SNL: Hugh Laurie – Blood Sausages and Singing Lamps
As a longtime fan of Saturday Night Live, I take it especially hard when it, you know, sucks. I was excited to a slightly embarrassing degree after hearing Hugh Laurie was hosting. I suppose that’s the problem, really. If one expects mediocrity, one will seldom be disappointed.
The funniest part came early on. Maya Rudolph came back to join Amy Poehler for one last Bronx Beat with Betty and Jodi (this was Amy’s final show). Their guest was Jeffrey Billings (a clean-shaven Hugh), from Billings Butcher Shoppe. After getting a taste of his British accent, they spend the rest of the sketch smacking their gum while fanning themselves, asking him to “say words”, and throwing not-so-subtle sexual allusions his way (“I’d like to give you a Christmas goose.”). While running down an innuendo-laden list of animal parts to figure out his favorite (rump, thigh, center cut…), Amy says, “No, you like the tongue.” At which point, they actually manage to crack Hugh up. As talk shifts to the fouler British cuisine (seriously, what’s with all the blood?), the girls rightly note that even his accent can’t make blood pudding sound appetizing. The funniest line of the episode, for me, came when they were talking about sweetbreads: “You think you’re gettin’ a cake? You lose. It’s pancreas.”
Other than that, there were a few mildly amusing moments:
· The wedding toast gone horribly wrong. The microphone is passed to a slew of horror-show guests. Ex-boyfriend talking about sex with the bride, senile old guy counting cars, stranger with oxygen tank asking for a ride, friend-of-a-cousin racist who preaches about love.
· Kristen Wiig dictating an email full of kitty puns to Hugh, who says, “Do you really want to write a Christmas letter from a dead cat?”
· Fred Armisen’s Gov. Paterson impression during weekend update. He craps on New Jersey, makes light of coke-snorting, and declares Hillary’s senate seat shouldn’t be filled by an elitist but by “someone with, like, a gamey arm. Or maybe the giant gums with the tiny teeth.”
Flop: The singing, murderous lamps. I can enjoy the absurd as much as the next guy. And I get how this may have seemed like a funny idea (perhaps late a night, maybe a certain herb was involved) but it just didn’t work. Sample lyrics: “Being a lamp is a crazy life/Kooky old owner and his crazy wife/Anything can happen if your head’s a light/ Except you can’t feel love.”
I guess my biggest beef with SNL this week is that they had a host with a background in sketch comedy and they wasted him. To appease my disappointment I am going to share a moment from Hugh’s old show A Bit of Fry and Laurie. This is the first sketch from the first episode. Enjoy!
