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Bring Back The Bundys!!!

I think I’ve pointed this out in the past, but I’ve been finding it interesting how, when it comes to these reviews I really feel like I get into the same headspace from the year that the episode originally aired. For example, when Christina Applegate first hosted the show, I had plenty of things to say about how I loved her from Married With Children since it was my favorite show growing up because the Bundys reminded me of my family when they are at their best. I also shared how I liked her in Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead since it was also from around that year.

I know that I often point out that I stopped watching movies around this time, so I have nothing to say about our host career from this time period. And even if I do know a few, like Anchorman 2 or some other comedy from this time, chances are, I watched these movies on-demand via the internet, so I have no clue which years to tie content to. I think this is another reason why I lost interest in film in the first place since I could no longer trust the medium to provide landmarks in time like I used to.

As soon as the internet provided streaming services that were consistent enough to trust that you’d actually be able to make it through an entire viewing, I could no longer use film as a way find my bearing. Where I once was able to think back and know for a fact, I saw movie X with person Y, and since I hung out with person Y between years A and B, and this was summertime, then the movie came out on year C, which was the year that...

Now, when I look back at post internet films, at best, I can guess the people I watched it with, but I wouldn’t even begin to guess the year. Minus those extra connections made movie watching almost no fun at all, which is why, when I switch to become more of a living room movie watcher, all that I’d want to do is talk, to at least be able to hang on to some sentimentality of the moment. So, I don’t have all that much to say about tonight’s host that I didn’t already cover in the past.

I still have high hopes for this viewing since I remember Christina Applegate’s first appearance back in ’93 being pretty fun. With that, I’m just going to go ahead and hit play and dig into this real-time viewing experience. Of course, with this being a Presidential Election year, it’s back to the talking political heads behind podiums, which is my least favorite genre of sketch, especially from this time. That said, with Jason Sudeikis growing to be my favorite male performer from this time, he still got me to laugh as Joe Biden, who I almost met at the grand opening of a Walmart back when I was living in Delaware that was just blocks away from my house.

As a fan of The Muppets, having seen all of their shows and movies as part of another one of my challenges, I was happy to see the Fruppets during Christina’s monolog. I also wholeheartedly agree with our host that my favorite time of the year is right when the weather starts to cool down, but before the forced festive marketing starts. I was also impressed with our host’s singing since she was good enough that it didn’t seem like that just slapped something together for a lame host only to have something to show.

I’m guessing that the celebs that they used were involved in the fake beard trimmer ad that followed must have all been involved in some sort of controversy because other than the fact that Sandusky was referenced, it looked like a legitimate ad, and I did not get the joke. It didn’t help that none of the celebs involved were interesting enough to research why the audience was laughing. This had me a little annoyed, so I zoned out during The Californians since, other than the very first time that I saw a sketch from this series when it originally air, I always hated this segment. It could be because I’m actually from California and hate these people in real life.

I’m not an Apple person, and just like I’m over the jokes about people who watch Fox News since they’ve grown to be so generic that there’s no point repeating the clichés, I feel the same way about the generic jokes about hipster apple users. To make things worse, all of the Asian accents from the sweatshop workers were atrocious to the point where I was surprised they were still with these accent-based jokes so late in the game. At the same time, I also get the point is to shame us American’s for whining about our luxury items, and not really the fact that they’re Asian.

As I said yesterday, I hate the action genre and always have, but I don’t mind where people parody to the genre, so I don’t mind the Expendable/Taken mash-up. So far, it’s been the only legitimately funny sketch from tonight’s episode. Which was too bad because I never heard of the band, and wasn’t really feeling them due to my low energy, thanks to the slow start to this episode. The news didn’t help because it went on forever, but Kenan’s French Def Jam Comedy character is always a fun Weekend Update guest.

I love the sketch with The Sirens because I love Lisa Loeb, so the slow set up to her being references to introduce the humor put a huge smile on my face. The rest of the sketch was funny as well, with Jason Sudeikis as another character who really cracked me up. I wouldn’t say that I dislike the series where Jay Pharoah plays the school principal making announcements at a school event, but I wouldn’t say that I actually do like it either. It was fine though. The sad thing is, unless the next sketch is funny, it’s going to end up on my favorites list since this is still a pretty week episode.

I liked the second song from Passion Pit much more than I liked their first song, the upbeat tempo has me hopeful about the final sketch. The dance sketch was sort of fun, but the only thing that got a laugh out of me was when Kenan said that he hopes that the teacher is good because he doesn’t know how to dance and has an audition the very next day. The sad thing is, that chuckle might be enough to get it on my favorites list as well.

I have to admit, that I was a bit bummed by the time that Christina Applegate returned to the stage to say her goodnights, since my issue was not with our host or anyone’s performance, I was just bored by the actual content, which is typically the case when I don’t like an episode. This is why I always watch no matter how I feel about each episode as a whole. I’m fine with just collecting the tiny moments that I do love, and my writing is a way of sharing my collection through words on a page.

Though I wasn’t won over tonight, I’m still going to be excited the next time I see Christina Applegate’s name in the line up of hosts. With that, I’m going to switch gears and dig deeper into the details of each sketch as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody coverage of a Vice Presidential Debate where Kate McKinnon played the moderator of a debate between Jason Sudeikis and Paul Ryan as Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. For this VP showdown, Joe was extremely interruptive, while Ryan was extremely parched and kept having to mini-breaks to take a few sips of his water. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York...”
Christina Applegate then officially opened the show with a monolog about her first appearance and how she was involved in the first Matt Foley sketch, and also made fun of her look from that era. She then talked about how she loved this time of year since there was still time before the end of the year holidays started to role out. The Fruppets, who were Muppet knock-offs then joined our host to help her sing about the quiet time and how great it is minus all of the festive chaos.
This was followed by a fake ad for Gillette where the male members of the cast portrayed a collection of celebs from that year for a phony beard trimmer.
The Californians then returned for another installment where a bunch of valley girl talking Californians talked about the highways once again, this time while at a wedding.
Tech Talk had Bill Hader, Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson who played online technology critics who were extra harsh with there iPhone 5 review until they get introduced to Fred Armisen, Nasim Pedrad and Cecily Strong who played the sweatshop workers that were in charge of making their devices.
Give Us All Our Daughters Back! was a parody of an Expendables film mashed-up with characters from movies that have plots similar to Taken.
Passion Pit then took to the stage to perform Take A Walk.
Once again, Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Nasim Pedrad dropped by as Arianna Huffington to comment on the moderator from the most recent debates. Kenan Thompson also stopped by as his French Def Jam Comedy character to talk about the latest Lance Armstrong controversy connected to his involvement with The Tour De France. (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
The Sirens has Jason Sudeikis as Odysseus who insisted that his crew tie him to the so that he doesn’t give into Christina Applegate, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong ‘90s selection of Siren songs which would then lead him to crash the ship into the rocks.
We then went to a Halloween Ball for more random announcement from Jay Pharoah as the school’s principal who keeps trying to keep all of the kids in line during the high school dance.
Passion Pit then returned to the stage to perform Carried Away.
We then went to a Dance Studio where Christina Applegate played a crazy dance instructor who was overly obsessed with the teachings of Bob Fosse.
Finally, Christina Applegate closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Well, this is going to be an easy one since there were only three sketches that I actually liked from the night, or at least found to be better than average. That said, the rest of the sketches were average enough to keep me entertained. First, I loved The Sirens sketch because this was a case where I didn’t mind the slow build up so that when the Lisa Loeb reference came from out of the blue, I was absolutely sold on the segment. Next, I really liked Christina Singing With The Fruppets because her voice was pleasant, and I enjoyed the cheap Muppet knock-offs. Finally, I was a fan of Give Us All Our Daughters Back! because it was a funny take of a movie genre that I hate.