S40.E08: James Franco / Nicki Minaj

[Racj82]

Chris Kirkpatrick cut off the pineapple looking braids before Bye Bye Bye. This is something very important that SNL should know! Also, there is no reason to forget the lyrics to the Fresh Prince theme song. That sketch was just nostalgia bait for twenty-somethings, but I totally got sucked in.

your average person wouldn't remember who the he'll that was without the hairstyle.

[helenamonster]

Here's a cut sketch.  I assume it was suppose to be the cold open.   I liked it more than the Sharpton one.

 

I liked this one because it was edgier. The beginning definitely needed some cleaning up but otherwise I thought it was good. I'm guessing they decided against it because there were one too many "oooohhhs" from the audience, which...bah. This show's been too safe recently and I thought this tackled the issues without being offensive (though if someone was offended by it I could understand). I think the problem is that SNL is almost too mainstream now. Today does a recap of it every Monday, usually in the 9 o'clock hour and/or with Hoda and KLG. If that sketch had aired live, I could see them just throwing up their arms about it being in poor taste and not looking at it critically enough. Though maybe that "controversial" buzz could be good.

[stonehaven]

That unaired skit was funny..and had a bit of bite to it...and to cut it is the reason SNL is corporate and soulless....

The Sharpton opening had only one bit of humor to it..and it was meta..the line about being so stressed that it looks like he gained 150 pounds in the last few days..

[Lakewood27]

who wouldn't consider the lyrics of The Fresh Prince of Bell Air to be vital information? I was hoping when Jay showed up as Will that James Franco would turn him around and say that he was too important to leave.

There is no valid reason to ever let go of the 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' lyrics, or that 90s version of Will Smith. Nope.

 

My dad has been using "ubu" as a term of affection for my sister and I since Family Ties. I'll bet he can't even remember where it comes from.

 

It was so brief but Kate McKinnon's Macaulay Culkin was perfect.

 

Leslie was fantastic on WU. I look forward to her segments. I don't care what the topic is. Trying to explain to Harriet Tubman why HBO and Showtime are mortal enemies, while high on mushrooms, is a great visual.

[Madding crowd]

SpongeBob did an episode almost exactly like the memory one , only SB had to remove stuff to remember how to cook something at the Krusty Krab.

I generally liked it but James Franco is the kind of guy everyone I know loves, and I always find him not as charming or funny as my friends do.

[topanga]

 

SNL can't do political commentary or social commentary. They threw that audience away a long time ago. The best they can hope for with WU is a sneer or smirkfest which viewers will applaud as long as the person behind the desk is likeable and attractive. And that isn't what they have this season.

I think that's largely true, Pete Martell. But I don't mind if WU hosts aren't attractive, as long as they are energetic and intelligent (or appear intelligent)--not the case with Jost and Che. But some recent WU hosts still brought the satire and the commentary--Tina Fey, Amy, Seth. In fact, I just saw a WU clip from 2005 where Tina and Amy talk about Bill Cosby being accused of drugging and raping women.

 

 

Leslie was fantastic on WU. I look forward to her segments. I don't care what the topic is. Trying to explain to Harriet Tubman why HBO and Showtime are mortal enemies, while high on mushrooms, is a great visual.

It seems I'm one of the few people who doesn't like Leslie. Chris Rock absolutely adores her, and he's one of my favorite comedians, so...  I don't know. She's very smart, but her delivery style is almost always the stereotypical "angry and sassy black woman," complete with the bug eyes and rolling neck. And as a black woman, I'm tired of seeing that image on TV.  I prefer Sasheer, who plays a wider range of characters.

Edited December 8, 2014 by topanga

[BatmanBeatles]

Nasim's Kim Kardashian is much funnier. Nicki didn't even sound like her.

 

I suppose a woman could have played Leia, but Bobby had the right matronly look the skit was after.

Edited December 8, 2014 by BatmanBeatles

[ChromaKelly]

your average person wouldn't remember who the he'll that was without the hairstyle.

Yes, thank you. I'm a little too old to have been an N'Sync fan, but I remember the guy with the plant on his head. That and Justin Timberlake and someone went into space are what's taking up room in my head.

Kid Mayor was probably the funniest thing from this episode. It's the only thing I really laughed hard about. Grow A Guy was weird-funny, at least it wasn't a Good Neighbor sketch. The need more room in your head one was funny, I'm a sucker for impressions and pop culture references, although I do agree that The Fresh Prince is vital information one needs to retain. I liked Taran's Savage Garden guy. He was kind of hot.

Trolls was horrible, not funny at all. Peter Pan would have been better with little or no Tonkerbell. Weekend Update is a mess. Please fix it.

[missalanny]

 

Chris Kirkpatrick cut off the pineapple looking braids before Bye Bye Bye. This is something very important that SNL should know! Also, there is no reason to forget the lyrics to the Fresh Prince theme song. That sketch was just nostalgia bait for twenty-somethings, but I totally got sucked in.

your average person wouldn't remember who the he'll that was without the hairstyle.

 

Valid point, but I think her joke is that it's actually not at all important, but a ridiculous thing that she knows. I was also an *NYSNC superfan...I get it ;)

Edited December 8, 2014 by missalanny

[ChromaKelly]

Just watched the cut sketch and it was funnier than 90% of the stuff that made the episode.

[helenamonster]

SpongeBob did an episode almost exactly like the memory one , only SB had to remove stuff to remember how to cook something at the Krusty Krab.

 

I was just thinking that last night. But I think you might be getting two episodes confused. One is where Spongebob gets psyched out when Bubble Bass tells him he forgot the pickles on his Krabby Patty. Spongebob subsequently forgets how to make a Krabby Patty, or do anything else. The other one, which is closer to the sketch, is where Squidward doesn't want Squilliam knowing that he's a cashier at a fast-food joint, so he transforms the Krusty Krab into a five-star restaurant. He has Spongebob be the waiter and tells him to forget everything except "fine dining and breathing." The little Spongebobs in his head delete everything else, and when Squilliam asks him what his name is, he has a total meltdown. "MORE SOUP FOR YOUR ARMPIT."

[Madding crowd]

You're right , but it was still about removing things from memory so it was pretty similar to the SNL sketch.

[AyeshaTheGreat]

I missed the first half of the show and tuned in when Nicki Minaj performed her first number.  I didn't know either of the songs she performed but was a little more interested in the lyrics of her second performance.

 

As for WU, I thought it was an interesting segment but the studio audience was no into it at all so it fell flat.  I laughed a bit though.

 

And I am happy to see I was not the only one wondering why The Fresh Prince theme song needed to be removed.  I just knew Franco's character was going to say it could stay.

[mizkat]

And I am happy to see I was not the only one wondering why The Fresh Prince theme song needed to be removed.  I just knew Franco's character was going to say it could stay.

 

Speaking of being removed, where is this sketch? I can't find it and I didn't watch the original airing. 

[helenamonster]

Speaking of being removed, where is this sketch? I can't find it and I didn't watch the original airing. 

 

They used about three seconds of NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" in the sketch and probably didn't want to bother getting the clearance for it (apparently they didn't get the clearance for Nicki's performances, either).

[VillaVillekulla]

I was able to find it on YouTube. It'll probably get pulled soon enough, but for now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emyHZUZ6aKs

[hannah8976]

Nicki Minaj's costume during the nativity skit made me nervous.  

[niklj]

I liked Taran's Savage Garden guy. He was kind of hot.

 

Oh yeah, totally forgot that was one of my favorite parts of that sketch. I used to absolutely be obsessed with that song and Darren Hayes's look in the music video.

 

Here's a cut sketch.  I assume it was suppose to be the cold open.   I liked it more than the Sharpton one.

 

This was actually really good, have no idea why they cut it. It's pretty standard SNL fare but at least I LOLed. "How is traffic?" "BAD!" That was great delivery.

[mizkat]

VillaVillekulla thanks so much! I liked it, and I now get what everyone was saying about Franco yelling a lot. 

[Traveller519]

That cut sketch was really enjoyable. I think they actually managed to tackle the issue with some humor.

 

They were obviously going for a more serious tone with the cold open and WU, I think this would have complemented it well. It would have made a hell of a ten to 1.

 

I guess in the age of the internet, Lorne doesn't get the benefit of late night being a time to be as edgy. I'd rather the show tackled the controversial issues and stood by them to be honest. Comedians are finally standing up and refusing to apologize when something is taken offensively. I've actually gained a lot of respect for Bill Burr in that regard. He doesn't back off his material and stands by his comedic material not necessarily reflecting his personal views. I wish Lorne still had that.

[Miss Scarlet]

Cold Open - I am still amused by Kenan's Al Sharpton and his mispronunciation of words. Kenan does it very naturally, to the point that at first I always think he's legitimately mispronouncing them (either that or I'm just getting used to all the cue card reading issues this cast is having). I don't really have high hopes for Cold Opens anymore, so my comments are really just surface-level for these at this point.

 

Monologue - I don't care for Seth Rogen, but I thought this monologue was decent. Better than the clearly thrown together in 5 minutes one from the Cameron Diaz episode. I liked that it didn't drag on forever. Not sure why SNL doesn't just get a separate team of writer specifically just to handle the monologues?

 

Peter Pan Live - If I never saw Tonkerbell again I would be fine with that. She was more tolerable in this sketch than the last time because at least the sole focus wasn't on her in this sketch and she didn't have quite as many lines. I did like her pretending the wipe the meat juice (or whatever it was) off of her. On the other hand the focus in this sketch was all over this place. I get that it was "we're making fun of Peter Pan Live", but there was no cohesion to it.

 

Stars Wars - I think they just assumed that viewers love anything Star Wars related and the costumes/special effects would be distracting enough that viewers wouldn't pay attention to the content. Again, not much content there. I thought it was funny when the audience aww'd at Luke Skywalker using a cane. Usually I don't like the idea that anytime a man dressing up as a woman it's hilarious, but I did think Bobby as Princess Leia was kind of funny.

 

MTV's Jingle Ballerz - I loved Kate's Bieber and Jay's Kanye. I know the "let's have everyone do impressions sketches" can seem thrown together, but I generally like them.

 

Grow a Guy - So this was more interesting than funny. I liked it though. I thought it tried a little too hard with it unraveling because the James Franco friend didn't know what hastags were. Beck was so good in this. Just the quintessential douchey guy who tries to act like he's not douchey, he's just "real".

 

Trolls - This was awful. I guess it's good that they're giving Cecily a chance to play something other than a ditz, but this really does fall into the one other character type that she does - tough-talking woman. The voice especially was similar to the Deidre character she played in the Oliver Twist sketch in the Andrew Garfield episode and the weird sister she played in the wedding sketch in the Seth Rogen episode.

 

WU - The beginning part was so awkward and cringeworthy. I do feel kind of bad for the WU team though, just because people say they need more interactive parts between Colin and Michael and edgier material. Then they try it and this is what happens. I've given up on WU and made it fun for myself by playing the game "Will Michael Che be able to read the cue cards tonight?". So far he's never gotten through a WU without stumbling over a joke. I did like Colin's joke about the new breathalyzer being "a nose". I don't find Leslie Jones unfunny, but again, it sort of bothers me that all of her work on SNL thus far is really just the "sassy, loud black lady stereotype". She even did that in the Stars parody earlier in the episode. I think it's a bit incohesive the way they bring her on as a "relationship expert", loosely tie that to taking shrooms and then goes on to a whole routine that really has nothing to do with relationships. Kind of like that time Pete Davidson did his stand-up bit about hip-hop and it had nothing to do with the segue way they used to introduce him. I know Nicki Minaj is not an impressionist, but it seemed like she didn't even make an attempt to sound like Kim Kardashian at all. With all her appearances in this episode it seemed like they are preparing her to host sometime soon.

 

Password - I loved this. I thought it was a great concept, funny and I loved all the 90s references. The Savage Garden part was amazing. I re-watched that 2 times. The Rhombus part was great too. Not sure how much I would like this if I hadn't been born in the 90's and didn't understand all the references, though. They're definitely trying to give sketches proper endings now and this was a really good one.

 

Kid Mayor - I loved this, but between this and the Password sketch it did feel like a lot of James Franco yelling.

 

Porn Stars - Meh. I'm tired of them.

 

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good episode. I thought the writing was stronger than usual (not that that's saying much). I noticed for 2 weeks in a row that Aidy and Cecily seemed to sort of stick together during the goodnights. I wonder if it's awkward for Cecily because she was dating Mike O'Brien last year and probably spent most of her time with him, so maybe now she doesn't know the rest of the cast as well or isn't as friendly with them, whereas she knew Aidy from Chicago before they came to SNL. 

Edited December 10, 2014 by wudpixie

[helenamonster]

I know Nicki Minaj is not an impressionist, but it seemed like she didn't even make an attempt to sound like Kim Kardashian at all. With all her appearances in this episode it seemed like they are preparing her to host sometime soon.

 

I'm probably in the minority with this, but I wouldn't mind at all if she ended up hosting one of these days. Yeah, her Kim K wasn't all the great (we've also been spoiled for years with Nasim's) but all three times she showed up I thought it looked like she was enjoying herself and having fun. At the end of the Password sketch, you can hear her laughing off-camera. I thought she was good in that sketch as well ("I'm really stuck in here.") and the MTV one as Beyonce. Idk, I think her hosting would be a fun show, even if she wouldn't necessarily be the best host we've ever seen.

[BatmanBeatles]

I wouldn't mind Nicki hosting as long as she doesn't do another Kim K impersonation.

[Princess Sparkle]

Here's another cut sketch "Vh1s Greatest Guys": http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=lYjOGKu5nME&list=UUqFzWxSCi39LnW1JKFR3efg

I actually thought it was really funny and they nailed the commentary that's usually on those countdowns. I think it could've actually been longer and they could've fleshed out some of the guys on the countdown - the first one was funny, but they kind of flew through the rest and didn't let the jokes breathe.

[mizkat]

I actually thought it was really funny and they nailed the commentary that's usually on those countdowns. I think it could've actually been longer and they could've fleshed out some of the guys on the countdown - the first one was funny, but they kind of flew through the rest and didn't let the jokes breathe.

 

ITA. 

 

To me, Beck is showing more and more how good he really is. He can play a variety of characters and they're very well done. I liked him last season but he's really grown on me a lot this season. 

[Lakewood27]

This was actually really good, have no idea why they cut it. It's pretty standard SNL fare but at least I LOLed. "How is traffic?" "BAD!" That was great delivery.

 

Jenny: "Is that the Chicago skyline?"

Trisha: "Hell, yes! And I am NOT coming back!"

[BatmanBeatles]

I was able to find it on YouTube. It'll probably get pulled soon enough, but for now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emyHZUZ6aKs

Crap, it's no longer available.