Pay No Attention to the Puny Man Behind the Reviewing Curtain -- Saturday Night You Bull Sessions

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Date Posted: 01:25:20 12/28/04 Tue
Author: CCS
Subject: Pay No Attention to the Puny Man Behind the Reviewing Curtain
In reply to: Patrick Lonergan 's message, "REVIEWS: Robert De Niro 12/18/04" on 10:10:09 12/18/04 Sat

We all feared this day would come. Try not to let me get you down; I'm critical not mean.

<center>The King of Comedy II
by Patrick Lonergan</center>

Joe Piscopo, poor guy, forever doomed to be a joke during backstage cold opens and backstage monologues. One hundred years from now, his name will still be in use, long after the show began broadcasting in 3D and Smellovision. Sadly I'm not familiar with the movie being parodied, so I'll move along to the cue cards. Clever concept, I felt you could have played a bit more with it. I think a good knock could have been if the "One more thing." was also written on the LFNY card; I think it's so tacky how often that line gets used as a LFNY transition. In terms of pacing, I think the sketch drags its feet a little when Lorne needs to convince Tina it's him. The Debbie Downer knock's alright, but the Beth Cahill comment seems overly obscure and needlessly belligerent.

<center>Monologue
by Patrick Lonergan</center>

Once again another movie I sadly haven't seen (anything released prior to 1998 is tough to find online). As a whole, this sketch seemed to take a step backward. All the issues with De Niro getting a second shot seemed to be covered in the Cold Open. It's a bit like how during the Winslet episode, they brought up Ashley Simpson every other sketch. This is still well-written, but I'd keep only one of the duo and do something different in the other.

<center>Racist Catch Phrase
by Jack Farrell</center>

Does one word constitute a whole phrase? The game feels mistitled. I tried to take the possible overuse of "Oh" and "Okay honey" as a character repetition thing, but other than those lines, I didn't get much sense of character from these guys. Their conversation didn't truly congeal at times, sort of like translated video game dialogue. As for the jokes, unfortunately a few too many felt overly familiar. Fried chicken and watermelon just doesn't do much for me anymore.

<center>Caller 25
by Jen</center>

When I first saw the tag line to this sketch, I felt like I might end up calling shenanigans, as I had explored a similar theme during the Colin Firth episode (albeit ineptly). This took a fairly different direction though, and seemed to focus more on the characters of the kids than anything else. The scene shift seemed reminiscent of an improv scene change - the camera sticking with the lesser characters. I already talked about their musical tastes, so I'll move on to say that this sketch seemed to contain a lot of character sense for a fairly quick piece. I think I would have exaggerated more in some places and less in others, but all in all it comes together well. The ending works and I like how you have the non-sequitur to close it off. Pacing is nice and speedy.

<center>Celebrity Holiday
by Mark Jennings Reese II and Jack Farrell</center>

Before anything else, I'd like to award you guys 100 psychic points for correctly predicting a duet between De Niro and Kermit. Starting off, I don't quite get the Desperate Housewives line, regardless of the humor, it feels like there's a crucial word or two that was left out which could give the sentence some meaning or satiric direction. The Ashlee material has worn thin by now, but with this sketch, it pretty much has to be done. (Side note: Why can't she spell her name like a normal Ashley?) The Sheen and Kermit section works, even if the muppet/hand-in-butt corollary is over-used. Unfortunately, that was the end for this sketch. I think one more pair of random celebrities (like, really random if possible. Like the one time an SNL Christmas special sketch used Isaac Asimov - terrific choice) would be welcome. Martin Sheen and Billy Joel both work, but they're not quite random enough. All in all it works and is kept brisk without much drag.

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Replies:

Midweek Update on Weekend Update -- CCS, 03:39:42 12/29/04 Wed
- Re: Midweek Update on Weekend Update -- Patrick, 10:29:11 12/29/04 Wed
- CCS, glad to see you enjoyed the Jay-C piece on WU! Thanks! (NT) -- mjr II, 15:42:42 12/29/04 Wed