Jmunney's Blog

The “Arizona Evenings” sketch in the SNL season finale worried me.  It featured script supervisor “Starfish,” as played by Kristen Wiig, in perhaps her worst performance on SNL ever.  I am a K-Wiig fan and would argue that she is the best female cast member in the show’s history, but the Internet chatter on SNL tends to have a good deal of Kristen Wiig fatigue.  It is true that she appears in a lot of sketches and a lot more often than the three other female cast members (who are all featured players), but I believe that the criticism goes too far.  But when I saw Starfish, I was reminded of the infamous 1994-95 season, when cast members with otherwise successful runs on the show (Farley, Sandler, Spade) turned in their most obnoxious performances ever.  I feared that the same was happening with Kristen.
The crisis that SNL currently faces is actually not the same as the one it faced fifteen years ago, nor is this one anywhere near as perilous.  My brother was talking the other day about how he believes the current SNL writers’ room is like the TGS writers’ room on 30 Rock, in which everyone just sits around and says random things that they think are funny.  Whereas, on seasons past, the writers would have a comedic idea they really want to flesh out and birth a sketch from that idea.  I think he is on to something here, and looking over my picks of the best for the last season, I believe SNL remains at its best when it maintains that “idea” mentality.  So, for my 2009-2010 SNL recap, let’s start it off with an idea man.

(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
Kenan Thompson
Kenan’s tenure on SNL has been marked by a lot of sketches that would be absolutely terrible if anyone else were in his roles.  Sometimes those sketches are barely watchable (Ruff, Rugged, and Roker) and sometimes they are inexplicably brilliant (Scared Straight).  This season, his performances tended toward the latter, and there were even some occasions when he had ideas that were brilliant by any standard and would have been so with any performer (“What Up With That?”), though he was clearly the best suited to play them.  His star power cooled off in the second half of the season, but his first half renditions as DeAndre Cole, “Reba McEntire,” Bill Cosby, Charles Barkley, and Maya Angelou were strong enough for the entire season.

Runners-Up:
The current group of not ready for primetime players is akin to the late 80’s cast of Carvey, Hartman, Lovitz, Jan Hooks, Nora Dunn, Victoria Jackson, etc., which was truly an ensemble group where no one star really stood out.  Even Kenan did not really emerge as a star this year; he basically just had the most strong performances.  Nevertheless, a few honorable mentions are worth noting: Will Forte, for his steady stream of MacGruber brilliance and offering of further evidence that he is one of the strangest cast members of all time, and Bill Hader, for deftly fulfilling the roles of reliable supporting player and secret comedic weapon.

Best Sketch
What Up With That? (with guests Al Gore, Mindy Kaling, and Lindsey Buckingham)
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/what-up-with-that/1178425/
The first time I saw “What Up With That?”, I could not believe that something like this could go on for seven minutes on network television.  But I was absolutely thrilled that it was allowed.  The second rendition perfected the formula, with a famous cameo in the speaking guest role, and the best performance by that night’s host of any WUWT? (Joseph Gordon-Levitt as “our friend from another dimension,” Klaus Future).  Kenan’s face when he said, “It’s gonna be audacious” was priceless and sealed the deal in making this the best sketch of the year.

Runners-Up:
Digital Short: Two Worlds Collide
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-two-worlds-collide-ft-reba-mcentire/1178383/
It took too long before Kenan had a promiment role in a digital short, but when it finally did happen, he and Andy Samberg gave birth to a beautiful comedy baby.  The casting of Kenan as Reba McEntire would have been enough for me, but making Reba and Andy lovers took it to another level.  Then the revelation of Reba as a man kind of but not really pretending to be Reba twisted it all up into a ball of nonstop laughter.  So why Reba?  Why not Reba!

The Potato Chip Thief
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/potato-chip/1182388/
Joining the grand tradition of “What were the writers smoking?” sketches (such as the census interview with Christopher Walken, the job interview with Steve Buscemi, and the Dr. Poop sketch) was this monstrosity that must have come from the twisted mind of Will Forte.  The difference is that those past sketches had straight characters to ground the proceedings, while the Potato Chip Thief was a total embrace of the weird.  I could barely believe what was unfolding before my eyes, and my hats go off to Forte, Jason Sudeikis, and Blake Lively for throwing themselves completely into every aspect of this sketch: the ridiculous accents, a short-sleeved dress shirt (!), the Col. Sanders-esque get-up, “you have no right!”, “that is between you and your god!”, “Blacklisted!”, “be a man for the first time in your life!”, “you don’t take people’s potato chips,” the chip spit, “my undry dreams,” the unmentioned until the end “hemorrhoid donut,” “because they’re hungry, Janelda, because they’re hungry.”

There were several notable sketches from all over the place competing for the top spot, and some had trouble matching the top contenders because they were, well, too short, which led me to the creation of my newest category:

Best Short Sketch
Zipco Closet Organizer
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/closet-organizer/1197957/
If the mark of a great SNL sketch is its ability to lead to an unrelenting fit of laughter, then the Closet Organizer commercial would win easily.  The hilarity kept getting amped up, and I could barely catch my breath.  I was in such a silly mood by the end of it that I wondered if the following sketch deserved as much laughter as I gave it.

Runners-Up:
MacGruber (“He has a black employee now!”)
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/macgruber/1191643/
It is incredible how well the MacGruber sketches work over and over again with the exact same format.  (Maybe because they each last about a minute…)  The Charles Barkley-featuring version turned out to be the best of all time, as MacGruber became a racist.  What sets MacGruber apart from any other racist joke is the idiosyncrasy of his racism (“Jazz me over that fly shoelace, you dig?”).

Kickspit Underground Rock Festival
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/underground-festival/1182329/
Supposedly the infomercial (for the Insane Clown Posse-led “Gathering of the Juggalos”) that this sketch parodied is just as ridiculous as SNL’s version, if not more so.  But the original was stretched out over fifteen minutes.  SNL took the tactic of stuffing as much as possible into about two minutes, and the lineup for the festival looked promising.

Best Host
Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm’s comfort on the 30 Rock stage shone through on January 30.  After only two appearances, he is one of the best recurring hosts that SNL has at its disposal.  If things continue at this pace, he could be the definitive host of the teen decade.

Runners-Up:
Zach Galifianakis
After the one-two punch of “Zach Drops by the Set” and the fourth hour of today in the middle of the March 6 show (which featured a creepy Zach Galifianakis sticking his face against the window), I thought that Zach’s face would just be plastered on the screen for the rest of the show.  And I would have been happy if it was.  One more thing: the bidet.

Betty White
During the windup to Betty White’s appearance, the Golden Girl kept stressing how afraid she was to do the show.  Well, she either got over that fear completely, or she was just leading us on.  Either way, she tackled every role she was given with a confidence that can only come with 60+ years in the industry.

Best Monologue
Zach Galifianakis
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/zach-monologue/1207090/
Most of this year’s monologues were either an afterthought (Charles Barkley attempting three different monologue formats), terribly misguided (Gabourey Sidibe singing about herself to the tune of “The Shoop Shoop Song”?), or a terribly misguided afterthought (Taylor Lautner defending Taylor Swift’s honor against a cardboard cutout of Kanye West?).  The best monologue this year took the SNL monologue back to its roots, when it was usually a stand-up routine.  And the stand-up stylings of Zach Galifianakis are totally appropriate for the SNL stage, in a 21^st century kind of way.

Runner-Up:
Betty White
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/betty-white-monologue/1226076/
Leave it to Betty White to be the other host whose monologue was a standup routine.  She demonstrated that she understood the FaceBook phenomenon, enough to be able to crack a few legitimately funny jokes about it.

Best Musical Guest
Lady GaGa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W44YGLM6Y5A
http://www.casttv.com/video/3o9fty/lady-gaga-snl-bad-romance-love-game-pokerface-video
GaGa’s first performance of the night (“Paparazzi”) featured her best song and was perfectly GaGa-theatrical, but the “Love Game”/“Poker Face” medley really showed off what she was capable of, especially with that piano action.

Runners-Up:
The Ting Tings
http://www.hulu.com/watch/121076/saturday-night-live-the-ting-tings-thats-not-my-name
http://www.hulu.com/watch/121075/saturday-night-live-the-ting-tings-shut-up-and-let-me-go
The Ting Tings’ first song, “That’s Not My Name,” showed off the fun and goofiness of the Ting Tings, but it was ultimately unsubstantial.  Then “Shut Up and Let Me Go” really showed them having a hell of a time and seemed to never end.

MGMT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPxNRpRcOs
http://www.hulu.com/watch/144720/saturday-night-live-mgmt-brian-eno
“Flash Delirium” was a nice enough MGMT performance, nothing to get too excited about.  But then “Brian Eno” came along.  Andrew VanWyngarden kept going on and on about Brian Eno, and on and on, and on and on, and though it only lasted about five minutes, it felt like forever.  One of the strangest forever’s I have ever known, but one I am glad to have known.

Ke$ha
http://www.hulu.com/watch/143257/saturday-night-live-keha-tik-tok
http://www.hulu.com/watch/143266/saturday-night-live-keha-your-love-is-my-drug
Bucking the trend of the second song besting the first, Ke$ha went absolutely insane to kick things off with “Tik Tok”: spaceman costumes, an American flag cape, goofy lights, purposely screwy vocals.  What does it all mean?  Nothing.  And that’s the point.  “Did anyone stop to think maybe we are the aliens?”  Indeed.  As for her second performance, “it’s Saturday night.  Do you want to make out?”

Best Commercial Parody
Zipco Closet Organizer
The overly exuberant voiceover, the harried housewife, the black-and-white footage: it captured the ads for those “As Seen on TV” products perfectly, and then it became … something else.

Runners-Up:
Kickspit Underground Rock Festival
You can tell that the SNL writers know they have come up with a good sketch when they repeat their best jokes a few seconds later in the same sketch as though they have already been established as an audience favorite.  That happened here with “Mrs. Potato Dick” and “Ass Dan.”

Duncan Hines Brownie Husband
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/brownie-husband/1218011/
Tina Fey amplified her unlucky-in-love and compulsive eating Liz Lemon persona to epic proportions with this spot.  “The perfect blend of rich fudge and emotional intimacy” – I can’t put it any better than that.

Best Digital Short
Two Worlds Collide
“I’m Reba!”

Runners-Up:
The Date
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-the-date/1161187/
From the minds of Will Forte and the Lonely Island comes this love letter to strange, fragile men who know how to woo someone like Megan Fox.  I was not quite sure what to make of this, but once it got into the fevered nightmares caused by lamb slaughter, I could not say no to that face.

Booty Call
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/digital-short-booty-call/1191669/
The attractive female guests of SNL go for some strange men.  A string of bizarre details that are hardly connected to each other come together to form the picture of a very interesting individual.  Best twist ending of any digital short?

Best Weekend Update Segment
Bill Cosby (Kenan Thompson) discusses his new rap album
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-bill-cosby/1182386/
Kenan debuted his Bill Cosby impression on SNL in his first episode.  Why it has not appeared more often is beyond me.  Kenan’s impressions generally are not terribly accurate, but we let it slide because of his uncontrollable charisma.  But his Cosby is spot-on.  I somehow simultaneously believed and failed to believe that the real Cosby would say things like “Kanye Kangaroo,” “suck on my elbow,” and “the twangamazoos.”

Runners-Up:
Stefon (Bill Hader) discusses NYC hotspots
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-stefon/1222373/
Bill Hader completely cracked up in the middle of his first appearance as city correspondent Stefon, and we let it slide, because the audience was cracking up, and the performance required him to breathe heavily, put his hands to his mouth, and generally act nervous.  The comedy of Stefon resembled what is best described as the fever dream of a gay man, and how can you go wrong with that?

Charles Barkley (Kenan Thompson) comments on Communist China’s 60^th anniversary
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update-charles-barkley/1163261/
Charles Barkley provided a series of reasons why he is unqualified to be discussing China but why he has many more entertaining things to say on the subject than just about anyone else.  He also continued the trend of calling Seth “Screech” Meyers by the wrong name.
(Kenan very nearly went for 3-for-3 in this category with his appearance as Maya Angelou responding to rumors of her death.  She referred to Seth as “Dr. Seth Meyers.”)

Best 10 to 1 Sketch
The Potato Chip Thief
The 35^th season of SNL may go down as the year of the 10 to 1 sketch (that is, the last sketch of the night, so named because it airs at 10 to 1, or 12:50, or perhaps because it has a 10 to 1 chance of success).  Leading the pack, of course, was the potato chip thief.

Runners-Up:
Doorbells and More
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/new-doorbells/1184648/
Before this concept was ruined by guest appearances from J. Lo and Gabourey Sidibe, Tina Tina Chaneuse was Jenny Slate’s breakout performance.  Tina Tina was very cute and endearing.  It was like, “Aww, look how hard she’s trying to be successful.”  Bonus points to Bobby Moynihan as the incredulous doorbell ringer.

Census Interview
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/census/1226117/
A revisiting of the classic Tim Meadows-Christopher Walken census sketch, this did not quite meet the heights of its forerunner, but that would have been a lofty goal to reach.  Unlike many other great 10 to 1 sketches, it embraced the throwaway nature of the last show of the night and had a feel of “now that everything else is out of the way, let’s have some fun.”

Best Episode
Jon Hamm/Michael Bublé (1/30/10)
Highlights included the Closet Organizer, “Hamm and Bublé,” the bad stenographer, and the reappearance of the Closet Organizer in a later sketch, a gag I believe that SNL has not pulled in over ten years.

Runners-Up:
Charles Barkley/Alicia Keys (1/9/10)
When I saw the Charles Barkley episode, I was satisfied, though it did not strike me as a season high point.  But then I took another look at it, and realized that we had MacGruber, Reel Quotes, the return of Make-a-Wish recipient Danny Hoover, the Booty Call Digital Short, and Scared Straight – really, not a single bad sketch.  Somehow, a Charles Barkley-hosted episode was one of the best of the season.  Really.

Ryan Reynolds/Lady GaGa (10/3/09)
A few sketches that I very much enjoyed the first time around (the Osmonds vs. the Phillips on Family Feud, the “On the Ground” digital short, Barkley on Update, the Norwegian Actors’ Playhouse on International Masterworks), a couple that get better the more I think about them (So You Committed a Crime … And You Think You Can Dance, and International Masterworks, again), and an iconic musical guest.  Not a single misstep, except the dumb appearance from GaGa and Madonna on Deep House Dish.

Notes:
Alec Baldwin tied Steve Martin for most hosting appearances with 15, while John Goodman, who has not hosted since 2001, languishes in third place with 12 … Most surprising host: Blake Lively … Most disappointing host: January Jones … Charles Barkley became the first professional athlete to have hosted more than once, sort of.  Tony Danza, who had a boxing career in the seventies, hosted twice in the eighties, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who got his start as a professional wrestler, has hosted thrice.  I do not count Tony because it was his acting career that made him famous enough to host, and I do not count The Rock because professional wrestling is not really a sport … Most bizarre trend: the underutilization of capable hosts (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Blake Lively, Ryan Phillippe) in supporting roles … And in case you happened to miss it, the Black Eyed Peas performed on SNL this year.

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.