This past weekend, Maya Rudolph—whom, as I may have mentioned once or twice, ahem, I love like a loved thing made from love with lots of little lovey bits all over it—hosted SNL, and it was pretty terrific. It was approximately eleventy billion times better with a professional doing the hosting, not searching for cue cards every five seconds, and, unless I'm mistaken (I was chatting with Iain and Kenny Blogginz through some of the broadcast, as per usual), they managed to air an entire episode without rape jokes! IMAGINE THAT!
Even better: Amy Poehler dropped by for some of the skits, and to do a very memorable "REALLY?!? With Seth and Amy" in which Poehler and Seth Meyers tackled Darrell Issa's contraception hearing (Meyers: "Meanwhile, both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum use the rhythm method, and, with five and eight kids respectively, it seems like they might have even less rhythm than we thought."), Foster Friess' aspirin-between-the-knees gag (Poehler: "Well, we'd love to accept your apology, Foster, but you made a mistake, and now you're going to have to live with that mistake for the rest of your life. REALLY!"), and Virgina's proposed bill to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions (Poehler: "Now, don't get me wrong: I love Transvaginal—it's my favorite airline! I got so many miles on Transvaginal that I always get updated to Ladybusiness!").
Better still: Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler together again for "Bronx Beat." As a person who spent her childhood summers listening to the ladies talking on the stoops in my grandmother's Queens neighborhood, I always love this sketch with the passion of 10,000 suns. "It's 2012! We're all gonna die anyway! Live your life!" Done and done!
Also loved: The Maya Angelou Prank Show and Cosby Obama.
But my favorite of the night was the "Super Showcase" sketch, in which Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig lampooned "The Price Is Right" merchandize models. There was nothing about the sketch that was super innovative or searingly clever: It was just Rudolph and Wiig speaking with the same funny cadence and acting supremely silly. Then: The best of all SNL moments—Wiig broke, then Rudolph almost broke, then Bill Hader (playing the gameshow host) broke. Comedy gold.
Video Description: A female contestant loses the Super Showcase after incorrectly answering "beef" for an unheard question the correct answer to which was "nine." Then Shonda and Vonda (Rudolph and Wiig) show her what she WOULD have won—his and hers matching luggage by Luggage Guy; a one-day-no-night stay at a Pebble Beach golf resort including his and hers matching golf clubs by Golfer Guy; a lifetime supply of frozen chicken by Chicken Man; and a mantle clock for your mantle by Clockenfrau. Throughout, Wiig is driving around in a golf cart, and eventually crashes through the back of the stage.
Next Week on Saturday Night Live: Back to mostly white men and rape jokes!
Which, you know, is pretty sad. Because I got A LOT of emails about how great this episode was and/or how great individual sketches were. Women are funny (breaking news!) and rape jokes aren't (breaking news!), and it's possible to do an entire hour-and-a-half-show centering both concepts.
They just usually choose not to.
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