We knew from the get-go that "Saturday Night Live" was going to go heavy on Osama bin Laden this week -- but who knew that the numerous sketches featuring the former Al-Qaeda leader would somehow steal the hype away from Tina Fey's uproarious impression of Sarah Palin?
That is precisely what happened this week, as the bin Laden jokes came early and often -- and were largely funny. After a dry cold-open that featured bin Laden's "last will and testament," we saw his dead body featured later in a brilliantly random (though a bit loosely constructed) sketch spoofing "The Little Mermaid." Even in the Fox News sketch featuring Fey's Palin impersonation, bin Laden was a hot topic among some of the prospective Republican candidates. (Who ever thought that we would see impressions of both Donald Trump and Michelle Bachmann would could as close to beinf as funny as Palin?)
In case this past paragraph didn't give it away, this was a particularly funny week for "SNL." It seems as though the extra break allowed everyone the chance to come up with some more clever sketches, and the first half of the show may have very well been the best all season. Tina's opening monologue was probably the weakest, if for no other reason than that "SNL" seems to think now that we want to hear song-and-dance numbers rather than comedic introductions these days. (Plus, the pregnancy and Mother's Day jokes were a little more tired.) We had a spectacular Digital Short featuring Michael Bolton expressing his love for Captain Jack Sparrow (in one of the more random tie-ins in quite a while), and the Weekend Update even had some laughs (particularly when Stefon came out to express his rabid love for Seth Meyers).
After the Update, the show did teeter off a bit -- as is the case often on this show. But hats off to Fey (who managed to make the show more about humor than herself) and all of the cast for delivering a mixture of "we saw that coming" humor mixed with a bit of the unexpected.
What did you think of this episode? Check back Sunday morning for video footage!
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