Do you guys even remember how exciting Satuday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday was at the very beginning of its run? It was appointment TV at its finest. Hip young people would stay at home on a Thursday night just to watch it. And the cast! Oh man, they don't make cast-members like Amy Poehler and Seth Myers any more. Those guys were the originals. When Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday began it was hip, it was fresh, it was new, it was edgy. It mattered.
Now, man, it's just not the same. It's exhausted. It's just coasting on its former glory. I mean, the first time Kenan Thompson came out and was all, "Fix it!" it was hilarious. I literally busted a gut. I had to be taken to the hospital and given medication. Now it's just not the same.
Or maybe it's even better. Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday pulled out the big guns for its third and final episode. Will Ferrell took a rare break from starring in middling sports movies to reprise his role as George W. Bush. Remember that guy? He was like the Sarah Palin of his day.
Even more excitingly, Tina Fey, America's sweetheart, returned as Sarah Palin in a killer opening sketch where Ferrell's Bush tried to endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin against McCain's will. There was some priceless physical comedy as Darrell Hammond's McCain tried to pull away as Ferrell's W tried to convince voters that when they enter the voting booth come election day they should be thinking of him and enthusing about McCain will carry on his legacy.
There is nothing remotely precise about Ferrell's Bush. But it is definitive all the same. In playing Bush as an overgrown child, Ferrell captured the ineffable essence of the great man even if he fudged the particulars and Fey's Palin deserves all the kudos and attention it's receiving. God willing, Fey will be able to permanently retire her most beloved impersonation in two weeks.
After such a star-studded opening the rest of the show couldn't help but feel like a letdown. Accordingly, this was probably the weakest Weekend Update of the bunch. I am really getting sick of Meyers' "Ain't I a stinker?" face and the jokes were workmanlike at best. Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen showed up to do bits that felt like the kind of shit that would get cut from a Daily Show and Thompson has already run that whole "Fix it!" bit into the ground. Still, the opening sketch was pretty fucking sweet.
Well, folks, it looks like this is the end of the Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday TV Club blog and I am out of here. Next week brings more 30 Rock goodness. Has anyone seen this show? I hear good things. Incidentally, I hear the first episode back is available on the interwebs. Has anyone checked that shit out? Aw, man, am I ever psyched. Almost as psyched as I was when Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday began its glorious run long, long ago.
Grade: C+