Ladies of SNL

Saturday Night Live has been around for 35 years now, and many brilliant comedians have gotten their start as a cast member on the show. These are just a few of the women that we admire and look up that have been on SNL, and just to make things a bit simpler, I have chosen women from the last couple of years. So, this is in no way a post about the only funny women on SNL, but some of the latest ones.

• Tina Fey

 

Tina, Tina, Tina, where do I begin? Anybody who has ever come near me knows that I worship the ground that this lady walks on. And I have to focus on the fact that this is an SNL post, not a 30 Rock post or a Mean Girls post (BUT THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU TINA). One of her most famous parts on SNL is probably when she plays Sarah Palin. She not only looks just like her, but she really gets that hateful essence that Palin possesses as well. She was the first female head writer on SNL, and she was brilliant as an anchor on Weekend Update. Hers is the career I covet, and for her sake I hope I never meet her because I would probably try to fuse our bodies together.

Bitch IS the new black.

• Kristen Wiig

Ms. Wiig is the expert on awkward characters. One of the most annoying ones is Penelope, who has to have the last word and has to out do anybody. If she wrote this post, she would have written it yesterday, on a computer that hasn’t even been built yet and she would have done it from a virtual spaceship in cyber space. One of the most disturbing characters she plays is Junice (a favorite), where she has a massive forehead and baby doll hands. Baby. Doll. Hands. She is also brilliant as Jackie Snadd, half of the country duo that sing about Model-T cars, spaceships, jars of beer and toddlers (<— all the things that make America great).

Whatever her part is, she rocks it with a straight face, but the socially awkward/borderline/possibly from outer space characters are her forté, and we thank her for that.

• Amy Poehler

 

I love the Dakota Fanning impression that Ms. Poehler does, the skits are built around a talk show that Fanning has where she is über smart, and she keeps talking down to her “regular guy” camera man, Reggie. Another child part she gets is as Rick’s step daughter, which could be the most annoying yet endearing kid in the world. Sometimes, she does an entire sketch on one leg – jealous?  And like Ms.Fey, she was a great anchor for Weekend Update. I love her Sarah Palin rap, she IS an animal and also, bigger than you. Her Hillary is also spot on, she balances the controlled politeness with suppressed, homicidal rage. Well done.

Also, I wish I could go to dinner parties chez Poehler & Arnett. That would be epic.

• Maya Rudolph

I think my absolute favorite character that Ms. Rudolph played was as the singer for “Gays in Space”. According to Marple, that is probably what Lady Gaga will turn into in about 10 years, and I have to agree.  She is also brilliant in the sketches where she plays a super trendy art lady, with impossible furniture. Her Donatella Versace impression is ridiculously funny, she does the blissfully unaware of her own weirdness thing really well, and brings it out in other sketches (that mostly depict Europeans).

• Jenny Slate

On her first show, let a “fuck” slip, and then recovered right away. I was impressed, and also became a fan of that particular sketch. I too want to wear cut off jeans and throw ashtrays everywhere. Her character Tina Tina Chenouse sells improved items, such as door bells and car horns featuring her own voice instead of the usual beep (why not, she’s an entrepreneur, whaaa…?). She is also in a lot of digital shorts, my favorite is as Samberg’s girlfriend who tries to convince him that his Dad is actually a phone.

So, in conclusion: SNL women of comedy show? Yes please.

Cranky Cat vs. Dicks on TV

Cranky Cat is Marple’s cat and she thinks that most things are stupid. She glared at us untill we let her have her own post, where she glares and rolls her eyes at things that she finds exceptionally stupid. The nice thing about cranky cat is that she doesn’t have to go into details to justify why she’s pissed off, because she’s just a cat on the internet.

Cranky Cat rolls her eyes at the self-pitying men who made the Dodge commercial that aired during the Superbowl, although it has a brilliant reply.

Cranky Cat also lets out an exasperated sigh because of Manswers.

What is going on? How do commercials like the one for Dodge get on the air? Who let that one go through without saying “Hey wait a minute, maybe this will alienate and condescend AN ENTIRE GENDER”. There cannot be an entire chain of command consisting only of men, there must have been some women involved in this decision. Maybe the didn’t find it offensive, maybe they did but realized that the ad would gather a lot of steam off of angry women of teh internets. Is that ok? Is it a betrayal? I don’t know, mainly because I’m one of the angry women cats.

There are just too many dicks on TV (and sometimes, on the dancefloor).

My role models would take out restraining orders on me if they weren’t fictional

I love TV. I love a lot of things, but TV is pretty high up on my love list. So it’s no surprise that I have been so influenced by certain characters. Do I take it too far? Perhaps. But everybody needs role models, and mine may be fictional but at least they don’t include Paris Hilton.

• Clarissa, from Clarissa Explains it All

Oh Clarissa! I can’t decide if I drew more inspiration from your outfits, your attitude or your scrunchies. Well ok, if I’m going to be perfectly honest here, I was a huge scrunchie wearer. I had a million. I particularly miss the rainbow colored one…*sigh*.

• Veronica, from Veronica Mars

No one was more upset than I was when they cancelled this show. I mean. The cliffhanger? What the hell. How could you? I…I am going to interrupt myself here because trust me, I can go on all damn day. I think I love Veronica so much because I could relate to her so much. Not the girl detective part (I’m a horrible detective), but the outcast without actually being an outcast because you do have friends but you hate those stupid cheerleaders anyway with their flippy hair. Yes, I know, boo hoo. Thankfully, high school ends and life goes on. But I wish that I could have had V Mars’ devil-may-care attitude and been much less sulky.

• Liz, from 30 Rock

Although Liz is a bit older than I am right now, I still really really really want to be her. Not wear her skin as a suit be her (not yet, at least) but get to the place where she is. A place where you do what you love (it’s merely coincidental that I want her job) and yes, you are stressed to the point of scalp pain but you aren’t stuck in a dead-end job with equally high stress levels. Is that too much to ask for? Maybe, but not too much to demand.

On a final note, if I were animated, I would want to be Dr.Girlfriend from The Venture Bros. She really is in charge.

5 Reasons to Love Portia de Rossi

1) She played Lindsay Bluth in Arrested Development

Her chicken dance is my favorite.

2) Her apology for marrying Ellen DeGeneres

Brilliant. That poor dog.

3) She was in a little movie called Scream 2

LOOK AT THOSE EYEBROWS!

4) She is clearly in charge.

Nell Porter on Ally Mcbeal was way more interesting than most of the women on that show, especially Ally.
And Veronica Palmer from Better Off Ted will kick your ass if she needs to, or if she has nothing better to do.

5)She’s fuckin Austrailian

Like you need another reason.

SNL Digital Shorts

Saturday Night Live has been doing shorts and prerecorded segments since the early years of the show, but the last couple of years of Digital Shorts have really revitalized SNL. They are often more bizarre and experimental than the rest of the sketches, but the genius lies in the extra, often very weird, mile they go to take it one step further. Where most people would end a sketch, these guys will add one more part, which not only sets them apart from the rest of the show, but makes these sketches so unique and wonderful.

Some of my favorite shorts are musical ones, mainly because the participants look so serious and always keep a straight face. One of the most famous ones is, of course, Dick in a Box with Mr. Justin Timberlake and Mr. Andy Samberg. But there are more that parody typical, high budget cheesy music videos, such as Iran So Far, featuring Maroon 5’s Mr. Adam Levine. Hilarious pun aside, Sambergs serious musician face mirrors Mr. Levine’s, which I suspect is his genuine face, but good for Mr. Levine for being a good sport about it. Another great music video that features super serious face is Natalie Portman’s gangsta rap. Hey, she never claimed she was a role model.

People Getting Punched Before Eating

This sketch is pretty simple, Samberg runs around and punches people right before the eat, finding loads of different variations of the same joke. The signature twist is about 2 minutes in, where one of his victims turns out to be a zombie. Naturally, there is zombie dancing and it ends on a very inspirational note, “Believe in your dreams”.

I Threw it on the Ground

Although my favorite part of this clip is when Samberg declares that his dad isn’t a phone (I love a good pun, the lamer the better), but the extra part of this is when Samberg attacks Ryan Reynolds and Elijah Wood during their dinner. They go on to taze him in the butthole, and I have never seen a more terrifying performance by Mr.Wood. Those are crazy eyes. Crazy fucking eyes.

Shy Ronnie

I’m going to ignore Rihanna’s pants, because that isn’t what this post is about (although we did discuss them and concluded that she is just rubbing her hotness in our faces by wearing MC Hammer’s rejects, more pants post here). The twist in this one is when Shy Ronnie breaks out into some proper rapping as soon as Rihanna leaves, even though the sketch could have wrapped up when she walks out because he pissed himself (oh no).

These sketches could so easily have left these extra bits out and still been well met by audiences and gone crazy on the internet, but not at the same level as they are now. Personally, I can watch these over and over again (and I do). I can see how they can be dismissed as silly slapstick by some, but I love the commitment and the dedication to being just a little bit stranger than required. So thank you, SNL, for being weirder than you have to be.

South Park: One Episode includes So Much to Love

I love South Park. I really do. I can spend hours on end watching back to back episodes. I knew my man was a keeper when he spent an entire day on my couch with me watching it with me. I will refer to it much too much in most conversations (it seems to be annoying, but I can’t see why). But why do I love it so? So many reasons, really. Here are a few, using the episode Whale Whores as an example.

I feel that Whale Whores is an excellent example of everything great in South Park. There is so much packed into 20 something minutes without being overwhelming. The main point of the episode is the whale and dolphin slaughter that is happening in Japan. This is presented by simultaneously mocking the reality tv show Whale Wars, a show that I have personally never seen so I can’t really comment on it, but it seems pretty bad. The documentary The Cove which also deals with dolphinocide came out around the same time as well. Current affairs & issues: check.

On this note, SP also comments on reality tv and the horrendous poor quality of almost all some of it. Stan ends up as a cast member of Whale Wars and points out that these people are frauds, takes matters into his own hands, blows up a Japanese whaling ship (obviously) and takes over as captain because the previous one was harpooned (again, obviously). This boosts ratings, the obvious comment being that we like it when bad things happen to other people. Nothing new, but still. Reality TV criticism: check.

Cartman performs one of the best versions of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” that I have heard (the only thing that made it better was Mr.Walken) in the middle of the episode when Stan walks in on the rest of the boys playing Rock Band. The best part of this, however, is that Cartman sings this during a montage of Stan taking over the Wale Wars ship. It shouldn’t fit in, but it does. Cartman’s rendition is just so dramatic and urgent. Like whales, who are known for being dramatic and urgent (may or may not be a fact). Lady Fuckin Gaga: check.

When the Japanese president is confronted by Stan and his crew, he gives them the finger and exclaims “Fuck you, whare! Fuck you, dorphin!”. Then he explains to them that the reason that they kill whales and dolphins is because they believe that Hiroshima was bombed by a whale and a dolphin They even have evidence, in the form of a doctored photo, which in it’s defense, was really quite realistic. To solve this, the boys give them a new photo which shows the “actual” culprits, a cow and a chicken. The Japanese realize their mistake and go after cows and chickens, which nobody has a problem with. This is where one of the key issues lie, the Americans are ok with this because they can understand it because they do it themselves. And even though the only thing that has changed in the slaughter is the victim, the problem is still “solved”. Oh hypocrisy. You classy thing, you. History AND American hypocrisy AND racial slurs: check AND check AND supercheck.

SP managed to include current affairs, controversial issues such as racism & animal rights, Lady Gaga and our obsession with her, history and how inaccurate it can be, America’s own hypocrisy and the quality of reality tv, while still keeping their usual standard of vulgar and violent humor in quite a short period of time. I think my personal favorite is when the Japanese slaughter the football team, the Miami Dolphins. But that’s just because I really enjoy puns. Bravo, SP, and thank you for keeping me so very amused and entertained, no matter what state I’m in.

Sing us out, Cartman.