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Highlights from Last Night's "Saturday Night Live": Zoolander Underwhelms

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under TV Reviews | Comments (11)



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Last night’s third episode of the season featured host Ben Stiller, and it started out somewhat promising, but faltered after the fourth skit. It often seems that the bigger the host, the worse the show. That was certainly the case last night, as Ben Stiller didn’t add much to the proceedings.

The two big highlights of the night were actually two of the least amusing skits, but the guests are too big to ignore. One of them isn’t yet embeddable, which means you’ll have to surf through the entire show to see it on Hulu later this afternoon. (It’s the fourth skit). It’s an Andy Samberg skit, in which he appears as Hugh Jackman and Hugh Jackman appears as Daniel Radcliffe. It’s only worth seeking out if you’re bored.

It may be that it’s election season, but the political cold opens are improving, and last night’s actually had me wishing that Chris Christie would change his mind and run for President, if only for the Chris Christie skits.

Stiller’s monologue isn’t embeddable, and it’s just as well, as the Jewish Willy Wonka was better in spirit than in execution. The “Fox and Friends” skit, however, was fantastic, mostly for Jason Sudeikis’ Hank Williams and the fact-check scroll at the end of the skit.

The Digital Short I’m including only because it’s a Digital Short. It’s not worth sitting out the pre-roll to watch Samberg and Stiller engage in a Zoolander-esque V-Neck off.

That takes up straight to Weekend Update. The headlines were lacklaster, but Update did feature the other big moment from the show, which was Stefon and his guest, Derek Zoolander. The reveal is better than the segment itself, I’m afraid. This doesn’t exactly provoke a thirst for another Zoolander film.

Remember Shanna from last year’s Bryan Cranston episode? Kristen Wiig’s super hot woman with disgusting habits? She returned last night for a Halloween party. The skit is far too long and not particularly amusing, but the final minute is stomach-churning so I’m included it for lack of other highlights.

Finally, as always, I love the Juggalo commercials. Ass Dan!









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Comments

It often seems that the bigger the host, the worse the show.

They why did the chick from Mike & Molly do so well? Hey-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Posted by: maka at October 9, 2011 1:03 PM

*Then

Posted by: maka at October 9, 2011 1:04 PM

I think this suggests that the writing staff aren't doing any better by Stiller now than they did when he was actually on SNL for reals.

Posted by: Jerry at October 9, 2011 1:18 PM

Really? Melissa McCarthy was better than Ben Stiller? Dustin Rowles is the feminist guy here, so of course he'd say that. This episode was pretty good besides the awful "pancakes" part of Weekend Update

Posted by: ThatGuy at October 9, 2011 3:45 PM

Am I the only one that thinks Stiller is starting to look really old?

Posted by: badhorse666 at October 9, 2011 6:52 PM

Nothing about Kenny G's surprise performance?

I couldn't help but cheer when Zoolander came out, but the sketch did kinda peter out.

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at October 9, 2011 6:58 PM

Foster the People was awesome, and I only stayed up for them. I was not at all disappointed with their performances. Was that dude really Kenny G, though? Because I thought it might be, but I wasn't too sure.

Posted by: Caitlin at October 9, 2011 7:21 PM

Yes...it was me.

Posted by: Kenny G. at October 9, 2011 9:39 PM

Kenny, you bitch.

Posted by: Adam at October 10, 2011 12:21 AM

"Am I the only one that thinks Stiller is starting to look really old?"

That's exactly what I thought when I saw the header pic

Posted by: Ender at October 10, 2011 4:32 AM

The Fox News piece would have been funny if it hadn't been blatantly plagiarized from The Daily Show about 3 weeks ago.

Also, Ben Stiller never has been and never will be funny.

Posted by: PaddyDog at October 10, 2011 10:12 AM