Saturday Night Live -- Sketch by Sketch Review -- Rosario Dawson with Musical Guest Fleet Foxes -- 1/17/08

Kristen Wiig and Darrell Hammond both have the facial tics and mannerisms of Diane Sawyer and Dick Cheney down pat. The sketch consists of Diane Sawyer asking a series of increasingly inane questions (including ones about Brian's Song, sea turtles, and Old Yeller) about Dick Cheney's regrets, to which he keeps saying he does not regret any of it. While it is funny in spots, it would have been funnier to see Dick denying he regrets any of it building to the reserved anchor exploding at him. Rather weak opening.

Monologue -- Rosario Dawson -- 3

Fred Armisen makes his appearance as one of his stereotypical foreign characters to bring down what little comedy is in the monologue tonight. Something tells me this episode's on its way to major suckitude. Terrible.

North American Savings -- 2

A loan company that takes no risks prides itself on its rejection rates. The only laugh in this fake commercial is the guy taking a deposit and sticking it under a mattress.

Da Learnin' Train -- 2

A high concept sketch to help exploit the fact that Rosario Dawson is a minority. "Da Learnin' Train" premise is a hip hop educational show where the lessons are full of misspellings. Is it possible for SNL to bring on a non-white guest and not do a bunch of sketches that aren't stereotypes?

Gitmo Going Out of Business Sale -- 9

Funny going out of business ad for Gitmo with all instruments of torture going cheap, cheap, cheap.

Aladdin and Jasmine Sing -- 9

Two Disney characters sing about their miserable marriage. Pretty funny, as Aladdin says he "wishes he was dead", but he already used his wishes. When she complains about the Genie (complaining about his Robin Williams-like persona), he asks her why one of their kids is blue. Great sketch.

Digital Short -- Close Friends -- 1

Surely another Lonely Island production in which Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen have a singer commenting on their every action. The sketch ends with extended rear male nudity and a nonsensical tagline that didn't make me laugh anymore than what led up to it. Dreadful.

Gilley -- 6

Kristen Wiig does another variation on one of her mugging, funny talking characters, this time playing a playful child's character. Gilley turns out to be an evil child, committing an increasingly heinous series of actions against her classmates. If the pacing had been more crisp and the sketch had escalated better, this could have been much funnier. Still, not as bad as some of Wiig's other characters.

Fleet Foxes -- 7

Sounds a bit like a 70's band. Very mellow. What, were no annoying rappers available this week?

Weekend Update -- 8

Bernie Madoff and Kristin Wiig's Judy Grimes ("Just Kidding") character make an appearance. Wiig does a wonderfully long riff that is actually funny for a change. Andy Samberg makes a funny appearance as a goose that was in the "Cluster Flock" that was hit by the plane that went down in the Hudson River. He says it was just like Top Gun, "A plane went down and Goose died." The news jokes weren't that great, but the appearances were funny, especially the goose.

Best line: (To a picture of Bush) "FOUR MORE DAYS! FOUR MORE DAYS!"

La Policia Mexicana -- 6

Hispanic guest, hispanic sketch. Why not just write something funny for the guests to be in, not something tuned to their ethnic heritage? The sketch is funny, as the policemen question a suspect using basic elementary school Spanish.

The View -- 5

Kristen Wiig does a wonderful Elisabeth Hasselbeck, capturing her horrid voice and mannerisms. Rosario Dawson gets to play Selma Hayek. But the rest of the sketch seemed like filler.

Fleet Foxes Second Song -- 7

Another nice, mellow song.

Good Excuse -- 2

A talk show that helps its guests formulate a good excuse to get out of a jam. The sketch is a lousy excuse to fill time.

OVERALL -- 5

Tonight's episode had some funny moments, but overall was a huge letdown after the Neil Patrick Harris episode. SNL needs to keep bringing in people who can do comedy well and who aren't afraid to make fools of themselves. Rosario Dawson was given little to do here except be Hispanic, a problem SNL has with most of their non-white guests.