Shut Up It's On

So what’s up with this James Franco character? He was a brooding young thespian, making a name for himself on Freaks and Geeks and making no secret that he likes to read books and shit. He spent most of this decade going to nerd buildings and making serious faces in front of cameras. But now Sweet Baby James is dialing down the pretentious doucher knob to 7,  accepting more roles on the jokemaking end of the hollyweird spectrum like Pineapple Express and the “What Up With That?!” sketch.  Hell, he’s even doing comedy for the Advanced by being on General Hospital ironically unironically! And tonight James hosted Saturday Night Live. What up with that indeed?!

But alas (not so) young SBJF: the odds are stacked against you. For one thing, this has been a weak season so far. For another thing, I can’t remember the last time SNL aired a new episode so close to Christmas. I’m sure the cast really appreciates that and totally won’t be thinking about their vacations ! Or have the cast member’s families disowned them and requested they not come home for the holidays? That’s cruel and entirely justified. For a third thing, two-time All-Star Andy Samberg is phoning it in: his “Digital Updates” with the exception of “Throw It To The Ground” have been subpar, he was MIA for an entire episode, and at the end of this season’s shows when the cast is all on stage saying good night, I’m not liking the body language on Andy or of his castmates around him.  (My favorite part of SNL lately has been from 12:50-1:02AM; it features the weird “writer’s sketch” and the “good nights” where I find out who hates who. You may remember in the premiere when Jenny Slate dropped the F bomb Seth Meyers was hugging her as a show of support for her not to get shitcanned. Classic “good night” moment.)

Of course, it ended up being the best show of the season so far.

The show’s cold open was yet another parody of the Lawrence Welk Show, for us octogenarians out there.  (“Oh they really knock the long dead Welk down a peg! Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to die.” ) I appreciate Kristin Wiig sketches more than I uh, enjoy watching them. I’m nicely saying most of her stuff isn’t funny. It’s a lot worse when I’m seeing the same one-note unfunny character for a fourth time.

In the monologue, a hoarse sounding Franco addressed the TMZ photo of him asleep in a Columbia class and actually makes up a movie to promote. He pretty much made fun of himself the entire time, which made him a lot more likable. I’d say he brought the doucher dial down to 5.

Liz and I squealed with joy when we saw what was on next. (I assumed she squealed.) It was What Up With That?!. Tonight featured Mike Tyson,Jack McBrayer and Bill Hader playing Lindsay Buckingham, which for some reason I find really funny although he says nothing. (Hader is a favorite.) When they first did WUWT it was immediately my favorite sketch of the season, but it’s a bad sign that they’re doing a third version of it in the 10th episode of the season. (And it premiered in the third episode or something.) In this version the miniature Kenan Thompsons in the audience was a nice touch, as well as Samberg dancing as John Stockton (in the old school Utah Jazz unis to boot). Sudekis as the red jumpsuit wearing jewfroed background dancer is my favorite character in this, and in this version he at one point pantomimed smelling something funky and he then fell to the ground. I laughed. Out loud! You crazy for this one Sudekis! (And apparently he gets crazy with David Wain ) It ended with Mike Tyson annoyed, McBrayer being McBrayer, and Hader amusingly being upset at being bumped yet again, only to eventually acquiese and give Kenan a smile, like he always does. I actually believed for a second he wouldn’t. This version was better than the second version, but it doesn’t quite beat the original. Kind of like most bands with their albums.

They then went with the overly affectionate family sketch. The audience went nuts when James Franco smooched with Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, but come on; he did this stuff in Milk. I chuckled when Hader grabbed grandma Jenny Slate’s boob. (Welcome to the show Jenny!) The sketch worked because it didn’t go on for too long, and people get very uncomfortable and laugh very hard at incestual stuff.

Hey a digital update! And it’s a good one! James Franco guest stars in a kids show that quickly goes wrong, with knives and assorted pills being involved. It reminded me of this thing

Again, they got the sketch done before it could grow stale. Have they finally gotten around to watching The State DVD’s I’ve been sending them? Awesome. Best Digital since “…The Ground”.

Fred Armisen next played a host of a Spanish advice show. It involved 15 seconds of dialogue, followed by salsa dancing, and then 15 seconds of dialogue, dancing, etc. Probably racist. I dug the energy, and Jenny Slate dancing. She’s a pretty lady, you see. I think that’s the secret to sketch comedy: If you don’t have great material, just run and dance and sing like a crazy person. I’m a smart man.

(They aired a commercial for “Youth in Revolt”; Zach Galifianakis is in it!)

Oh look it’s Muse. God what are they doing? Are they purposely trying to look like what people in the early 1980’s thought the future would look like?  If so, bravo sirs.

It was Weekend Update without Amy Poehler! I got worried for a second when Seth Meyers introduced “Snooki” from Jersey Shore, but it turned out to be Bobby Moynihan, who didn’t even bother hiding his chest hair. “You want to touch my poof?” Moynihan asked Meyers. When he grabbed too tightly Moynihan let out his inner Farley and screamed at him. Yelling is always funny too. That’s the second secret of comedy: YELLING. Hader making a brief cameo as “The Situation” made me laugh; he even had back abs. Impressive! There was a generic skit of Armisen and Wiig singing as a duo who don’t know the lyrics to the songs their singing; it was only amusing when Armisen cracked up a little bit.

Later, Sudekis, Franco and Moynihan haze Samberg at a frat. It quickly turns out all of the Sigmas need Samberg to read things for them because they’re illiterate and are unable to tie their shoes. “You need to know right and left stuff?!” Franco at one point slaps Samberg inadvertenly, causing Samberg to smirk before regaining his composure. “When thunder happens, who is mad at who?” “What’s an Obama?”are other questions the sigmas want to know, causing Samberg to take pity on them. It was funny and it INVOLVED YELLING!!! Bill Hader performed another Vincent Price sketch. Pretty sure they went with two octogenarian-pleasing sketches as an excuse to have James Franco play James Dean again. (Dean:”STOP HASSING ME!” Price: “WE JUST MET!” YELLING!) This was followed by Franco playing a guy who sells and has conversations with Christmas trees.  (“I’m not a sap you’re a sap!” “Oh I get it, like tree sap.”) Abby Elliot perfectly stared off into the distance once she realized the person she was dealing with is crazy; usually an actor will just stare AT the crazy person or look directly into the camera. It’s the little things. The sketch ended with one of the trees coming back to Franco, because it’s the holiday season and we need to feel good about the world. You know how it is.

Once again, Muse. Once again, I don’t care.

The 12:50 writer’s sketch! Three businessmen, including Will Forte’s “Carol hold my callsss” character being one of them. Wow you can say “dildo” that late in the night. At least 30 times. “Dildo” ended up appearing randomly in sentences. (“All in favor?” “Dildo.” “All opposed?” “Real penis.”) Then we get a Christmas gift: an extra sketch, featuring Samberg reprising his Mark Wahlberg, this time talking to “Christmas Animals”. I laughed the hardest when he aggressively talked to a mute Frosty the Snowman. I don’t think Frosty will pass along the message to his mother that Markie Mark says hi.

Sadly the “goodbye” was cut-off to about 10 seconds. You can barely see the actual cast with Jack McBrayer and Mike Tyson and Muse in the front row with James Franco. Maybe the cast started sipping their egg nog early. Do people drink that stuff? I think I’m the only one.

What a great episode! James Franco was totally game tonight; he kissed Will Forte, Bill Hader and a christmas tree, and slapped Andy Samberg; Samberg seemed to enjoy himself, and the good vibes filtered down to the rest of the cast. Everybody brought it. Okay kids, you can go home for Christmas.