Since I was out of the country last spring and SNL does not air regularly in Australia, I was not able to post my recap for last season right after it ended.  I was also unable to completely catch up on all the episodes I missed until September, and by that time, the next season was about to start and school was starting, so I just did not get around to it.  But now is as good a time as any to finally put it together.  The 09-10 recap will be up soon, so in the meantime, here is last year’s to tide you over while you wait.

(I would embed the videos, but this recap is long, and videos would make for even more scrolling.  So no embedding.  But I am providing the links.)

Most Valuable Cast Member
I wish I could give this award to Tina Fey for her several spot-on appearances as Sarah Palin, but she did not have to deal with the mix of good and bad material that all the regulars had to deal with week in and week out.  In a truly ensemble year, Andy Samberg ekes out the win, mostly thanks to a string of strong performances in digital shorts (“Jizz in My Pants,” “Everyone’s a Critic,” “I’m on a Boat”).

Best Sketch
Jizz in My Pants
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-j-in-my-pants/1037122/
“Jizz in My Pants” continued the sterling tradition of musical digital shorts with the standard practices of perfectly recreating a musical genre ripe for parody and employing lyrics that are legitimately clever by any standard.  It distinguished itself with the use of random celebrity appearances (Molly Sims and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who were currently doing … nothing else at the time) as well as a list of absurd examples of the premise that supplied a nonstop supply of chuckles.

Runners-Up:
Funeral Interruptions
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/funeral/1105215/
A reworking of the interrupting wedding toasters sketch from the Hugh Laurie episode, this version propelled the concept to heights of hilarity.  The biggest difference maker was Will Ferrell as comedian and botanist Graham Yost (“like French toast but with a ‘y.’  There is no ‘a’”).  Will Forte as Hamilton, Fred Armisen as an obnoxious cousin (dressed like he’s in AC/DC), and Bobby Moynihan as the microphone-dropper also provided highlights. 

Celebrity Jeopardy
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/jeopardy/1105261/
The insane Connery-Trebeck feud somehow never gets old, Tom Hanks as a dumb Tom Hanks was an inspired choice (and hey, a reference to a classic Wayne’s World bit!), and Kristen Wiig’s already-established Kathie Lee Gifford was an obvious choice.  Would a fourth contestant make the proceedings too crowded?  Not if that fourth contestant was Burt Reynolds.

Best Host
Will Ferrell
I would argue that Will Ferrell is the best SNL cast member of all time.  I would then say that any episode in which Will Ferrell hosts ought to automatically be a great episode.  I would offer the May 16, 2009, Season 34 finale as evidence.

Runners-Up:
Tracy Morgan
Maybe SNL should only book former cast members as hosts.  What tends to result when this happens is a veritable greatest-hits episode.  I enjoyed Tracy during his tenure on the show but did not realize his full potential until his 30 Rock days.  His stint as host led me to believe that I may have been missing something during his original time live from New York.

John Malkovich
The mark of a good host is the ability to imprint his personality on the show.  Is that ability not Malkovich in a nutshell?  This quality allows its possessor to make way-too-ridiculous concepts – like twin brothers obsessed with getting a calculator for Christmas, a mannish tween girl as the protagonist of a Judy Blume story, and a performance of Dangerous Liaisons set in a Jacuzzi – somehow memorable. 

Best Monologue
John Malkovich
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/twas-the-night-monologue/1177604/
A monologue is typically successful if the host can stamp his personality onto the monologue and if the host has a personality worth imprinting.  Malkovich is probably not the most suitable person to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to a group of kids, but he can fulfill the role of dispensing disturbing real-life Christmas lessons quite well.  Credit also must be given to the kids featured in this monologue, and their prodigiously skillful blank staring.

Runners-Up:
Will Ferrell
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/will-ferrell-monologue/1105210/
Letting Will Ferrell run freely onstage for hours can be hit-or-miss, but letting him run freely for five minutes is always going to work out.

Tracy Morgan
You know you have a great celebrity persona when, in the course of deconstructing himself, he not only maintains, but adds to, the mystique of his persona. 

Best Musical Guest
Kings of Leon
http://www.tagtele.com/videos/voir/26836/1/
http://www.tagtele.com/videos/voir/26837
Other than the oh oh oh’s in “Use Somebody,” Kings of Leon’s SNL performances did not stick with me right away.  A few months later, though, I was looking for some music to listen to, and I remembered that I did enjoy KOL when they were on SNL.  “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” have a sneaky ability to insinuate themselves into your brain, and the SNL stage was where it all began for me.

Runners-Up:
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
http://vodpod.com/watch/1529115-yeah-yeah-yeahs-zero
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8539021730785670799#
When I saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the SNL guest bill, I wondered what they had been up to since their “Maps” breakthrough.  With “Zero,” Karen O’s vocals were more delicious than ever, complemented nicely by her clashing getup of dark hair/black leather jacket/loudly colorful shirt.  The Yeahs were having more fun than ever before and announced that they were planning on sticking around for a while.

Phoenix
http://www.hulu.com/watch/66322/saturday-night-live-phoenix-lisztomania
http://www.hulu.com/watch/66321/saturday-night-live-phoenix-1901
When I saw that Phoenix was the musical guest on SNL, I thought, “Hmm, another indie rock act?  And with that unimaginative name?  Are they even the first band to name themselves Phoenix?”  But then I watched their performances.  They made the rare wise choice of performing their top song (“1901”) second.  The combination of the less-pressure-filled situation and the repeats of “fold it, fold it” in the chorus made me realize that I could listen to Phoenix all day.

Best Commercial Parody
Whopper Virgins
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/whopper-virgins/937521/
I barely remember the actual Whopper Virgins commercials, but there is no way I can forget SNL’s sublime culture-clash parody.  Bobby Moynihan made his talents clear to the world with his performance as an insane Romanian villager.

Runners-Up:
Virginia Horsen’s Pony Express
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-pony-express/866402/
This SNL commercial captures what a lot of actual low-budget local commercials are really like.  And it also appears to have captured a fever dream that Kristen Wiig had.  Go figure. 

Mom Celebrity Translator
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/mom-translator/1099549/
The product that SNL’s writers came up with to handle the problem of ditzy moms was not itself very funny.  But it did not have to be, what with the format of this parody serving as a riff on the comedy of mix-ups and vagaries, which always works. 

Best Digital Short
Jizz in My Pants
If I had seen The Sixth Sense without knowing the twist, I probably would have jizzed in my pants as well.  I have pretty good control, so that fact actually makes “Jizz in My Pants” less effective.  But I stay clean when I eat grapes, so it works out in the end. 

Runners-Up:
Everyone’s a Critic
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-everyones-a-critic/1037101/
The concept of Andy Samberg and Paul Rudd painting each other in the nude in the Titanic pose was adequately hilarious, but this short was really distinguished by the mood-setting music whose hilarity cannot be explained.

Cookies
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-cookies/881521/
The humor of “Cookies” was unusual, like most digital shorts, but it was unusual compared to other digital shorts, making its humor relatively normal in a larger context.  Thankfully, it was a more traditional form of humor that worked well, with Fred Armisen as a strange man distracted by his love of cookies and a twist ending in which the cookies turn out to be stool softeners.

Best Weekend Update Segment
Harry Caray (Will Ferrell) on Manny Ramirez and steroids in baseball…
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-harry-caray/1105241/
…otherwise known as Harry Caray rambles on about whatever he feels like talking about, and we are happy for it, because it has been too long since we have seen Will Ferrell’s iteration of the late, great broadcaster.  The Asian Pete Rose story was full of surprises, and the thoughts on the Predator monster as a ballplayer were logical.  (Also of note was the girl in the crowd who cheered when Harry said, “Waterboarding is torture.”)

Runners-Up:
Björk (Kristen Wiig) on the Icelandic economy
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-bjork/999102/
The Iconoclasts sketch a few seasons back featuring Björk and Charles Barkley is a modern classic and introduced SNL viewers to the fact that Kristen Wiig’s Björk should appear whenever Iceland is in the news.  All she has to do is come on, spout obscure (or fake obscure) references, and dispense absurd profundities.  This bit is also notable for starting a tradition of Weekend Update guests who get Seth Meyers’ name wrong (“Oh, Snarf”).

Hall and Oates (Will Forte and Fred Arisen) sing about their support for Obama and McCain, respectively
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-thursday-part-3/742101/
Not really about the election, and not really making fun of Hall and Oates either (except for their propensity to break up and get back together).  Just a chance for Fred Armisen and Will Forte to mess around in the framework of a Hall and Oates song, and how can you go wrong with that.

Best Episode
Will Ferrell/Green Day (5/16/09)
Will trying his hand out on the Lawrence Welk Show, the brilliant funeral sketch, a Charles Barkley appearance, a couple of solid Green Day numbers,  the returns of Celebrity Jeopardy!, Bush and Cheney, and Harry Caray, and the deliciously over-the-top “Goodnight, Saigon” nightcap – not a single misstep.  Fans would demand nothing less from a Will Ferrell-hosted episode.

Runners-Up:
Tracy Morgan/Kelly Clarkson (3/14/09)
An SNL episode hosted by a former cast member tends to work, even (perhaps especially) when that former cast member is Tracy Morgan.  The returns of Brian Fellow and Astronaut Jones were surprisingly gratifying, and then we got the Rocket Dog sketch at the end (“Houston, we have a dog”).  The other sketches were solid material that would have been fine without Tracy but benefited from his presence.

John Malkovich/T.I. (12/6/08)
I was not able to watch the John Malkovich episode when it aired live, so before I had caught it all, I was on NBC’s website, where “Jizz in My Pants” was highlighted in the video section.  I initially thought that it was Malkovich instead of Jorma standing next to Andy in the accompanying screen shot.  I was excited by the prospect of Malkovich in a digital short.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  But “Jizz in My Pants” was still great.  This is all to say that this episode featured some great non-Malkovich moments (Virginia Horsen and Obama keeping it cool as well) in addition to Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.