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Finally! A funny episode of ‘SNL’
Even Lorne Michaels is on the record calling the 2006-2007 season a “rebuilding year” for “Saturday Night Live,” but the Dec. 16 episode was easily as funny as anything that’s been on the show since “Lazy Sunday” or that Natalie Portman rap thing.
After last summer’s bloodletting (Chris Parnell, we’ll never forget you), expectations were not exactly high for this go round, especially with former head writer Tina Fey off defying expectations at “30 Rock” and taking SNL go-to host Alec Baldwin with her.
But the new cast has proved at least decent and, like many a cast before them, seem weirdly energized when a host actually has decent comic timing. They get even more juiced when that host happens to be a musical guest.
Like his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears before him, Justin Timberlake displayed surprisingly sharp timing and pro-grade pipes that made the musical sketches snap and pop.
The obvious highlight was “A Special Box,” also available in uncensored form as, “(Beep) in a Box.” An “SNL Digital Short” written and shot by the Lonely Island crew (not surprisingly, also responsible for “Lazy Sunday” and the Natalie Portman thing), “A Special Box” featured Timberlake and Adam Samberg, decked out in their Color Me Badd finery, laying out a slow jam about how to make a special gift for that special lady.
“Step one/Cut a hole in the box/Step two, put your junk in the box/Step three, let her open the box.” Pretty much perfect and killer YouTube fodder, largely because, as these things go, it’s a pretty well-written song. Or at least an accurately written one — I’d say that R. Kelly could make it a hit, except he already sort of has.
In fact, the whole ep felt like a keeper, from Jimmy “Gee, maybe leaving wasn’t such a hot idea” Fallon and Timberlake’s close harmonies and white suits on the “Barry Gibb Talk Show” to Timberlake’s genuinely bizarre appearance as a stoned Target stock boy.
Only complaint: Wouldn’t “(Beep) in a Box,” featuring a word that rhymes with box, scan better than “(Beep) in a Box?” Just a thought.
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