Saturday Night Live: Jeremy Piven/AFI - VIDEOS

(S32E11) I'm familiar with very few of Jeremy Piven's projects, but, from what I've seen, he's a great comedic actor. Unfortunately, sometimes even the great funnymen of television and film can really -- for lack of a better phrase -- totally suck it hard when it comes to live television. In Piven's case, before the monologue was even half-way over, I knew he was going to do fine. Aside from a few very minor reading flubs (I think he said "contact" instead of "connect" in the monologue, and stumbled over some lines in various skits), Piven did a flawless job. All in all, I thought this was a fairly strong episode.

Cold Open (Hardball): Ah, so Hillary Clinton's ready to make a dash for the White House. Sounds like Chris Matthews is the only one pleased about this. All I could think while watching this sketch was "Wow. Could the folks at Saturday Night Live make it any more obvious that they're madly in love with Barack Obama?" The answer is no... no, they couldn't. Clinton's use of Snagglepuss' "Heavens to Murgatroid!" got the biggest chuckle out of me.

Monologue: When Piven said he wanted to do something special, I immediately groaned because I thought he was going to do a song, like every other actor or actress hosting the show. Thank goodness that wasn't the case, though. I found this whole bit to be a lot of fun and absolutely hilarious. I wonder if that lady was a real audience member. If so, she was a very lucky lady. I'm not sure which part was my favorite: "Naked supple breasts", "I once made love to a porpoise", or "I want you to enjoy this iPod, your puppy, and my child". By the way, an iPod Mini? C'mon. Those discontinued, like, fifty years ago (I'm estimating here).

"Urigro": Chronic weak stream? Ohh, man. I thought this was pretty funny, especially when Jason Sudeikis did his little "Look, Ma! No hands!" motion.



"That'll move the chains!": This was okay. I really liked Piven's forced angry laugh and "Automatic Death Disease".

"Saturday TV Funhouse": Bush Chipmunk was all right, Cheney Chipmunk was adorable. Cheney Chipmunk! It even sounds cute. The Sopranos Chipmunks were hysterical and I appreciated the Keane-esque picture.

"First Person In The History Of The World To Dance": It was hard to tell from the wacky caveman get-up, but was that Piven dancing? If so, I think I love him. It was so stupid, but I couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire sketch (the glow sticks slayed me). Despite the fact that I know virtually nothing about techno music and the song had no words for reference, I sort of managed to find the track name. During AFI's first set and various commercials, I sifted through someone's extensive techno collection on their shared iTunes playlist. After going through, like, literally a few hundred songs, I finally recognized the tune, listed as "Techno Megamix - Hybrid, Darude, Warp Brothers, Crystal Method, Prodigy, Underworld, Aphex Twin, Megamixx". Unfortunately, the owner of the playlist seems to be shit at managing tags, so I have no idea who created this mix or which artist can be attributed to which part of this 35-minute song.

"MacGruber": Heh, this was an interesting take on MacGyver. I think these pre-taped segments were Maya Rudolph's only appearances in the episode. Hm. I wonder what she's been up to.



"Two A-Holes At An Adoption Agency": Heh, the title alone made me laugh. Many of SNL's recurring characters can get really exhausting, but, for some reason, I have yet to tire of the two a-holes. My favorite parts of this week's sketch were when Kristen Wiig requested a baby that looked like Gonzo from Muppet Babies and "That painting looks like a rabbit".



"MacGruber": I don't mind silly little ideas like this when they're very brief and aren't stretched out to try and be a full sketch. This was a good way to do it.



"Weekend Update": When Amy Poehler mentioned Stephen Colbert, I had a split-second freak-out because I thought someone was going to do a Colbert impression. Instead, Darrell Hammond came out and did some impressions as Rich Little, this year's White House Correspondents Association Dinner entertainment. Just as well. "Really!?! with Seth and Amy" was amazing. Yeah, you two would know about stashing pot, wouldn't you?



"Common and Blizzard Man": Whoa, what was Common doing there? That was weird. Couldn't AFI have done it instead? I mean, I know they're not a rap group, but the writers could have worked it out, rather than bringing in a completely different musician who's not even the musical guest. And I guess it's a possibility that Common wanted to do a cameo to promote "Finding Forever" but that doesn't come out until March. [UPDATE: Oh, so Common's doing a film with Piven? That makes more sense. Thanks, reader Bart Smith] I'll stop talking about it and leave you with my favorite Blizzard Man line... "The ladies show their butts and we all touch our ding-dongs!"

"MacGruber": Three seconds. Short and sweet.



"The Unicorn": This was crazy weird. Yeah. Not just "crazy", not just "weird", but "crazy weird". I'm not quite sure what I thought of it. I didn't like it... I think.

"Nurse Nancy": A great jab at Eddie Murphy's Norbit (and I suppose The Nutty Professor, as well). Spot-on!

"Lansford Brothers & Associates: Hangmen at Law": Ooh, weakest sketch of the night... I think. I still haven't decided whether or not the unicorn sketch was any good.

AFI: Wow. The lead singer wasn't wearing pancake make-up for once. Astounding! Honestly, I can't stand this band. I muted the television about a minute into their first act so that I could search for the caveman dance track. I did, however, hear their second set and I've got to give the singer props for staying steady and giving his all even with the multiple sound problems (his mic was off for the opening and kept cutting in and out throughout the song). Nice work, Davey.