SNL This Weekend = Worst Ever

I cannot even begin to express in words how bad I thought Saturday Night Live was this weekend. It was without debate the worst episode I have ever seen. In case you missed, the host was Melissa McCarthy. You may know her from BRIDE’S MAIDS (she relieved herself in a sink). Or you may know her from the CBS sitcom MIKE & MOLLY. GILMORE GIRLS? Maybe I just don’t know what funny is. But I thought McCarthy was as unfunny, unclever, slow on the uptake, winded, and just plain boring as I have ever seen an SNL Host be. I am sorry, people, but I simply do not get this Kristin Wiig Comedy Tree. Not a single one of them are remotely funny to me in any way.

When I found out McCarthy was hosting this weekend, I decided to watch a few episodes of MIKE & MOLLY to see if I liked her in that role. Nope, I don’t. The show was as unwitty and unoriginal as I have ever seen make prime time TV. It looked like something from the 1980’s. Then I found out she won the Emmy for it. Huh? Of course you know how much I hated BRIDE’S MAIDS, and how much I hated her character in it. BRIDE’S MAIDS was the most overrated comedy ever, and the only movie I have ever walked out of early. It was horrible. But it made 150 million, so maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know.

I tried to go into SNL this weekend with an open mind, really give this gal a shot, since she seems to be so popular. The pre-monologue skit (woman with freakishly-small hands or something) was a train wreck. I didn’t even know what was going on. I had no idea how bad it was about to get from then on. In one skit she played Arlene the horny secretary. It was singularly the worst SNL sketch I have ever seen. It was brutally unclever and tragically old fashioned. I was waiting for Gilda Radner or John Belushi to come onto the stage. But then I thought: Even dead, they certainly wouldn’t associate themselves with this junk. Depressingly unfunny. Melissa McCarthy was so bad this weekend, in comparison, it made Robert DeNiro’s train wreck hosting job from last season look like Robert DeNiro’s acting job in RAGING BULL. But guess what? She’ll get good reviews this week from all over America. I just don’t get it, guys, I’m sorry.

At 12.40AM, when McCarthy was puking through another horrid, circa 1978-looking sketch about a panel of You Tube commenters, I did something that I have never done before: I turned SNL off early. So the only movie I have ever walked out of was McCarthy’s BRIDE’S MAIDS and the only episode of SNL (my favorite show on TV) I have ever turned off early was Melissa McCarthy as host. And I went into both with an open mind, I promise you, I did.

Please, I beg you: make me understand why she is funny, why her movies make hundreds of millions, why she wins Emmys for that ordinary, poor man’s KING OF QUEENS sitcom she stars in. As for Kristin Wiig, please, I beg you: make me understand why she is funny. The whole mumbling-fast-under-her-breath thing. It wasn’t funny in KNOCKED UP, it wasn’t funny in BRIDE’S MAIDS. It isn’t funny on SNL. It’s never funny. None of them are funny. But everybody loves them. And I know so many will read this and think SNL was hilarious this weekend, and the reviewers/critics will treat McCarthy like she’s Richard Pryor, the way they treated BRIDE’S MAIDS like it was DUMB & DUMBER. I just don’t get it.

I don’t think it is a sexist thing either. I try to keep an open mind about all comics, no matter what gender they may be. Whitney Cummings’ new sitcom has cancelled after 10 episodes written all over it. But there are moments when it is kind of, sort of funny. There wasn’t, for me, a single moment on SNL last night, there wasn’t, for me, a single moment in BRIDE’S MAIDS, and MIKE & MOLLY is as pedestrian as sitcoms get. Melissa McCarthy wins an Emmy for that but Roseanne never won an Emmy for her show? Um, OK.

Again, maybe I’m all wrong here, but I do not get it. SNL Saturday night = worst episode ever. But the critics will say it was great, and Melissa McCarthy was great. You tell me.

See what I mean: Rave Reviews (huh?): http://www.gilmorenews.com/2011/10/02/melissa-mccarthy-hosts-snl/

Huh?: http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/175418-saturday-night-live-3702-melissa-mccarthy-a-lady-antebellum

Brian Huba
10/2/11