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Videos: Melissa McCarthy Hosts Best <em>Saturday Night Live</em> Episode Of The Season (So Far)
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 7, 2013
Modified Apr 7, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 7, 2013
Modified Apr 7, 2013
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Last night, Melissa McCarthy proved herself one of the best modern SNL hosts—during one of the best episodes of the current Saturday Night Live season—through a mix of deft physical humor and utter commitment to strange characters. This followed the very good Justin Timberlake episode from a few weeks ago. But while that episode was filled with all-star SNL alums and lots of returning characters touching on Timberlake's greatest SNL hits, McCarthy's episode was full of new sketches and weird tangents. Dare we say it: could SNL be on a (relative to its current state) roll?
Here's one thing that could be aiding the show: the guest writers. Last night's episode featured none other than Kids In The Hall alum Kevin McDonald lending a hand to the script, which may explain the Kids In The Hall vibe we were getting from the Mike Rice/Rutgers scandal sketch, one of the best of the evening. The first post-monologue sketch of the evening featured a lot of funny pre-taped material leading up to a live interview between McCarthy's bullying coach and Bill Hader’s ESPN reporter.
McCarthy was also excellent in the "Honey Baked Ham Bake Off" sketch (unfortunately not online), in which she performed a bizarre dance backed by two hams to the Jock Jams soundtrack. The other killer sketch was McCarthy's pizza eater looking to get a loan, which ends with McCarthy in slo-mo snatching some pizza.
The monologue was charming, mostly for McCarthy's dedication to the bit and Taran Killan (this season's MVP) appearing with manufactured smiles to perform a song-and-dance number (echoing McCarthy's first SNL appearance). And how could we forget a superlative Weekend Update, highlighted by Vanessa Bayer's Bar Mitzvah Boy Jacob (who mentions his cat David Ben-Purion) and the return of always hilarious Drunk Uncle—who brought along Peter "Drunklage" Dinklage for some Game Of Thrones-inspired ramblings. Dinklage got perhaps the best line of the night: “You know what’s in my Tumblr? Regret.”
And best of all, there were no dud sketches in the episode! Okay, that's not true: the cold open about North Korea was a typically dull and unfunny cold open; even an appearance by Dennis Rodman couldn't bring any life to it. And the Wheel of Fortune sketch wasn't very good, despite McCarthy's best efforts.
Click through for all those highlights, plus performance by Phoenix. And let's all hope Dinklage gets to host soon.
Tagged
melissa mccarthy
saturday night live
snl
original
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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