Saturday Night Live 3/11/06 (Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys)

[trainman]

Amazing: the opening sketch ended with an actual punchline! I had been thinking that the "SNL" writers no longer knew how to do such a thing.

Also amazing: Horatio Sanz didn't crack up during the Digital Short, so clearly, the key is to have him pre-taped. (I wonder how many takes it took...)

[ah577]

Did anyone else notice that during the opening credits they never announced the band. The picture of "Artic Monkeys" was shown where you would normally hear the voice over announce them, but instead it was just silence.

[Amnesia]

I didn't watch the credits, but I did notice that they announced Antonio Banderas for sometime in April, but didn't mention the musical guest...

[nataylor]

Did anyone else notice that during the opening credits they never announced the band. The picture of "Artic Monkeys" was shown where you would normally hear the voice over announce them, but instead it was just silence.
Don Pardo must have been like "Artic Monkeys?!? WTF? I'm not saying that."

[Turtleboy]

I generally fast forward through the announcements, but Don Pardo messes up from time to time.

[Graymalkin]

I also noticed that no band was named for the next live show.

Other than that, this episode was totally undistinguished. Bleah.

[David Platt]

I though the A**holes at a Travel Agency sketch was pretty darn funny. Kristen Wiig is quickly becoming indispensible on this show.

[getbak]

Kristen Wiig is quickly becoming indispensible on this show.

Yeah, she was in a lot of sketches this week.


"He looked like a rabbit."

[DevdogAZ]

I noticed the silence in the credits when they were supposed to announce the musical guest. I wondered if it was some band with a symbol for a name like Prince had for awhile, but then Dillon said the name at the end of his monolouge. Strange.

[scoblitz]

I only caught a few minutes of the band. Maybe they knew how much they were going to suck and didn't want their name featured so prominently.

[scooterboy]

I thought the episode was fairly weak. Dillon did a pretty good Rod Serling though.

[5thcrewman]

The opening sketch was best. Nice tongues Amy/Maya! :p :up:
Barry Bonds was second best!

[YCantAngieRead]

As always, I enjoyed the Vincent Price sketch. I know I must be the only one, but still, I laugh.

And Kristen Wiig did a decent Kate Hepburn. Who knew she was such a great impressionist!

[trainman]

Don Pardo must have been like "Artic Monkeys?!? WTF? I'm not saying that."

Lorne Michaels must have held a gun to his head or something, because the opening was perfect for the West Coast feed. (Since presumably, the various technicians are pretty busy with the live show, I wonder if they make Don Pardo wait around until the show is over to re-record the opening -- "Wake up, Grandpa! That'll teach you not to screw up!")

[laststarfighter]

OMG, no political opening. Who knew it was even possible? Am I in a time warp or something?

[Alecp]

Did it start early in Detroit (how could a show that's live start early?) - I got the full 1:32 show recorded, but the recording started 30 min into it. Did this happen to anyone else?

[rizzlebizzle]

I actually laughed pretty good at the first sketch. The punchline (credit trainman) was so unexpected! Maybe thats their tactic, lull you with semi-funny sketches, and then whammo, get a good one. Couldn't believe that tongue action! LOL!

I thought the show quickly went down hill. They could have done so much more with Stuart Scott in the Bonds sketch, not sure though if anyone would have gotten it. Ended off with the awful unicorn sketch...wtf?

[jradford]

lol...I thought the unicornery was pretty funny, actually.

Honestly, I thought this was a great episode. Maybe no sketches that will be talked about years later, but solid throughout. The Digital Short was kind of weak, but they set a pretty high standard for themselves.

[jon777]

They could have done so much more with Stuart Scott in the Bonds sketch, not sure though if anyone would have gotten it. Ended off with the awful unicorn sketch...wtf?

Your absolutely right -- as a Sportscenter junky, they could have done a lot more with Stuart Scott, but my guess is that not enough of the audience would get it unfortunately. The Dan Patrick impersonation was poor (at best), but I thought the overall premise was good, and the Barry Bonds part was well done. And the mascot/baby seal picture part was pretty good as well.

Interesting that they used the SC graphics, but not the music. Seems odd to me that they would be able to use one but not both.

If they did a better job impersonating the anchors, wouldn't mind seeing Sportscenter as a Recurring skit...

[TAsunder]

I liked the sportscenter bit, and the unicorn bit was fun just for the "awwwws" from the audience. The stuart scott impression was quite good, IMO.

Dillon really hammed it up, I wish all the guests acted that well. I'm really loving the digital shorts. All that said, it was just an ok episode for me.

[getbak]

Did it start early in Detroit (how could a show that's live start early?) - I got the full 1:32 show recorded, but the recording started 30 min into it. Did this happen to anyone else?

I'm not in Detroit, but I get the NBC feed from Detroit and it started at its usual time for me.