OK, let's get it out of the way: someone dropped the fuck-bomb on SNL last night—and, poor lamb, it was a new cast member on her very first episode. Jenny Slate either ruined or solidified her spot on the show, slipping and saying "fucking" instead of "frickin" in a "frickin"-laden sketch in the second half of the show. I wouldn't be positive it happened if Slate didn't puff out her cheeks with obvious abashment. This is what Lorne Michaels gets for letting a featured player carry a sketch so early on her SNL tenure rather than letting her toil in obscurity for several years first.
As for Megan Fox, she did a better job hosting than I expected. She came off somewhat wooden to me during her talk show appearances last week but I can buy that she is able to poke fun at herself more than she lets on. I assumed she'd be Paris-Hilton bad but she was entirely not-terrible.
The cold opener, with Fred Armisen as Muammar Khadafi at the U.N. was amusing—I think it went on a bit long but it had its moments, like "When it is lunchtime here, I want dinner. This is no way to live," and the throwaway line "Fish flu is coming and you cannot stop it." I had to hand it to Armisen, who was still funny despite speaking gibberish and being talked over by a translator.
Megan Fox's monologue was one of those where you don't actually have to be talented in order to carry it (no standup, singing or dancing) but it was amusing nonetheless, as she showed badly-photoshopped pictures nude photos of her (and of U2). She came off as endearing though and even though I admit that I was a Megan Fox hater in the past I have come around—not to love, per se, but not-hate.
After the cold opener we had a commercial for "Bladdivan," a drug for men with shy pee-pee's: "I just peed and I do not care." Eh: SNL jokes about pooping and peeing yourself are never my favorites (so I will be mad if those Jamie Lee Curtis yogurt ads come back.)
The airplane sketch would have been a total bust but it had a tiny measure of silliness that made me not fill up with rage that it was going on for so long—I also warmed to the opening line of Andy Samberg on an airplane complaining about having to go back to Hawaii now that his vacation's over. Basically, two flight attendants alerted the passengers of increasingly-dire information in a bored Southern accent, interspersing it with "You're not going to like this but we are all out of Tera Blue chips, so…" It wasn't a good sketch by any stretch of the imagination but it was just weird enough to be amusing, like the ladies' fight over how much one of them loves the show Monk.
I can't believe that I laughed at all at the next sketch when I think about the setup: a man is shopping for a Russian bride. One is Megan Fox, the other is Fred Armisen in a wig, and he is $10 cheaper. Armisen looks like "she's from the drain," cannot wink, only blink and her guilty pleasure is "heroin." But, as opposed to costing $60K, she costs $59,990, which makes it a very difficult decision for the would-be groom. So stupid. But it made me laugh.
Same with the digital short—stupid-silly but funny. Megan Fox is on a romantic date with Will Forte who speaks in a voice that I can only describe as sounding, well, mentally challenged. He's SWAT team commander, naturally, who also raises lambs. "I love my lambs," he says. "I love them so much." Then she asks him to marry her and he says "No fucking way." That's it. The more I think about it, the more I think I need to see it again.
It wasn't a great episode by any stretch of the imagination at this point but I was entertained, although I quit laughing at "Grady Wilson's Burning up the Bedsheets"—just Kenan Thompson in drawers, a yellowed t-shirt and black socks demonstrating sex moves (joined by Megan Fox—and no, she never played anyone but a hot girl).
U2 performed. I have a hard time judging U2—they don't bring me the pleasure they once did but the one time I tried to criticize U2 in print I got death threats. I didn't know the first song they performed but if you were wondering whether Bono spun around with his arms out while looking at an overhead camera, he did.