SNL: Bjork, Michael Phelps "Really," And The "Today" Show (VIDEO)

"Saturday Night Live" was hosted by Bradley Cooper ("He's Just Not That Into You," "Wedding Crashers") this week.

The show featured skits making fun of the fourth hour of "Today," the marijuana incident of Michael Phelps, Iceland's fiscal crisis and more.

See the Digital Short with T-Pain here.

During Weekend Update there were two segments on Michael Phelps' marijuana bust.

Seth Meyers did a "Really!?!" with his thoughts on Michael Phelps, on Kellogg's for possibly dropping him as a spokesman, and on whoever snapped the now-infamous bong photo and sold it to a tabloid.

"Parents, if your kid says Michael Phelps smokes pot, why can't I? Say you can, as soon as you win 12 gold medals for your country."

WATCH:



In the other, Andy Samberg played Mark Spitz commenting on the incident:

Also during Weekend Update, Icelandic singer Bjork (Kristen Wiig) commented on Iceland's economy. "Instead of paper money, we should change our currency to clouds."

In a second skit spoofing the fourth hour of "Today" (first one here) with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, Gifford (Wiig) continued with menopausal hot flashes and insults of Kotb (Michaela Watkins) while the two talked about current events and learned to model walk.

Comments

[sueno]

SNL does it again!
The kathy Lee piece was genius!

[hellfemale]

Get a life!
Leave Michael Phelps alone.
He endured a lot to win the medals.
What can you say you did.
Forgive and forget.
Thank you,
Lucy

[tregibbs]

Phelps broke the law, regardless of how stupid the law is. His breaking the law was caught on camera. Phelps should be more careful about his public behavior, since he is not only regarded as a celebrity, but also as a sponsored athlete AND role model to kids, which all famous athletes are.

[kempnerboy07]

lah tii friggn da.

His swimming cured cance--oh wait...
It taught millions to rea-- oh wait....
It prevented a global economic crisi--- oh wait....

It made me BELIEVE in myself! Yeah! Go Phelps!

[masterspeed]

This was not public behavior. Some A-hole with a camera phone sold their picture to a tabloid after invading his privacy.

[tregibbs]

Also - Phelps did not "endure a lot". He simply swam faster than anyone else.

[cjk002]

You obviously have no idea what it takes to become the fastest swimmer in the world.

[escrow7]

Thank you SNL. I can't stop laughing.

http://www.thirdeyechronicles.com

[westportmike]

I thought the today show sketch was hysterical!! SNL is funny again!

[jhjenn]

Didn't the Huff Post used to post these SNL clips on a different server/site? It sucks, as I'm an American abroad and the http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/08/snl-bjork-michael-phelps_n_164979.html#NBC is always prohibited from playing outside the USA:-( I missing a slice of US culture!!!

[YellowPanties]

Stephen Colbert and his gang of writers are massively funnier every night than SNL. With SNL's budget and pedigree and talent pool, what they deliver is mediocre at best.

[linfort]

Really? That was really, really funny. I think he nailed it this time. I like the part where he says that kids can't smoke until they've won 12 medals. And he is so right about the DICK who sold the pic. I hope their identity doesn't get out, or they had better hide.

[Bluejay00234]

Agreed.

[joevecchio]

Yes, mad TV is better. SNL should mock itself... Which cast member drives a 15 mpg Cadillac Escalde yets blames everything on big oil? Tina should have the balls to do a skit of him walking into the show room making the decision to buy a 15mpg vehicle 18 years after the Gulf war, 8 years after 9-11. after clean air mandates etc. Why does he need a big suv in NYC. I thought liberal artists cared for the environment?

joe vecchio writer director, WHY I LEFT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND JOINED ALQAEDA. A SATIRICAL LOOK AT DEMOCRATIC HYPOCRISY. BORODINOBULLETT.COM

[CalexenderJ]

In a typical SNL show, the only consistent laughs are during weekend update. If you are lucky there will also be a couple laughs during the cold open, and MAYBE in the monologue, digital short, or ONE of the sketches.

I think they need more diversity in their writers. I don't necessarily mean racial diversity (although I'm sure that would help) but diversity of humor. All of their jokes are basically the same in which a character is extremely socially awkward/clueless but doesn't realize it. That joke is played out.

[TheBrobdingnagian]

I'm shocked no one's mentioned the major blunder in the Hoda/Kathy Lee sketch.

Watch again - Kristen looks up to make sure she's on her mark, then delivers her "Lighting guys are dummies" line, then a light plummets to the ground a few inches in front of her. Kristen then seems to look upwards angrily, after which the three performers stand there awkwardly for a few seconds.

Kristen then responds by tap dancing around while Michaela resorts to reciting the rest of her (now nonsensical) lines: "How is she okay from that?" "How does she stay alive?"

I guess this is what umpteen years of improv training with the Groundlings gets you(?).

[quixoto]

I noticed it. It's pretty sad because a light falling on Kristen's head might provide the punch of physical comedy needed to turn that mediocre sketch into something inspired.

[quixoto]

Also, I assumed Kristen looked up angrily in order to stay in character as Kathy Lee, whom probably gets lights dropped on her from on high every night. It was the only thing she could do when the central punchline of the sketch went wrong. The other lady, however, couldn't improvise anything other than her original lines quick enough.

Either way, the sketch pretty much blew.

[Adrienne Williams - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you SNL that was perfect about Phelps. shame on them for dogging him. We love you phelps! LOL I mean, just say, President Obama did it! come now.

[Diogenis]

Yawn!

[dv416]

in my opinion, how to improve SNL:

1. no more tv talk show parodies. no more game shows. EVER. the formula is tired, old, and the sketches yield more groans than laughs. yet every episode has two or three of them. they're easy time fillers, yea, but you're better than that!! try something new!! challenge yourselves!!!

2. be weary of any sketch longer than 3 minutes. seriously. most SNL sketches flatline after the first minute. long winded, quirky dialogue can only take you so far. the sketch always has to keep moving. so, raise the stakes, raise em high, and get out. always better to leave the audience wanting more...

3. don't instantly green light sketches that "pitch well." sure the christian bale sketch was topical and probably sounded great conceptually, but that doesn't make it a great sketch. it has to be funny to be great. last week's bernie madoff superbowl party sketch - same deal.

i'm only critical because i love SNL and want it to succeed like in its glory years. good or bad though, i will keep watching!!!

GOOD LUCK!!

[Principaldad]

Agreed on pretty much all counts. I would add to this that the show should probably be cut to an hour. This week's show had some good moments. Cutting out 30 minutes of the worst skits would have made it quite enjoyable.

[KristaJulieva]

SNL in the last three years or so has been as funny as it's been since at least the early-nine­ties/late-­eighties. If you don't realize that, either: 1) You don't actually sit down and watch it, 2) Your only idea of funny is either Dick Cavett's NY Times blog, Dane Cook, or Larry the Cable Guy.

[quixoto]

Ok, that's either just an idiotic statement with no grounding in reality or an automated spambot from NBC.com.

[katedog]

NBC interns really have nothing to do.

[Haxmax]

This show is painful. Lorne, are you even watching this stuff?

[Syddiggers]

Was it just me or was the sketch involving the swim team, and the coach motivating the team with the stupid song and dance routine a BLATANT rip off of the sketch the Peyton Manning did a few years ago after the Colts won the Super Bowl?

I am generally a fan of SNL, but having to go back ( and back only a couple of years ) to past episodes and copy a sketch almost word for word, and just changing the sport, and sportsman involved is pathetic, and truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Perhaps the show has finally and truly passed its use by date.

[CherryIce1988]

They do that sketch all the time