SNL Review: Jeremy Piven/AFI

Written by Cameron Archer
Published January 22, 2007

When it comes to Saturday Night Live, the comments from Blogcritics readers are following a certain formula. There's at least one negative comment towards SNL in general every week I review the show, usually words to the effect of "Why is this show still on the air?" or "Where's the edge?"

Many of the same commenters appear with varying frequency - Lono, Al Barger, Baronius. Some people think I'm being too hard on SNL. Others wonder why anyone would still bother with the show.

As for the show's recent "memes" (as the e-kids e-say), "Dick in a Box" and Jake Gyllenhaal's monologue are mentioned with the most frequency. The Steve Jobs' segment of last week's Weekend Update is also doing well. The "please kill SNL" comments are always frequent. It's always nice to see the comments about SNL being as predictable as the show itself. Don't ever e-change, e-people.

Hardball with Chris Matthews - Different than the standard Hardball three-guests-and-Matthews-takes-the-piss-out-of-'em format as he and Hillary Clinton engage in mutual ass-kissing (not that kind, you sick freaks.) Better than usual for a cold opening and for Hardball, as it's about time this long-running sketch embraced a different format. Features censored swearing, which makes one wonder why Saturday Night Live doesn't hightail it to one of NBC's cable channels if it plans to rely more heavily on profanity.

Monologue - Jeremy Piven chats with a random audience member, talks about sexual relations with dolphins and cribs lines from the Alec Baldwin playbook. Good monologue, and I don't think the audience member was a plant from SNL's staff. SNL should really do this more. I wonder if the audience member got to keep the puppy and iPod Piven "gave" her.

Urigro - Urigro controls the quality of a man's piss. This wasn't much different from Dr. Porkenheimer's Boner Juice from a couple of seasons ago - remember Rob Riggle? Instead of "meatier" erections, the selling point here is "frothier, headier" urinations. This set the lowbrow tone for the night.

"NFL on CBS" - Andy Samberg plays a kid from the Make-A-Wish Foundation doing play-by-play. He says "That'll move the chain" a lot. Lazy ending, too - Samberg's character claims he has ADD, which in his case actually stands for "Automatic Death Disease." I wonder how many scripts were rejected this week so this could air as a leadoff sketch. Geez.

TV Funhouse: Fun with Real Audio and Stuff - President Bush appears in the form of a cartoon chipmunk to bolster his sagging approval ratings, with imitators following suit (Tony Danza, The Sopranos etc.) Not that bad for a "Fun with Real Audio and Stuff" (how long has the term "and Stuff" been appended to the title?) segment, making a point about how lame trends and memes can get.

At the same time, this could have been better - Dubya farting in a shallow pool? Couldn't the TV Funhouse animators have just digitally placed a Christmas box near Bush's groin and killed two birds with one stone? I'm just saying, is all.

The First Person in the History of the World to Dance - Caveman hears a techno song, starts dancing and whips out glow sticks at one point. Pure surrealism, but much better than some of the sketches that followed it.

MacGruber #1 - A MacGyver parody in 2007, with a running joke about a dog turd? Where do the writers come up with half this shi...ahh, now I understand.

Two A-Holes at an Adoption Agency - Finally, the A-Holes are recognized by the audience. Not the worst A-Holes sketch, not the best. The running joke of one of the A-Holes pointing out that something "looks like a rabbit" was recognized by Wiig's character pointing to a picture of a rabbit. Finally, that running joke can be put to bed.

MacGruber #2 - Uh...the title sequence was faithful to MacGyver's? This MacGruber segment centred around pubes.

AFI Perform "Love Like Winter" - I should point out that I don't hate AFI for their music - it's all right, but I'm not crazy about their brand of punk. Their fanbase and look, though? Could it be any more obvious that they're milking this 'dark' phase for all it's worth? I remember when AFI stood for "Asking For It" and they were on Nitro Records playing hardcore, for chrissake!

Weekend Update - Highlights here were Darrell Hammond's turn as Rich Little being critical of George W. Bush through Johnny Carson, Pee-Wee Herman, and Dan Rather impersonations and the first appearance of "Really!?! With Seth and Amy." This week they pick apart Michael Vick's trying to bring marijuana onto a plane. Typical of this season's Weekend Updates, like I haven't been saying this for weeks.

"Common feat. The Blizzard Man" - Yes, Common did appear in this sketch. I'm honestly surprised The Blizzard Man was made a recurring character - it's just Samberg doing dorky versions of gangsta rap lyrics. Sadly, this sketch didn't stray from the Blizzard Man formula established in the Ludacris episode and was rather predictable. Sketches like this only work once, since all follow-ups are going to be rehashes by design. SNL is starting to rely way too heavily on Samberg.

MacGruber #3 - Bum sperm. MACGRUBER!

"Save a Unicorn Foundation" - "dave nj" from the Saturday-Night-Live.com forum summed this up more succinctly than I ever could - this did feel like "Magic Fish Town Meeting" and "Mr. Belvedere" wadded together.

The sketch was still lame, though. What's so amazing about a rhinoceros mutant, even if it is magic?

SNL Digital Short: Nurse Nancy - Scott Garbaciak seemingly plays every character in the film. Not bad, not good. Some people have already taken this as a slam on Eddie Murphy, but this seemed broader in scope. It reminded me of a running joke from a South Park episode, although "Rob Schneider is The Stapler/A Carrot" was a much better execution of said joke.

SNL's Soundboard Crashes During Performance of "Miss Murder" - Did you know there are people that think this live snafu was an attempt to sabotage AFI? Why don't you overreactive fans just tie that in with the Zapruder film? Using their logic, SNL also tried to sabotage Common.

Lansford Brothers & Associates, Hangmen-At-Law - Another 12:50 lawyer sketch and it ties in with the botched Iraqi hangings? Meh.

Michael DiBari 1954-2007

Goodnights - Piven shills Smokin' Aces, thanks AFI & Common and talks about da Bears as the closing credits fail to appear. That must be an attempt by SNL to sabotage Piven! Damn them!

In closing, I'm actually surprised Piven didn't mention Ellen or Cupid. He did mention Entourage, but I still owe myself ten bucks.