This weekend’s Jude Law–hosted Saturday Night Live ranged from sporadically entertaining, to sleepy, to tedious. Law wasn’t bad, actually — his high energy was admirable, and he seemed enthused to be on the show again after his last appearance was marred by Ashlee Simpson’s lip-synching fiasco (which he poked fun at in his opening). But the multiple parodies of Law as an ac-tor — including his monologue about Hamlet and the Hamlet casting sketch — felt strangely off. Law isn’t known as a theater personality; his public caddishness is the quality you’d think the SNL writers would work with (they only touched on it once, in the bizarre Indian kid talk-show-host skit), but who knows, perhaps Law wasn’t into that joke.
The big hitters took it easy this week: Wiig showed up as an egotistical actress in the “Secret Word” skit, in which Law played a Russian ballerina with a big package, Sudeikis was all but absent from the entire show, Hader did his usual creepy-host routine, Fred Armisen returned as the cranky courtroom stenographer (does anyone think this skit is funny? Anyone?), and Kenan came in for a hilarious take on Whoopi Goldberg’s urine leakage ads. So that made room for the newcomers, of whom Bobby Moynihan was the standout. His Eric Massa impression was spot-on, and the Twilight Zone parody, in which he played a not-so-threatening monster on the wing of a plane, was entertaining in its ludicrousness (yes, it was random, but we’ll take laughs where we can get them). Samberg’s “Boombox” digital short, which featured Julian Casablancas, was chuckle-worthy, but the conceit just wasn’t funny enough to sustain an entire song. Also: Old people French-kissing is just gross. And Jerry Seinfeld popped in for a “Really?!” Weekend Update segment, in which he and Seth Meyers ragged on Eric Massa (again). Seinfeld! That two-minute sketch was unquestionably better than the collective hours of The Marriage Ref. On to our favorite and least favorite skits of the night.
Best
The Broadview Security commercial, in which Andy Samberg breaks into Nasim Pedrad’s house after a party, was dead-on in its parody of the absurd Broadview ads that show seemingly friendly men breaking into lonely women’s mansions. The appearance of Abby Elliott as K.D. Lang was an inspired touch.
Worst
Talk Show With Ravish. This unfunny, vaguely offensive sketch featured Nasim Pedrad as a genius Indian boy whose father, played by Fred Armisen, pushes him into becoming a talk-show host. Ha-ha, Indian kids are good at math! Their parents are overbearing! Turbans! This skit deserves its own “Really?!” rebuttal. There was remarkable laziness in the skit’s use of well-worn Indian stereotypes for laughs. And when the actual Indian extras finally came on in the end, we shuddered with awkwardness.
