Monday Morning Quarterback: SNL Season 34, Episode 11

Posted by Jesse December 15th, 2008 at 10:02am In SNL

OK, this time for real: Amy Poehler actually bid farewell to Saturday Night Live on the Hugh Laurie/Kanye West episode. As with her surprise appearance the week before, it was a relatively low-key affair wherein she turned up to do Weekend Update and a popular character reprisal. For the latter, Maya Rudolph came on to send off the pair’s recurring Bronx Beat sketch. This sketch always goes on a bit, but its lengthiness actually feels true to the rambling believability of Poehler and Rudolph’s characters, and you could sense Poehler’s delight in nearly cracking up Hugh Laurie. Poehler has never slipped into the giggly self-satisfaction of say, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon cracking only each other up, but she always seems tickled when cracking through the resolve of professionals like Laurie or, in her old Regis & Kelly sketches, the usually poker-faced Darrell Hammond. Bronx Beat has never been one of my absolute favorites, but it is an inarguably well-observed and well-performed bit, owing almost entirely to Poehler and Rudolph’s skills; they’re simply two of the best SNL players ever.

The long Bronx Beat sketch set the tone for a night of long but mostly not drawn-out sketches. Most SNL episodes this season have featured about fifteen different segments; this one had just eleven. Take out the monologue, Kanye performances, and Update, and you’re down to just six sketches and one Digital Short. There weren’t many of the quick shots the show has been throwing out over the past few years: Many of the sketches were fairly elaborate, ensemble-based productions (though Bill Hader’s presence was disappointingly peripheral after a killer appearance on Conan last week, promoting this very episode).

It paid off, though: sketch for sketch, this was probably the strongest episode of the season. The inexplicably hostile family dinner was an impressionistic symphony of pettiness; the wedding toast bit was a fairly hilarious parade of oddballs; and I felt the absurdist touch of Andy Samberg behind Lamps!, the heartwarming holiday tale of furniture that comes to life, panics, and takes hostages. A simpler, two-character sketch about a holiday letter written from the point of view of a deceased family cat. Hugh Laurie performed admirably throughout; not especially surprising considering his beginnings in English comedy.

A few of the Update jokes still felt a little rough, but Poehler and Meyers took it out on a high note with one final “Really?!” segment. Also, I was initially skeptical about Fred Armisen’s impersonation of another politician of color, but his David Paterson appearance went on long enough to move beyond cheap shots at our governor’s physical disability and on to delightful knocks at upstate New York (yeah Schenectady!) and Paterson’s apparent distaste for Jersey:

Oddly, the Digital Short was one of the weakest of the season and one of the only shrug-worthy bits of the episode, unless you object to Kanye West’s new autotune addiction, and for the most part I don’t, especially with that cool video silhouette looming over the stage. Poehler’s send-off was sweet, but the episode provided plenty of hope that the show, as always, can go on without a particularly bright star.

Episode Grade: A-