I watched the episode from either last week or 2 weeks ago and it was terribad.

I want Human Giant back.

Obama is really had to impersonate and Armisen isn't that bad. Guys like Bush and Clinton have easy things people can cling to, but Obama only has his cadence and pacing, which is a lot harder to replicate.

Armisen does a great Governor Patterson, Barney Frank, Joy Behar and his Boy George was very solid as well (those are just a few I remember off the top of my head).

Also fwiw, does anyone think Gilly is funny anymore. I think it has been terrible for awhile now. Funny the first time but after that it has gotten a little worn out but I see that special tonight is called "A Very Gilly Christmas" and therefore will obviously feature yet another worn out skit.

Phill, I'm sure you'll appreciate that MVP, Great Khali, and Chris Jericho will all have roles in it!

blake lively as elin was too hot.

Gilly wasn't even in the same zip code as funny the first time, so consider me nonplussed that they keep bringing the character back every other week and now have her hosting a Christmas special.

Forte makes it a lot funnier than it is

Armisen's Obama is so bad and jarring that I can't even watch this show anymore. It's painful how bad it is. He plays it down instead of up. Come on dude, you're supposed to make a caricature out of it, CAN YOU DIG IT?!?

watching the xmas special is depressing. granted, it's a best of, but the original (or somewhere back then) cast made me laugh just singing Walking in a Winter Wonderland without any stupid gimmicks. ditto with many of the other older sketches from older casts. makes me realize how bad it is today.

seems like they were handed a genie in a bottle last year with the election so unfunny writers and cast members got a unwarranted bump. now, with no easy targets like the election/palin et al, their true colors are showing.

Are you kidding me? Those sketches last night sucked.

The Horatio song was awesome (Didn't see that coming at all), and It's A Wonderful Life may have been if I had seen that movie before. Schweaty Balls is pretty meh after seeing it a lot, same goes for the Haunekah (sp) Song and Martha Stewart's Topless Christmas.

I didn't start recording til it was 20 minutes in, maybe I missed some good stuff at the beginning.

So you think the skits in last night's show were bad but that the show is good now? It's interesting how much people have different senses of humor I guess.

I thought the Christmas show was great with the older stuff, but none of the Gilly skits were funny at all. I literally did not laugh or even chuckle a single time when that was on. Like M2d, I found it a bit depressing because it was a reminder that the show used to be good and while even then most skits weren't very good there was always some solid material in a few with one or two really funny sketches.

I also think the point that Palin gave them a free pass is a good one. They actually did great with it and Tina Fey was really good but they were gift wrapped that material.

I was going to agree with the op until I saw the Gilly stuff last night. Was that even suppose to be humor?

Otherwise the show is alot better then acouple years ago. Watching Kenan makes me regret that I never got into Kenan and Kel when it was on.

Yeah, im not sure who keeps giving the green light to bringing the Gilly material back time after time. Whoever it is is working way above his/her glass ceiling.

The first time I saw Gilly I thought it was some sort of anti-comedy bit like Andy Kaufman reading The Great Gatsby

Show still sucks. Digital Shorts are decent but still pretty hit or miss.

um wtf at the kissing family this time around, Franco just want to make out with a bunch of dudes on live television?

Charles Barkley is hostin the next SNL on Jan 9th. I'm sure a bunch of us are fans of his. He's always great on TNT talking NBA, but who knows how good he'll be reading stuff SNL provides for him.

Bump. Thought the Barkley episode was pretty good, especially the MacGruber sketch.

Good timing. I thought about bumping the thread to post about the episode this week. I thought Barkley would be funny but it was still pretty weak overall. I also thought the Macgruber skits were funny and I liked the one about his swing but the rest of the show ranged from awful (the KW skit where she's the really weird bimbo) to just plain not funny (all of weekend update, the Keenan skit where he's talking to the kids in juve) to meh (the two with Samberg). Unfortunately that's pretty good for the show these days.

The movie quotes game show skit was the best one that I saw, missed the golf one though. Think I saw everything else. Thought MacGruber was pretty average.

I just want to say I really, really hate Kristin Wiig, I've barely watched SNL in the past few years but every time I catch a sketch it has that hack making some wacky face like she's overdosing on caffeine. Just awful.

i liked her at first but quickly realized she plays the same character over and over. i have the Barkley episode PVR'd but most of the episodes I turn off halfway through because they aren't funny. =(

I only look forward to the digital shorts

Agree with you about Kristen Wiig, although it seems like they are toning down how much air time she gets now.

The bimbo scene was actually funny until she did her unattractive things.


Really the biggest problem with this season (I am enjoying it about 50% of the time) is that they are basically rehashing what worked last year. The show needs some edgier writers who are willing to push some boundries instead of just doing the silly stuff they are doing now.

Really like the McGruber skits from last weekend, and the Alicia Keys digital short was pretty funny too.

I thought Barkley was pretty bad as a host. In fact, I don't understand why they have people host who aren't actors. Obviously its just so people tune in, but most of the hosts bomb when they aren't actors.

I still think Kristen Wiig is funny, just not in the context of this show. She's just the most visible manifestation of SNL's core problem, which is that EVERYTHING is recurring at this point. While there's always been some of that, I feel that a) there is more of it now, and b) it's no longer just recurring characters but pretty much entirely recurring skits.

It is an interesting question why I think Wiig is funny if I don't think she's funny on this show. I feel that way about a lot of these people - tons of talent, they're just stuck performing braindead routines.

Wiig was pretty funny in Knocked Up. I think she could be a pretty funny comedic actress on shows with better writing.