Megan Fox on SNL: Upstaged by the F-Word

UPDATE: Well! That was an eventful season premiere. The biggest takeaway: Newcomer Jenny Slate dropping the F-bomb on live TV. Wow. That may change everything I said below. Scroll down for my post-show takeaway.
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In its 34th season last year, SNL went mainstream — super mainstream. Thanks to Tina Fey's uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin — a vice-presidential candidate who revealed herself to be a headline machine in one of the most riveting election seasons in U.S. history — SNL hit its stride with viral video after viral video, which skyrocketed it out of the realm of late-night ratings and onto daytime computer screens across the nation (and newscasts, and 24-hour cable shows, and The View, etc. etc. etc.) Finally figuring out how to make videos embeddable and loosening the next-day pickup sphincter helped, too. At long last, the choruses of "SNL sucks! I never watch it" were quelled.

Fast forward a year. Tonight SNL premieres its 35th season (well, if you don't count the last two Thursdays). Times are tougher than ever for network television — Tivo is king, appointment television is scarcer than ever, Jay Leno has brought comedy to 10 pm. Okay, maybe not that last thing. The point is, SNL is premiering tonight in a non-election year — and expectations are high. How can it possibly meet them?

Two words: Megan Fox.

Actually, I'm not really joking. SNL's bread and butter is in buzz — picking great hosts and bands to encourage people to tune in. See above re: appointment television. In the Internet Age, they now also have to worry about next-day pickup. So who better to kick off the season than the Internet's favorite pin-up girl? She's already making the video rounds with her appearance on Jimmy Fallon, her SNL promos and Thursday Update cameo, and her recent headline-grabbing comments about her vagina. (This girl is a media superstar for a reason.)

She already showed herself to be game and a good sport on Thursday, and it made next-day news — whatever happens with the ratings tonight, SNL only needs one or two knockout skits to burn up the Internet the next day.

But it does need them. It needs them because it its 35th year, SNL has never had more competition horning in on their beat. There's Jon Stewart (who just beat them for an Emmy!) and Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel ("F**ing Matt Damon," anyone?) and Jimmy Fallon (darling of the Internerds) and even Leno (he's got five days a week to come up with something). So SNL needs to be memorable and fresh and funny (think: the Ahmedinejad "Iran So Far" spoof or Amy Poehler's pregnant Palin Rap).

Note that neither of these skits mentioned featured a guest host — the blockbusters often don't, and that's as it should be. The SNL regulars and writers are there because they're damned talented, and it's their job to create memorable, hilarious moments to make the whole show good (at least until Update). Jason Sudeikis' send-up of Glenn Beck is already a hit, and strong supporting characters like Bill Hader's impression of James Carville or really anything by Kristen Wiig will keep the chattering online classes buzzing the next day (we all need something to post, right? Thanks for the traffic, SNL!).

But the guest hosts are there to create that spark of excitement, that unique OMG moment that will instantly set Twitter ablaze. SNL needs that. It's the catalyst for everything else. Because fundamentally, SNL is not just about comedy, it's about Zeitgeist. So they'd damn well better tap into it.

Megan Fox, you're on.

Update to the Update: So, in addition to the fact that SNL newcomer Jenny Slate dropped the F-word on live TV, how was the show? Well, much like Joe Wilson heckling President Obama during his address to Congress, it's hard to separate the two — this event will be the big headline coming out of tonight. (Oh my gosh that is another thing Barack Obama and Megan Fox have in common!) As I noted on Twitter, I would have liked to have seen Fox given a little more to work with — we get that she's hot, so being a sex line operator/sex video demo girl/sexy mute Russian mail-order bride doesn't exactly stretch her. Jon Hamm is hot, but he got some great stuff to work with. That said, Fox was a great team player in both digital shorts (let's not forget that there is value in being a good straight-man supporting actor, setting your partner up for the laughs) and came off as very natural in that and "Megan Fox Talks To Your Mom." Twitter seemed to resent the fact that she "couldn't act" but this seemed pretty good to me. I feel like Fox could have risen to the challenge, had one been put in front of her. Curious as to what was cut from dress rehearsal. But also! Did you hear that someone dropped an F-bomb on SNL? You can't not hear it if you watch these clips.

Related in SNL:
35 Years of SNL News Spoofs
"Glenn Beck" Makes SNL Debut
'I Can See Russia From My House': A Year of Sarah Palin, The Video Highlights
The 13 Funniest SNL Digital Shorts Of All Time
SNL@ UCB: Live From New York, A Show By Family, For Family

Related in Megan Fox:
What Megan Fox Has In Common With Barack Obama
A Day Without Megan Fox
About 800 Pairs of Megan Fox's Boobs

Related in F-Bomb Dropping:
SNL's Jenny Slate Drops F-Bomb On Season Premiere
FCC Clears Bono of Obscenity Charge
'System of a Down' F-Bomb May Be Blow To 'SNL,' NBC

 

 

Follow Rachel Sklar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rachelsklar

Comments

[bnyb]

I think Megan Fox was really great: funny, clever and a good sport. Let's not forget extremely hot.
U2 were spectacular as always. Their majorness doesnt always translate here in the US for some reason: they're awesome all the same.
And I didn't even notice the f-bomb. Move on.

[johnnynyc]

9 links to a single site in 9 paragraphs has to be some kind of internet record.

Perhaps SNL can find a way to parody this post.

[hjfreelib]

This post is completely annoying for that reason. We get it---you have a website that you are trying with all your heart to promote...Good for you!

[Kitster]

And all of them had a big Google Chrome Frames window blocking the article for me, so the promotion effect was completely lost. I was very happy to read an article about Megan Fox's vagina and I couldn't.

[johnnynyc]

Is it possible to to link to mediaite more in any single post?

If I wanted to read what's on that site I'm perfectly capable of finding my own way there!!

[NHBill]

The guest hosts participation in the show is directly tied to their relationship with the writing staff.

If they have the acting chops to handle it they get great stuff, think Walken, Hanks, Baldwin.

If they don't they are hardly seen at all!

Fox fell somewhere in the lower middle.

As for U2 even the audience seemed underwhelmed.

[johnnynyc]

Or maybe she just doesn't have the acting/comedy chops Walken, Hanks and Baldwin do.

Ever think of that?

[NHBill]

I believe that was my point.

[alicetilden]

I found the show boring and tedious. Were they the best skits they had or the only ones Megan Fox was capable of? She played the hot girl..some stretch. Since they seemed to have used their good weekend update material on Thursday, there was nothing left for Saturday. I liked the airplane skit, but, as usual, it was longer than it should have been. I hope they do better next week. I missed the F word, because I was turning the channel at that time, because the skit was so lame.

[learntofly]

Spot on, Rachel. And does anyone even remember the band that played last night? U2. Big band, but zero buzz. I'm almost starting to feel sorry for them. Megan Fox was gorgeous, good in her skits, which were not so good. But she was predictable - more of the same. Jenny Slate was the game changer. That look on her face was priceless after she f'ed up. Best part of the show.

[johnnynyc]

Yeah feel sorry for U2.

They just broke the pope's record for audience size at Giants Stadium.

SNL need U2 a lot more than U2 needs SNL.

[learntofly]

Did I not make that 'almost starting to feel sorry for them' clear to you as sarcasm??? Don't be so defensive. U2 are one of my all time favorite groups - I would never diss them in a bad way. ;-) They chose to book SNL, so apparently they wanted to be there.