Some Random Thoughts About SNL 36x15: Brand/Brown

Russell Brand hosts SNL for the first time tonight. While he has never previously appeared, his wife, Katy Perry, was musical guest for the season premiere this season. Brand doesn't appear to be in any movie coming out soon, so his appearance is curious. Stand-up comedians are historically mediocre as SNL hosts, so it will be interesting to see.

Chris Brown is the musical guest tonight. It is his first appearance on SNL.

Some random predictions:
-I'm sure Perry will pop up. Just this week, Glee has done 2 of her songs, and she cameoed on HIMYM.
-We're really due for a What Up With That
-Musical guests have been prominent in sketches this season, so I'd expect Brown to factor in somehow. One would assume a YouTube Wedding/Forever sketch is a bit out of date (plus can you really improve on how The Office used it?) but we'll see.

Alright, be back at 11:30!

And it's time to take a break from brief writing for a bit of live blogging. Off we go!

For the record, I'm predicting an absolutely horrendous episode. So let's enjoy.

Sketch 1- And we're doing so Bill O'Reilly, with Jason Sudeikis. Kind of an awkward start. And part 3 of O'Reilly/Obama. O'Reilly doesn't know who the president of Afghanistan is. Pedrad plays Bill's assistant. He's interrupting Armisen the same O'Reilly did for Obama in the real interview. Now he's taking a pop culture quiz. And viewer mail. This wasn't anything special. B-.

Monologue- Brand is in a black suit with a black shirt and black tie. He's honored to be here. He's explaining us that he's much more famous in England than he is here. This is remarkably boring. He's oddly now addressing the subject of my brief. Now he's making Oscar predictions. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman, if you were wondering. Now this is just dragging. We're talking about hepatitis C. And he wishes a Happy Valentine's Day to his wife. People often ask him how it is to be married to Katy Perry, and it's apparently rather ordinary. This is still going on. Not a great start. C.

Sketch 2- Ad parody for Gublin & Green, a law firm that specializes in recovering for people who were injured by seeing Spiderman: Turn-Off the Dark. Including Bono, who had an injury to his reputation. They all got settlements of more Spiderman tickets. Absolutely brilliant. A+.

Sketch 3- Midbreak- we have some front lawn of a house. It's Travel Channel's Ultimate Vacation Giveaway. The host is really excited, and Brand will win and not care. Because we've had this sketch twice before. But Brand with a mullet is at least worth one laugh. I gave this a C+ when it was with Emma Stone. It isn't any different this time. Based on the previous times they've done this, something really basic is going to happen at the end, and Brand will get really excited about that. Every single thing is lasting forever tonight. Yup, the Pottery Barn catalogue does it for him. Same bad sketch a second time? D.

Sketch 4- It's a film ad for a British film that the critics love because it's British and they can't completely understand what they're saying. Don' You Go Rounin' Roun' To Re Ro. Pedrad clearly playing Helena Bonham Carter. The critic's comments are great. Amusing. A-.

Next new episode- March 5 with MILEY CYRUS and The Strokes!

Sketch 5- Midbreak- Looks like some sort of haunted dungeon, or a Vincent Price's Valentine's Day Special. Probably the latter. Nope, medieval England, where Brand is King Reginald and Killam is his food taster. King Reginald has had a day of receiving death threats, and he insults Hader the chef, so the food taster is pretty nervous. Oh, last night the king had the chef's family killed because the steak was a little tough. Oh Hader is also next in line to become king. Now he's just saying he's going to poison the king. This would be one of those annoying one joke sketches if there was one joke. Hader just dumped a bottle labled poison in there. Killam eats it, enjoys it, and dies. Oh then the king stuttered and they called it The Kings Speech. That pretty much made it awful. F.

Music 1- Chris Brown performs "Yeah 3x." That's really the name of the song. I'm not kidding.

Next Sunday there's an "SNL Backstage" special. Just a public service message. The more you know.

Weekend Update- Mubarak. CPAC, "or as some call it Tea Party ComicCon." Christopher Lee. Super Bowl Ratings and Christina Aguilera. And here now, Hasni Mubarak, who is of course a Catskills comedian played by Armisen. This isn't funny. AOL-HuffPo. Iranian foreign food ban. Keith Olbermann on Current TV. Dog return. Superpower poll. Lil Wayne and Eminem debuting theeir new Valentine's Day single. Pharoah and Killam. Pharoah is owning Lil Wayne, except he's missing the grill. Eminem is apparently playing Teller to Lil Wayne's Penn. Then he raps. Not surprisingly, it's mean spirited towards women. Colorado medical marijuana trailers. Go Diego Go porn. Lady GaGa on 60 Minutes. Heated pool. And here's Stefan on the hottest spots for Valentine's Day in NYC. The hottest new clubs are: Boof- an abandoned orphanage from narcolectic club owner Snoozon Lucci, also there's a coked up gremlin. Stefan apparently has a thing for Meyers. Hader is breaking. And he loses it. This one was built on a dare by a 90-year old club owner. It has Jewpids- Jewish cupids who just want you to meet someone nice and settle down. You could also just stay home and give your significant other a human suitcase- when a midget wears all of your clothes and you roll them through the airport. And Seth lets Stefan be his valentine. A weak WU, but Stefan really lightened things up. B.

Sketch 6- Midbreak- we look to have some sort of day care, or kids play place. Oxygen's Living Single. Hosted by Bayer, with Killam as the DJ. It's for you, "whether you're a widow, a divorcee, or just a single gal." Elliott and Wiig are in the crowd. Apparently the DJ is in love with the host, and has asked her out several times, but she keeps saying know because she's better off single. And here's renown pastry chef Damion Cryer, played by Brand. He's successfully seducing her. Still waiting on the joke. I don't think it's coming. Just a waste of time. F.

Sketch 7- Midbreak- Hader, and someone else, are playing old women. Samberg and Brand are also dressed up as old women. They're pretty much just talking like old women. They're having tea. And then there's an earthquake, and they spill tea all over. Hey look, they also have a tall cabinet full of glass. And there's another earthquake. The audience is loving this. I don't know why. This is just total garbage. F.

Music 2- This time Brown asks how the ladies are doing tonight. I feel like female interest must be pretty low. Then he performs "No Bullshit."

Sketch 8- We're closing with a political sketch? They've developed a time machine, brought in President Washington, and they'll see what he says about modern times. The namesake of my alma mater is played by Brand. He procedes to beat up John Boehner. Then Nancy Pelosi stabs him. This is a very odd sketch, and it seems to be in a strange time spot. B.

Overall- This was not a good hour and a half of comedy. In fact, it was rather pathetic. The two recorded segments were excellent, and the opening and closing sketches were alright. But everything else was pretty much awful, and it dragged, as you can see with there only being 8 sketches. D-.