A few quick comments on last Saturday’s “Saturday Night Live”, which was hosted by the inimitable Betty White (thanks to a Facebook campaign) and featuring musical guest Jay-Z.
First of all, you’ve got to give it up for a woman of Betty White’s age (88) to do ANYTHING even remotely resembling hosting a 90 minute show. She appeared in the vast majority of the sketches, and I’ve gotta say that although I only watched the second half of the show, she was quite funny. She did better as the host than guests 1/4 her age (paging Taylor Swift and Ludacris, among others). I’ve complained before about the writing on “SNL”, which has totally become lowest-common-denominator, but I did like the NPR “muffin” sketch as well as the “Scared Straight” sketch with Kenan Thompson. I also (for the first time in God knows how long) REALLY enjoyed “Weekend Update”, which was not only due to Betty’s appearance, but also to the appearances by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Betty did stumble over her lines quite a bit (and was obviously reading off of cue cards in some sketches), but she deserves a pass, being an old lady and all.
What this really proves is that “SNL” these days is only as tolerable as the guest host is. I shouldn’t complain too much about the writing quality. Even though the writing will never match the show’s late Seventies heyday, I’ll take Will Forte and Andy Samberg over Adam Sandler and David Spade. However, there’s a spark when the host is someone with actual acting talent and comedic talent (Justin Timberlake, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin) as opposed to someone who’s obviously just there because they’re a big name…
…which segues right into the show’s musical performer-Jay-Z. Look. I love Jay-Z. However, his performances (which were ostensibly to promote the upcoming Greatest Hits package he has coming in June) were weak. I remember seeing Jigga onstage at the MTV Awards over a decade ago (at the time, I wasn’t as big a fan as I am now) and wondering who in their right mind would pay money to see this guy perform. He had no stage presence. He’s gotten better in the years since…hell, he’s made the only hip-hop “Unplugged” show worth listening to or watching…but last Saturday’s performance was a regression. He had no fire-it was like he took his cool way too seriously and forgot that he was supposed to entertain the audience.
I do wish Universal would hurry up and release Mr. Hudson’s album over here, though. I’m tired of waiting and I’m not going to pay thirty bucks for an import.
Anyhow, you can check out the entire SNL episode on NBC.com. The link below shows you Betty White’s monologue.
6 comments
fanbaseblog says:
May 10, 2010
Jay was pretty darn good in concert when I saw him a couple of months ago. He doesn’t do much other than rap, yet he had the crowd in his hand. Part of his appeal is also that’s just a good dude. He thanks his audience, gives them what they want, has a set for the hardcore fans and for the casual fans and just seems to know what he’s doing. Now for one or two songs, I can definitely see what you’re talking about.
I still have SNL on my DVR. I’ll check back after I see him. What do we know about this hits package by the way?
blerdwords says:
May 10, 2010
Nada. I was sort of glancing around the internet last week and I noticed that it was either on Jay-Z’s site or the Roc Nation site. Can’t imagine it having anything that I don’t already have, though.
fanbaseblog says:
May 11, 2010
You’d expect that they’d at least release at least one “new” song as a way to get some buzz out.
And he better hope he’s going against weak competition when he drops too, or it’ll break his number one streak.
blerdwords says:
May 11, 2010
I don’t know about that though. Jay stans are a special breed. I would have absolutely NO use for a Jay hits collection, but I’d probably buy it anyway.
Carl says:
May 12, 2010
Only hip-hop unplugged worth watching???
You forgetting Uncle L?
blerdwords says:
May 12, 2010
Carlos…was that an entire performance or just one song? I didn’t have MTV back then. All I remember is him singing “Mama Said Knock You Out” with those big-ass deodorant cakes under his arms.