Some Random Thoughts About SNL 36x14 Carvey/Linkin Park

Tonight, former SNL cast member Dana Carvey hosts SNL for the fourth time. Carvey is most famous for his time on SNL, where he portrayed The Church Lady, Garth from Wayne's World, and George H.W. Bush. Carvey first hosted in 1994, where former President Bush came on to comment about Carvey's impersonation. He came back to host again in 1996, and one more time in 2000. Although he has kept quiet since his 2002 film The Master of Disguise, he brought back his H.W. impression for this Funny or Die video last year.

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

Linkin Park returns as the musical guest for the second time. The first time they appeared was in 2007, also with a former SNL cast member hosting, that time Molly Shannon.

Here are my predictions:
-Rumors are out that Justin Bieber will cameo on tonight's episode. He's been in New York all week promoting his new movie, and has popped up at a Knicks game, and at The Daily Show and The Late Show with David Letterman. I'm sure he'll pop up at least once, if not more.
-I would expect at least Mike Myers, and possible more of Carvey's former castmates to pop up.
-I would expect at least an H.W. impression and a Church Lady sketch.
-We're due for a What Up With That. Fingers crossed.

See you back at 11:30!

Sketch 1- And we're starting out with Wayne's World. That was quick. I have to leave people who were SNL fans during Myers and Carvey's era to be a real judge of this, I started after that era. Anyway, it holds up rather well, and the studio audience is clearly enjoying it. They're discussing this years Oscar nominees, and it's amazing to think the writers can't come up with characters similar to this today. Certainly pumped up the audience with that one. A.

Monologue- Carvey reflects back on his first episode on SNL, back in 1986 with host Sigourney Weaver. Carvey states that while no SNL cast is better than any other SNL cast, this does not include the casts from 1986-1993. This leads him into a song. Wiig agrees that his cast was awesome. Carvey doesn't know Wiig or Hader's names. He mentions a lot of his old characters. And here is Jon Lovitz to help Carvey with his point. Quite amusing. A-.

Sketch 2- Kenan is in a hotel. Oh, this is the black noise promo, we saw earlier this season. It was amusing then, but come on, you can't keep repeating the same ad parodies. It got an A- back on episode 2, so I'll keep it the same. A-.

Sketch 3- Midbreak- stained glass, kinda looks like a churh, what could that mean? Yup, it's Church Chat with The Church Lady. We're taking a look at all the evil shows that have taken over the airways, like Skins "some kind of SportsCenter for pedaphiles." And here are the "holy trinity of sluts," the Kardashians, with Pedrad as Kim "the hot one," Bayer as Kourtney "the smart one," and Elliott as Khloe "the third one." And we get our first "well isn't that special." I wonder if there will be any original sketches tonight. I'm not complaining, just wondering. Now, the star of the MTV show "Jersey Whore," Snooki, as played by Moynihan. And Hader plays a priest casting out the demon from Snooki's body, but Snooki tackles him. Carvey improvs and draws attention to it. And here is Justin Bieber, as himself. Ah, The Church Lady has caught the Bieber Fever. And Jesus calls Bieber his finest creation. It was a long sketch, but for Carvey's most famous character, it makes sense. A-.

NEXT WEEK- RUSSELL BRAND AND CHRIS BROWN!!! 

Sketch 4- Midbreak- Looks like some sort of school or government office setting. Ah, it's VH1's Celebrity Teen Crisis Center. Kenan's teen calls and talks to Hader's Alan Alda who advises him to join a gang. Killam calls and gets Carvey's Mickey Rooney. Pedrad gets Ice-T. Brittain gets Elliott's Anna Farris. Wiig gets Pharoah's Eddie Murphy. None of the celebs are helpful, but it's a nice chance for them to play out some impressions, and I'm all for impression sketches. A-.

Sketch 5- A male version of The Roommate, with Bieber and Samberg. Short and sweet. A.

Music 1- Linkin Park performs Waiting for the End.

Weekend Update- Egypt. Kenneth Cole tweet. "Winners/Losers: Egypt" "you cannot punch the handsome off of Anderson Cooper." Charlie Sheen. Denny's. And here to talk about the Oscars, James Franco, as played by Killam. And it's good. Really, really good. For a second I actually thought it was Franco. Sean Diddy Combs lawsuit. Trained dog. Long fingernail woman. Christina Hendricks' cleavage. Talking about the weather storm, Wiig as a meteorologist/former disco queen. That pretty much goes how you'd expect. Mini tattoo. Chinese New Year. Empire State Building Run-Up. That was a decent Update but Wiig's character killed it. B-.

Sketch 6- Midbreak- This kinda looks like the Live with Regis and Kelly set. Sidenote- Has Sudeikis appeared tonight? I don't think so. It is in fact Live with Regis and Kelly. Carvey is Regis, Pedrad is Kelly. Carvey's Regis is brilliant. Pedrad's Kelly is, uh, not. Brittain is an okay Gelman. We're discussing potential Regis replacements. Anderson Cooper, Howie Mandel ("a seal with a soul patch"), Mark Consuelos. Regis is going to start the Regis network. And here's Kathy Lee, here to say goodbye. Guess what? She's drunk. And now she's singing. Mediocre, but the Regis was great. B.

Sketch 7- Midbreak- There's a lot more of the midbreak look-ins lately. This time all we saw was a shiny curtain. Carvey and Kenan are playing pageant coordinators. Oh it's a little girl pageant. Bayer is an 11 year-old in a ridiculous dress. Elliott is a 10 year-old in a ridiculous dress. Wiig is also in a ridiculous dress. She won the Little Miss Maybe You Heard About Me Pageant. Now we have a 5 year-old Pedrad with a parasol. Samberg is a boy, and the rules state he's allowed to be in pageants until he is 11. One day he wants to abolish the 11 year cut-off point. This is just raw time killer, but if this is the low point of the episode we have a solid episode. C+.

Sketch 8- An ad for an Elliott character who will spread bad news for you. She does firings, divorces, and her rattling off of nothing apparently works. She doesn't do pets or hospitals. Nothing spectacular, but I always approve of use of Elliott. That seems like it could've been filmed months ago and was just sitting there until there was an open spot, so that worries me about the last couple of sketches tonight. B-.

Music 2- Carvey, Myers, and Lovitz introduce Linkin Park who are appearing in black and white for their song When They Come for Me. It is odd. Very, very odd.

Sketch 9- We're at a Packers bar, and look, Jason Sudeikis showed up. And there's an odd band, The Fingerlings, with Armisen, Carvey, Hader, and Killam. They're playing as the game starts, which is frustrating the fans. That seems to be the only joke. Everyone left the bar. That's all. Not good. D.

Overall- A top heavy show, but the top was so unbelievably good that it held up a weaker ending. Carvey brought out an energy that SNL needs to succeed. And even Bieber was funny. A-.