Jmunney's Blog

5/5/12: Eli Manning/Rihanna: Guess what?  Little Eli may just be the best quarterback in the Manning family.  Now, yes, he absolutely has a ways to go to catch up to Peyton statistically, but he does have more Super Bowl rings, and that is no fluke.  But … the topic at hand is hosting SNL.  Peyton Manning is hands down the best athlete host in SNL history, and Eli has never really indicated that he has the charisma to match his brother when it comes to endorsement deals or television appearances.  All I’m saying is, Eli may want to take some pointers from big brother.
RiRi appears for her third time, for the third season in a row.  I’m not sure what songs she’ll be peforming, though.  “We Found Love” is the only major hit from her most recent album Talk That Talk, and that has already peaked.  The best song she is a part of right now is Drake’s “Take Care,” which I would be happy to see a performance of, but that seems unlikely, as Drake was already an MG this season.  This seems like a perfect time to dip into the classics and whip out that “Umbrella.”

5/12/12: Will Ferrell/Usher: I keep thinking that Will Ferrell has only hosted season finales, but he has actually hosted one season finale and one second-to-last episode of the season.  So, with this third hosting appearance, it will still be true that he has only hosted the last or the second-to-last episode of the season.  Anyway, he is the greatest SNL cast member of all time.  ‘Nuff said.
Usher (like Will Ferrell the host) has only appeared on SNL in May.  During his two previous stints, he was reliable for fun club-bangers like “Yeah” and “Love in This Club,” but if his current single “Climax” is an indication of what he has in store for May 12, then I am not excited.

4/14/12: Josh Brolin/Gotye: You all may have forgotten that Josh Brolin has already hosted once before.  What with Sarah Palin and Mark Wahlberg stopping by, as well Brolin’s W director Oliver Stone commandeering his monologue, as well as musical guest Adele having her first big break, there wasn’t much memorable from that episode that actually featured the host (except for that “I’m No Angel” sketch with a very pregnant Amy Poehler that keeps inexplicably being included in SNL clip shows).  Brolin seems like a nice guy, and he’s a fine actor, but, in my estimation, he doesn’t quite have the the temperament for sketch comedy.  Hopefully, the writing will be solid.
“Who’s Gotye,” some of you may be asking.  Well, his parents gave him the Dutch name “Wouter,” whose French version is “Gaultier,” for which “Gotye” is a fairly close phonetic approximation.  Anyway, you may have heard his song “Somebody That I Used to Know,” featuring Kiwi chanteuse Kimbra.  And you may be surprised that a tune that sounds like an art-rock piece from Peter Gabriel in his heyday has, as of this posting, charted as high as 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.  The music video is a brilliant piece of visual accompaniment, and hopefully Gotye will present something like it on the SNL stage.  (Also, Kimbra’s Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/kimbramusic) implies that she will be there to join Gotye, so that’s good.)

4/7/12: Sofia Vergara/One Direction: I had an inkling Sofia Vergara might host this season, as she seems to be the IT member of the Modern Family cast.  I would have preferred Ty Burrell or a return appearance by Ed O’Neill, but Sofia is certainly a capable comedienne.  I do fear, though, that the material may descend into ethnic clichés, but SNL seems to do that more with British folk (although, granted, there have been more British than Hispanic hosts).
One Direction?  I can understand booking a boy band – if they’re the biggest thing in the world.  One Direction might – might – be headed in that direction.  They were assembled on The X-Factor – the U.K. X-Factor!  Yeah,  I suppose they’re aiming to break into the U.S., but SNL isn’t known for breaking this type of band, and I don’t see why they would want to change that.  But I’ve heard their song “What Makes You Beautiful,” and … I don’t hate it.