"Saturday Night Live" Shanks Another Determined Emma Stone Hosting Effort
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under TV Reviews | Comments (14)
I am a huge fan of Emma Stone, and I really want to glass half-full last night’s show, but it was bad. Really bad. For the second year in a row, the “SNL” cast whiffed with Emma Stone. She was great — spirited, lively, and a great sport — but she had nothing with which to work. The only stellar highlight was a reprisal of “Les Jeunes de Paris,” which as good or better as it was when Miley Cyrus hosted. But the embed is not available.
The first half of the show was essentially a rerun, a series of recurring characters and sketches that were never that funny to begin with (Kristen Wiig on “Secret Password” and Bill Hader’s “Herb Welch”). Stefon is the only recurring character in the “SNL” stable right now worth much. In the cold open, Bill Hader mocked Rick Perry’s debate gaffe from earlier this week, but it was stale, unfunny, and overly long. Even Emma Stone’s monologue was a rerun: She re-did Kirsten Dunst’s 2001 monologue, as a knowing nod to the Spider-Man reboot (a funny joke, perhaps, but not worth an entire monologue). The Digital Short was painfully awful, and even Seth Meyers’ biffed “Weekend Update.” The first highlight of the night, in fact, didn’t come until Jason Sudeikis showed up on “Weekend Update” as the Devil to discuss the Penn State controversy.
Unfortunately, another return of Garth and Kit killed what little momentum Sudeikis brought to “Update.”
The second half of the show was considerably better, starting with the aforementioned and phenomenal “Les Jeunes de Paris” (seek it out when it arrives on Hulu). Emma Stone also killed it in Bridal Shower, as a Beavis who’d never been to a Bridal Shower before.
I honestly don’t know what to think of Technology Hump, a show featuring electronics screwing. It was an appropriate last skit, and weirdly … sexual. Much, much more sexual than you’d imagine electronics screwing would be.
Creepy, right?
But that’s it. A really subpar episode, despite the spirited hosting efforts of Stone.
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Comments
Posted by: Will at November 13, 2011 10:34 AM
Pretty much enjoyed every sketch after Weekend Update, and I guess that's good enough for me. They seem to be putting all of the good stuff at the end recently. The Adele sketch, I thought, was pretty great as well.