The only most funny sketch on last night's SNL

A parody of the quirky characters of Oscar season.

Okay, I'm Caving.

Enjoy this latest piece of idiocy/brilliance from the lonely island heartthrob trio... who, incidentally, need to QUIT that sinking unfunny corporate ship at SNL PRONTO and go totally viral.

Scarlett Johansen Hosting SNL.

For the first fifteen minutes, I couldn't figure out whether it was a repeat or not because literally the sketches were all the same shitty-ass crap from the last time she hosted. There's the racist sketch where she plays the ghetto girl and Kenan is her mom, and the sexist/homophobic sketch where Kristen Whig has the hots for Scarlett. So lame.
Quoth M. Twist:

What if there was a news anchor who likes women, and is ALSO a woman? what a brilliant concept. I know right. She's a Girl and she also likes girls.

Wow.
SNL has jumped the shark very, very, vigorously. And after a viewing of the clever action parody Hot Fuzz this evening, the comedown has been very, very, trying.

Kandukondain Kandukondain--Sense and Sensibility, Bollywood style

Ahh, Jane Austen. Thou'rt so infintely adaptable. Much like your fore-daddy, Bill Shakespeare, you can transcend time place and space* and be moved to a Beverly Hills high school, Scarsdale, or in this case, Madras, India. Yes, Mizz JA's tales can be plopped anywhere where there's a social code or a class system and still function. I guess that means that basically, she works everywhere. Even in supposedly status-free hippie communes (can you imagine Emma being a know-it all flower child? I can.)

Anyhow, always in search of the perfect modern adaptation of a classic work, and hoping for a repeat of the wondrous experience that is and forever will be Bride and Prejudice, we rented Kandukondain Kandukondain, the Bollywood adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. The movie stars the stunning Aishwarya Rai and Tabu, of Bride and Prej and The Namesake respectively (so in other words, the only two Bollywood actresses I know) as the Marianne and Elinor Dashwood characters.

The verdict? In short, it was a lovely film and the actors and actresses were completely fantastic, but it couldn't hold up to Ang Lee's adaptation of the novel. The plot rambled too much, and it lacked those social back-and-forths that give Austen her oomph. I know it's a different form of movie, but Austen doesn't get its zest from plot and plot alone. The tension wasn't amped up as much as it could have been. The best part of the movie was the sisters-- they played off each other perfectly and summoned the spirits of their literary inspirations.

Austen-purism aside, there's something so wonderful and vital about those Bollywood music scenes where the couples wear flowy clothing and dance freely, in front of beautiful natural backdrops and across the turrets and papapets of castles and ruins. It's something no US director could do unironically. At the risk of projecting my Western understanding onto the form, those scenes hearken back to what Romantic with a capital R is all about. Shelley would be proud. As would Kate Bush.


*[Here was a woman about the year 18oo writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. That was how Shakespeare wrote, I thought, looking at Antony and Cleopatra; and when people compare Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they may mean that the minds of both had consumed all impediments; and for that reason we do not know Jane Austen and we do not know Shakespeare, and for that reason Jane Austen pervades every word that she wrote, and so does Shakespeare.--Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own]

SNL getting dangerously close to dead to me

This episode (hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) is so unbelievably lame that I don't even know how to begin critiquing it.
So I'll just say...Happy St. Patrick's day... celebrating the man who gave the Irish their perverse sexual guilt! Huzzah.

I'm Just Sayin's All...

Back in college, there was one album upon which my group of friends, whom I'll now identify by the music they liked freshman year, could all agree. Yes, "Weezer/Rufus Wainwright" girl, "Ani DiFranco/Dar Williams" girl, ""Common/D'angelo girl" "Reggae" girl, and me, "Bob Dylan/Bob Dylan" girl, all gathered around with our Carlo Rossi jug wine and incense and hookah (which I later broke dragging down to an art studio so another roommate could draw its portrait--but that's another story) and turned on JUSTIFIED, the hip-hoppening Justin Timberlake album featuring such gems as the ubiquitous "Cry Me a River" and the underappreciated "Seniorita."
"He's totally the next Michael Jackson!" said "Common/D'angelo" girl, who had purchased the album for our pleasure. She was right. And how we loved it, each exiting from our little corner of self-satisfied indie-dom for an album's length to appreciate the future King of Pop.

Similary, I recently blogged about how re-obsessed with JT I had been since the hype surrounding Futuresex/Lovesounds reached its frenzy--naw I'm lying. Since he was so funny on SNL. And who wasn't smitten by D*ck in a Box?. But today the New York Times highlights just how far he's gone bringing sexy back--into hipsterdom.

Saith Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy:

"You can go to hipster clubs, and they like it. I think at first they liked him ironically, but now they just like him.”

But the Quote of the Day comes from Tony Corasdale "a punk promoter" and singer for "an anarchist hardocre band" in Philly:

“Believe it or not,” he added, “Justin Timberlake has some major fans in the anarchist punk community.”

TRUE WORDS. And since I already heard Hot 97 offering Timberlake tickets, this means he's effectively crossed over into indie and hip-hop, basically making him the SUPREME LEADER OF EVERYONE. So there, seventeen years olds whom I tutor who make fun of me unceasingly for my JT obsession. Take that kiddies. The New York Times done proved you wrong.

Wait... hold on a second.... I think I sense some BREAKING NEWS not unrelated to our topic.
Oh, shit! Could it be true? Are soulful british pop phenoms Coldplay actually making an album with Timbaland, the hottest producer this side of anyone (and the genius behind FutureSex/LoveSounds)? Looks like it might be. What intrepid reportage.

Justin Timberlake is funnier than the entire SNL cast put together.

We tuned in to SNL last night to see JT perform some bomb tracks off of Futuresex/Lovesounds, but instead ended up shrieking with laughter as Justin worked like a pro, showing unabashed enthusiasm and willingness to make fun of himself.
It's so interesting to watch an episode like this one or the Hugh Laurie one where the hosts are able play characters instead of "straight people" and are willing to dress in drag or other silly costumes and let go of celeb self-consciousness, and compare the results with the way the show is when there's a dull host (Matthew Fox or Paris Hilton). I think everything from the skits to weekend update is affected.

Highlights:

*Opening monologue paid tribute to the chipmunks Christmas song... resuscitating a gem.

*Justin dancing it up as a cup-o-soup to the tune of salt-n-pepa "shoop" and "whoop there it is."

*The "!@#$ck in a box" digital short, found here joins the ranks of the Natalie Portman rap and Lazy Sunday as hilarious viral shyte!

*The Barry Gibb Talk Show-- one of my favorite SNL skits ever because of the catchy recurring tune.

*The gay couple from New Joisey returning on Weekend Update.

*Seth Myers: Barack Obama appeared in New Hampshire last week. When he heard about it, President Bush asked "did we catch him?"

Also, JT's new album is so freakin' funky. And he is so awesome. I hate people who hate on him just because he's pop (i.e., the borough of Williamsburg, the staff at Kim's Video, etc...) They don't know to appreciate the real thing.

Hugh Laurie hosts SNL and classes up the joint.. while Borat does the opposite.

Live from New York, home of the JEW, it's Saturday night! -Borat

At long last, an SNL with an edge of cleverness, thanks to wonderful, brilliant, "droll" Hugh Laurie, also known as House on House, and Mr. Palmer in Sense and Sensibility.

The show's usual drivelly crap was undercut both by Laurie's effete charm and the cold opening monologue from self-promoting Borat, who made so many crude sexual references in three minutes, I hope the NBC executives peed their pants.

Laurie was charming in his monologue, and as another blogger pointed out, he actually didn't say "We have a great show tonight!" before introducing Beck, and (aww) he called the audience "sweetcheeks". He also one-upped the SNL cast in the accent department, showing off American, Irish, and Oxbridge British with an ease that trumped all their bluster.

Best moments of the night:

*Borat imitating the Wayne's World "Schwing!" during the opening scene.

*A very apropos "Funhouse" which actually mauled Republican scare tactics
.
*Laurie, while acting as the Queen's advance man, dropping his glasses and saying "don't worry, they're only an affectation" and being so pleased with himself that he almost broke character.

*Musical guest Beck's puppets/dinner table percussion shenanigans

*Howard Dean challenging Ken Mehlman to a fight on Hardball.

*The very old-school Dracula vs. Frankenstein sketch towards the end... seemed like something Chase and Martin might do. Surprisingly literate/narrative-driven.

*Hugh Laurie's AMAZING AMAZING protest song in which the chorus of "all we have to do is..." was always followed with garble. It was REALLY REALLY subtle and literate for Saturday Night Live... and whilst perhaps intended merely as a parody of protest songs, I felt it to be a commentary on the horrible state of current events and the seeming futility of doing anything about it. Sorkin would love to have something like this on his fictional Studio Shitty.

*Borat miming oral sex on Laurie during closing credits... cut to commercial! quick!