Saturday Night Live: “Bruno Mars”

I’m making an attempt to review a Saturday Night Episode so I’m going to preface this, similar to how Bruno Mars did in his monologue, by stating that I’m a little out of my element here. Although SNL is considered a TV show, it’s a whole different ballgame critiquing a structured, scripted show than it is to critique a collaboration of funny sketches and musical performances. So we’ll see how this goes and decide later if this should be a recurring segment.

Tonight we get double duty from Bruno Mars as he is both the host and musical guest. I don’t know a ton about Bruno going into this episode other than I've heard 6 or 7 of his songs and seen a couple of his music videos. Personally I’m not a fan of his but not so much in a way that I oppose everything he does. I’m just hoping SNL has enough wherewithal though to not put someone out there that can’t do anything comically.

Sketch One: Town Hall

We’re leading off, of course, with the town hall debate that took place on Tuesday. And also as predicted the undecided voters of New York are going to be the driving force of most of the jokes. This poor Jeremy kid gets poked at one more time, this time by Fred Armisen playing a 38 year old version of him. We get a great moment when Jay Pharoah’s Barack Obama asks: “Candy is he bothering you?” as Jason Sudekis’ Mitt Romney insists on talking about four more things. This is followed up by Taran Killam standing up and shouting: “Let me at him Dad.” And Mitt responding: “Sit down Tagg. Not now.” Then we get a superb surprise guest appearance from the great Tom Hanks and he asks his deeply profound and well thought out question: “Libya?” The debate escalates as Governor Romney hilariously begins pushing President Obama as he’s trying to speak. All in all I’d say they did a pretty good job with it, but I think there was some more untapped potential they didn't quite hit.
Grade: B

Monologue

Bruno at least makes it clear he doesn't deserve to be the host based on his lack of doing anything comedy or acting related. Make that blatantly clear. He breaks into song and dance about how unsure he is about performing on Saturday Night Live as host and at this point all this opening song is doing for me is reassuring my huge doubts that Bruno Mars should be doing just that. One lyric of the song actually relates this outing to that of Justin Timberlake who has also pulled double duty recently. You’re not even close to that status yet Bruno so stop putting the cart before the horse. Rough start here.
Grade: D-

Brad Pitt Commercials

There ended up being four Brad Pitt commercials for various products but I’m going to sum them all up here. I really love Taran Killam’s Brad Pitt so much and this was a fantastic way to incorporate that character. His first commercial is for Chanel Cologne where he describes it as “Pitt-ilicious.” Next up is the story of how Brad Pitt travelled across a seemingly endless desert to arrive at Taco Bell, home of the eloquent Dorito’s Loco Taco. Thirdly, Pitt is selling us “Dog Condoms” because our pets have every right to be freaky if they want to be. And finally, we see that Brad must be really hard up for some cash because he is now endorsing local tattoo remover: Doctor Zizmor.
Grade: B+

Sketch Two: Haters with Sunny Taylor Tompkins

“Don’t you boo me.” Bobby Moyhinan legitimately gets better every episode he’s on. “They are haters and they don’t know how to process all of this.” Says Moynihan as he’s points to his rump while dressed in drag. From this point on the sketch takes a big nose drive as the spoof of your typical trashy talk show doesn't have enough meat at its core to carry the side jokes. Also lets face it, it’s not much of a stretch having Bruno pull off looking like a woman…

Yikes

Grade: D+

Sketch Three: Pandora Radio

I really like the premise of this sketch. The power has gone down at the Pandora headquarters and some of the specific channels are going out one by one. The only person that can save the day is the intern Devin (Bruno Mars). Sudekis looks square in the eye and states: “Pandora is counting on you right now.” After that though it gets pretty light on humor and relies on Bruno having fun singing the songs for a wide array of different artists. Not the greatest sketch ever but at least they had a lot of fun with it.

Grade: B-

Sad Mouse

This had a very similar feel to it as the Digital Shorts. We see Bruno Mars playing a guy down on his luck and takes a job as a costumed mouse who has to wave at people on the street. I kind of really liked this, a lot. It had a weird, brilliant feel to it and I hope this is the new thing SNL does by making these little indie movie-like shorts. Plus it has a beautiful ending as Sad Mouse gets to find love with Sad Frog. Amazing!

Grade: A+

Music Break Number One

Bruno Mars sings “Locked out of Paradise” from his new album.

Tough to judge because I’m not a very big fan of Bruno so I’m a little biased. I will say that I’m glad he went with a highly upbeat song to keep the audience in it. Too often of late we've seen the musical performers pay a slow or deep song that kind of drains the crowd for the rest of the night.

Grade: C+

Weekend Update

Most of the jokes hit here like they usually do on Weekend Update however I was caught a little off guard by the sketchy joke about candidate’s skin color among rural voters. Something just wasn't right there and you could tell by the audience’s reaction as well. We also got a segment of great “Debate Do’s and Don’ts” which gave way to a rare Ruben Studdard reference. My favorite headline was for a new product that relieves the pain from burning your tongue or the roof of your mouth and as Seth Myers explains it as: “Finally a scientific alternative to WAITING A MINUTE!” And then. Making his first appearance of the season. Our favorite correspondent. Stefon! The gift that keeps on giving. Bill Hader completely lost it this time making the sketch even more hysterical. I’m so very happy. That had to have been the longest Stefon sketch to date and I’m not complaining.

Grade: A

Sketch Four: Merryville Haunted Castle

As a couple gets stuck on a carnival ride they slowly begin to realize that the singing robots may be alive and seeking their lives. Good idea to use Bruno in a sketch where he doesn’t have to talk as he plays one of the Merryville Brothers. And the robotic brothers really do creep me out in these sketches. This one also get the added of bonus Tom Hanks. He’s back. Robot Tom Hanks Trying to feel-up a girl is just hilarious. I don’t care who you are.

Grade: A

Sketch Five: Yeti Point

Too much Bruno here. The dramatic stare at the camera didn’t work from the start. The ending with Hader eventually being serenaded by our Yeti friend was the only salvation in this sketch gone wrong.

Grade: D-

Musical Break Number 2

Bruno Mars sings another new song “Young Girls” (I think that’s the name of the song) as we near the end of the show.

Like I said before, I don’t think he’s an atrocity to the music industry like many of the other big Pop performers of today, but he’s just not my guy.

Grade: C+

Under-underground Records

The final segment of the night is another addition of Under-underground Records, this time the “Donkey Punch the Ballot” edition. We get tons of great references here and funny combination names for people and places associated with politics and hip-hop.

Grade: A

I’d say that ended up being a pretty excellent episode for host Bruno Mars and musical guest Bruno Mars. The addition of Tom Hanks certainly didn't hurt but I wouldn't be opposed to Bruno getting another shot in the future.

First Saturday Night Live review is over! And that took forever. If I’m going to do more of these in the future I’ll have to figure out how to shorten them. Until then, SNL returns November 3 and it could be really great. Louis C.K. is hosting with musical guest Fun.

What did you guys think? Comments are always welcome.