S44.E11: James McAvoy / Meek Mill

[peeayebee]

3 hours ago, Racj82 said:

I'm legitimately confused as to how so many people thought Steve Martin was John Goodman. I was half sleep without my glasses on and never thought it was anyone else but Martin. 

I wasn't sleepy, but, yes, I too immediately identified him as Steve Martin. I thought he did great as Roger Stone.

I liked the CO. Alex was very good as Tucker Carlson. I particularly liked when he said he was going to listen as a dog looking into a mirror. Cecily was great as Pirro, and Kate made a good Wilbur Ross, if there can be a "good" Wilbur Ross. My only complaint is that I wish she hadn't added that little sly look she gives all of her impressions, like the people know they're being bad or tricky. I doubt that is Ross. He has no idea how clueless he is about how non-millionaires live.

Carlson: Why will nobody buy your books?
Stone: Because they're BAD!

Loved the Mr. H sketch, mainly because of Chris Reid. He just so so good. Loved him on WU as Soulja Boy. I don't know what Soulja Boy is like -- I watch just a bit of the video that Racj82 posted -- but that wasn't necessary because it was such a hilarious, specific character.

The Scottish air traffic controllers sketch was fun. Loved the misinterpretations. "I've got brooon do-da, sir?" "Did I eat at Wendy's?" 

The best thing in the Charmin focus group sketch was James McAvoy doing the thumbs up and saying, "Charmin." It worked every time.

I really don't want to google this, but did Roger Stone really ask black guys to bang his wife?

Return to Narnia didn't do anything for me. Neither did the fighting boys sketch, though I loved it the first time.

The dog rap was very cute.

[vb68]

36 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

The best thing in the Charmin focus group sketch was James McAvoy doing the thumbs up and saying, "Charmin." It worked every time.

Yeah, I absolutely loved that.  I honestly think it's on my list of favorite things of the season. It was all in the way he sold it.

I knew it was Steve Martin immediately. Again there was the joke that he was a "normal and straight forward" guy with the hand gestures that had me beaming. That's such a graceful, understated way of observing a piece of the show's history. 

36 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I really don't want to google this, but did Roger Stone really ask black guys to bang his wife?

   Apparently so.  I also recall a news story back in the early '90s identifying him on air as putting classifieds in the DC Newspapers looking for fellow wife swappers.  The guy has a rather um, rich history.

Edited January 28, 2019 by vb68

[madpsych78]

22 hours ago, opus said:

Yes, musician.

And the only other thing I know about Halsey (although I don’t know why I know it) is that her stage name is an anagram of her real name Ashley.

Then "Halsey" has two meanings. Apparently according to Wikipedia Halsey is in reference to Halsey Street station in New York.

[LuvMyShows]

3 hours ago, Pat Hoolihan said:

I think the guy imitated Tucker Carlson well in terms of voice and some mannerisms. But the writing was really way to kind to him. He actually came across better than in real life. 

Yep.  It was also inconsistent, because in the skit, most of the time he was Republican, but some of the time he was Democrat.

23 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Virgin Hunk: Yay, another one of these Bachelor sketches! "I'm 31 so I'm almost dead", "I'm from Rest Area, Missouri." "I'm 20 drunk years old", "I'm from before but I'm more drunk." The women were great, James was just...there. His accent kept creeping out.

To me, the reason he was bad, was that he was playing a male character in a dating sketch, rather than playing the Bachelor from the TV show...there are certain mannerisms and patterns of speech characteristic of the Bachelor, and James had none of that.

22 hours ago, SHD said:

They hit a couple of my FF sketches - Cathy Anne and the rowdy boys who get hosed. So that was disappointing.

But I learned something new from Cathy Anne, about that Marilyn Manson/ribs removal thing, so I looked it up, and wow, just wow.

[Ottis]

This episode managed to feature two of my least favorite SNL skit types, 1) when the single joke of the skit is that someone is being annoying/difficult, which is just as annoying to viewers (the arguing boys, the Bachelor girls, Charmin panel), and 2) local skits that mean nothing to me (UES, Scottish Air Control - which would also work as #1).

I guessed the teacher was buying from Pete the moment the teacher stepped out of his car. The funny part was the other corner hangers who knew all about the SAT.

Loved Leslie as Wilbur Ross. That was perfect. And I thought it was DiNiro as Stone as well at first, but the applause was too enthusiastic so I knew that wasn't right. All I could hear was that NY/northeastern accent, which reminded me of how many shady NYers Trump put into his administration and on his team.

McAvoy was fine. I was disappointed they didn't feature him in a superhero skit, or something tied to Glass.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Ottis

[Hanahope]

When Stone came on, I'm trying to figure out who it was.  At first I thought DeNiro, but then I remembered how much he sleepwalks through Mueller and Stone was much more animated.  I finally figured out it was Martin.  

Cecilly does a great Jeanine Piro and Kate was hilarious as Wilbur Ross.  and I lol'd at Alex's open-mouthed Tucker.

I've never watched the Bachelor, but from seeing the SNL skits, I just have to wonder, wtf with the 5 second 'conversations' and the "missed you."  Ugh, glad I never watched the real show.

I was surprised that I actually understood most of the Scottish ATC.  I guess that's from listening a lot to my husband's french family speak English, so I'm used to figuring out the word from a heavy accent.  I didn't quite see the need to do the whole "kylie jenner" part though.

The Charmin commercial was hilarious.  McAvoy was a wonderful Philadelphian.

Narnia was a bit weird, I was definitely into Narnia as a kid/teen and I never heard anyone have such "thoughts" about Mr. Tumnus.  

Ah, Nawlins  bringing back the "Coooooba" 

WE always great, especially since the jokes are pretty easy with trump.  Liked Soulja, Cathy Ann is okay.

Yeah, the two boys with the hose, I'm kinda done with that skit.

I also really liked the dog rap and Leslie's UES bit.  McAvoy as the German baker was funny.  

Yeah, another rapper. so FF.  

[Phishbulb]

On 1/27/2019 at 1:13 AM, Lantern7 said:

With McAvoy, I would have figured Mike Myers would've been the surprise appearance. Remember the "All Things Scottish" sketches? "Welcome to All Things Scottish! If it's not Scottish, IT'S CRAP!!!!!!!!" And then we got the extended mix with So I Married An Axe Murderer.

He was with the "Bohemian Rhapsody" cast at the SAG awards last night, so maybe not possible, but yeah, this would have been great.

[theatremouse]

I understood about 85% of the Scottish Air Traffic Controller. I had to force myself into remembering that over a headset would make it harder. It went on too long and had too easy a solution (speak more slowly).

I thought the SAT switched from out of 1600 to out of 2400, or was that sketch not supposed to be current day and I missed it? Or did they test switch back and I missed it?

[peeayebee]

11 hours ago, LuvMyShows said:

But I learned something new from Cathy Anne, about that Marilyn Manson/ribs removal thing, so I looked it up, and wow, just wow.

Oh yeah. That was another thing I was hesitant to google.

 

52 minutes ago, Phishbulb said:

He was with the "Bohemian Rhapsody" cast at the SAG awards last night, so maybe not possible, but yeah, this would have been great.

I just saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and Mike Myers was almost unrecognizable in it. He had a great line that was an in-joke for anyone who's seen Wayne's World (the movie.

[BTBAM310]

Wow, what an awful episode. I laughed a couple of times during Weekend Update, but didn't even come close to laughing in any sketch.

[helenamonster]

7 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I thought the SAT switched from out of 1600 to out of 2400, or was that sketch not supposed to be current day and I missed it? Or did they test switch back and I missed it?

It switched back to 1600 fairly recently (for reference, I took the SATs in 2010 and it was still 2400 then).

[Galileo908]

8 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I just saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and Mike Myers was almost unrecognizable in it. He had a great line that was an in-joke for anyone who's seen Wayne's World (the movie.

I've seen at least one interview (Colbert's) where he said that Wayne's World was why he's even in the movie.

[proserpina65]

I loved the cold open.  I also loved the Scottish Air Traffic Control sketch, because Glaswegian is the only UK accent I have trouble with.  Seriously, I once saw a press conference with then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho who, though Portuguese, spoke flawless English, and legendary Man United manager Alex Ferguson who, though a native English speaker, was absolutely incomprehensible due to his Glaswegian accent.

[JZL]

I have to confess I also initially thought "Roger Stone" was De Niro.

[rmontro]

On 1/28/2019 at 9:52 AM, Ottis said:

McAvoy was fine. I was disappointed they didn't feature him in a superhero skit, or something tied to Glass.

Yeah, of all his movies, they pulled out Mr. Tumnus.  Interesting choice. 

That skit did make me wonder if there really is a group of young fan girls who see the character as a non threatening early crush.

[cpcathy]

What/Who people crush on nowadays is so diverse I wouldn't put it past someone to crush on Mr. Tumnus.

[peeayebee]

Yeah, I didn't give that a second thought because you can probably pick anyone (or anything) and find people who lust after him/her/it. When I was a kid I had a huge, serious crush on one of the Thunderbird marionettes. 

[Shawshanked]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who thought it was John Goodman playing Roger Stone at first. 

[lou ann b]

John is 6'2,Steve 6'0.John is fuller in the face than Steve.  They sound nothing alike to me. Props to the makeup department, I guess.

[meep.meep]

On 1/29/2019 at 12:10 PM, proserpina65 said:

I loved the cold open.  I also loved the Scottish Air Traffic Control sketch, because Glaswegian is the only UK accent I have trouble with.  Seriously, I once saw a press conference with then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho who, though Portuguese, spoke flawless English, and legendary Man United manager Alex Ferguson who, though a native English speaker, was absolutely incomprehensible due to his Glaswegian accent.

I loved the ATC sketch for the same reason that you did.  I used to be the equipment manager for my town's youth soccer league which meant I had to talk to all of our coaches.  In a group that included folks from China, Vietnam, Israel, Lebanon, India, Afghanistan, every country in Europe, most of the countries in South America, etc., the only person I could never understand was a lady from Glasgow.

[sistermagpie]

On 1/30/2019 at 12:44 AM, rmontro said:

That skit did make me wonder if there really is a group of young fan girls who see the character as a non threatening early crush.

 

On 1/30/2019 at 12:09 PM, cpcathy said:

What/Who people crush on nowadays is so diverse I wouldn't put it past someone to crush on Mr. Tumnus.

 

On 1/30/2019 at 4:39 PM, peeayebee said:

Yeah, I didn't give that a second thought because you can probably pick anyone (or anything) and find people who lust after him/her/it. When I was a kid I had a huge, serious crush on one of the Thunderbird marionettes. 

I never saw this movie but the main thing I remember about hearing people talk about it online was that yes, finding Mr. Tumnus hot was a thing. I didn't even think of it as a niche thing. Probably because lazy Hermiones are my people.

[Xarquol]

The air traffic controllers sketch was slightly unfortunately timed, at least to anyone who might have seen it from the UK. A few days earlier, a newly signed player for Cardiff City Football Club in Wales was travelling to Cardiff from his previous club in Nantes, France on a small private plane, which crashed into the English Channel. Only in the past 24 hours has the wreckage been found. The player's name was Emiliano Sala, and Cardiff City still technically owe Nantes most of a $20m transfer fee.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47118340

But it's highly unlikely that the SNL writers were aware of this.

[proserpina65]

23 hours ago, Xarquol said:

The air traffic controllers sketch was slightly unfortunately timed, at least to anyone who might have seen it from the UK. A few days earlier, a newly signed player for Cardiff City Football Club in Wales was travelling to Cardiff from his previous club in Nantes, France on a small private plane, which crashed into the English Channel. Only in the past 24 hours has the wreckage been found. The player's name was Emiliano Sala, and Cardiff City still technically owe Nantes most of a $20m transfer fee.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47118340

But it's highly unlikely that the SNL writers were aware of this.

Yeah, that was a very sad and terrible coincidence.