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Andy samberg wife cameo12/14/2023 Lifetime’s New Reality Slate: Fix Your Hair, Fix Your Teeth, Fix Your Cryptically Race-Related ‘Inner Glow‘ June 5, 2014.Forty Emmys is a lot - the most for any show in TV history, actually - but the best prize still lies in front of the show, not behind. Maybe this finale had a retrospective quality because the show hasn’t yet decided what its future should look like - and that could be a good thing. SNL is approaching its 40th year (the show will celebrate the occasion with its own three-hour special next February 15), and it has a lot to be proud of, including that it’s seen tougher times before and has managed to bounce back again and again. Samberg’s Blizzard Man sketch (“I wear a shirt in bed / ’Cause I’ve got Eggo waffle nips”), even though it did include 2 Chainz (2 Chainz for host! 2 Chainz for host!), had very little juice in it when it first appeared, and this time it was running on ether. I’m never one to hate on “Waking Up With Kimye” or the Swarovski girls (this time hawking Bulgari watches, and featuring Wiig and Samberg as a pair of formerly conjoined, mustachioed porn-star twins Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dong - guess which one got the penis?), but even they seem to be running out of gas. It’s also possible that SNL’s big brass recognize this, and that the cast and crew will undergo huge renovations before the next season starts. ![]() It’s a flawed mentality, because we all view the show through our own nostalgic lenses, but it is possible this season will be remembered more for its controversies than its punch lines. During this season’s worst moments, it was enough to make even an optimistic SNL fan into one of those crankypantses who groans that the show ain’t what it used to be. Even Mooney and Bennett’s productions have had to compete with comparisons to SNL’s Digital Shorts, and nobody wants to be up against that. Unfortunately for the eight featured players (including Jost), it’s been a tough competition for screen time while Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett have carved out their own pretaped niche, John Milhiser, Mike O’Brien, Brooks Wheelan, and Noël Wells can get lost in the crowd. Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Cecily Strong were all promoted to repertory players this season (with Strong cohosting at the “Update” desk, first with Seth Meyers, then Colin Jost), and all three of them have become standouts, easily filling the gaping stage voids where Wiig, Hader, and Armisen once stood. Well, here’s hoping that Leslie Jones continues to make it weird at 30 Rock, because I certainly prefer this take on a black woman and all the “ouch” she brings to Kenan Thompson’s take in assorted wigs and dresses. … if Leslie Jones had done her bit on “Comic View” or “Def Comedy Jam” or at a random Sunday on Hannibal Buress’ night at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn - where there are a TON of white people, but the lens through which they watch is BLAAAAAACK! - she would have killed! And she may have been heralded as one of our (black people’s) favorite types of comedians, one who goes there! But because of the venue and the audience, it felt weird. Kamau Bell said in a great response posted after the episode: Responding to criticism by altering the internal dynamics of the show was crucial, and the conversation sparked by Jones’s bit was important as well. The show also added two black women to its writing staff, including Leslie Jones, who appeared on “Weekend Update” earlier this month with a very divisive monologue. Prior to her arrival, female black characters were given to Kenan Thompson in a wig, or shelved until Maya Rudolph was available for an appearance. ![]() Many good things happened this season, including the addition of Sasheer Zamata, the cast’s only black woman. It wasn’t a nostalgic celebration of the performers who were wrapping up their tenure at SNL - no exits have been confirmed, yet - but a nostalgic celebration of its own recent past. SNL’s last two season finales were mostly notable for the good-byes: Abby Elliott, Kristen Wiig, and Andy Samberg departed after Season 37, and Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Jason Sudeikis exited last year. (Tim Robinson, who spent only one season onstage, was ushered off to the writers’ room.) This weekend, Saturday Night Live wrapped up its rocky 39th season by packing the show with so many alumni and special guests that one sketch, a revival of the face-sucking Vogelcheck family, featured only two current cast members. It’s not unusual for a finale to invite a gang of celebrities and departed cast members to help it along, but this time it seemed excessive.
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