To Everyone In Iran:

In honor of the Iranian election (if you can call it that), one of my all time favorite Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts: Iran So Far Away

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Heroes + SNL: The Lonely Heroes

Came across a great video mashup featuring footage from "Heroes" and the song "Jizz In My Pants" from "Saturday Night Live".

Great footage, decent syncing and funny idea. Even better is the fact that I found this video via Greg Grunberg's (aka Heroes mind reader Matt Parkman) twitter feed.

Video after the jump.

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Casey Wilson On The Internet

Unlike some at TVSquad, I am a fan of Saturday Night Live's Casey Wilson. She's funny, smart (or seemingly so - never met her, of course), beautiful and plays some pretty great parts - Chasing The Train with Zac Efron was a funny sketch.

In a new funnyordie video Casey boldly tackles the comments on her imdb page. Everyone in the world, famous or not, has probably googled themselves at some point. The difference is, if you're famous you're probably gonna find a lot of...not nice stuff about you.

The video shows Casey reading comments one by one and reacting in various ways, from laughing them off to actually being...kinda hurt. Someone claiming she makes them want to break their TV seems to hit her particularly hard and the video seems as if it'll end on a down note until a certain someone who may or may not like eating couches pops in for a cameo.

SNL's Casey Wilson Reads Internet Comments from Casey Wilson

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Saturday Night Live 05-09-09 Plus Short Films Special

As I predicted in this previous post, last weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live was, in my opinion, the best of the season. Justin Timberlake tore it up throughout the episode. Many of the skits were song based, which is fine when it comes to someone like Timberlake, but my favorite sketch featured Timberlake and Andy Samberg's ancestors coming to America by boat. I can't even tell you how much and how loudly I laughed at that piece.



The other big winner of the night, no surprise, was The Digital Short. Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake have done a number of these together and each seems to get more famous than the last. This week they kicked things up a notch with special guests Patricia Clarkson and Susan Sarandon. Motherlover:



Also, set your DVR's, kids, for a special two hour episode of SNL airing May 17th at 9pm. The special, hosted by Andy Samberg, will be dedicated to SNL Shorts. Mr. Bill, Dick In A Box, Iran So Far Away, Natalie Portman Rapping - I'm sure they'll all be there.

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Is SNL Taking Over NBC?

At times it may seem as if Saturday Night Live is taking over NBC. I worry that all the attention and praise heaped upon SNL this last season may stretch fans a little thin. The show is as strong as ever, thankfully, and it's alum are doing great things but it seems like NBC may be on a mission to fill what little non-Jay Leno airtime they have with SNL projects. That's placing a lot of pressure and hopes on only two franchises.

With the election last year Weekend Update Thursday editions seemed like a necessity. Their ratings, as well as those for the multiple SNL specials (Presidential Bash, 90's Pop Culture), were a good thing for both the network and the franchise and proved that the show is doing just as well as at anytime in it's history.

Now, with SNL television and movie off-shoots, Lorne Michaels has a huge list of winners and losers. In the movies, for each winner there seem to be multiple losers. For every Wayne's World, there's a Cone Heads (which bombed as a sitcom first, then later as a movie), Night At The Roxy and Stuart Saves His Family. Granted, televison's 30 Rock is a stellar show with heaps of critical praise and awards and Jimmy Fallon's new Late Night has been doing good but for every winner Lorne Michaels produces for the televison network there's also a loser like The Tracy Morgan Show.


I don't think the new Weekend Update Thursday Edition will do badly, quite the opposite actually, as word has leaked that both Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will make appearances, but let's hope they stop there.

In the 2009 season NBC will be broadcasting five shows featuring SNL alum. They are 30 Rock, featuring Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Parks And Recreation with Amy Poehler, Community starring Chevy Chase and Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday Edition. That's a lot of airtime for one group, no matter how brilliant they are.

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Timberlake and Ferrell To Finish SNL Season 34

With Saturday Night Live's 34th season coming to a close Lorne Michaels has really set up what could appear to be two season finale's - a double bang, if you will.

As I pointed out in a previous post, the next new episode of Saturday Night Live is not until May 9th. The wait sucks but Justin Timberlake's hosting and that's a pretty great thing. Throughout this last season he's made numerous unannounced appearances and I gotta say, they were all pretty damn funny. He's able to take on pretty much any persona writers throw at him and doesn't mind looking like an ass. Best part is, though, he's not just another star stepping on stage for the applause - he's there for the laughs.

The New York Observer may have said it first, but I was certainly thinking it: JT should be on the SNL cast. In my opinon, Andy Samberg is probably one of the funniest of the current rep actors and he and Justin work really well together, as evidenced by their Cathy sketch on Weekend Update, Dick In A Box. et al. Darrell Hammond may be more versatile but Samberg's had some great material this season and I think JT and Samberg teaming up on another Digital Video Short is bound to provide plenty of laughs.

And now it's been announced that the following week's season finale will be hosted by SNL alumnus Will Ferrell. While Ferrell sometimes crosses the line between funny and just silly, he's usually fantastic and his energy can't be beat. He often makes me think of a non-overweight Chris Farley.

Should be a funny two weeks.

Check out Saturday Night Live on iTunes.

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Delayed Blogging Saturday Night Live 04-11-09

0:00 - No laughing. You usually hear the audience chuckling when NBC first cuts to the live feed from whatever commercials were running.

0:05 - I can't help from forming a big smile each time I hear them yell "Live from New York..."

0:05 - I can't help but get jealous when they introduce Fred Armisen. He's dating (engaged?") to Elisabeth Moss from The West Wing
/Mad Men. Anyone else notice that the current rep actors are all men except Kristen Wiig? I'm surprised Casey Wilson hasn't been promoted yet.

0:06 - Having never seen any of the High School Musicals I'm unfamiliar with Zac Efron (save for his How To Kill A Party video that's been floating around), but if Justin Timberlake has taught us anything, boy band types can actually be funny.

0:09 - Not sure if it was nationally broadcast, but I thought the Chili's P.J. Bland's commercial was a sketch (anyone have a link?).

0:17 - Kinda getting sick of this 4th hour of The Today Show sketch, but this one was funnier than usual. Zac Efron has a not so lame voice.

0:18 - Bummed to see that it'll be over a month before a new episode of SNL, but excited for a Justin Timberlake hosted night.

0:26 - Not a fan of Gilli. She's like a disturbed Little Orphan Annie.

0:28 - Who knew you could get a pretty funny sketch out of junk mail? The sexually transmitted disease bit was hilarious. Jason Sudeikis is great at playing corporate scum. He seems so natural at playing a jerk. He kinda reminds me of Andy Bernard from The Office.

0:30 - Gerbils pounding Jager bombs!

0:31 - Two good sketches in a row. I love it when this show rolls so well.

0:36 - Yeah Yeah Yeahsare a great band and I've loved all their previous releases but I have to admit I was disappointed on first listen to their new album It's Blitz! due to the lack of guitar (though New York and Pitchfork do not agree). Glad to see they aren't lacking right now. Admittedly, though, I do remember this song having the most guitar of the whole album, so we'll see what they play later.

0:41 - Some people seem to think Weekend Update is lacking without Amy Poehler, but I think Seth Meyers has been holding his own.

0:42 - Didn't get the Elijiah(sp?) joke. Anyone take Jewish studies?

0:43 - Don't think I've seen The Gay Couple From New Jersey since The Sopranos went off the air.

0:45 - The Gay Couple From New Jersey agree with my statement about Amy Poehler!

0:48 - I didn't think the B*tchplease.com Blogger sketch was funny the first time around last month (and not because I'm a blogger), but I have to admit "Zac What the F is Wrong" was kinda funny.

0:55 - Couple of good laugh out loud jokes.

1:03 - Truth telling about High School Musical was funny but I'm still waiting for a Digital Video Short (usually the highlight of the show) - I'm guessing Andy Samberg and Zac Efron could be really funny together.

1:09 - I publicly announce my crush on Casey Wilson, even if she runs freakishly fast and eats live fish.

1:15 - Fred Armisen's crazy mother character, Norita(sp?), would be a good recurring role. I can see her in a lot of future sketches. I bet he had fun beating on a tween idol. Who hasn't dreamt of such fun?

1:17 - I'm sure Best of Amy Poehler will have some great laughs.

1:20 - I was right! I knew that was the beginning to Maps, but I thought "No way they'd played that!" REALLY excited YYY's are playing one of my favorite songs of theirs....But also really confused. This song was three or so releases ago. I wonder why they didn't play another track off their new album. Could it be the lack of guitars? But then why not something off their previous album, the guitar heavy Show Your Bones (Gold Lion, maybe)? Of all the times I've seen them performing this song, though, I gotta say it's much better with the usual light show. Good song, just used to seeing it flashy and glam-y and rose-y. The sound wasn't that great, either, though SNL is known for that.

1:25 - Is that the Growing Pains set? Creepy sketch.

1:35 - No Digital Short! But still a good episode.

Saturday Night Live on iTunes. Yeah Yeah Yeahs on iTunes..




     
 

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