VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 11/26/11

I think we all need to be aware of the dangers of “good, but generic.”

Original Version
1. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
2. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
3. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
4. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”
5. Bush – “The Sound of Winter”
6. Adele – “Someone Like You”
7. Coldplay – “Paradise”
8. Katy Perry – “The One That Got Away”
9. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
10. Bruno Mars – “It Will Rain”
11. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
12. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
13. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
14. Jessie J – “Domino”
15. Safetysuit – “Let Go”
16. MUTEMATH – “Blood Pressure”
17. Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – “We Found Love”
18. Outasight – “Tonight is the Night”
19. The Fray – “Heartbeat”
20. Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Someone Like You
2. Shake It Out
3. Paradise
4. We Found Love
5. Blood Pressure
6. The Sound of Winter
7. Tonight is the Night
8. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
9. Let Go
10. The One That Got Away
11. Without You
12. Mr. Know It All
13. Domino
14. Criminal
15. It Will Rain
16. Heartbeat
17. Stereo Hearts
18. When We Stand Together
19. Crawling Back to You
20. It Girl

SNL Video Recap November 19, 2011 Jason Segel/Florence + the Machine

SNL Recap November 19, 2011: Jason Segel/Florence + the Machine

Cold Opening – Mitt Romney Raw & Unleashed
Sudeikis is putting together a truly fascinating portrayal of a boring man. B

Jason Segel’ s Monologue
You know, while I can get excited about my expectations for how something should go, I generally believe that surprise is the best  option.  So, when I see something like Jason Segel’s monologue go exactly as I expected to go, it says a lot if it can be successful.  This monologue’s concept was in no way surprising – of course the Muppets were going to appear, and of course Jason Segel was going to be super excited about hosting SNL for the first time while simultaneously starring in a Muppet movie.  What wasn’t as obvious was just how many Muppets were going to appear or the development in which Jason had to gently break it to them that they were not, in fact, hosting along with him.  The execution was nearly as perfect as it could have possibly been. A

Red Flag Perfume
The freakiness is clear, almost too clear. Original Grade: B-

Live with Regis and Kelly Auditions
Some folks on the writing staff must know their SNL history, being as this was essentially the exact same as the audition for Kathie Lee’s replacement sketch from Season 25, a sketch that doesn’t seem to be that well-known.  Anyway, a parade of impressions is usually hit-or-miss, and the hits here were strong enough to carry the misses, which weren’t terrible misses.  Fred’s out-of-control George Lopez was the highlight.  We all know that Kenan’s Barkley, Jay’s Denzel, and Kristen’s Kathie Lee are gold, but they were all underused to varying degrees.  All the other impressions were good to great, though not quite perfect. B+

Kemper-Pedic Me Time Mattress
The visual gags were so clever that at first I – yes, even I! – did not realize what was going on right away.  Then I did, and it became doubly hilarious. B+

Vogelchecks
Recurring sketches that work in the long term generally work because they don’t go through the exact same routine each time.  What I am saying is, I want a sketch like the Vogelchecks to be different each time it appears.  And we hadn’t this family them lick gravy off a homeless guy’s beard before, so … there was that. B-

Florence + the Machine perform “Shake It Out”
In my experience of watching SNL, it is difficult for a singer to sing as powerfully as she possibly can on the SNL stage the way that Florence Welch did, or for a band to sound so acoustically right and complementary to its singer the way that The Machine did. A

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: The crowd was really into a bunch of jokes that were simply not that good. C-
-The Segments: – Jon Huntsman: Slick.  New Hampshire?  Ha! B
-Really!?! with Seth and Kermit: Kermit didn’t say anything particularly witty, but he was a welcome addition because of his lively expressions.  He seemed to be honored to be able to do a “Really!?!” segment with Seth. B

Retirement Party
I’m surprised that this sketch wasn’t built around Kristen’s character.  I think the fact that it wasn’t was for the best, because it was unexpected that she kept coming up to the mic to say nothing.  As for Jason’s character, and everyone else’s, there seemed to be a lot of details, with very little premise. B-

A New Jack Thanksgiving
Some of these acts sound like they might be performing at the next Underground Records festival.  The acts that we actually saw perform weren’t necessarily super-duper (except for Triangle Sally, of course), but the mere mention of “Toni Tone Tony Shalhoub” elevated this one to classic territory. A-

Digital Short: Seducing Women Through Chess
This had a very 80′s-era VHS quality to it that seems to be in vogue these days.  After last week’s disgrace of a short, it was a relief to see one that showed that the Lonely Island can still be relied upon for seemingly effortless quality.  And Olivia Wilde wins the award for cameo most lacking in explanation. B+

Andre the Giant Chooses an Ice Cream Flavor
That was a decent enough Andre the Giant impression.  And it served to underscore the fact that Jason Segel is a giant compared to most of the people he has worked with. B-

Florence + the Machine perform “No Light, No Light”
Did anybody notice the backup chorus?  And the fact that there were a lot of people in it?  I know, right, it’s hard to tell when Florence Welch is the main voice. B+

The Blue Jean Committee
This wasn’t quite Crisis of Conformity, or even A Taste of New York or The Fingerlings.  I’m not quite sure what it was, or if there were even any jokes.  But everyone looked to be having a nice time, so I’m going to give it a pass. B-

Overall
Has there ever been a host more excited to host than Jason Segel?  And I’m saying this in a season, and an era, in which just about every host mentions that it’s been a lifelong dream of theirs to host SNL.  That excitement extended to just about every area of this episode.  It felt like a party, with a mind-boggling number of cameos.  It is surely a good thing when an SNL episode feels like a party, as opposed to a routine.  There were a couple of sketches (Retirement Party, Blue Jean Committee) that stuck out, not because they broke up that party vibe, but because they were just plain odd.  Not odd funny, or odd off-putting, just plain odd.  Ultimately, what I have to say about them is that I have no idea what they were going for, and I mean that neither as criticism nor praise.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 11/19/11

Plenty of songs that I first heard from other outlets.

Original Version
1. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
2. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
3. Adele – “Someone Like You”
4. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
5. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
7. Bush – “The Sound of Winter”
8. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
9. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
10. Katy Perry – “The One That Got Away”
11. Coldplay – “Paradise”
12. Dawes – “Time Spent in Los Angeles”
13. Bruno Mars – “It Will Rain”
14. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
15. Jessie J – “Domino”
16. Cobra Starship ft. Sabi – “You Make Me Feel…”
17. MUTEMATH – “Blood Pressure”
18. Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out”
19. Safetysuit – “Let Go”
20. Outasight – “Tonight is the Night”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Someone Like You
2. Shake It Out
3. Paradise
4. Blood Pressure
5. You Make Me Feel…
6. The Sound of Winter
7. Tonight is the Night
8. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
9. Let Go
10. The One That Got Away
11. Without You
12. Mr. Know It All
13. Time Spent in Los Angeles
14. Domino
15. Criminal
16. It Will Rain
17. Stereo Hearts
18. When We Stand Together
19 Crawling Back to You
20. It Girl

SNL Video Recap November 12, 2011 Emma Stone/Coldplay

SNL Recap November 12, 2011: Emma Stone/Coldplay

Cold Opening – GOP Debate
If there was any one moment SNL could get plenty of mileage out of in a GOP debate sketch, it was Rick Perry’s brain fart.  It initially felt odd, though, that this gag was dragged out as long as it was, but, paradoxically, it also felt like it could have gone on indefinitely, so this sketch simultaneously felt too long and too short. B-

Emma Stone’s Monologue
Emma Stone was the love interest to Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland,  Emma will be the love interest to Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg played friends in The Social Network in which Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg, who has been portrayed by Andy Samberg on SNL.
Andy’s conflating Andrew Garfield with Garfield was amusing, and expected. B

Secret Word
I can’t say I shared Lyle Round’s attraction: Emma played just about the scariest Miss America I have ever seen.  And that served the “ventriloquism” moment quite well. B

WXPD News
Kristen was about to lose it while her privates were being struck, then Bill almost lost it as well.  Good call involving Nasim’s anchor character a bit more, as it spread around the target of offense. B-

Digital Short: Wish It Would Rain
I had a bit too much faith that this was really going to take off at some point.  Ultimately it was weak.  Andy was reaching for a joke that wasn’t there. C

Coldplay perform “Paradise”
I think Chris Martin had a cold.  His oh-oh-oh’s weren’t too good at the beginning, and he sounded a little scratchy at the end.  Too bad, because otherwise the song sounded great. B

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: Enough to get by. C+
-The Segments: -The Devil: It may not sound right to recommend that people follow the example of the Devil (although this devil isn’t exactly devilish), but this would have been an appropriate way for Penn St. students to react this week. B
-Garth and Kat: That was the best use of bologna on SNL since the “Les Jeunes de Paris” sketch from the Miley Cyrus episode.  Also of note, the closed captioning on my TV spelled Chris Martin’s character’s name “Jyuan.” B+

Les Jeunes de Paris
A big reason why the first two renditions of the very silly “Les Jeunes de Paris” worked as well as they did was the way in which the tempo was perfectly set by the songs, particularly Rachid Taha’s “Tekitoi” from the Miley Cyrus episode.  Yelle’s “A Cause Des Garcons” didn’t quite provide that perfect tempo, but Fred’s appearance (which was as, quite extraneously, Napoleon) and the bicyclists made it all worthwhile. B

Bridal Shower
Was Nasim’s character the same as the dancing grandmother from “The Comments Section”?  Interestingly enough, while Emma Stone usually plays girl next door types in movies, she plays weirdos best on SNL. A-

Coldplay perform “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”
It still sounded like Chris Martin had a cold, but that wasn’t as much of a problem on this song, but this isn’t as good a song as “Paradise.” B

Someone Like You
When the focus shifted to the janitor, and then the window-washer, and then Coldplay, I was hoping there would be no end to who would be crying over “Someone Like You.”  Alas, the joke only piled up slightly. B

We’re Going to Make Technology Hump
There were so many reasons that this sketch could have been completely silly, but instead it was played completely straight, and that was why it worked so perfectly. A-

Overall
The first half of this episode wasn’t very imaginative.  Everything before Update was a recurring bit (with the Digital Short only a slight exception).  The m.o. seemed to be to just use what’s worked before, and surely something funny must arise out of that, and that worked somewhat.  Luckily, there was much more imagination post-Update, and with “Bridal Shower,” “Someone Like You,” and “We’re Going to Make Technology Hump,” there was clearly a concerted effort to construct a scene and convey satisfying jokes.  That is a type of quality that appears all too rarely on SNL these days, and it was gratifying to see in three sketches in a row.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 11/12/11

How have you commemorated the Year of Adele?

1. Adele – “Someone Like You”
2. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
4. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
5. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
6. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
7. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
8. Dawes – “Time Spent in Los Angeles”
9. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”
10. Cobra Starship ft. Sabi – “You Make Me Feel…”
11. Bush – “The Sound of Winter”
12. Coldplay – “Paradise”
13. Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out”
14. MUTEMATH – “Blood Pressure”
15. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
16. Jessie J – “Domino”
17. Christina Perri – “A Thousand Years”
18. The Script – “Nothing”
19. Sara Bareilles – “Gonna Get Over You”
20. Beyoncé ft. J. Cole – “Party”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Someone Like You
2. Shake It Out
3. Paradise
4. Blood Pressure
5. You Make Me Feel…
6. The Sound of Winter
7. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
8. Without You
9. Mr. Know It All
10. Time Spent in Los Angeles
11. A Thousand Years
12. Domino
13. Gonna Get Over You
14. Criminal
15. Stereo Hearts
16. When We Stand Together
17. Party
18. Crawling Back to You
19. Nothing
20. It Girl

SNL Video Recap 11/5/11 Charlie Day/Maroon 5

SNL Recap November 5, 2011: Charlie Day/Maroon 5

Still phrazy after all these years!

Cold Opening – A Message from the Ghost of Muammar Gaddafi
This is one of those Fred-centric sketches in which the humor is generally derived from Fred’s goofy mannerisms and conversational tone of voice, juxtaposed with the fact  that he is playing an unsavory character.  There weren’t any particular funny lines, but it is amusing to think that the real (ghost of) Gaddafi would talk like that. B-

Charlie Day’s Monologue
I imagine that this monologue was more amusing for fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, who would actually recognize how similar this was to Charlie and Danny DeVito’s interactions on Always Sunny.  It would also have helped if one has been a fan of SNL long enough to know that DeVito has hosted himself six times and that it made sense that he would could serve as mentor to Charlie.  Since I met both of these requirements, this worked for me. B

Kim’s Fairytale Divorce
An obvious sketch with mostly clever execution. B

The Dr. Oz Show
At first I thought the point of this sketch was to parody Dr. Oz and his show, and I thought that this was a show worth parodying and that Dr. Oz was someone worth impersonating.  But after thinking about it some more, I realized that the setting of the Dr. Oz show was just an excuse for some scatological humor.  And the scatological humor was somewhat funny, mostly thanks to Bill’s Dr. Oz impression. B-

Greek Gods
This was a good idea for one of those sketches in which just about the entire cast plays all the members of a particular group, because there wasn’t a need for everyone to have a strong impression.  The Greek gods are personalities more than they are people, which provided plenty of leeway in terms of how they were to be portrayed.  The entire cast was solid, and then Charlie ran on as Dionysus and just did his Charlie Day thing.  Did anyone else enjoy the info about dolphins in the New York Times article at the end? B+

it’s Getting Freaky with Cee-Lo Green!
Bill as Col. Nasty – the highlight of the sketch, no surprise there – looked like a cross between Col. Sanders and Max Headroom.  As far as Kenan’s Cee-Lo impression goes, this was a first: Kenan’s impressions are usually either perfect (Cosby, Barkley, Forest Whitaker) or not really an impression at all; Cee-Lo was actually somewhere in the middle. B

The Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy Volume 2
The kings still have it. A-

Maroon 5 perform “Moves Like Jagger”
Vocal-wise, Adam Levine didn’t sound his best, which is probably because he moves around so much and loses his breath a bit.  While that is understandable, it doesn’t exactly improve the mediocre quality. B-

Weekend Update
-The Jokes: Seth?  We get it.  Okay.  We get it? C+
-The Segments: -Rick Perry: Bill looked like he just loved, loved to have the opportunity to play a loopy Rick Perry. B+
-Judy Grimes: Judy Grimes can claim to be kidding only so many times before you start to wonder if she could really possibly be kidding so much, and she has already crossed that line.  But the thing is, she fits so much into her routines, such that there is about one joke per second, and I like the odds that rate creates. B

Because of One Dolphin
Dolphins are apparently the theme of the night.  (I guess some folks at SNL were big fans of Dolphin Tale?)  The main point of this sketch is that Kenan knows how to do his job. B-

Maroon 5 and Travie McCoy perform “Stereo Hearts”
There’s nothing like hearing it live to make you realize that a very silly song can actually be quite fun. B

Crime Scene
The premise was absurd, in a small-scale way.  It was also purposefully inconsistent.  It required a powerful, straightly played lead performance, which Charlie Day provided.  And Jason Sudeikis was perfect as the disbelieving supporting player. A

Lil’ Poundcake
Oh, Lil’ Poundcake, you’re such a great friend, always helping out with the tough things in life. Original Grade: B

Overall
This was the best episode of the season so far, and it was so because two principles that SNL should always follow were closely adhered to:
1. The entire cast ought to be utilized to a noticeable degree.
2. The host should be given plenty of room to do what the host does best (although some extreme cases may call for some reining in).
Principle 1 was illustrated by the fact that there was one sketch that featured everyone in the cast (Kings of Catchphrase) and another that featured everyone but Seth (Greek Gods), and both of those sketches also featured the host and the frontman of the musical act.  Principle 2 was illustrated by the fact that every one of Charlie Day’s roles allowed him to scream and flail about in his patented Charlie Day way.  He could have been the star of the sketch more often, but he didn’t have to be, since he was used so well in supporting roles.  There was a happy medium here between a host who the cast could not keep up with (Zach Galifianakis) and hosts who were criminally underused (Anna Faris, Helen Mirren, Jane Lynch, Bryan Cranston, etc.).

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 11/5/11

They’re not always too far behind the curve.

Original Version
1. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
2. Adele – “Someone Like You”
3. Cobra Starship ft. Sabi – “You Make Me Feel…”
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
5. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
6. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
7. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
8. The Script – “Nothing”
9. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
10. O.A.R. – “Heaven”
11. Dawes – “Time Spent in Los Angeles”
12. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”
13. Bush – “The Sound of Winter”
14. Lady Antebellum – “Just a Kiss”
15. Coldplay – “Paradise”
16. Sara Bareilles – “Gonna Get Over You”
17. Florence + the Machine – “Shake It Out”
18. MUTEMATH – “Blood Pressure”
19. Beyoncé – “Countdown”
20. Jessie J – “Domino”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Someone Like You
2. Shake It Out
3. Paradise
4. Blood Pressure
5. You Make Me Feel…
6. The Sound of Winter
7. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
8. Without You
9. Countdown
10. Mr. Know It All
11. Time Spent in Los Angeles
12. Domino
13. Gonna Get Over You
14. Criminal
15. Crawling Back to You
16. Stereo Hearts
17. Just a Kiss
18. Heaven
19. Nothing
20. It Girl