Ben Stiller hosted “Saturday Night Live,” but it was the players around him that got the few laughs the night offered. Full confession: this was not a surprise to me, since I have rarely ever found Stiller to be funny. I think he excels at playing the flustered straight man in movies like “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Zero Effect.” In the comedy films he favors, however, he’s like a 12-year-old putting on a silly mustache and trying really hard to be funny–and failing.
Best of the Night
The Hugh Jackman talk show “Best of Both Worlds,” starring Andy Samberg as the man himself, was admittedly a little shaky at the start. This included Stiller’s Mandy Patinkin, who was unrecognizable and unfunny. Then Bill Hader arrived as Clint Eastwood, and the mood shifted. The perpetually squinting eyes and pants hiked up to his armpits enhanced Hader’s hilariously spot-on satire, which included a song that was basically a haiku ending in a sinister rasp.
Then came guest Daniel Radcliffe, played by someone extraordinarily tall, who didn’t resemble anyone in the cast but looked remarkably like–pause for the audience’s dawning realization–Hugh Jackman! The real Jackman blinked wide eyes behind his owlish lenses and wrung every laugh he could out of his Radcliffe impression, while acting both bemused and horrified by Samberg’s defamatory impression that included a suspect Aussie accent and claims of Botox enhancement and implants. The inevitable bloodshed by Radcliffe and Eastwood at the end once again added that insane twist to an already bonkers sketch.
“Saturday Night Live” musical guest Foster the People put on two frenetic, quirky, nerd-hip performances that were undeniably catchy and appealing. The highlight was in the second act, as Kenny G performed an amped up solo on their song “Houdini.” The jazz player seemed tickled to be on the “Saturday Night Live” stage, the audience cackled with delight, and the upbeat number was one of the bright spots of the night.
As always, Hader’s club boy Stefon earned a cascade of cheers from the studio audience. While it wasn’t one of his best appearances, he still landed laughs with his recommendations for hot clubs in the middle of the Hudson River and at a haunted synagogue, featuring an “active crime scene” as well as acts like the Italian reggae performer “Rasta Primevera.” Stefon flirted with Seth, giggled behind his steepled fingers and made us love him even more. Some viewers may have enjoyed Stiller’s “Zoolander” appearance, but Stefon’s “Blue Steel” equivalent, “Rigor Mortis,” got a lot bigger laughs than the host’s dumb male model routine.
Worst of the Night
The “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update had Kristen Wiig on as a guest with suggestions for party themes, which turned into an infinite monologue on a bizarre pancake party. Later she turned up as a Marilyn-Monroe-esque party goer who at first entices the male guests, then repulses them–and us. Both bits fell flat and were made worse by their unendurable length.
Stiller played Bruce Springsteen in a commercial for recordings of the rocker’s storytelling on his concert tours–music not included. The one joke sketch was short on laughs and relevance.
The guest host’s opening monologue was also pretty painful, with a hallucination of a “Jewish Willy Wonka” played by Samberg, and a wonderland of Jewish foods and complaints about said foods. It was all overplayed and obvious, and Stiller seemed to be straining to find the humor as hard as we were.
Some other sketches during the night could have gone either way, like the “Saturday Night Live” digital short that featured Samberg and a sleazy Stiller in a competitive fashion war over who could don the most extreme V-neck shirt. I count it as a win because I actually laughed, particularly at the shirt that was only a V, but some other viewers may have found the pixelated nudity too repulsive to be funny.
Then there was the twisted Lincoln Financial Group trio of commercials that began with Jason Sudeikis agreeing to join the Mile High Club with his older, financially secure and kinkier self. The follow-up commercials were variations on the theme, and perhaps pushed our tolerance for disgusting-but-funny a bit too far.
The Underground Records commercials are an acquired taste, and not usually mine, but eventually I find something insane enough to laugh at. Tonight one of the highlights was the list of concert guests that included: “MC Hammertoe, The Lesbian Forest and…Yo Gabba Gabba!”
The political cold open with Mitt Romney and “Fox & Friends” sketches had some amusing moments but nothing to get excited over. The final sketch, a “Moneyball” parody featuring steroids, had a good Brad Pitt impression by Taran Killam that unfortunately didn’t get enough screen time, and a few mildly funny moments featuring steroid side effects.
All in all, it was a pretty lackluster evening with some really painful stretches and only a few true highlights. What do you think, “Saturday Night Live” fans? Did you find more to love about the Stiller episode, or more to hate?
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