Saturday Night Live kicked off its 42nd season Saturday, and boy, did it deliver the goods. Ryan Gosling served as host and delivered a handful of memorable sketches, though one struck me as particularly delightful. I won't spoil the details, but Gosling as an obsessive graphic designer (or at least someone with an appreciation for graphic design) is terrific.
Perhaps it's because my company just underwent a rebrand and I got a glimpse of all the craziness that goes into design work. Perhaps it's the idea that someone could be so passionate about a movie poster that's nearly a decade old. Or perhaps it's just a really funny sketch. Whatever it is, it's a winner. Enjoy!
Jimmy Fallon hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend, and it had a handful of enjoyable sketches. Perhaps the most hilarious, though, was the very last one of the night. Fallon and Mikey Day serve as extras that are trying to simply play some basketball behind a dramatic scene starring Pete Davidson and Kenan Thompson. However, these extras don't really know much about basketball, despite having great experience like taking a sports movement class at Juilliard and starring in a recreation of Basketball Diaries
Michelle Obama has been a fantastic First Lady. She's worked hard to improve the physical health in this country, improve our educational system, and has shown women everywhere how to carry themselves with dignity, class, and grace.
I'm not alone in feeling this way. The Tonight Show had fans record goodbye messages to the First Lady, and they're incredibly heartfelt and touching. The best part? Michelle and Jimmy Fallon are backstage watching people record their messages. When they're finished, they get greeted by Michelle and Jimmy. And everyone's reactions are wonderful. Check it out, and thanks Michelle. We'll miss you.
Having Dave Chappelle handle the opening monologue for Saturday Night Live seems like a bit of a gamble, particularly when the episode he's hosting is the first one in a world where we know Donald Trump is going to be our next President. But while you never know what Chappelle is going to say, you know it's going to be poignant. That was certainly the case on Saturday night, and his monologue is well worth watching. Let's get more monologues like this, please, SNL.
Benedict Cumberbatch hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend, and while many of the sketches were uneven, this one cracked me up. Cumberbatch plays a college professor who gets a little too enamored with Chad, the delightfully ignorant character Pete Davidson plays. Chad has made an appearance in SNL once before, as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' pool boy, but he's even better here, despite having an even more limited vocabulary. The juxtaposition of the two characters is wonderful, and makes for a delightfully entertaining few minutes. Enjoy!
The Olympics have already been riveting, with plenty of intrigue and strong performances. The swim teams in particular have done great, with Katie Ledecky breaking world records by like 67 seconds, and my second cousin Ryan Held helping the men's 4x100 freestyle take home the gold. It's spectacular to watch.
Equally as spectacular is these many carpool karaoke performances the swimmers do. It's weird, it's silly, and it's 'merican. Enjoy. And for a full list of Olympians in each car, here ya go:
Hey! Bernie Sanders supporters are a feisty bunch. But Seth Meyers has a reality check for y'all. He reminds us that voting for a write-in or third-party candidate won't end as well as you'd think, and suggests that perhaps all these folks skipped history class. Well, class is in session, and Professor Meyers is lecturing HARD.
Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis played long-lost brothers on the Fox TV show The Last Man on Earth. One of the running jokes on the show is that they love to sing duets, but only one song ever makes an appearance on the show: REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling."
By the time the pair appeared on The Tonight Show, their routine was fully perfected. Host Jimmy Fallon loves to sing as well, but the "brothers" may have him beat.
Ricky Gervais claims that he's a brilliant impressionist, and Jimmy Fallon wanted to put him to the test. The Tonight Show host challenged Gervais to do as many impressions as he could in 30 seconds. To be fair, Gervais was being a little cocky Star Fox and brought it on himself, but Fallon is more than game to give him some names to impersonate. So...how did Gervais do? You'll just have to check out the video above to find out.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Jim Gaffigan has five kids, and finding the right gift for dad is "not a layup." So he took to The Tonight Show to give his ultimate gift guide for anyone struggling to find the perfect present for pops. If your gift this year was a letdown, bookmark this for next year. You'll have a great chance to make things right.
The Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon both greatly benefit from having The Roots as their house band. Not only do they provide terrific music, they offer awesome side sketches, like their "Classroom Instruments" chaos, and they can slow jam with the best of them.
The latter was on display, as Fallon welcomed President Obama into the studio for a little slow jamming of the news. It's marvelous, and a terrific reminder that we never have, and likely never will, have another president quite like Barack Obama. Let's enjoy these last few months he's in office.
Sometimes entire Saturday Night Live sketches revolve around the same joke being driven into the ground, ad nauseum.
As a former SNL alum, Seth Meyers knows this, yet it didn't stop him from inviting Andy Samberg to perform a cut sketch from 2006 that features Samberg repeating the same line about "hitting the head" at a work party. The sketch, called "Wanna Come With?" features Kenan Thompson and Greta Gerwig.
And yet, despite literally being the same joke over and over again, Samberg's delivery, plus his 2006-era hair, is worth the price of admission. That price? Zero dollars, because this is a YouTube video. Enjoy.
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is all about its ridiculous games, and it's even better when the guests are very willing participants.
John Krasinski was out promoting his new Broadway play, Dry Powder, and he joined the host in playing "Word Sneak," one such ridiculous game. In it, the two men each get a list of words they must casually work into conversation. It's stupid and silly, which is a pretty good formula for a laugh or two. Enjoy!
You may remember the very blank stare from Eli Manning after big brother Peyton's Broncos scored the final touchdown of Super Bowl 50. Both Manning brothers have come out and said Eli was simply thinking football, and dissecting whether Peyton and the Broncs should have gone for two. They should have, did, and converted. Amazing.
Of course, Peyton is having some fun with all this. He appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and had a conversation with a cutout of Eli, the joke being that this is just his routine look. And honestly, that's not that far off.
Saturday Night Live came back for its first episode of 2016 last night, and while the start was pre-empted by football (let's learn how to defend a Hail Mary, okay NFL?), there were still some quality sketches. One was a pre-recorded parody of Undercover Boss, with host Adam Driver portraying Kylo Ren, his character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Check out the clip above, and see if being a dark overlord is all its cracked up to be. Will the minions figure out radar technician "Matt" is really their boss? Let's find out!
Fact: I've only been a groomsman once in my life. Another fact: I've never been a bridesmaid. So I don't know if there's any credence to what Mindy Kaling is saying in this clip, but as being a groomsman wasn't THAT hard, I'm kind of inclined to agree with her. She and Seth Meyers talk about wedding duties, including giving a toast. Hope you don't mind public speaking.
Pictionary is still a terrific game, even though I'm dreadful at it. And Jimmy Fallon knows that, so he invited LL Cool J, Rose Byrne and Big Sean to play with him. LL Cool J claims that he cannot draw at all. He soon proves himself correct. Enjoy the shenanigans.
Thanks to Thanks Mom Productions, we have a mashup of Jurassic Park and Parks and Rec. It basically just combines Chris Pratt's scenes from the upcoming Jurassic World and his Bert Macklin madness from Parks and Recreation into one trailer. Honestly, I'd rather just see a few minutes of Bert Macklin highlights, but I guess this'll do.
Password is one of my favorite game shows, just because it's a nice combination of actual intelligence/cleverness and complete idiocy. That's in full effect here, when Jimmy Fallon played the game on The Tonight Show. Jim Parsons makes up the other half of "Team Jimmy," and together they take on Emma Thompson and Michael Cera. All sorts of rules are just trampled on in this game, but oh well, it's still an entertaining segment.
These little lip-sync-offs are never anything new, but hey, they're always entertaining. In this bout, Jimmy Fallon takes on Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. A trio of talent!
