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Videos: Blake Shelton Brings Wishing Boots To SNL As Host & Musical Guest
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 25, 2015
Modified Jan 25, 2015
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 25, 2015
Modified Jan 25, 2015
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Blake Shelton pulled double duty as host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live last night, and it was a bit of a comedown after last week's Kevin Hart effervescence explosion.
It's been such a strong season so far, we were bound to get a dud episode—and despite some excellent ratings, this was definitely one of the weaker episodes of the season. Shelton was perfectly adequate as host, and the show smartly worked around his comedic limitations by making him a straight man in more than one sketch (in particular Farm Hunk, more on that later); the rare sketches where it asked more of him didn't go as well (Magic Show).
It was the first episode of the year with no out-and-out excellent sketches. The best of the evening was probably "Wishing Boot," one of several comedic musical sketches (unsurprisingly, Shelton leaned on fake songs for his first time hosting). The sketch was really committed to making this pass as a legitimate three minute country song, just with dogs being transformed into boots. It was certainly weird and well-written, but not quite surreal enough to be a classic.
The biggest problem with the episode (besides Shelton's lack of comedic chops): every sketch went on 2-3 minutes too long. Sometimes it was a matter of starting slowly (Cold Open), sometimes they just hit the same jokes too many time (Farm Hunk), some became uncomfortably unfunny (Magic Show), and some just were never-ending nightmares (Celebrity Family Feud).
Some highlights: the cold open wasn't terrible! Thanks to the combined powers of Bobby Moynihan and Kate McKinnon, it actually gained momentum and had some real energy by the time the parody of A Few Good Men got underway. This was a good night for slightly outdated (but still welcome) references like that: the Shawshank Redemption by way of Hannibal sketch Parole Board was pretty solid, thanks especially to Kenan Thompson's performance. Farm Hunk may have been an overlong mess, but McKinnon was laugh-out-loud hilarious every time she was on screen. And Taran Killam killed it as a bitter old man who wrote a song for his deceased wife in Topeka Today.
Click through for all those sketches, two musical performances by Shelton, plus a much stronger Weekend Update. Most of this week's guests had some sort of personal relationship with the hosts (Pete Davidson also really shines with his sexually insecure monologues), which seems like a good route to go down to try to keep Colin Jost and Michael Che from lapsing into one-liner, formulaic joke telling. And hey, Riblet is the best.
Next week, we're very excited to see what JK Simmons pulls out for his first time hosting (with musical guest D'Angelo).
Tagged
saturday night live
snl
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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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