S44.E12: Halsey

[kib]

I forgot to mention, Aidy Bryant nailed her to all-too-brief appearance as Matthew Whitaker.  The clueless lunkhead eyeroll had me on the floor.

[rmontro]

7 hours ago, helenamonster said:

It's been a minute, but Ashlee Simpson was straight-up lip-syncing, wasn't she? The band played the wrong pre-recorded vocal and then we were launched into the most deeply uncomfy moment of 2004.

It's been more than a minute.  But yeah, the band played the wrong vocal track, and she was accused of lip-syncing.  IIRC, later on, one of her explanations was that it wasn't for lip-syncing, it was a track for her to sing with.  Whether that was the truth or not, I have no idea.  But the practice of singing with a pre-recorded vocal track was not so common back then, so she caught a lot of flak.  If that had happened today, probably no one would bat an eye.

7 hours ago, Steph J said:

What?  I remember Darrel Hammond as Jesse Jackson, but cannot for the life of me recall Jimmy Fallon as Chris Rock.  That's crazy.

I find it... odd that they did a whole sketch about black face being wrong and then a few sketches later bronzed Halsey up to play Rashida Tlaib.  Seems like mixed messaging.

You misspelled hypocrisy,  🙂

Edited February 11, 2019 by rmontro

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, Dejana said:

The blackface sketch really got into all the excuses people try to make, though it would have won more points with me if they'd had the Keenan character call out SNL's history with it.

Yeah, they've done yellowface too and pretty recently - Taran Killam around 2014 - they've done a lot of fucked-up shit race-wise.

1 hour ago, Dejana said:

Melissa's Gaga impression was great but I wish there'd been more of an angle there. Also, the Not Bradley Cooper appearance was wasted, 

I like Kyle Mooney and all but I thought Bradley was so devastatingly sexy as Jackson Maine and it needed to be a much more rugged big guy playing that part...... but I guess then who.... Maybe Kyle has the best singing voice.

[madpsych78]

I didn't mind Halsey as a host, but I thought the writing was weak in some spots. For those wondering who Halsey resembled, I was thinking Mandy Moore at times.

I didn't really like the Black History Month segment because Kyle and Beck should have just not been in it at all, I think. I felt like they were taking over the sketch and they are white. And why was Michael Che not in it?

Really disappointed by the Riverdale sketch because it barely acknowledged the Riverdale characters. You could swap out any TV show in place of Riverdale and Pete Davidson's character and the whole plot wouldn't change. I want an actual sketch that is a satire of Riverdale. If you watch the show it is somewhat melodramatic and a little OTT at times. SNL could have worked with that. If they are going to feature Riverdale again, then Kate could be Cheryl Blossom, Cecily would DEFINITELY be Veronica, I would have put Pete as Jughead, and Alex is fine as Archie. Mikey Day could be Kevin Keller. Maybe Heidi could be Betty. And Ego could be Josie. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Halsey look like P!nk to me. 

never mind, my goof on the photos
 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Joimiaroxeu
my eyes deceived me

[MVFrostsMyPie]

1 hour ago, madpsych78 said:

I didn't really like the Black History Month segment because Kyle and Beck should have just not been in it at all, I think. I felt like they were taking over the sketch and they are white. And why was Michael Che not in it?

Wasn’t that kind of the whole joke/point? That even with black people around, there’s always some white person who’ll step in to do some whitesplaining?

Much like how some clueless men don’t see the irony in finding a reason to mansplain periods, for example, to women? 

Edited February 11, 2019 by MVFrostsMyPie

[librarianbeck]

I thought considering she's a singer without significant acting experience,  Halsey did well. I wasn't familiar with her prior, but she comes off as likable. I am so ready for that haircut she (and Katy Perry, among others) has to die. 

As an older/borderline Millennial (born in 82), I get what Heidi is trying to do on WU with her characters, but I just find them all really annoying. Maybe it's just Heidi - I can't say I like her much in sketches, either. 

For some reason I really enjoyed the parents phone call sketch. 

[possibilities]

Lorne will allow anyone to acknowledge the show's faults sometime approximately 10,000 years after hell freezes over.

I wanted to see them mention the "S&L" gaffe from earlier this week.

I had no idea who Halsey was, so I didn't know what to expect. It seemed to me that she was totally willing and able, and likable enough, but the writing was just not there. This is the same problem every week this season. The cast is great. The writing is just shockingly subpar.

There is ample material to draw from. I don't know why they can't hire top notch writers. I mean, Pete elevated that corpse sketch. And Pete is not even the strongest player there. And he was playing A CORPSE.

Everyone on camera is really talented, but they have to work so hard to get anything out of bland material. It's inexplicable. Comedy is thriving everywhere else. SNL needs to seriously review their process for writing the show.

Don Cheadle next week HAS TO be great. If you can't make a great show with Don Cheadle, you really should just retire from the business.

It's killing me that they have such a great cast, with such a range of types of personalities, and they can't write a show that makes good use of them.

[JakeyJokes]

4 hours ago, rmontro said:

It's been more than a minute.  But yeah, the band played the wrong vocal track, and she was accused of lip-syncing.  IIRC, later on, one of her explanations was that it wasn't for lip-syncing, it was a track for her to sing with.  Whether that was the truth or not, I have no idea.  But the practice of singing with a pre-recorded vocal track was not so common back then, so she caught a lot of flak.  If that had happened today, probably no one would bat an eye.

🙂

I was a junior in high school and watched this LIVE and it was so much more of a hot mess than that. She "sang" Pieces of Me first, and it went seamlessly. For her second performance, she stands there and "Pieces of Me" starts playing, like exactly how it sounded on the damn CD, and she awkwardly danced for 20 seconds and they cut to commercial. My friend Meaghan and I stare11d at each other like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED.

She blamed her band, then acid reflux, tried to spin the PR as well as she could.(she was the star of an MTV reality show at the time). To her credit, she returned the next season (?) and did just fine.

[izabella]

15 hours ago, absnow54 said:

The blackface sketch just made me think of all the times SNL has done blackface. I remember Jimmy Fallon doing it for a Chris Rock impression in 1999 and Darrel Hammond was doing Jessie Jackson well through the 00’s. It just felt very pot calling the kettle. 

Fred Armisen did it for Obama as well.

I was disappointed by the Congresswomen sketch.  I liked the premise, but it didn't quite pay off.  I'm still not impressed by Kate's Nancy Pelosi impression, nor the Wilbur Ross one (he eyes are half-closed and narrow behind his glasses, while Kate plays his eyes wide open, like she does Nancy and Giuliani).  I wish Leslie would work on her Maxine Waters, too.  All the Congresswomen need some improvement.  But I like that they've started going there. 

[rmontro]

2 hours ago, JakeyJokes said:

I was a junior in high school and watched this LIVE and it was so much more of a hot mess than that. She "sang" Pieces of Me first, and it went seamlessly. For her second performance, she stands there and "Pieces of Me" starts playing, like exactly how it sounded on the damn CD, and she awkwardly danced for 20 seconds and they cut to commercial. My friend Meaghan and I stare11d at each other like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED.

She blamed her band, then acid reflux, tried to spin the PR as well as she could.(she was the star of an MTV reality show at the time). To her credit, she returned the next season (?) and did just fine.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I remember it, including the acid reflux excuse.  But I also remember later, she or someone associated with her put out that "guide vocal" track idea.  

[JakeyJokes]

21 minutes ago, izabella said:

Fred Armisen did it for Obama as 

Fred Armisen also is not fully Caucasian; he has Venezuelan and Filipino heritage. He also played Prince. Maya Rudolph is biracial and could conceivably play any race in her impersonations and characters. Lorne Michaels told TV GUIDE gender and race don't matter when Horatio Sanz was announced as the first Latino cast member.

I am not saying any of these opinions or convos are wrong because they are important and we need to talk about it, but there is a difference between ignorant Halloween/costume party blackface (like discussed in the VA sketch, as a way to punch down or make a mockery)  with an actor of mixed race playing a certain celebrity.

Edited February 11, 2019 by JakeyJokes

[Hanahope]

I thought Halsey did a fine job, both acting and singing.  I enjoyed the show.  Riverdale was sort of meh to me, but the other skits were pretty good.

Of course they skewered VA a lot this week, and devote the cold open to Bezos.  Have to show "balance", lol, yeah sure.

Also, while I appreciated the thought behind the valentines day song, "I don't want to think about you", I think its fine for parents to give young kids valentine stuff.  But yeah, once they move out, I think its done.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Hanahope

[Ms Blue Jay]

13 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

She looks like Katy Perry to me:

Just FYI, you used my picture of Agyness Deyn here.

[Ms Blue Jay]

6 hours ago, JakeyJokes said:

Fred Armisen also is not fully Caucasian; he has Venezuelan and Filipino heritage. He also played Prince. Maya Rudolph is biracial and could conceivably play any race in her impersonations and characters. Lorne Michaels told TV GUIDE gender and race don't matter when Horatio Sanz was announced as the first Latino cast member.

He's Venezuelan, German, and Korean actually - not Filipino.  It is stupid for SNL to take Fred, darken his skin, and ask him to play Obama instead of having a black man play him.  All people of non-white race are not interchangeable.  If SNL cannot hire a black man, when a black man was President, it is utterly ridiculous.  This is part of the problem everyone had with Fred playing Obama.  I love Fred, and I have a multicultural background like his, but you have to be aware of the racial politics going on here.  Not just cast any non-white person as another and expect it all works out.

Now there are black Venezuelans of course - Mariah Carey's father was one - but I've seen Fred's mother so I don't know about her being one at all.

Maya is biracial yes, but she shouldn't play Asian or other races she isn't.  There is no reason for that.  And if Lorne did say that, that's pretty ignorant of him.  Of course it matters.  Lorne runs a 44 year old institution on NBC.  He has an enormous influence.  He's influenced and produced so many other TV shows and movies as well.  Race matters.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Ms Blue Jay

[Joimiaroxeu]

16 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Just FYI, you used my picture of Agyness Deyn here.

You're right. I really thought that was Halsey though. I took the photos off the post. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm now thinking Halsey does look like Amber Rose. She's not as pale as I had originally believed.

[peeayebee]

I'm not sure if I pinpointed who she reminds me of, but for now I decided on:

Kelly Reilly

Kelly LeBrock

I still think it's actually someone else. This is going to bug me.

[Mrs Shibbles]

18 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I like Kyle Mooney and all but I thought Bradley was so devastatingly sexy as Jackson Maine and it needed to be a much more rugged big guy playing that part...... but I guess then who.... Maybe Kyle has the best singing voice.

This was the funniest part of the night to me.  I think its because I was already really enjoying Melissa's Gaga impression plus her over exaggerations, but when Kyle came out dressed like BC, but looking more like a sad homeless person, I was rolling. 

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 9:26 AM, Ottis said:

Never watched Empire and assume Them Trumps is riffing off whatever the show is about, but it’s clearly not about humor. 

I don't watch Empire either, but Them Trumps has been hysterical both times they've done it.

[BoogieBurns]

On 2/10/2019 at 11:44 AM, Steph J said:

I find it... odd that they did a whole sketch about black face being wrong and then a few sketches later bronzed Halsey up to play Rashida Tlaib.  Seems like mixed messaging.

Bronzing someone of mixed race isn't the same as blackface. Sorry.

Also, playing a real person (shining in a good light) for a sketch is far different than wearing shoe polish on your face for a costume party (mocking the race). Cecily has played a ton of different races with bronzer on, because she reads as ethnically ambiguous. 

Everything isn't blackface.

[helenamonster]

This I guess is an unpopular opinion given how well Melissa's Gaga bit appears to have gone over, but...I don't like Melissa. It's been, what, three seasons? And she hasn't grown on me. I find her aggressively try-hard and dorky, and not in an endearing way. She's constantly touted for her impressions but they seem hit or miss to me, and even when she's missing she's got this air about her that she's totally nailing it. She bugs me.

22 hours ago, rmontro said:

It's been more than a minute.  But yeah, the band played the wrong vocal track, and she was accused of lip-syncing.  IIRC, later on, one of her explanations was that it wasn't for lip-syncing, it was a track for her to sing with.  Whether that was the truth or not, I have no idea.  But the practice of singing with a pre-recorded vocal track was not so common back then, so she caught a lot of flak.  If that had happened today, probably no one would bat an eye.

I remember that around the time the Ashlee Simpson thing happened, lip-syncing was a sort of recurring pop culture trend that we collectively lost our minds over. It seemed like the backlash from Milli Vanilli stuck in the public consciousness for awhile. There was a push in some states in the late '90s/early '00s to either outright ban it or at least make it clear that you were doing so, especially if people were paying for tickets (I think people were trying to classify it as fraud).

You're right that the pre-recorded backing track that people sang along live with was probably not as common as it is today (or at least not something that the average concert goer would know was a thing) but she absolutely would have caught the same amount of flak (probably even more so, thanks to social media) if she'd reacted in the same way. She did her little Irish jig and then slouched offstage. It was embarrassing.

And her rotating carousel of excuses didn't help things, either.

[Ms Blue Jay]

7 hours ago, BoogieBurns said:

Bronzing someone of mixed race isn't the same as blackface. Sorry.

Also, playing a real person (shining in a good light) for a sketch is far different than wearing shoe polish on your face for a costume party (mocking the race). Cecily has played a ton of different races with bronzer on, because she reads as ethnically ambiguous. 

Everything isn't blackface.

If the show is so desperate to have a sketch featuring an actor playing Rashida Tlaib, why not hire a Palestinian/Muslim day player?  A black and white person a la Halsey is NOT close.

They hire children to play children for chrissakes - it isn't that hard.  They hire extras to play extras.  It can be done.

I don't agree that Cecily should play races that aren't her own, and it is completely subjective how she "reads" as, but now I am getting close to repeating myself.

Sure "everything" isn't blackface, but it doesn't have to meet the standard of shoe polish to be, either.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Ms Blue Jay

[mtlchick]

Finally made my way through this one.  Two major things;

-On the point that SNL should have acknowledged their black face history; I feel they would only acknowledge if they were forced into like when Kenan finally said that the show had a diversity problem and that created major press to the point they had to address it.   

-For a first timer, Halsey wasn't bad and I thought her second performance was great even though I am SO OVER the songs.  But I would say the writing was weak because outside of her fans, who is she to the average person?  When you have young female artists come on like Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, etc., they have a persona that people know them for and are willing to poke fun of themselves in the process or in the case of Christina Aguilera, her dead on Kim Cattrall as Samantha from SNL.  Halsey?  She was ok.  She did what she could in what she was given.  But she sort became an afterthought after a while.  

I can't wait for Don Cheadle though, if only for the opportunity for him to rip into Mark Ruffalo who keeps spoiling MCU info.  

[vb68]

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

If the show is so desperate to have a sketch featuring an actor playing Rashida Tlaib, why not hire a Palestinian/Muslim day player?  A black and white person a la Halsey is NOT close.

This reminds me of Melissa making a point of saying "baby steps" on-air when she had to play the moderator of the 2016 Vice Presidential debate. ( I confess I can't remember who the moderator was without looking it up.) I don't think Melissa was very close ethnically,  just the best option. 

I think they felt they had to decide on one of the congresswomen for Halsey to play, and Rep. Tlaib is fairly high profile for a newbie?  Eh, that's all I got. 

Edited February 12, 2019 by vb68

[Milburn Stone]

Melissa Villaseñor as Gaga was one of the best things I've seen on SNL in many a year. I felt sorry for Heidi Gardner and Mikey Day for having to follow her; but they (especially Heidi) rose to the challenge pretty darn well.

[LuvMyShows]

On 2/10/2019 at 1:01 AM, Galileo908 said:

Women of Congress: I loved this. Short, though, and I feel like they just wanted to do that intro and I wish they did more than the Charlie's Angels bit. 

Absolutely loved Women of Congress as I was watching it, and seeing all the powerful women and how far we've come, until the end when it devolved into a bunch of hens all talking over each other and was the antithesis of everything the women stood for.  I don't think it was intentionally ironic either...I just think SNL didn't have a clue for what to do with that gathering of women.

On 2/10/2019 at 1:11 AM, Pete Martell said:

It doesn't help that when they put the female cast members in drag it feels less like trying to be funny and more like just trying to get publicity because of all the hoopla and hype over Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer and how daring it was to send a message to Trump by having women dressed as men and everyone pretending it was 1920 and this was actually something risky.

On 2/10/2019 at 6:10 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer was a highlight of SNL for this entire decade.  It wasn't that she was a woman playing a man.  It was that the performance was incredibly shocking and funny.  Melissa really committed to that role and the writing was great.  Normal SNL castmembers are not able to commit the way Melissa was able to do that.  

Yeah, the 'hoopla and hype' in the Sean Spicer skit wasn't because of a faux-daring drag concept; it's because she was funny AF in it, especially on the very first one.  She really did commit 100% (I'd say she committed 110% if that were possible!)

On 2/10/2019 at 12:32 PM, helenamonster said:

Melissa's whole justification for being on this show is her impressions, right? Then how come here Gaga sounds like me when I'm three margaritas deep and "Shallow" comes on at the bar? And there weren't really any other jokes to the segment so the whole thing was just a set up with some deeply mediocre payoff.

Count me in with the group who doesn't get it with Melissa.  Seems like her claim to fame was her Owen Wilson impression, which is very 'one note'.  And I haven't seen that her other impressions are enough to have deserved a place on the show, unlike Darrell Hammond who could genuinely inhabit his character impressions and propel them through entire sketches.  Her acting is awful and wooden, and always makes me tense and nervous when I watch it.  The only sketch she was any good in, was that hysterical skit where she's in bed with a guy and is inappropriately awful at talking dirty.  Her wooden delivery plays perfectly in that sketch.

[theatremouse]

1 hour ago, LuvMyShows said:

Absolutely loved Women of Congress as I was watching it, and seeing all the powerful women and how far we've come, until the end when it devolved into a bunch of hens all talking over each other and was the antithesis of everything the women stood for.  I don't think it was intentionally ironic either...I just think SNL didn't have a clue for what to do with that gathering of women.

I did not read that part of the scene as it "devolving into a bunch of hens talking over each other". I thought it was showing the congresswomen in question as splutteringly mad at the complete lack of logic of what they were listening to. I didn't see anything gendered about how they were reacting. They weren't talking over each other at each other. They were just all reacting outloud simultaneously. The point wasn't "now they're bickering" but rather "now they're all reacting similarly".

[JZL]

The Women of Congress sketch was funnier the second time around, esp. Halsey's bitch bomb at the end.

[helenamonster]

21 hours ago, vb68 said:

This reminds me of Melissa making a point of saying "baby steps" on-air when she had to play the moderator of the 2016 Vice Presidential debate. ( I confess I can't remember who the moderator was without looking it up.) I don't think Melissa was very close ethnically,  just the best option. 

I think they felt they had to decide on one of the congresswomen for Halsey to play, and Rep. Tlaib is fairly high profile for a newbie?  Eh, that's all I got. 

Melissa was playing Elaine Quijano, who is Filipino-American. She made a quip about how the first Latina cast member on SNL would be playing an Asian woman...baby steps. It was a fun little way to acknowledge how dire this show has always been regarding race, but that they also have zero interest in doing anything to rectify it. Because that debate was over two years ago now, SNL has added no Asian cast members, and it was still considered a significant achievement when Awkwafina hosted earlier this season.

The juxtaposition of the blackface sketch/Halsey as Tlaib feels like the same thing. SNL knows its core audience and wants street cred for being #woke but is not interested in putting in any of the work. And I don't feel they ever will be while Lorne is in charge.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Yup.  Lorne can do a lot, but refuses to.  The only thing preventing him from doing more, is himself.   I'm tired of the excuses.

[possibilities]

Lorne responded to pressure a few years ago, and finally hired more women, including Leslie Jones (who I love). But I don't know who will have the leverage to convince him to continue to expand the cast beyond where he's already taken it. He was willing to let the entire Obama administration go by without anyone to play Michelle. He does not care about this issue at all. So we have to find ways to pressure him.

And the pressure needs to include diversity for WRITERS, too.

[Hanahope]

I love that the current cast has enough people for the Dem Trumps skit.

[rmontro]

On 2/11/2019 at 2:41 PM, BoogieBurns said:

Bronzing someone of mixed race isn't the same as blackface. Sorry.

Also, playing a real person (shining in a good light) for a sketch is far different than wearing shoe polish on your face for a costume party (mocking the race). Cecily has played a ton of different races with bronzer on, because she reads as ethnically ambiguous. 

Everything isn't blackface.

So if Cecily wore brown makeup to play a black person, would that be okay?  Bronzer?

Also, SNL has women playing men, and men playing women (to mock their gender attributes).

I'm just wondering where the line is.  And just for context, I recall John Cleese being asked about blackface, and he said we're all too sensitive, and everything should be fair game when it comes to comedy (paraphrasing).  Of course, he's famous for saying at Graham Chapman's funeral "Good riddance, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries" (everyone laughed).  Again, where's the line?

[ombelico]

On 2/11/2019 at 11:02 AM, peeayebee said:

I still think it's actually someone else. This is going to bug me.

Lara Flynn Boyle?

[Not4Me]

On 2/10/2019 at 4:47 PM, SHD said:

I thought Halsey was straight up lip syncing on the second song or she was very minimally contributing to a recorded track. I could see the outline already down of what she was painting but it was still an interesting presentation of the song.

Yeah, that was clearly a lip sync. I wasn’t impressed.