It's interesting to see how the WWF and Lorne Michaels have mended fences. You see, back when the XFL was unfortunately embarrassing football on television, Lorne chewed out NBC producers for one of the Saturday night XFL games running late. The longer time for the game caused SNL to be delayed for the night, and the show was featuring Jennifer Lopez; a show thought to be HUGE in the ratings. Vince McMahon and Lorne Michaels didn't like each other there for a while because of the XFL games, but it's apparent that they've improved their relationship as of late.
Personally, I really enjoyed the Rock's FIRST appearance on SNL. They had some very funny skits that show, like the Ladies' man, Superman, Mr. Peepers, and the talkshow, and the Rock didn't really appear as though he was reading off cue cards. Truly excellent performance overall. Did he do great last night? Was the show's writing good enough for him to fit in?
I will say that I haven't enjoyed the current cast and/or writers of Saturday Night Live. Ever since the Bush vs. Gore sketches, the show hasn't had much in the way of breakthrough comedy material. I've tried to watch the show lately, but I find myself just shaking my head at how NOT funny it has become.
Anyway, on to the review. I'll go segment by segment, for a nice recap of the show as a whole.
The Rock came out for his opening dialogue. No WWF wrestlers present for this show. The Rock would make jokes about how fake the movie industry, as compared to professional wrestling, and told everyone how he could take a punch. Chris Kattan would come out, and the Rock would tell him to give him a punch. Kattan did, and it appeared to hurt Rocky. The 2nd punch did too. It was all in good fun, end of dialogue. Kind of funny.
Next, we had a sketch of Brian Fellow's Safari Planet. This was Tracy Morgan as a crazy pet lover. Very strange skit here, as Tracy Morgan kept imagining a parrot using his credit card after the parrot would say "I am Brian Fellow". The Rock was involved with this skit as an animal keeper, who happened to have a Tarantula with him. Rocky did well in his part, but the segment was way too stupid.
A parody of the Scorpion King was next. Whoever played the Scorpion Queen was SMOKIN'! This skit had the Scorpion King's disrespectful son, who was trying to rebel against his father, the Rock as the Scorpion King. Decent one, but the real comedy came when the Rock sort of messed up his lines a little bit at one part.
We had a commercial parody next. It was Arthur Anderson Tax Filing, with ribs against Enron and how a firm could hide all of your earnings to avoid a heavy tax burden. If you had no clue about the recent news, then you'd be clueless about this commercial. No Rocky...
By the way, SNL hyped that Alec Baldwin would be the host next week, with musical guest, P.O.D.. Looks like the makings of a great show, as Alec Baldwin always seems to bring his A-Game to SNL.
Next, we had a Rock-less sketch of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Probably the best skit on the show. The Chris Matthews impersonation was dead-on, and his jokes about Dick Army were hilarious! Darrell Hammond is incredible on impressions!
The Rock was in the next segment, as we had the Drunkgirl backstage at SNL. It's just a fat guy, dressed in drag, acting like she's overly drunk. Don't try too hard to be Chris Farley, now. The Rock was the Drunkgirl's friend, which was sort of funny.
Then, the WORST thing of the night. Tracy Morgan and some actress sang a HORRIBLE duet at the subway about each other. It was torture to sit through this. No Rock in this one, thank God.
Next, we had a rather odd sketch called Girl with no Gaydar, meaning that it was a woman who couldn't see anyone's homosexuality. The Rock was a gay bartender, and he would eventually sing for everyone. Goofy skit, but one of the better ones throughout the night. That doesn't say much, though.
Weekend Update was next. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon are no where near as funny as the likes of Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, or Norm McDonald doing the news. Some newsbytes were funny, such as Fallon's note about Bea Arthur, but for the most part, this parody newscast just isn't funny. Their extra guy who did a weird commentary wasn't nearly as funny as any of the early 1990's ones, such as Sandler or Farley. I long for the days when Sandler had a song ready for Weekend Update. No Rock here....
The featured band played next, as Andrew WK played their current single, "Party Hard". Wow, a 6 piece rock band, with 4 guitars, keyboard, and a drummer. Oh yeah, they have a frontman singing, or at least trying. Trying to dance, too. These guys are a little too sloppy for my tastes, but I've seen worse in today's music industry. At least their sound is somewhat unique, although it's somewhat looney. Get the lead singer some dancing lessons!
The next skit was an extended commercial for a Bigfoot - Neil Diamond musical CD. Ferrell was quite the funny guy with his stoned Neil Diamond impersonation. The skit basically had Bigfoot coming out from the shadows, finding a drug induced Neil Diamond, and singing duets with him to sell a CD. Their singing of "Cats in the Cradle" got a bit out of hand.
Then, we had a parody of HBO's America Undercover. This one had the Rock as a paramedic, and he brought in a white trash male to be looked at in a hospital, while his white trash wife was fighting. Kinda got out of hand, and ended rather abruptly as if it didn't have any true direction.
Andrew WK was back, and they played a song that was hard to understand. I heard "Get Away" and "Really Don't Care" in the lyrics many times, but yet I couldn't recognize them as song names when I looked up what's on their latest CD. Whatever.
Finally, a goofy message from SNL... It was Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, Chris Kattan, and Horatio Sanz singing a stupid song at the end. Huh?
LAST WORD: Yecch! No where near the greatness as experienced on the first SNL with the Rock. Some skits were funny, but others were just an eyesore to watch. Lots of singing in this show, too. Has SNL gone musical? The Rock wasn't as good as his first performance, either, but the first show had better writing than this one. Of course, I'm sure the Rock wanted to promote the Scorpion King as quickly as possible and get the hell back home so that he can FINALLY see his family. The Rock has been on the road, doing media appearances all week. Not a very good SNL overall....
AOL Instant Messenger: BookerTito - It's recommended that you send your questions or feedback as your first message so that it could be answered, instead of saying "hi", "hey", "what's up" or whatever else. Just get to the point, please, to make it easier since I get drilled with messages.
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@I hope you enjoyed my Rock on SNL review. I tried to be as descriptive as possible, concerning the show, so that anyone who didn't catch the show could get a quick recap. I'll be back on Monday to hype RAW and discuss whatever. See ya then!
Take Care, and Thanks for Reading.