SNL: Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi hosted this last week's SNL and I was surprised to hear/see that the Foo Fighters were booked as the musical guest...so that means only one thing...lots of music and fewer sketches than normal because Bon Jovi was sure to perform at least once, if not more, along with the Foo Fighters.

The show starts out with, guess what, an Amy Poehler sketch. It is a 'flashback' sketch to the 1980's and Amy dreaming about Bon Jovi and John magically appearing in her bedroom to give her words of advice about the future. Isn't this just a rehash of the Seth Rogan monologue except now it is an actual sketch? The writers of this show are lazy and lazier.

John comes out for his monologue, which as anyone could have guessed, which was just a transparent intro to Bon Jovi playing a song...must have new album out, huh? Richie Sambora fucked up his one line...Bon Jovi did cover it well. What is ironic about this monologue is that it begins with Bon Jovi stating how he was only on the show for the comic/acting part and not for any musical portion, yet in less than 2 minutes they are performing a tune.

Then was what is becoming a SNL staple, an unfunny, mock gameshow. I'll give this one credit, it wasn't as unfunny as other recent mock game shows, but still, not funny.

Then was Darrell Hammond as Al Gore in Gore's 'trophy room'. This sketch was really lame and got old quick. It begins with Al showing all his awards he received from his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" and goes on to show all the awards that Al won that didn't involve the movie...which were immunization records, a participation award for punt, pass and kick as well as O.J. Simpson's Heisman Trophy that he bought. Overall, pretty boring... I have really tired of SNL's attempts at mocking politicians.

Andy Samberg's digital short "People Getting Punched Just Before Eating" was probably the best item in this last week's SNL, even though the ending was pretty lame. And I continue to say that this is Samberg's best stuff and they should just relugate Samberg to his digital shorts just as it seems as if the only time you see Seth Meyers now is on Weekend Update.



The Vinny Vedecci sketch, which was on last season and not funny, makes an appearance in this episode and still lame. It is just a sketch where they can allow the host who is pimping a new album, movie or show be 'themselves' and Vinny (Bill Hader) speaks Italian and lack of comedy ensues.

Weekend Update was nothing spectacular. Maya Rudolph had a part as a 'immigrant' that was to become a new writer due to an impending strike. If there is indeed a writer's strike on SNL, I doubt it could get worse with any fill-in writers.

Iconoclasts sketch seemed like it would have a funny premise and I actually liked Kristen Wiig as Bjork but Keneen Thompson in any sketch is almost a buzzkill right there, and it just didn't pan out. Again, Wiig as Bjork was mildly entertaining and then after her setup, Thompson's line would kill any momentum the sketch had.

I did enjoy Jason Sudekis as Dane Cook mocking the MLB Playoff promos. Just short and ridiculous enough to make you laugh...and maybe short enough is the key here! Sudekis is probably the funniest guy on the show that gets any consistent airtime.

The final sketch of the night was almost as obvious as it gets...making fun of how the band named itself Bon Jovi. Again, fairly unfunny and seemed as if the show was just trying to fill time in between Bon Jovi songs and Weekend Update.

The show then concludes with, yes, a Bon Jovi song. The Foo Fighters got to play one song and Bon Jovi had 2 songs...why even book a musical act unless your intention is to give the writers a week off.