Still Crazy After All These Tears
By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Sunday, October 2 2005, 1:33AM
The season premiere of Saturday Night Live was almost all about Hurricane Katrina and, as usual, almost funny. The show began with a depiction of the overly satirized Tim Russert and then segued into a presidential press conference about Katrina. They may not always be funny, but SNL consistently and courageously mines the fields of current events and tragedy to create its comedy. And in keeping with the emphasis on controversy, host Steve Carell seemed almost invisible compared to the overshadowing presence of musical guest Kanye West.
Before West's first musical appearance, producer Lorne Michaels stood outside the rapper's dressing room with SNL actor Finesse Mitchell as they talked about the possibility that West might go off script as he did in NBC's live hurricane relief telethon last month. Michaels sent Mitchell to talk to West, who quickly bolted from the room to confront the producer outside his door. Michaels then ran down the hall and Kanye West made his way to the studio.
The funniest part of the skit, and the funniest part of the show, was West's awkward confrontation with SNL veteran Mike Myers in the hallway (shown above). Myers said that he had lost his American citizenship since the telethon incident.
Once on stage with an all-female string orchestra, West censored himself in his performance of "Gold Digger" sans the N-word and transitioned to his song "Touch The Sky." In his second appearance, West performed his song "Heard 'Em Say" with singer Adam Levine.
Other highlights from the show included the temporary replacement of Weekend Update co-host Tina Fey (who had a baby recently) with Horatio Sanz, Horatio Sanz playing Aaron Neville rebuilding a house in New Orleans, a TV Fun House skit on Judge John Roberts (see the video), and the return of the hilarious Debbie Downer skit.
But true to its form, SNL stuck to its roots in current events. The show lampooned Anderson Cooper and Geraldo Rivera and even re-created the scene in the Jet Blue flight that crash landed last week in Los Angeles. It's a hard thing to sell current events comedy in an era when Comedy Central's "Daily Show" makes fun of the news every night, but "The Daily Show" is a satire of the news and SNL is still based in sketch comedy. All in all, it was not a bad season opener.
Oh, and Maya Rudolph is pregnant too.
Comments conceal
Bernie
October 2 2005, 9:43AM
I had gotten out of the habit of watching SNL, but watched it last night. The Aaron Neville impersonation by Horatio Sans, the Kanye-Mike Myers bit, Debbie Downer, were all dead-on. I thought it was very funny and a good start to the season.
And does Finesse more than blip your gaydar as he does mine?
Andres Duque
October 2 2005, 11:30AM
Meanwhile, on FOX, Mad TV did a skit about Kanye West being illiterate (with Bobby Lee commisserating and saying that he also had a deep secret: That he could not drive).
But, perhaps the funniest skit, was an all-new parody of "24" in which Bobby Lee wakes up in bed with Jordan Peele and, after throwing him out of bed, eventually ends up crying when Bobby Lee stands outside his apartment window with a huge radio playing "In Your Eyes" just like John Cusack did in the 1989 movie, "Say Anything."
You can watch the first few seconds of the skit here:
http://tinyurl.com/aydg6
Andres Duque
October 2 2005, 12:08PM
Oops... I almost forgot. Last night Mad TV also had a hilarious multi-part take on R. Kelly's "In the Closet" in which he wants to find out who stole his cereal "In the cupboard." Sounds like a bad sketch when described but they nailed everything from the original video(s). Perhaps the funniest part was when Bobby Lee - playing a supermarket check-out person - mistakes R. Kelly and calls him "Hammer."
Mark
October 2 2005, 4:38PM
Keith....could you please address the comment William Bennett made regarding the decline in the crime rate and blacks aborting their children. I so appreciate the work that you do.
Nyah Molneaux
October 2 2005, 10:21PM
Saturday Night Live and Mad TV are both funny shows. However, I wish that Tina Fey would come back soon. Horatio Sanz is funny, but not as funny as Tina Fey.
lenear
October 3 2005, 1:29AM
For those of you who missed it, here a link (wmv) to Kanye’s SNL performance. I can’t take credit for it because I download this from Jose3030 on okayplayer.com. I just uploaded it to yousendit so it wouldn’t kill his server. FYI, just copy and paste the link in your address bar to download it.
Mike Myers/gold digger/touch the sky :
s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=258C6FY10ZRUX0B5K270VLFG3J
heard ‘em say f/Adam Levine:
s65.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0MD0XN1I8JYK13JYVZERR614Q4
http://www.dropcash.com/campaign/jose3030/3030radio_october_supplemental_campaign/
Ramizz
October 5 2005, 11:32AM
You know Keith the week of homophobic black ministers was great...how about looking into the hidden black entertainers, sports figures and what about that damn comment on black babies and the crime rate?...to the other comment about Finesse...blip..blip...blip...if he aint neither am I.
Ramizz
October 5 2005, 11:33AM
You know Keith the week of homophobic black ministers was great...how about looking into the hidden black entertainers, sports figures and what about that damn comment on black babies and the crime rate?...to the other comment about Finesse...blip..blip...blip...if he aint neither am I.
kris
October 5 2005, 3:50PM
PLEASE Tell me someone on the internet has a copy of this segment on SNL. This was the season premiere on Oct. 1, 2005. That segment with Anderson Cooper 360 was the funniest thing I had ever seen!! PLEASE help me find somewhere to download that clip!!
Monica
October 7 2005, 7:52PM
The Mad TV skit for "In the Cupboard" was HILARIOUS..does anyone know where you can watch it again?!?
sarah
October 8 2005, 9:14PM
s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=258C6FY10ZRUX0B5K270VLFG3J>>
lenear: Thank you SO much for that link! I enjoyed it the first time and I'm enjoying re-watching it. I thought Mike Myers was excellent. Someone explain: he was on the stage with Kanye West and was somehow implicated in the anti-Bush remarks?
Kanye's musical performances with those strings were fabulous. I wonder how hard it is to find hot women violin players in NYC....
I was flipping between MAD TV and Saturday Night Live and they were both particularly strong that night. We should be so fortunate every week.
sarah
miliban
October 11 2005, 4:52PM
I LOVEthe hiding in the cupbored I JUST CAN"T FIND OUT HOW 2 C IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!