Continue reading “I can’t stop watching this ‘Don’t Worry, Darling’ trainwreck, y’all.”
Tag: tracy morgan
How’s that Oscar’s fan-favorite thing going? Exactly as well as you thought it would.
Kieran Culkin lifts up ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Kieran Culkin
November 5, 2021
Thirty years ago, Kieran Culkin began his acting career in a small role in his brother Macaulay’s breakout hit, Home Alone, playing one of the McCallister cousins. (And he was pretty cute):
In fact, Kieran’s career has long played out in the shadow of his older brother’s, despite being a very talented young actor in his own right. Go watch Igby Goes Down when you get the chance — he’ll blow you away.
It wasn’t until Kieran’s bitingly sharp role as Roman Roy on HBO’s brilliant Succession that audiences began really appreciating Kieran as the talent that he is.
It’s tempting to pull the ol’ “I liked him before he became cool” card with Kieran Culkin, but the truth is I’m just happy he’s finally getting the recognition he’s deserved for literally decades now. And in terms of hosting Saturday Night Live, he was just as nimble and funny as you would expect, able to play the straight man or the comedic focus with equal ease. All in all, another solid performance from baby brother.
Continue reading “Kieran Culkin lifts up ‘Saturday Night Live’”
So who won Halloween?
I’m going to get to TV stuff in a minute, but first I yell at you about … ~gestures vaguely~ … all of this.
Relive Eddie Murphy’s almost-perfect ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Eddie Murphy & Lizzo
December 22, 2019
I’m going to try to avoid overthinking this episode because comedy never benefits from thinking about it too hard. (It’s one of the reasons I never recap comedies.) But, Eddie Murphy returning to Saturday Night Live for the first time in 35 years is not just a historically notable TV event, it’s one that required a little contemplation on both our part and the writers’.
Here’s the thing: Eddie Murphy blazed into superstardom on Saturday Night Live in 1980 when he was only 19 years old with characters like Mr. Robinson and Buckwheat — characters that made fun of racist stereotypes in a way that was so close to the chest that some viewers may not have understood they were supposed to be laughing with Murphy, not at him. Murphy was never putting on a minstrel show, he was pointing out how racist the minstrel show was. The problem is some viewers, particularly white ones, might have missed that nuance. (Honestly, maybe the greatest SNL sketch of all time is the one in which he went undercover as a white man — genuinely brilliant and tackling race in a way that remains as stinging and poignant 40 years later.)
So because a great deal has changed in the past 40 years, it was always going to be a delicate dance bringing some of these characters back to the show in a way that not only would be relevant but culturally palatable. But God damn, if they didn’t pull it off. Murphy’s 80s characters found themselves up against 21st-century issues like gentrification and the #MeToo movement — and that tension is where the comedy blossomed.
Then when you add to all of that the fact that Eddie Murphy waited long enough to come back to the show so that there were no more hard feelings, that he had shed enough of his movie star ego and aloofness that he could really enjoy himself on that stage in an uninhibited, genuine way … well, it made for the best episode of the year, certainly, and one of the best episodes of Saturday Night Live I’ve ever seen.
Continue reading “Relive Eddie Murphy’s almost-perfect ‘Saturday Night Live’”
The one good thing about this terrible ‘America’s Got Talent’ story is that it reaffirms that Jay Leno is THE WORST.
Be thankful: Will Ferrell and a slew of other stars deliver an excellent ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live
Will Ferrell & King Princess
November 23, 2019
When it comes to judging hosts, it’s unfair to compare regular actors, sports figures, musicians or even other comedians to former cast members. For former hosts, this was their job for years — they understand how to play to the audience; they aren’t afraid of a live performance; they, better than probably most actors, understand comic timing. This is how they became household names. And among those who have been invited back to host Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell might be one of the funniest and most talented cast members of all time. So to compare him as a host to a Harry Styles or a Kristen Stewart, it’s just not fair. They aren’t on the same playing field.
Will Ferrell returned to Saturday Night Live for his fifth time hosting and delivered easily one of the funniest — if not the funniest — episodes of the season. Ferrell’s big golden retriever energy makes every sketch just that much funnier, even sketches that by all rights should have just been mediocre. And while I can’t be certain, it certainly felt like the writers held back on the last couple of episodes so that they could give Will Ferrell the choicest material. And honestly? I don’t blame them in the least. He knocked it out of the park.
He lost on ‘Jeopardy,’ baby.
