Saturday Night Live (SNL) 2011-2012 Season thread

When this season started there was no reason to expect it to be as great as it was, the best in recent memory. There was no big turnover in either the cast or writing staff, but for some reason everything clicked. The percentage of successful skits and episodes rose dramatically, like a baseball player on steroids. If there was a breakout star this year it was Bobby Moynihan, who stole the show almost every time he was onscreen.

Looking ahead they obviously have some retooling to do....glad to see Fred Arminsen likely staying to help hold things together. Although he's been with the show a long time, Fred relies less on recurring characters than most and brings something fresh almost every week.

Finally, with "30 Rock" ending next season, it'll be interesting to see what Tina Fey will do next....IMO she would be the perfect person to replace Lorne and guide SNL into the future...

 

Just saw Mick doing the Last Time with Arcade Fire and thought it was incredibly great. I hate to admit it but it was the best version I have ever heard and I worship at the feet of Keith and the Stones!!!!

 

That was a great performance. I also enjoyed the last song with Jeff Beck, "Tea Party". Very good!

The Global Canada Toronto feed on my TELUS satellite did not censor the song, also refered to on-line as "Presential Election Blues".

Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck on 'SNL': Some NBC stations censor song

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/05/mick-jagger-jeff-beck-nbc-snl-song-.html

A bad copy of the song is still up on YouTube. I think the bleeped word was $h*t. It's around the 40 second mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ySODio4fmg

 

First time in a very long time that I've watched the musical guest. Mick with Arcade fire was a great performance. He still has it. He was great with Foo Fighters also. My 1 year old daughter rocked and danced along to his singing of "It's only rock and roll". I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of her bringing rock singers home Very cool of him to sing a third song with Jeff Beck. Any special reason why he did this? He could have stayed with the two spots. Was Jeff in the area maybe?

The rest of the show was fun also. Mick was good as were the bits with Kristen. But did anyone see Jason Sudakis's face in the end skit? I don't think he is back and I read on his face that he was choked he didn't get an acknowledgement or send off also. He also was in only one other skit I believe and that is rare. He didn't sing along at the end and there was no smile on his face. Maybe it's something else...

 

I'm guessing Sudakis will be back thru the election as Romney...

 

What? They've at times relied too heavily on Kristen, but you can't possibly really think this.

 

That's a very good idea. Tina Fey may be the only person who could replace him. Whether she'd want the gig is another matter.

 

Totally agree. She's been distracted since then and its been palpable.



Finally, with "30 Rock" ending next season, it'll be interesting to see what Tina Fey will do next....IMO she would be the perfect person to replace Lorne and guide SNL into the future...[/quote]

Thought about the same thing. The show was really good when she was head writer, got dumbed down as soon as she left.

 

Kudos to Mick Jagger - he was terrific as a host. The musical performances were also great and I really enjoyed the exchange with Jeff Beck. I don’t care if the song was political, as you can barely understand Mick’s vocals anyways (as usual).

The”Secret World” sketch was a great performance by Mick and Wiig’s line “hurts like hellfire - you do this to get the part. Oh wait there’s a smuge on the ‘C’. It’s ‘Canal’, not ‘anal” was hilarious. Wiig’s send off was a nice touch and well deserved.

 

I wrote this in another thread, but I think it's worth repeating ...

best line of the show [occurred in the karaoke skit]: "'Moves like Jagger' is the best Rolling Stones song ever!"

 

Great show. Sad to see Kristen go. I believe that she and Will Ferrell are the best SNL ever had. I felt that Jason was emotional and looked kind of shell shocked because of her leaving.

 

She was one of the best, for sure.

Now future generations can complain that SNL isn't as good as it used to be when Kristen Wiig was on it.

 

Mick did okay, I didn't feel he was fantastic. And if Jason and Andy are leaving, why weren't they "honored?" Puzzling.

Will miss new shows til next season!

 

I took the digital short with Chris as sort of a send off for Andy. The "Lazy Sunday" short he did years ago with Chris put him and the digital short name on the map, so that was a good final one.

I don't know about Jason. As others have suggested, I think he'll be doing some Romney appearances in the fall even if he isn't officially part of the cast. So we haven't seen the last of him. Unless they want Tarran to try and take over the bit.

 

With all that's going on in the world today.... I though the opening to May 19th SNL, witha Lawrence Welk skit, was one of the Weakest Openings I have ever witnessed on that show. Really SNL.... that's your opening ? ? ?

What were they thinking ? ?

I have yet to see SNL parody the current POTUS that is in any way remotely as humorous as previous SNL parodys of Carter or Regan or Clinton or Bush.

TOO inside... the folks over at 30 Rock.

 

They do political skits 90% of the time in the open, so give 'em a break.

"What were they thinking?" is that their signature star for the last several years was saying goodbye and they wanted to showcase her as much as possible.

 

If anything, it was pretty interesting to see Mick Jagger in a bunch of unique haircuts! Who knew that you could have a full, brown-colored head of hair at nearly 70?

 

Just watched this week's ep. The tribute to Wiig was very moving. Also glad to see one final episode of Secret Word: both Kristen and Mick were very good in that.

 

I can't remember when I enjoyed an episode of SNL for the entire 90 minutes as much as I enjoyed last night's show. I'm not a big fan of Mick Jagger, he was awesome. I feel like a lot of seasons the last episode just sort of fades away with a bunch of sketches that never made the cut for earlier episodes in the season, last night I thought all the sketches were solid. Usually I dislike when the musical guest does 3 songs because I'd rather have then give comedy more time, last night all 3 songs rocked.

That was a lot of fun!

 

I thought Mick was pretty darn good. Very naturally funny.

Sad to see Kristen leave but they can't all stay forever.

 

Yes, he was the opposite of Eli Manning: a natural in front of the camera. I think they underutilized Mick a bit: he was very funny on Secret Word, but the Mick Jagger parody skit was the kind of thing that is usually done for a lame host, not someone like Mick who can actually act and be funny.

 

Yes, but the short was just a short, not the same thing to me. If I were the guys I'd be a bit taken aback. And then go off and have some drinks.

 

SNL lost its stones politically years ago. It's not the current POTUS, the last guy didn't get much of a real parody (after a certain point) despite the fact of them having 5 people playing him. The writers aren't geared that way, they'd rather do infinite old-timey game show skits that aren't that funny.

 

Yes, too bad Mick referred to her as Tristen, not once but twice.

 

Yes, but I thought it was her name in the skit, I don't think it was a mistake on his part.

Did you guys really think Mick did that great? I thought he was sort of stiff and flat, and even his musical appearances weren't all that for me. . . . Ah well. Looking forward to next season!