She beat Meryl, she won the Golden Globe, and to cap off her week, Jennifer Lawrence proved a game, funny presence in her Saturday Night Live hosting debut. Lawrence’s opening monologue was adorkably amusing (and, for once, eschewed the show’s trend of so-so song-and-dance routines), her best moments (like Top Dog Chef) were absolutely uproarious, and perhaps most impressive of all, she even managed to score chuckles in sketches that came out of the oven only partially baked (i.e. the “’50s Diner” waitress).
Below, check out my picks (with corresponding video) for the week’s best and worst sketches. And alas, the week was strong enough that Kate McKinnon’s terrific Jodie Foster, that brutally wrong Starbucks Verismo ad, and the Cinemax spoof Danielle: A Free European Woman fell just short of the winner’s circle.
BEST: Top Dog Chef
Every part of this skit was flawless — from names like Padma Leash Me and Tom Collie-Cio to details like the intermittent ringing of a doorbell and that “whisper of urine.” Lawrence’s “someone’s at the door!” freakout was particularly daft. I howled from start to finish.
BEST: Anthony Crispino
Bobby Moynihan definitely wins the cast’s MVP award this week, in no small part due to the wonderful mishearings and misinterpretations of his Second Hand News Correspondent. Listen to his voice go higher and higer as he defends his reporting on subjects like Kim Kardashian still being married to Chris Christie, and the latter being so angry about Kim’s pregancy with Kanye West that “he threw a roller coaster into the ocean.” Genius!
BEST: B108 FM
It’s hard not to love the action at Shakopee, MN’s only hip-hop station, especially because the jokes gets spread among a variety of loopy subjects: The early hours kept by “Richard the Investigator” and “Osama Bin Luscious” (“even Al Roker’s still asleep — YA HEARD?!”); the harrassment of news reader “MC Jiggle Butt” (a perfectly mortified Vanessa Bayer); the perils of having your wife’s kid (Lawrence) as your intern; and even flu season (“Dizziness? I got that!”).
WORST: “Girlfriends” Talk Show
I’m not sure what prompted SNL to bring back a scenario that wasn’t exactly a winner the first time around, but the shenanigans of Aidy Bryant’s square peg and Cecily Strong’s vacuous BFF are already feeling pretty tired. I’m as over it as Lawrence’s NYC-obsessed teen.
WORST: Civil War Love Letters
If this is the kind of dreck that barely utilized Tim Robinson has been waiting to bring to the SNL audience these last few months, then back to the bench with him, I say! And no, the phrase “tit pic” doesn’t get funnier the 114th time you say it.
The Other Sketches
Piers Morgan Cold Open
Monologue
Hunger Games Press Conference
50s Diner
Starbucks Verismo
Danielle
Weekend Update
More Hobbit
12
Really at this list? The Top Dog Chef skit was awful. JLaw deserved better than what the writers gave her. What did you think?