Saturday Night Live Episode Recap

I'll admit to dreading this week's Saturday Night Live a little, because the one-two combination of quirky "it" girl Zooey Deschanel as host and quirky "it" YouTube musical act Karmin promised to be more than my quirk threshold (which, I'll admit, is shockingly low) could take. Once I got past that, though, I had a good time with this episode, mostly because it packed in a lot of sketches and showcased some really good writing.

While Deschanel could best be described as "fine" (she really needed the teleprompter for every single thing, even introducing the musical act), she wasn't really central to the episode's success. Most of the funny stuff happened around her, not because of her, but it never felt like the show was overcompensating or that she was a weak performer. It just happened to be a really good week for the ensemble: no one from the cast dominated too much, and a lot of different performers got to show off some funny stuff. This was an episode that demonstrated just how funny and talented the cast they've got on the show right now is, even when the show doesn't always make it easy to appreciate that.

Sketch Highlights

• "Cold Open: Mitt Romney" - After stretching themselves and doing something different and inspired with last week's political cold open, it was back to business as usual this week. Jason Sudekis did his lazy Mitt Romney impression, and all of the jokes were pretty obvious. I still like the direction that the show is taking the "character," but I wish they would commit more. The barking dog was a nice touch, and I liked the way Sudekis adapted and improvised a little with the "Live from New York!" opening, but probably just because I've seen so many episodes of the show that I was happy to see them mix things up a little, even if it was just a reaction to an external force. (Watch the "Cold Open: Mitt Romney" video)

• "Zooey Deschanel Monologue" - I got a little nervous during Deschanel's monologue, not just because I'm tired of hosts singing their opening bits, but because Deschanel's song, in particular, tapped into so much of what I was dreading in her hosting gig. So many of her performing "quirks" were on display here, and I was positive this is what we were in store for during the entire show. Thankfully, I was wrong. The song was fine; pleasant enough, and not all that funny but certainly not offensive. Plus, it was short. Another week, I'd be congratulating a piece like this for putting some of the variety back in the show, but I'm not feeling that generous about this song. I didn't hate it. Good enough! (Watch the "Zooey Deschanel Monologue" video)
• "Piers Morgan Tonight" - The real winner is thins sketch is the Piers Morgan, who has now been deemed famous enough to be parodied on Saturday Night Live. I'm not sure if Taran Killam's impression was accurate enough to be recognizable to those who are only peripherally aware of the talk show host, but it did have enough silly little quirks (quirks being the theme of this week's show) to be funny enough on its own, whether or not you know a thing about Morgan. Even a week later, most of the jokes about the halftime show felt too after-the-fact, probably because every media outlet spent the 48 hours post-Super Bowl doing nothing but dissecting it. There were a few good jokes about fake outrage, our national pastime, and Kristen Wiig's Madonna is very observant of a few specific verbal tics (Wiig had a pretty good week overall, not too overexposed and funny in most stuff...until we get to "Crab Legs"...), but it all felt a little haphazard. Deschanel's bit involving an angry mom felt a little shoehorned in as a way of giving her something to do, something that would come up again throughout the night. (Watch the "Piers Morgan Tonight" video
• "French Dance" - I was a fan of this when it first debuted late in an episode last season, but never thought it would be repeated several times. It's not the kind of sketch that the show can keep doing, but for now it remains silly and fun, has a lot of energy and is good at carrying big gags. This one even had what might have been my biggest laugh of the night: the behind-the-sheet Taran Killam reveal. That's the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back to this sketch. I have no idea what The Artist star Jean Dujardin was doing in the sketch, except that he's French and on a campaign to win Best Actor the same way politicians show up on SNL when they're running for office. Plus, he's relevant right now, and the show likes to think it has its finger on the pulse of what's relevant (see: Lana Del Rey and Karmin. Better yet, don't). I didn't mind him showing up, though, because he was silly and entertaining to watch. Plus, he was still around during the "goodnights," which wins some cool points in my book. I'm looking at you, Nicolas Cage. (Watch the "French Dance" video)
• "Clint Eastwood Chrysler Ad" - There were three of these commercials parodying Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl spot jammed pretty close together in the episode, and I'm only including the second one here because it was my favorite. I liked the Little Caeser's misdirect and the way Bill Hader said "pizza, pizza." Otherwise, these were just fine, made a little better because Bill Hader is great. (Watch the "Clint Eastwod Chrysler Ad" video)
• "Newspaper" - I said earlier that Wiig had a good week on the show, and this was definitely her best sketch. We've seen her do the '30s actress dozens of times, but never this well -- she's really, really good at delivering that rapid-fire dialogue without so much as a single stumble. Jason Sudekis, it turns out, is pretty bad at it, which was unfortunate; every time he had to banter with Wiig, the sketch lost a little momentum. Deschanel's role in the piece was funny enough, and I liked her attempts at coming up with nonsense to play along. I wish the punchline had been stronger -- or that it had existed at all -- but maybe I'm just being too picky. There was a funny idea here, good writing and (mostly) good performances. Let's not get greedy by asking for the moon, see? (Watch the "Newspaper" video)
• "Bein' Quirky with Zooey Deschanel" - I was so back and forth on this sketch. I like that it nailed down some of the things that bug me about Deschanel's whole persona, but I sometimes wished its targets would be less obvious. There's a whole 'quirky girl' movement in pop culture right now (see: Karmin. Better yet, don't), and the best the show could offer was Mary Kate Olson and Bjork. To be fair, both Deschanel and Wiig's performances were pretty funny (I especially liked MKO's giant Starbucks cup), and a lot of the writing was really strong. The sketch had two of my favorite jokes of the night: "Let's make our eyes big and listen to Mama Cass" and, my absolute favorite, "I haven't seen you since we both tried to pick the same wildflower." Outstanding. I wish Abby Elliott's impression of Deschanel was much, much better, because she rarely gets a showcase like this and I'm still pulling for her. A lot of obvious stuff overall, but it totally won me over. (Watch the "Bein' Quirky" video)
• "Update: Get in the Cage" - While I'm not the biggest fan of Andy Samberg's Nicolas Cage (even though it's pretty good), I am a HUGE fan of the actual Nicolas Cage. His appearance more than picked up the slack. I also like that the SNL version of Cage has very much become his own character, much the same way that Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery quickly stopped resembling the actual guy and just became its own weird thing. The show should embrace more of that, so, in that respect, Samberg's Cage works. What made me laugh here, though, was just the absolute stoneface that the real Cage had on for this entire bit. That, and his timing on "Everything's on fire," (coming, as it did, at the end of a big laugh from the audience on 8H) was absolutely perfect. It doesn't always work when the real celebrities confront their sketch counterparts, but this is Nic Cage we're talking about. Of course it worked. (Watch the "Get in the Cage" video)
• "Verizon Ad" - Sometimes, all a sketch needs to work is a simple premise and a decent punchline. This one had both. Nothing revolutionary, of course; I don't think it articulated anything new or profound about our collective frustration with cell phone technology, but it was funny enough. It actually reminded me a little of the kind of stuff Fred Armisen has been doing on Portlandia, which should be taken as a compliment. (Watch the "Verizon Ad" video)
• "Patio Party" - My rule for having a really good episode of Saturday Night Live is always: at least one really good sketch (which this show had), a couple of decent sketches (again, check) and no terrible sketches. "Patio Party" came awfully close to being a terrible sketch. Actually, it might still be. The longer it went on, the more the endgame (or lack thereof) became clear, the more uncomfortable I got watching it, like watching a train derail and being powerless to stop it. I sort of understand what they were going for, but it didn't translate -- mostly, this one just died. I died, too, but just a little. (Watch the "Patio Party" video)
• "Technology Hump" - Another repeat sketch that's never been my favorite, but I have to applaud just how seriously it always approaches the ridiculous premise. There's never too much winking or acknowledgement of its stupidity (there was one line this week that came dangerously close, but course corrected), and the "Isn't this cool and fun?" vibe that Samberg and his co-hosts always bring are is probably the exact right approach. (Watch the "Technology Hump" video)
• "Victorian Ladies" - It's somewhat fitting that an episode seemingly devoted to silliness (like this one was) should finally just throw in the towel and decide to end with a sketch about people making faces. That's all "Victorian Ladies" was, and most of the faces weren't very funny. There was actually something a little desperate about some of the mugging going on, but it wasn't without any charm. Jay Pharoah's one-toothed character was a standout, and some of Wiig and Deschanel's dialogue was funny if you paid attention to it at all. That wasn't always easy with all of the face-making going on.

• Original Air Date: 2/11/12
• Host: Zooey Deschanel
• Musical Guest: Karmin