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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 15, 2008
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Saturday Night Live, “Jonah Hill / Mariah Carey” (Season 33, Episode 8) [Stream on Hulu]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: You know who’s been a surprisingly great recurring Saturday Night Live host? Jonah Hill. He’s already hosted the show four times, one away from induction into the vaunted 5-timers club, and every time he’s been incredibly solid. He’s a game performer in sketches that feature him and which ask him to take a back seat to another performer — look no further than the delightfully insane “Liza Minnelli Tries to Turn Off a Lamp” for an example of the latter. He’s got a comedic sensibility that meshes very well with the SNL cast members. And he always manages to exceed what are ultimately low expectations.
By far, the jewel in the crown of Hill’s four performances has been Adam Grossman, the six-year-old Benihana enthusiast whose affect is closer to that of a sixtysomething Catskills comedian than that of a primary-schooler.
If you’ve seen one SNL restaurant sketch, you’ve seen a billion, but the concept of this first Adam Grossman sketch is so strong — and Hill carries it off so perfectly — that it makes itself a stand-out. And despite sharing the screen with the likes of Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Casey Wilson, Amy Poehler, and Jason Sudekis, the sketch is pretty much entirely a one-man show. Hill absolutely nails it; his Catskills delivery is a shockingly great impersonation, and the way that his physicality underlines his characters age, in opposition to his words, is legitimately brilliant. It’s a performance Hill’s been able to nail again and again every time the sketch gets brought back.
In many ways, Jonah Hill is better in these sketches than he was in either of his two Oscar-nominated performances. I’m not kidding!
