■ TV review
SNL crew disappoints in 31st seasons debut episode
BY AMY UCHTY
PULSE EDITOR
The 31st season of "Saturday
Night Live" premiered Saturday with
"The 40 Year Old Virgin's" Steve Carell
as host and controversial rapper
Kanye West as the musical guest. I
had been looking forward to this pre
miere since I had first heard Carell
was hosting, and I was determined to
not be let down. But alas, I was.
Things started out promising, with
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the typical presidential mockery that
"SNL" is so famous for. President
George W. Bush has given writers
plenty of material to work with lately
and Will Forte did a decent impres
sion, although he's no Will Ferrell. It
was also wonderful seeing Darrell
Hammond's face first thing — after
all, this is his 10th year with "SNL,"
which is the longest any cast mem
ber has stuck around (Tim Meadows
is a close second with nine and a
half seasons). But as they went on
into the credits, I was disappointed
to see that nothing had changed.
And by that, I don't mean the cast—
I was happy that everyone I really
like returned this season. But they
didn't even change the look of the
credits or even the shots of the play
ers. It was exactly the same as the
2004-05 season, except that Kenan
Thompson and Finesse Mitchell
were now repertory players and
there were three new featured play
ers: Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Ja
son Sudeikis. The only cast member
to leave was Rob Riggle, who was re
portedly fired after just one season.
Carell's monologue was decent. I
enjoy hosts that don't have to de
pend on the rest of the cast to make
them funny, such as Paris Hilton, and
Carell really held his own with a
song about being one of the "golden
boys" of comedic movies. He
claimed he was in company of Fer
rell, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller (who
were all in "Anchorman: The Legend
of Ron Burgundy" with Carell), as
well as Owen Wilson, since the "40
Year Old Virgin" had made more than
$100 million atthe box office. He also
mentioned that he had actually audi
tioned for a role on "SNL," but the
part went to the "other guy," who
happened to be Ferrell. Although I
love Carell, Lome Michaels definite
ly chose the right guy.
The next sketch worth mentioning
was the "Anderson Cooper 360 De
grees" spoof about famous people
helping to rebuild after Hurricane
Katrina because it gave a way for
cast members to make fun of
celebrities, which I love. Everyone
did really great impressions: Fred
Armisen as Tony Danza, Amy
Poehler as Sharon Stone, Hader as
Al Pacino, Carell as Ray Romano,
Horatio Sanz as Aaron Neville and
Hammond as Geraldo Rivera. I was
really worried when I saw Hader
was going to be Pacino, but I under
estimated him, hard core. He was
dead on and it was easily one of the
best impressions I have ever seen.
After a few more forgettable skits,
the arguably offensive "Girls Gone
Wild: Katrina Victims" skit came on.
Sure, it wasn't the horrible natural
disasterthat"SNL" was making fun
of, but rather the lame "Girls Gone
Wild" videos. It just — well, it just
wasn'tfunny. It was tasteless and
tacky and plain unfunny.
Thankfully, the best part of the
evening came next, when Mike My
ers had a small cameo with West.
Too bad it was so short and West's
performance was so long. But West
did well with a DJ and a full orches
tra behind him. I noticed how nice it
was to see a rapper up on stage
without a huge posse of hangers-on
going, "Uh huh, yeah" or repeating
the last line West rapped.
"Weekend Update" was quite a
disappointment for me. Although my
boyfriend thinks there was no one
better to fill in Tina Fey's shoes than
Sanz, he just didn't dp it for me. He
looked really uncomfortable in his
suit and tie and he was so nervous in
the beginning, a lot of his jokes fell
flat. I think Seth Meyers would have
been a much funnier choice.
Another beef I have with
SNL, page 9
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