Saturday Night Live (SNL) -- Sketch by Sketch Review -- 12/5/09 -- Blake Lively and Rihanna

Wow, something funny and unexpected as Fred Armisen's lame impersonation of Obama gets interrupted by Bobby Moynihan and Kristen Wiig playing the White House Party Crashers. The Secret Service comes to take them away and soon gets swept up in the picture taking. The ending is classic. Funny stuff and probably the best opening this year.

MONOLOGUE -- BLAKE LIVELY -- 2

Blake talks about the Muppets and most of the cast comes on dressed as Muppets to sing a Christmas carol. That's it. Yawn.

CARTER AND SONS BBQ -- 1

An incredibly stupid commercial from earlier in the season gets no better tonight.

VAGISIL BOWLING OPEN -- 6

A rewrite of a previous skit about women playing pool with Will Forte and Jason Sudekis playing bowling commentators. The bowling tournament is sponsored by another feminine hygiene product, Vagisil. Will Forte is hilarious as the clueless color commentator who keeps talking about Vagisil when he should be talking about the game, but the sketch is definitely a case of diminishing returns.

SITUATION ROOM -- TIGER WOODS -- 7

Tiger Woods (played by Kenan) gives a press conference where he admits to multiple transgressions, raising the ire of his wife, played by Blake Lively. After the press conference he "accidentally fell down a flight of stairs and threw himself through a plate glass window." He gives another press conference and something worse happens, again, and again. The end is very funny. But I wonder if musical guest Rihanna is laughing at domestic violence jokes.

DIGITAL SHORT -- RIHANNA AND SHY RONNIE -- 6

Rihanna plays herself with Andy Samburg as Shy Ronnie, who can't sing because he's too shy. Funny, but not one of the best Digital Shorts.

GOSSIP GIRL STATEN ISLAND -- 6

Okay, I've never Gossip Girl, but I guess the joke is turning it into a trashy blue collar show. Amusing for what it is.

KICKSPIT UNDERGROUND ROCK FESTIVAL -- 10

One of the amazing things about college was how some of my classmates seemed to love bands simply because they were "hardcore" or "underground", whatever that means. This hilarious commercial for the most hardcore underground festival ever tests your street cred with mud-eating contests, live viruses dropped from helicopters, and some of the crudest named bands ever. Then it ups the silly a notch. Great commercial.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE -- RIHANNA -- 6

Rihanna appears to be singing here, and it's certainly more melodic than most of what passes for R&B these days, but the instruments are too hot in the mix, and Rihanna's performance is less than inspiring.

WEEKEND UPDATE -- 8

Seth is actually bringing the funny tonight with several funny jokes about Tiger Woods and Golf. Kenan Thompson shows up to do a lame imitation of Bill Cosby. Abby Elliot shows up to do a great impersonation of an out of her mind Brittany Murphy. One of the better Weekend Updates this year.

Best lines: "Last weekend Tiger Woods hit a tree and a bunch of ladies fell out."
"Police seized a shipment of ecstasy pills that were shaped like President Obama's face. The drug is characterized by a brief powerful high followed by a long slow comedown."MAMA SHOPPING -- 3

Blake Lively and Kenan Thompson play a daughter and mother shopping and taking offense to everything said by the store clerk and fellow shoppers. Blake does as much as she can with it, but this sketch just isn't that funny, and is another recurring bit that would best be left in the past.

UPS -- 6

Bill Hader plays man in a lady wig in this spoof of UPS commercials. Brief and amusing.

LATE NIGHT WITH CHRIS HANSEN -- 7

Bill Hader does a great Chris Hansen, who uses his same "To Catch a Predator" style to talk to his guests, who include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keanu Reeves, and Cher. Each guest gets treated to an accusing interview by Hansen and then gets tackled by security. Funny.

UPS -- 7

Another short commercial with lady wig man. Amusing.

RIHANNA -- HARD -- 5

Another uninspiring performance, but at least she uses real music.

NASA -- 2

Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte play an astronaut candidate and a NASA supervisor, both using strange southern accents. Forte is impossible to understand, which makes the sketch more annoying than funny. The entire sketch seems to be a setup for Jason to spit up in Forte's hand. Like too many sketches in the past few years, it is crude without being funny. It's worth noting that Blake Lively stays in character when the entire thing gets disgusting, which is admirable.

OVERALL -- 7

Blake Lively didn't embarrass herself and showed great confidence in the sketches tonight. Nothing compared to the very funny opening, but this is certainly one of the better episodes this season with several funny commercial parodies, a good Weekend Update, and some amusing sketches.