Saturday Night Live: Larry David / The 1975
February 7, 2016 12:06 AM - Season 41, Episode 12 - Subscribe

Who likes Bernie Sanders references? The 1975 is a British Modern Rock band with dancy stylings.
posted by rhizome (23 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
God, I tried to watch all of this, but Larry David gives me a pounding headache and simply isn't funny. That opening monologue went on and on and on, hammering away at the same tired joke. We get it, Larry. Your act is to be an asshole. In the end, I could only make it as far as The 1975's first set, but had to succumb to the headache.

They should have had Bernie host and Larry make a cameo.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:48 AM on February 7, 2016


What even is The 1975. Someone apparently pulled the stake out of Michael Hutchence. Put your tongue back in your mouth, Hannah Montana. Ridiculous.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:14 AM on February 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm mid-Bernie Sanders bit right now and I'm just... This is tired, right? Its not just because I've not yet finished my coffee? And that opening monologue? Feh!
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 9:59 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Titanic bit now. Is every one of these just going to be "what if Larry David were dripped in the middle of..." .....and oh my god is that ACTUAL Bernie Sanders?!
What is even happening with this episode?
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 10:04 AM on February 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


What even is The 1975

Right?! God that was unpleasant.
I suspect what's happened is someone found a group of kids who tried to dress up as The Cure for Halloween and fed them lyrics that had been prepared for the latest teen boy band of the minute.
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 10:16 AM on February 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


At least Jon Rudnitsky finally showed why Jon Rudnitsky is in the cast.
posted by Gary at 10:22 AM on February 7, 2016 [8 favorites]


I dozed off before the end, but I thought it was...OK? "Bern Your Enthusiasm" was a fine kickoff, I thought it was done well. The Titanic thing was definitely a, "Larry out of water" joke. And the police thing I thought was good, to me possibly the best Cecily role in a long time (I'm not huge on Cecily). It may not have been great, and it may not have been all the Larry that the world wants, but it was certainly no worse than any of the celebrity-vehicle episodes in this phase-of-Lorne the last few/several years.

"Sturdy Barbie" was the germ of a good character that should have waited a few more episodes to be worked over, at least until she figures out this kinda, "'The Californians' goes to Philly," accent she was pushing, but this is the one week per decade to make a "New Barbie" joke, so it was probably rushed.

But the thing that I noticed, and this may affect my opinion about SNL going forward, but was the news like 20+min long?! I looked at the clock afterwards and it was almost 12:30.
posted by rhizome at 10:55 AM on February 7, 2016


We only saw Update so far, but my spouse turned to me after the Rudnitsky bit and said "We just watched his audition, didn't we."
posted by Etrigan at 11:21 AM on February 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Jon Rudnitsky finally got his chance to shine and I spent most of that time focusing on Colin and Michael's reactions in the background.
posted by ckape at 11:25 AM on February 7, 2016


I followed it, and I can tell it was good, but I haven't actually seen "Dirty Dancing" so I'm not sure of its fidelity to the original. /s
posted by rhizome at 11:30 AM on February 7, 2016


Jon Rudnitsky gets a thumbs-up from me for selling moments of jumping-rope with someone's intestines, pouring gasoline on a mangled corpse, and being killed in front of his mother in a police shoot-out... all in a wordless dance routine to "I've Had the Time of My Life." Between that and the return of the Totino's Pizza Roll (notice the minimal involvement of Larry David), I'm happy enough with the episode.
posted by psoas at 11:39 AM on February 7, 2016


At least Jon Rudnitsky finally showed why Jon Rudnitsky is in the cast.

Seriously! We liked this episode, but we like Larry David (for the most part and I thought his monologue was mercifully short) and if you didn't, this might have been intolerable.

"Sturdy Barbie" was the germ of a good character that should have waited a few more episodes to be worked over

One of the few times I've seen her do a bad accent and play a not-quite-funny character, she is usually on top of everything. Watch Colin do some last minute (what seemed like) ad-libbing over the Republican walk-on gaffe was enjoyable. I also liked Cecily in the cop thing, she's better when she gets to show her range.

Is Sasheer off the show? She wasn't in anything last week and I didnt' even see her at the end this week.

Pizza roll thing was a nice save to something that I was really scratching my head "What is this it's fucking awful" over.

I love Pete Davidson but he really can't carry a sketch.

Did everyone skip last week's episode on MeFi?
posted by jessamyn at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


In the cop bit, the "Mark Armstrong" or whatever the orange Larry David character's name was, was that a pop culture reference I'm not aware of?
posted by rhizome at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2016


I assumed it was some kind of in-joke for New Yorkers.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:57 PM on February 7, 2016


He reminded me of the free money guy, but I don't think it was supposed to be anyone specific.
posted by ckape at 2:59 PM on February 7, 2016


Weekend Update was fun, and that's about the only reason I still watch SNL...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 4:51 PM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Colin fell down a bit with that "well it's your month" quip.
posted by rhizome at 6:06 PM on February 7, 2016


This was a perfectly cromulent episode. I laughed several times. The rest of it was fine, cute, and/or amusing. The trick is you have to go into SNL expecting it to be awful and let it surprise you. If you expect it to be awful and then it is and then you watch it again you have no one to blame but yourself.
posted by bleep at 9:13 PM on February 7, 2016


at least until she figures out this kinda, "'The Californians' goes to Philly," accent she was pushing

Now that Tina Fey's laid out the frame of the Philly accent for the cast everybody wants a chance to try it on. Her bit had a lot of Philly notes but yeah there was other stuff mixed in. She doesn't have it down yet.
posted by scalefree at 7:18 PM on February 8, 2016


I love Pete Davidson but he really can't carry a sketch.

Man, I am so glad Pete shines when at the Update desk, but yeah, they need to find where his range lies in the spectrum of SNL-funny. Because he is totally funny and adorable and gawky at the same time. There's gotta be so much potential for funny characters in that lanky frame of his.

And yeah, where's Sasheer? Usually when someone's not on the show for two weeks in a row, not even during the final goodnights, it's not a good sign. She's another underutilized cast member, I think. I loved the sketches with her as a teenager having a youtube show and Kyle Mooney as her doesn't-want-to-be-platonic boy friend.

Oh, and I thought that episode was pret-ty pret-ty good.
posted by not_on_display at 10:52 PM on February 8, 2016


And yeah, where's Sasheer? Usually when someone's not on the show for two weeks in a row, not even during the final goodnights, it's not a good sign.

Last week she was in the Bachelor parody and #OscarsSoWhite sketch. I agree on her being underutilized. Heading into an election year filled with old white dudes and Hillary doesn't bode well for her. Hopefully they can find something better for her than playing debate moderators and audience members who asks questions.
posted by Gary at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2016


Hopefully they can find something better for her than playing debate moderators and audience members who asks questions.

THIS. add to that "game show contestant as foil to funny character" and "black woman at dinner table" -- i would love to see her adopt more characters and range. Cecily and Kate and Vanessa seem to get all the quirky characters, Leslie is just Leslie, and Sasheer doesn't even get much of anything in ensemble pieces like the Town Council Meeting sketches.

(OMG I am so in love with Kyle Mooney's Dutch Deejay character.)

(And yes, Jon Rudnisky FTW, very happy to see what he can actually DO.)

(And The 1975 is what you get when you mix Michael Hutchence with Bo Burnham, I am pretty sure.)
posted by not_on_display at 8:30 PM on February 9, 2016


On rerun, the thing that I totally missed in that genius Rudnitsky bit: Kenan (and presumably some female cast member) was singing.
posted by Etrigan at 9:27 PM on June 11, 2016


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