeat of the Lil Poundcake ad. I don’t really know who Andy Cohen is other than he’s responsible for a lot of reality show. I’ve never seen his show that was being parodied in the next sketch, so I didn’t get and/or care about some of the jokes that got the audience to laugh. So, I kind of zoned out and stayed that way through One Direction whose second song was utterly unfamiliar to me not even as a cover.

It was nice to see Kate McKinnon return for her first speaking roles for the fake Pantene ad with Sofia. Though I’m typically against accent based humor, this was a case where the actual content was funny, and they weren’t just counting on the silly sounds of foreign voices. This sketch would have been just as amusing with two people who had no accents at all.

The Hunger Games is another thing that I’ve never seen but get the idea from having seen films that others always said the movie ripped off. Anyway, I wasn’t too into this parody. I could see being a little more into it if I actually was into The Hunger Games. By the time that Sofia Vergara took to the stage to say her goodnights, I was very impressed by this viewing.

As I said from the start I felt her energy alone would be enough to keep in entertaining, but I don’t think she counted on her energy once, and just put out a solid episode that has me looking forward and hoping that she’ll come back again pretty soon. Until then, it’s now time to me to dig deeper into the detailed of each sketch to wrap this one up, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with fake C-SPAN coverage called Road To The White House where once again, Jason Sudeikis played Mitt Romney and continued to fail to connect with the voters in his efforts to sell himself as the potential next President. This week had Mitt actually out and about amongst a couple of different Republican gatherings, and it was clear that he wasn’t accepted by one. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York...”
Sofia Vergara then officially opened the show with a monolog about her life in Columbia before she was discovered by America, then introduced us to her son who was sitting in the audience, all the while making every word sound extra sexy with her Spanish accent.
We then got a fake ad for Just Friends Booty Shorts where Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg played two best friends who were very into gay antics and used these short shorts to literally tell the world their “just friends” and not gay lovers while they are goofing around.
Bein' Quirky With Zooey Deschanel then returned for another installment of Abby Elliot as Zooey who this time interviewed Kristen Wiig, Taran Killam, and Sofia Vergara as her quirky friends, Drew Barrymore, Michael Cera, and Fran Drescher from the kitchen of her quirky little apartment.
This was followed by a fake ad for Almost Pizza where Bill Hader played a dad who kept questioning his wife, Kristen Wiig, just what is going on with the mysterious pizza facsimile that she keeps trying to get him to eat.
We then got a News Promo where Sofia Vergara and Fred Armisen played two members of a news team trying to film this ad only Fred Armisen can’t seem to wrap his head around how to merely turn to the camera and smile.
Gilly then returned for another installment where this time, Gilly was up to her same violent crimes that are treated like pranks during a sex ed class.
One Direction then took to the stage to perform What Makes You Beautiful.
Once again, Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Bobby Moynihan returned as Drunk Uncle wearing rabbit ears to bitch and complain while also explaining why he wasn’t looking forward to Easter. (Clip 2)
The Manuel Ortiz Show was another sketch to return for more nonstop dancing during a Spanish daytime talk show that’s hosted by Fred Armisen.
This was followed by a repeat of the Lil Poundcake commercial from earlier in the season which was the doll that had a secret needle that dispenses a shot of the HPV vaccination.
Watch What Happens: Live was a parody that had Taran Killam as Andy Cohen to make fun of the real talk show that I’ve never seen before and the jokes that got the audience laughing were foreign to me, so I didn’t really follow the fake talk show’s narrative.
One Direction then returned to the stage to perform One Thing.
Pantene Commercial introduced us to Kate McKinnon in her first big scene where she impersonated Penelope Cruz so that she and Sofia Vergara struggle to get through the simple script because their accents made them unintelligible.
74th Annual Hunger Games took us to a parody of the Hunger Games where Sofia Vergara is a field reporter who is so loud when questioning contestants for interviews that she gives away their hiding positions.
Finally, Sofia Vergara closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

As I said up above, this was a pleasant surprise of an episode that I thought would be just average but thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments, it turned out to be excellent. First, I loved Almost Pizza because I think it was the funniest fake commercial that I’ve seen from the year and probably even the last couple of seasons. Next, I really liked Pantene Commercial because I liked seeing the speaking debut of Kate McKinnon and I liked it was a sketch that finally got accent-based humor correctly. Finally, I was a fan of this week’s visit from Gilly because I love that character and she cracks me up every time. With that, I’m all caught up once again and was only behind for about twelve hours.