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Saturday Night Live Season 36 Episode 17

Zach Galifianakis/Jessie J.

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 3/12/11

Live from New York, it's... Jason Sudeikis!

Sketches include "CBS Selection Sunday," "The Talk," "The Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy," "Scared Straight," "Zach Looks For A New Assistant" (Digital Short), "Noodles the Dog," "Celebrity Scoop," "Corn Syrup Producers of America," and "Titanic Survivors."

Jessie J. performed "Price Tag" (featuring B.O.B.) and "Mamma Knows Best."moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

Zach hosts

7.0

By thefanof, Apr 04, 2011

Zach brought energy to the show, but frankly I just do not think he is that funny.

Selection Sunday: A bracket for "insane" people. Andy Samberg had another terrible attempt at an impression, this time with Dick Vitale.

Monologue: Zach did stand-up, much like Russell Brand did. Uh, I guess he is mildly clever, but really, he's not that funny.

The Talk: Two segments in and already another CBS show parody. Disaster of a segment.

Kings of Catch Phrase Comedy: There really aren't comedians like this anymore, so it was a tad irrelevant. Vanessa Bayer's "crazy" one was probably the closest to a believable character.

Scared Straight: Zach brought energy to a tired sketch and I actually liked the "nuts and taint" remark, but it is time to retire this.

Digital Short: Waste of time as Zach searched for a child assistant to help him keep up.

Weekend Update: A few good lines, nothing more, nothing less.

Celebrity Scoop: Kristen had a nice exaggerated version of the accent, but I am not sure what the others were supposed to be doing. Corn Syrup: Mildly clever angry take as Nasim Pedrard defended corn syrup to an overbearing Kristen. Bobby Moynihan ruined it though, like he usually does.

Titanic: Clever sketch as Zach, the captain of the ship, pretended to be a woman to get on a lifeboat, despite them all knowing. I liked the remark about wondering about the reviews after they said how they saw his penis as he went to the bathroom.moreless
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Okay... the jokes are done... that was the last joke...

7.0

By whoaitsconner, Mar 20, 2011

Our host tonight is not a new face to Saturday Night Live. He hosted last March, and he, himself, KILLED, while the episode as just pretty good. Zach Galifianakis is by far one of the most familiar faces of comedy in the past year or so. His weird sense of humor guarantees a good episode.

Our musical guest is a new face... almost completely. Jessie J is from Europe, and her music has came over to America with her big hit, "Price Tag". Virtually, she's one of the "stars-over-night" type. Just last year, she was singing and subways, and this year, she's performing on television. It's exciting to see her perform on her first American television show.

Final Four, Political: This was a great twist on the March Madness. I've really liked the two March cold openings, and I hope they can keep it up for April too. Bill's Sheen was hilarious to see tonight, and it made me forget how scarily unfunny the situation is actually becoming.

Monologue: It's hard to top last year's fantastic monologue by Zach Galifianakis. But he did. He killed it. This was the best monologue I've seen, almost ever, in SNL history. His hilarious impressions of characters he's made were hilarious, and the use of the "Annie" soundtrack was absolutely hilarious. Anybody who has a taste in comedy must tip their hats to this performance.

The Talk: I heard this got cut a while ago... I see why. This wasn't that funny, and there wasn't much of a premise. It was more of an "impression sketch", but, most of these people are not household names. I know Abby's impression as "the lady from King of Queens"... and that's it. I had NO idea who Kristen's impression was, though I laughed a lot at her repeated "..Hello." I loved Vanessa's Sara Gilbert... it was actually really convincing that it was her. And, Nasim's Sharon Osborne was just as good as Amy's. So, the impressions were there, but the writing wasn't. Zach being in the audience was pretty funny, though, interrupting, and I loved when Kenan randomly appeared as Whoopi.

The Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy: This was pretty funny. It was okay at first, when it was just the four of them, but it REALLY took off when they showed even more cast members playing random "catchphrase" comedians.

Scared Straight: This again... but I can't complain. I don't mind this recurring sketch as much as some that are over-used (like in season 35). The lines were especially over the line funny tonight, with the awfully weird and concerning ways they came up with gay sex jokes.

Zach Looks For A New Assistant: Not as funny as "Zach On Your TV" or whatever it was last year, but it was still pretty funny. The children's reactions were pretty funny to his all ready hilarious personality. Overall, it still made me chuckle, and it was a good sketch.

Musical Performance: Jessie J, along with B.o.B. perform the popular song, "Price Tag". It was a good performance, and I give Jessie credit for the live instruments. She has a hell of a voice.

Weekend Update: A good Update tonight. Kristen's Julie Taylor commentary was very funny, while Andy's Liam commentary did not need to come back. It was just copy-and-paste teenage boy sex jokes... and still pretty disturbing.

Noodles: By far, this sketch was the best of the night, right along with Zach's monologue. The bizarre twist was hilarious, and I'm sure it offended many people, with the choking part, as it was never posted online. I laughed though, at the ironic turn of the sketch.

Celebrity Scoop: This was probably the dullest sketch of the night. Nothing too special here, but I did love the passive way of "we're not going to talk about these people".

Musical Performance: Jessie J performs "Mama Don't Know". I loved the switch between the swing beat and the rock beat, and it was a really cool song, rhythmically. I can tell Jessie can write.

Corn Syrup: The turn of this commercial to Nasim making Kristen feeling horrible about herself was hilarious. And, Bobby at the end topped the sketch right off.

Titanic: This was your typical ten-to-one sketch. It was still funny, but, it was pretty predictable.

Tonight's show was a pretty enjoyable one. There were some sketches that were weaker than usual, and maybe should have been better being completely cut, and having another sketch put in, but there were also some really good sketches in tonight's show. Zach demonstrated just as much versatility as he did when he hosted last year, and you can see the cast likes him. Even though I gave this show the same score as last year's show hosted by Zach, I enjoyed this one better. I think by March of last year, any show showing some original sketches and comedy was gold to me, so that explains that.

A potential pattern of Zach's hosting gigs is that the cast is usually featured more in the spot light, even with such a good host such as Zach. I guess Zach enjoys letting the cast members perform. No matter what, whether its Zach performing or this year's cast performing, it's usually a pretty enjoyable thing to watch.

Jessie J was an impressive musical guest. The use of live instruments, and her style are unique, and I think she'll do well in her "American journey".

April 2nd, we are graced by the presents of Sir Elton John. He will be hosting and performing. Interesting choice.

Next week (or last night, since I didn't post it), a repeat of the Jeff Bridges episode, and then, a repeat of the Russell Brand/Chris Brown episode.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Don Pardo

Announcer

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Zach Galifianakis	Himself	Guest Star
Jessie J	Herself	Guest Star
B.o.B	Himself	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (1)
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- Zach Galifianakis: I wear a lot of Axe body spray, but I live in a black neighborhood, and it's called Ask body spray. If you don't get that joke, then you're not racist. (turns around to look at the black bassist in the SNL band) He liked it...
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NOTES (4)
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- Sketches/segments not shown in the 60 minute version: Julie Taymor segment on Weekend Update, Jessie J's performance of "Mamma Knows Best," "The Talk," "Celebrity Scoop" and "Titanic Survivors."
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- Sketches cut after dress rehearsal: a woman's (Kristin Wiig) infertility is caused by her husband's (Zach G.) multilayered pants; game show contestants (Kristin Wiig, Bill Hader) must sound of various names within certain timeframe; Bene (Zach G.) discusses various hairstyles with guests (Taran Killam, Abby Elliott, Kristin Wiig); '70s Albums (three parts)- a man's (Jason Sudeikis) idea for album is thwarted by injured hand; and on Weekend Update, Ira Glass (Fred Armisen) and his assistants (Nasim Pedrad, Abby Elliott) discuss the importance of NPR.
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- Paul Brittain, Taran Killam, and Jay Pharaoh did not appear in any live sketches.
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- This episode marks the sixth time in SNL history that a foreign-born artist (and the fifth Briton) has made their American network television debut on the show. The others were Kate Bush in 1978, Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984, The Tragically Hip in 1995, Ms. Dynamite in 2003, and James Blunt in 2005.
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