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Swooping in like a limber modern digital deity, there he was again. And once again it was the best thing on the entire show that week. On March 7th, Justin Timberlake, who just days before had made alumni Jimmy Fallon's late night talk show debut bearable, showed up yet again on Saturday Night Live. Just like he has so many times before, the pop superstar played foil to cast member Andy Samberg. On this occasion he was Irving the henpecked and hot to trot husband of comic book character Cathy, played in full drag by Samberg. The skit, which featured an eye popping and padded cameo by Timberlake's long term girlfriend Jessica Biel as Jessica Rabbit, who was recently voted the sexist cartoon character in a poll conducted by Cadbury Dairy Milk, makes you wonder if multi-millionaire singer is getting paid scale by NBC, because lately he is truly the often insufferable late night institution's only saving grace.
Few would have guessed back in 2002 when JT went solo from boy band 'N Sync that he would endure to become somewhere between the total entertainer of Sammy Davis Jr and the blank slate of Andy Warhol of our time. The New York Observerthinks Executive Producer Lorne Michaels should hire JT, a consummate performer who emerged virtually unscathed from the Janet Jackson breast-flashing incident at the 2004 Super Bowl - I think the NY Observer is on to something. Something, like the death chokes of Britney Spears' career, we've all known for awhile.
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The usually coma inducing Saturday Night Live had an adrenaline injection during last year's Presidential election thanks to former cast member Tina Fey's unbelievably acute take on Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. That, plus Amy Poehler's power crazed Hilary Clinton, which was more intuition than impersonation, and the cameos that Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and a thick skinned Palin all made on the show, put SNL in the heart of the political arena.
Well, those days of glory are long gone and SNL has returned to its tepid routines ... unless the frequently in the house 28-year old Justin Timberlake is on board. In a celebrity inversion that only a legitimate superstar can pull off Timberlake is fully conscious of how famous he is and how by playing against playing against character hilarious he can be. Start listing the skits and shorts, Timberlake has been in and the Grammy winning singer, who has also appeared in films such as 2006's Alpha Dog, 2007's Shrek the Third and Mike Meyer's Golden Raspberry winning Love Guru, soon has another greatest hits compilation as a comedian.
There was the famous "D*** in A Box" song with Andy Samberg that Timberlake did on December 16, 2006, his second stint both hosting and being the musical guest on SNL. The video, which you can see by clicking here, proved so enduring it was turned into a novelty toy, an unofficial single some radio stations started playing and part of the set in Timberlake's Madison Square Garden show in early 2007. The most popular of Timberlake's SNL stints, the R&B parody even won an Emmy. That alone would make most cameo careers but not for JT and not for SNL. He's played Bee Gee Robin Gibb on the Barry Gibb Talk Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2005. He was a competitive Christmas charity Cup O Soup in 2006.
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On November 15, 2008, Timberlake played one of Beyonce's leotard wearing back up dancers for a gender bending new version of her "Single Ladies" video. JT partnered again with Samberg when he appeared in the truthfully crude "J*** in My Pants" short as a greasy grocery store janitor in December 2008.
The all time best JT SNL experience was the time in November 15, 2008 when Timberlake had to drop out of a promised performance on the show. Now I know that sounds weird, but full of apology and jokes about texting Jessica, he appeared during the show's Weekend Update segment and did an entire Saturday Night Live, including musical performances, in two minutes flat. It was a true tour d'force that revealed in an era when so many of us are criticized for not having long attention spans that it's quality that counts not quantity.
In a dead giveaway that Saturday Night Live is in trouble, March 14th sees another former alumni back on set to host the show. 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan, who was a SNL cast member from 1996 to 2003, will be treading the boards and American Idol alumni Kelly Clarkson will be hitting the high notes as the musical act. A pretty steady line up. Then again, At this point, if it's Saturday Night, you are almost as assured of seeing Justin Timberlake on SNL as you are any of the full time cast members like Andy Samberg or Seth Meyers … and JT is actually funny.
I say why should Justin Timberlake just stop there? Besides owning Saturday Night Live, he stole Madonna's "4 Minute" single and video from under the Material Girl and with his last minute addition to the show with Al Green, saved the Grammys this year. I should, as Richard Nixon would say, make one thing perfectly clear - I do not like Justin Timberlake's music. I find it way too static, way too shrilly produced and way too dated even by the time it's released. And I really don't like Justin's haircut, which he claims he does himself, and that's nothing to be proud of. What I like about Justin Timberlake is that, unlike almost all reality TV stars and most of Young Hollywood, he works really hard at being more and more of a cultural presence in a time when few individuals of real drive do. For all his mainstream success on the charts, in every other field, Justin Timberlake is a real risk taker. He could have had an easy inoffensive boy band career of well paid diminishing returns and. Instead he threw it out there much more than most rockers or rappers, with the except of the seemingly endlessly curious and creative Jack White of the White Stripes and several other bands and The Roots, would ever have the guts or the gaul to dare. And Justin is really funny. And on a comedy show, where funny is in sad short supply, that's a great asset.
Perhaps Timberlake, who seems to like being on SNL more than onstage in front of the screaming thousands, should start showing up on other lumped shows and events to liven things up. Somber old Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was all doom, fairness and gloom on March 10th in Washington while testifying to the House Judiciary Committee on the Performance Rights Act. It would have been so different if JT had been there. Timberlake, who puts the Pumpkins sakes to shame, would have stepped up with a few dance moves, told some jokes, and done a vocal mixtape of various genres to be affected by the proposed law to require radio stations to pay artists, as they do songwriters and composers, when their songs are played. Then he would have teased male members of Congress with an invite to see what Jessica Biel is up to on Twitter. Now that is some real schoolhouse rock taking that bill to Capitol Hill, if you know what I mean?
The real coup would be for Justin and Jessica to team up with the delightfully mismatched and newly married Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore, who have now become the Patron Saints for all May/September mismatched couples everywhere, for a TV karaoke dance off. Forget Dancing With the Stars, that would be dancing in bars and on cars. And let me tell you, I've been down that road - my money's on Justin and Jessica bit only by a nose.
So, Saturday Night Live, when is Justin Timberlake coming back? Where's that JT SNL Greatest Hits DVD release? When will Justin be featured in the filmed opening with the rest of the cast? After all, Lorne Michaels, without Justin Timberlake, you've got nothing - and Saturday Night Live knows it.
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