S40.E17: Michael Keaton / Carly Rae Jepsen

[possibilities]

Well, it's 7:30, so I'm going to turn in.

 

 

I had issues with the prom queen being married and a teacher, but other than that, I loved the sketch and I didn't think it was "an over the top" gay character at all. I thought that they made it a same sex couple without making that the focus was awesome.

 

 

Also, Kate slumped at her desk after class and then saying her next class was in there-- that whole exchange with the professor was gold. GOLD. I don't even know why, but it made me laugh a lot and I'm still laughing about it. Keaton's look at her both before and after her explanation was amazing. And Kate never disappoints.

 

 

For those mystified by the cold open, I thought the point was to mock the idea, during the peak of basketball taking over the airwaves, that the college athletes are really not professional athletes, they're just students playing ball. That's been in the news lately, with the NCAA making bazillions of dollars off the athletes, but not even providing them with basic protections (or allowing them to use their reputations to take care of necessities on their own). The total absurdity of the idea that they pulled a kid from the game because he had a biology test was meant to illustrate the point that the kids are NOT actually first and foremost students at all.

 

 

WU has really improved. Jebediah was great. I was bored by the "weed makes you a zombie" bit; not that I disagree, but still-- old news/who cares?

 

 

The only thing I can think of to explain the bleeding in the ad sketch is that they couldn't think of a way to end it, so they manufactured an excuse for the guy to make an exit. I didn't think  it was funny, though. The premise of a CEO sitting in and having terrible ideas had potential. But boobs! boners! har har!! just didn't do it for me.

 

 

I liked that in the CNN "dance reenactment" of the bakery bigotry, they had everyone dancing and not just the gay characters.Everyone looked the same. I thought that was another place they did a gay bit without going over the top or veering into stereotypes.

 

 

I have nothing against singing monologues. I don't know why they go that route so often, but it doesn't really bother me one way or the other.

Edited April 7, 2015 by possibilities

[kassa]

I thought it was a so-so episode, but Neurotology saved it.  

 

I just don't see the Pete Davidson appeal.  Almost 40 years ago Chevy Chase was sitting at that desk getting away with anal bead jokes, and in 2015 Davidson gets laughs for using the word "weed"?  Edgy!

Edited April 7, 2015 by kassa

[AyeshaTheGreat]

For those mystified by the cold open, I thought the point was to mock the idea, during the peak of basketball taking over the airwaves, that the college athletes are really not professional athletes, they're just students playing ball. That's been in the news lately, with the NCAA making bazillions of dollars off the athletes, but not even providing them with basic protections (or allowing them to use their reputations to take care of necessities on their own). The total absurdity of the idea that they pulled a kid from the game because he had a biology test was meant to illustrate the point that the kids are NOT actually first and foremost students at all.

 

I liked that in the CNN "dance reenactment" of the bakery bigotry, they had everyone dancing and not just the gay characters.Everyone looked the same. I thought that was another place they did a gay bit without going over the top or veering into stereotypes.

 

I have nothing against singing monologues. I don't know why they go that route so often, but it doesn't really bother me one way or the other.

Re Cold Open: That is what I was thinking with as well.  And I believe that had Kentucky not lost, Taran would have been Calipari instead.  UK is definitely a better candidate since the school has truly embraced the "one and done" student athlete.

 

I don't watch CNN but that sketch made me giggle since I figured CNN would do something closely crazy.

 

Lastly, I find most of the singing monologues to be boring even though I don't hate them.  This one at least made me giggle.

 

Overall, Michael Keaton made me giggle and worked well in most of the sketches.

Edited April 7, 2015 by AyeshaTheGreat

[mtlchick]

 

For those mystified by the cold open, I thought the point was to mock the idea, during the peak of basketball taking over the airwaves, that the college athletes are really not professional athletes, they're just students playing ball. That's been in the news lately, with the NCAA making bazillions of dollars off the athletes, but not even providing them with basic protections (or allowing them to use their reputations to take care of necessities on their own).

 

Agreed.  After Last Week Tonight's story on the NCAA and how students are pretty much abandoned if they get injured or get into major trouble if do anything remotely close to getting paid for something since they are "amateurs" I thought it was inspired.

 

Michael Keaton has the kookiest eyebrows ever.  But I fully admit I have a thing for him so I enjoyed it for the most part.  The WU with Pete though...I get it, you're young and you're constantly on weed.  Got anything else there kiddo? 

[theatremouse]

I liked that in the CNN "dance reenactment" of the bakery bigotry, they had everyone dancing and not just the gay characters.Everyone looked the same. I thought that was another place they did a gay bit without going over the top or veering into stereotypes.

Exactly, there was nothing stereotypically gay about either of the gay characters in that sketch. Kenan and Aidy wore t-shirts that said "gay" and otherwise just walked in and out of frame repeatedly, until the point where it degraded into everyone dancing. And Keaton's presumably straight character was the one who really started the dancing. So there were zero stereotypes in that sketch. It was nice.

[helenamonster]

I just don't see the Pete Davidson appeal.  Almost 40 years ago Chevy Chase was sitting at that desk getting away with anal bead jokes, and in 2015 Davidson gets laughs for using the word "weed"?  Edgy!

 

Yeah, he's either smoking weed or denying being gay or both. I don't hate him and I think he's got potential, but I'm not gonna be paying to see him do stand-up anytime soon.

[absnow54]

Yeah, he's either smoking weed or denying being gay or both. I don't hate him and I think he's got potential, but I'm not gonna be paying to see him do stand-up anytime soon.

As someone who very recently saw Pete Davidson doing stand up, I have to laugh, because one of his jokes (after a series of weed jokes) was "What do you expect from me? I'm a kid. Who thought this was a good idea?" about the intelligence of his jokes. His opener was very good though.

[Traveller519]

Carly Rae Jepsen has an uncanny ability to turn out these pleasant ear worms. Her first song certainly fit that mold, so it was cool to hear her do something a little different with the second one.

[methodwriter85]

I found the source material for the Neurotology skit:

 

 

Wow, this is bat-shit crazy. SNL absolutely nailed it.

 

 

[ABitOFluff]

One thing that I don't understand is that I keep seeing people say that Taran looked exactly like Cesar Romero's Joker.  Huh??   It was Jack Nicholson's Joker from the Batman Movie that starred Michael Keaton.   He looked exactly like him just like Bobby nailed Devito as The Penguin.  I just don't get where people are getting that it was a copy of Cesar Romero, who had a completely different look and style-- less sinister and more clowny. Basically Romero was all about the laugh.

 

Ah, I can answer this! At first, Taran was doing the Cesar Romero Joker laugh. I grew up watching the 60s Batman, and that was it, exactly. He did morph into a Jack Nicholson Joker eventually. And Deilia Deetz and Otho were perfection.

 

I find lately that I have to rewatch a lot of the sketches on Hulu before I feel comfortable to form an overall opinion about the show. I guess you'd call it a rewatchability factor? (That said, I think the Martin Freeman episode is the most rewatchable so far).  Anyway, the Michael Keaton monologue is by far my favorite of this season, and I love the Easter Greeting the more I watch it.

 

Mike O'Brien's move back the writer's room was a good one. He now has time to construct those digital shorts. I've mostly enjoyed them all so far. The Prom King/Queen was a good one. 

 

I also think this Weekend Update was also the strongest it's been in a long time, and I can't ever get enough of Jebediah Atkinson. I think that's going to be one of the all-time classic SNL characters.

Edited April 10, 2015 by ABitOFluff

[BatmanBeatles]

 

As someone who very recently saw Pete Davidson doing stand up, I have to laugh, because one of his jokes (after a series of weed jokes) was "What do you expect from me? I'm a kid. Who thought this was a good idea?" about the intelligence of his jokes.

That's kind of pathetic.