willforte

On 'Saturday Night Live,' host Charles Barkley appeared as sidekick Darrell in a "MacGruber" sketch and was the victim of racial stereotyping by the titular secret agent.

In the sketch, a recurring parody of 'MacGyver' in which an inept secret agent uses common household items to unsuccessfully get himself out of jams, MacGruber hurls ethnic slurs and an offensive joke at Barkley while simultaneously trying to disarm a nitrogen bomb.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S35E11) Charles Barkley isn't much of an actor. I knew that even as a little kid, when I saw him pop up in Space Jam for all of five minutes. If anyone was expecting to be blown out of the water by Barkley's performance, they really need to reconsider if their entire life is plagued by self-sabotage, as that was clearly a silly thing to hope for and a set-up for inevitable disappointment.

Going in with low expectations made this episode easier to watch. There were a few points here and there where Barkley seemed more comfortable, and some of his pre-taped segments were pretty funny. Overall though, this wasn't a particularly memorable episode, apart from the fact it was bumped by over thirty minutes, thanks to something called the NFL.

And yes, as a young person that isn't very well-versed in sports Space Jam is my go-to reference for Barkley.

In a skit from 'Saturday Night Live,' actor James Franco played a college student introducing his new girlfriend to his overly-affectionate family for the first time.

Here, Franco and family greet each other with inappropriate displays of affection, including a breast groping and an open-mouthed kiss between Franco and his grandfather, played by Will Forte.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S35E10) I hope you all rolled a towel against the crack of the door before watching James Franco host. This was the most I've laughed at an episode in quite a while, but I am still not entirely sure if it's because watching for ninety minutes gave me a bit of a contact high. Okay, even if you argue that I'm inferring a lot because bits of Pineapple Express are still lingering in my brain, there's no denying Franco was definitely extra-squinty, extra-grinny, and was half-slurring, half-spitting his speech through most of the night.

There was also a lot of making out. No man, woman or tree was safe. Or bong, I guess. Maybe.

(S35E09) Hello, Twilight fans. I know you're only here because of your screaming hearts, thudding so hard that every beat is a case for internal bruising. I'm going to be upfront: I don't like Twilight. I tried reading it before it was a "thing" because my friends recommended it to me and I found myself struggling to get through it because, well, even then I knew it was embarrassing. I also watched the film, which I thought was very funny, though I realize that was probably not the intended effect.

That said, I thought Taylor Lautner did a great job. See? I'm not just swimming in haterade. Obviously, I wasn't prepared to like him, but just like Blake Lively from last week, Lautner delivered a strong performance. He seemed really comfortable throughout the entire episode and was surprisingly natural, more natural than some of the actual cast members at some points, at least in terms of blatantly looking at cue cards.

And thanks for keeping your shirt on for all 90 minutes, Sharkboy.

(S35E08) I will be perfectly honest: I was not at all looking forward to this episode. A few months ago, I had forced myself to watch two seasons of Gossip Girl for blogging purposes (okay, it was also an excuse to stare at their fantastic costuming), and I couldn't bring myself to continue. One of the reasons why I disliked the show so much was Serena, Blake Lively's character.

However, I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. Lively was minimally awkward and brought great enthusiasm through the entire evening (though not an exhausting amount of zeal Joseph Gordon-Levitt style). I liked how it didn't seem Lively went on the show with a mission (apart from showing off her crazy legs); she didn't try to show off her musical side, cling to strictly "pretty girl" skits, or get controversial. She was just there, having a good time.

Also, for the most part, the writing was solid this week. Probably the most consistently funny installment in quite a while. Even the strange treatment of the Cold Open (with the Obama party crashers) was adorable.

(S35E07) I imagine it played out like this: Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at home last week, trying to mentally prepare for his first go as Saturday Night Live host by watching January Jones. Her performance turned out to be wooden and incredibly low energy and, consequently, the laughs were minimal. This struck fear into Mr. Gordon-Levitt's heart, and, terrified, he dropped the pint of Phish Food that he was eating in my imagination. "I won't let this happen to me," I bet he said. "I'm going to eat two fistfuls of Pixi Stix at 11:25 p.m. Saturday night and have someone inject me with a near lethal dose of adrenaline. I'll also wear a lot of vests."

And that's how Joseph Gordon-Levitt managed to exhaust a seated audience through sheer enthusiasm and volume alone. Maybe.

(S35E06) There was a strange moment of nodding recognition at the end of the night, as I watched Jason Sudeikis and January Jones in the cloud-gazing sketch. Throughout, the man pauses to consider the woman's weird behavior and then concedes, "Ohh, you're a very pretty, pretty woman." Yup. That's pretty much how I reacted the entire night, especially during really bad sketches like the farting Grace Kelly (take a moment to think about that: Farting. Grace. Kelly.)

Jones was kind of a stiff host with not particularly daring material, but, goodness gracious, her real-life 50s Barbie prettiness was mesmerizing. Her performances in the mid-century instructional video and the aforementioned cloud-gazing sketch were the best of the evening, but that's not saying much since the rest of her appearances were strange and wooden. Even her good night felt like it had been programmed in and auto-tuned for maximum polite insincerity.

(S35E05) I had to talk myself through being allowed to criticize Taylor Swift. Ever since Kanye West VMA outburst turned everyone in America into Swift's over-protective mom, she's been shown even more as an innocent country-inspired sweetheart. Every time she messed up in this episode, I felt the need to hold back any not-super-great remarks because, well, she's a teeny-bopper! Teeny-boppers are just kids goofin' around!

And then I have to pause and remind myself that she's almost 20-years-old, around the same age as Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Page when they first hosted and Abby Elliiott when she initially joined the featured players. Screw it, there's no need to hold back. Swift is a musician, so we can't expect her acting skills to be super-good, but the fact I keep thinking she's only 14 shouldn't affect anything else.

(S35E03) Drew Barrymore is energy. Pure, almost-scary energy. It's disorienting to watch when one is bleary-eyed and staring at a tiny TV in the wee hours of the morning, but this trademark makes for consistent television-viewing. While the quality of Saturday Night Live's writing may waver from episode to episode, every time Drew Barrymore returns, one can safely expect absolute enthusiasm and a palpable willingness to step back and laugh at herself.

All right, little Ms. "I Extra-Love Female Empowerment," prepare for me to work that ego.... Especially when one compares her to the typical "hot girl" host (see: Megan Fox's SNL premiere), Barrymore doesn't box herself in and offers a lot more opportunity for fun characters. Would someone like Fox ever be willing to bolo it up to play Nina Wilkes Booth? I doubt it.

(S35E02) After that Jenny Slate f-bomb nonsense and Megan Fox's not terribly original hot girl material from the season premiere, it was exciting to see a really solid episode (and a star-studded one, at that). Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job as host (snaps for his wavering voice during the porcelain fountains sketch and accent in SYTYCD), though he didn't have any major stand-out roles. Did I miss the memo that Lady Gaga wasn't just musical guest but co-host as well? Such a role is normally left up to Ryan Reynolds' giant biceps.

It's been a while since we've seen such consistently enjoyable writing in an episode. Usually, there's a distinct lull during the course of the 90 minutes, but I didn't feel it this time. Hopefully, this is a good indication of the rest of the season.

(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."

Yes, Saturday Night Live new girl Jenny Slate's f-bomb was the most thrilling part of the show's otherwise bland 35th season premiere. It's not like we've never heard that word before, and it's not like accidental verbal naughtiness has never happened on SNL (I still distinctly remember my extra-young self watching Cheri Oteri cringing as she contributed to the swear jar), but the pain still felt fresh with hot embarrassment.

This was partially due to the fact that it's just a generally bad thing to have happen on a player's first show (and in such a mediocre sketch, at that) but mostly because of this face that she made after she caught her boo-boo. Twitter exploded with people's camera phone pics of this one moment.

Jenny Slate, welcome to the big time.

Season four of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! has been over for months, and "Season Cinco," as season five has been dubbed on the pair's Web site, has not yet started. But fans can bide their time with the Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! S3ASON THR33, which was out earlier this month.

In season three, Tim and Eric took a step up. The shows got funnier and tighter, without losing any of the scattershot, what-the-hell-am-I-looking-at feel. They upped the ante on creepy and uncomfortable with the "Child Showcase" sketch, featuring Patton Oswalt and Rainn Wilson as children singing inappropriate songs while an approving host looks on. It's an immediately unsettling image (though nothing really tops Chippy for that so far), a seamless special effect that puts Oswalt's and Wilson's heads on a kid's body.

Hollywood's latest choice for a Saturday Night Live film remake is both the strangest and most interesting choice they could make, short of a big screen "Weekend Update" action epic or a "Toonces the Cat" feature-length Pixar film.

Variety reports that Lorne Michaels and company are creating a big-screen remake of the show's popular "MacGruber" sketches. Cast member Will Forte will take on the title role and pen the movie's script along with SNL writers John Solomon and Jorma Taccone, the latter of whom is better known as one-third of the musical comedy group The Lonely Island.

Kristen Wiig will also star as MacGruber's object grabbing sidekick Vicki. Ryan Phillipe and Val Kilmer have been attached to the project, but their roles haven't been nailed down yet.

'Desperate Housewives' brings back Andrea Bowen and promotes Maiara Walsh, 'Camp Rock 2' gets a new writer and director, MacGruber heads to the big screen and more of today's TV headlines.