Saturday Night Live, April 4, 2009 -Seth Rogan / Phoenix: Sketch-by-Sketch Review

Fred Armisen's impersonation of Barack Obama still sucks. The premise of the sketch is that Obama is going to go company by company to decide who will succeed and who will not, shutting down those that can't compete. Perhaps this would be funny if their was some humorous comments on the companies he mentions, but there aren't. The only funny category is men's magazines, in which Obama thanks President Clinton for his help on choosing the winner. And for those who watched, toughbastard.org , the website Obama mentions for further details, does link to SNL. This premise could have worked if the writing about each company was sharp, but it wasn't.

MONOLOGUE -- SETH ROGAN -- 2

Seth does a monologue about his mall cop movie Observe and Report, and takes questions from the audience, which surround mistaking the movie for Paul Blart: Mall Cop and the impact that his weight loss has had on others. No laughs here.

THE FAST AND THE BI-CURIOUS -- 9

A great play on the gay overtones of super macho movies with Seth Rogan and Andy Samberg playing two characters in a Fast and The Furious type movie. Very funny.

SAVE THE FUNNIES -- 6

This is a variation on the Save the Musical sketch from several weeks back. Dick Tracy, the Archies, Hagar the Horrible, Garfield and Jim, and others are there to try to save the comics page. Some funny stuff when Keenan Thompson is mistaken for a character from the Boondocks and Jump Start, when actually he writes the bridge column. And the guy who writes the jumbles tells Dick Tracy "Kcuf You" and then, "Jumble it." Andy Samberg returns doing his annoying Cathy character. Peppermint Patty and Marcie from Peanuts are seen making out. And the Far Side comic must be seen to be believed. So how do they save it? With a lame ending about Sudoku. This had some funny moments but could have been MUCH funnier.

REVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI -- 3

Bill Hader does what must be the 100th episode of this occasionally amusing retread of the old SNL standby of the foreign talk show. It's always the same joke, with the celebrity not speaking Italian. This one has a few amusing bits, with Seth Rogan's movies all having his character named Bearman when translated to Italian, but it is really more of the same. Boring.

SNL DIGITAL SHORT -- LIKE A BOSS -- 1

Another Andy Samberg rap, this one about Corporate America. Andy runs through a bunch of things that happen to him (with "Like a Boss" being changed in the background) that include many bleeped out jokes, some vomit, poop, oral sex and beastiality jokes. I'm sure fans of Samberg will find this one just hysterical. To me it's just lazy potty humor without any laughs.

EMBARASSING CALLS -- 8

Three guys at a bar get calls from their girlfriends in which they act completely different than themselves. Not too funny until they start receiving calls from people who are in witness protection, speak like Yoda and Gizmo, and talk Scottish. Funniest thing tonight.

PHOENIX -- LISZTOMANIA -- 7

A nice little bit of power pop, but looks about as live as an Ashley Simpson performance.

WEEKEND UPDATE -- 6

Seth does a very funny bit on the exchange of an iPod and a picture frame between Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth. Jason Sudeikis does his Rod Blagojevich impersonation, which is pretty funny, if only the writing was. Keenan's French Comedian, Jean K Jean makes an appearance, which is no funnier than the other 84 times he's been trotted out. Kristen Wiig does a Madonna that sounds a bit too much like her many similar characters. She's there to comment about getting a baby. Angelina Jolie shows up to talk about getting her own baby, and they fight it out. This could have been much funnier if they weren't reading cue cards. Funny line: "My Russian baby is a baby within a baby within a baby."

Another WU that could use a few more topical jokes. Seth is doing okay on his own, but another anchor might keep him from stepping on some of his funny lines.

Funny Line: "After Michelle Obama was photographed wearing clothes from J.Crew, the store has been selling out of the clothes she was seen wearing. Now if someone could just get her to drive a Chrysler."

GREASE PRESENTATION -- 7

Seth Rogan is called on the carpet because he has badly screwed up his part of the big presentation, the audio, replacing the necessary audio with "You're the One That I Want" from Grease. This shouldn't be funny, but the exaggerated looks on his coworker's faces while the song plays make the sketch. Stupid ending, but then, where could they go with it?

MILESTONE HIGH -- 3

A fictional 1987 sitcom spoof. A nerd tutors the school basketball star, with horrible results. Time filler.

CLANCY T BACHLERATT AND JACKIE SNAD SING EASTER SONGS ABOUT SPACESHIPS, TODDLERS, MODEL T CARS AND JARS OF BEER -- 4

Two country artists played by Will Forte and Kristen Wiig sing stupid songs with odd lyrics. Why is it SNL tries so hard to be out there that they forget to be funny. There are any number of cheesy commercials they could parody, but instead they do crap like this. Wiig and Forte put a lot of effort into this, but it still sucks.

PHOENIX -- 7

Another catchy power pop song.

MUPPET BUS -- 6

The Muppets are driving and are involved in a hit and run. A cop, played by Keenan Thompson playing Nipsey Russell shows up and things get weird. The cast plays the Muppets well, but they could have done so much more with this.

OVERALL -- 6

There were laughs here tonight, but once again SNL took a star that is capable and phoned in the writing. While there were a couple of funny sketches tonight, the episode was mostly retreads of old premises with the laughs few and far between. Another bad episode in a season that's crashing hard.