Same As It Ever Was

2010 is off to a pretty great start. I can already envision a few classic Ben catastrophes brewing and couldn’t be more excited for them. Past Ben catastrophes have been known to shit their pants in K-Marts and dangle off cliffs by their fingertips. Really, they’re a pretty damn good time for everyone.

Speaking of pretty damn good times, SNL returns this weekend for the first show of 2010. I know, as kids we all thought SNL would be live in 3-D from the moon by now, with host Martianface McFlyingcar and musical guest Wyld Stallyns. Well, that hasn’t happened yet. Saturday Night Live is still filmed live in 2-D at Studio 8A in 30 Rockefeller Center. The host is still almost always a human being. And the musical guest is almost always a band that actually exists. Just like it has been for the last 35 years.

Sometimes it’s fun to note how much things have changed, other times it’s nice to revel in how much they’ve stayed the same. In a tradition established at this blog, here is the preview for tomorrow night’s episode with Charles Barkley and Alicia Keys.

Charles Barkley, y’all! This could be one of those wonderful catastrophes I was talking about!

My name is Ben and I blogged this.

Re-Post Tuesday: Two Days of Tuesday – Monday Edition

Re-post Tuesday is taking over two days this week in honor of SNL’s Kenan Thompson. Because today is Kenan’s birthday! And if Saturday Night Live can have a Thursday Night Update, I can have a Re-Post Tuesday on a Monday. Also, it’s not actually his birthday. I was trying to find another excuse for being a lazy, re-posting blogger. I had a crazy weekend? Yeah right, no one’s gonna believe that.

If I hear one statement more than all others regarding SNL it’s the one about how funny Kenan has “become.” The Kenan funny tree has been falling for years, we’re just starting to hear it make a sound. Maybe it’s because he’s a featured “feature player” now. Maybe it’s because SNL is hip enough to engage his “urban” talents. Maybe it’s because we finally stopped seeing him as the orange soda-chugging fat kid from that Nickelodeon show. I’m not here to analyze our misconceptions. I’m here to evidence funny. Exhibit A: The Digital Short from this past weekend. Say hello to Reba.

Good luck getting that song out of your head. The best way might be to stick this song in your head to chase it out. Like the old lady from the nursery rhyme who swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don’t know why she swallowed the fly – Perhaps she’ll die. From swallowing a fly? What up with that?

Sorry, I’ve got nothing to get that song out of your head. That nursery rhyme suggests swallowing a cow to catch the dog, but that doesn’t sound right. Since when do cows catch dogs? Anyway, tomorrow we’ll close out two days of Kenan with a couple recurring characters from his arSeNaL. But while we’re on the subject of this past Saturday, I simply must mention the performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as host. I have never seen anyone – Host, cast member, or musical act – work harder than he did on that stage. His monologue took an impossible level of energythusiasm and somehow he found an auxiliary stash for the rest of the night. He was funny, and that was fun to see, but more fun still was watching him to commit to every scene like it was the climax of a Eugene O’Neill play. If anyone anywhere ever danced like no one was watching it was JG-L on SNL this past Saturday.

I’ve long been a fan of his and would have previously watched him in any film role. Now, I think I could watch him pick out apples at the grocery store. Dude can make anything exciting. Which is how some people describe me as a blogger. Yeah right, more people will believe I had a crazy weekend.

My name is Ben and I blogged this.