I wasn’t expecting much from Josh Hutcherson’s episode of Saturday Night Live. I figured that it would be like Taylor Lautner’s and there would mostly be straight man skits and mocking the film that he was promoting. However, Josh surprised me. It was much worse than Lautner’s but that isn’t his fault.
Coming off great episodes from Lady Gaga and Edward Norton, this episode seemed lazy and absolutely terrible. There aren’t enough good skits to make a list that is honest. Instead of picking the five best skits, I’m going to pick the five worst skits of the night. This ranking does not fall on the head of Hutcherson. He was trying his best to make the incredibly bad material work. It didn’t.
If I had to pick a good skit, the only one that is even worth mentioning is the skit, ‘Mr. Patterson.’ It was funny because of physical comedy and the fact that Beck Bennett pulled it off. The skit was about a man who was a genius but had the body and motor skills of a baby. Bennett, who also stars in the “It’s Not Complicated” AT&T commercials, was the only shining star in the muddy episode.
I want to repeat the fact that Josh is not to blame for this episode. He chugged along and did everything that he was supposed to. He pulled off all of his lines, no matter how much the audience didn’t laugh. That is something to note. I only wish that they used him better.
Below are the five worst skits of the night.
5. Best Buy Firing
Bobby Moynihan and Cecily Strong’s popular Niff and Dana characters came back for another skit where they are overly honest because they think they are going to be fired. Historically, I have loved this skit. It is the reason that I began to think that Strong was a great addition to the cast. However, the Best Buy firing was just painful. It wasn’t funny at all. The skit really didn’t work. And, even Josh noticed because there was at least once where I think he actually winced at the terrible line. Ouch.
4. Bugs
This is a skit in which Hutcherson was good and the writing was bad. I do like how SNL is starting to use cool special affects. This skit did have rocking sound affects (the tuba and the beeping were cool). But, it was off. They sent the not-so-funny Mike O’Brien out to talk to bugs.
3. Piers Morgan Live Cold Open
The cold open skits have been rather weak this season. Miley Cyrus’s VMA cold open was slightly interesting but, other than that, none of them were mentionable. This cold open was Samantha, George Zimmerman’s girlfriend and a Florida police officer on Piers Morgan Live. The discussion was on the fact that Zimmerman is crazy and that he loves guns. There were no really funny jokes and it set up for a really bad episode.
2. Thanksgiving Dinner
When I was watching this skit, I was thinking two things. Number one, why do I want turkey? It’s one AM and this skit is uncomfortable. And two, what the heck were the writers of SNL thinking when they wrote this skit. This skit is basically a creepy turkey (Vanessa Bayer) being a human’s girlfriend. If you aren’t rolling your eyes yet, watch the clip and you will.
1. Animal Hospital
This was so bad. I don’t even know what to say about how bad it was. It wasn’t funny and was a waste of time. To be completely honest, I would have rather seen HAIM perform again. Or maybe we could have watched some of Bennett’s AT&T commercials. To be honest, even watching the below clip is a waste of your time. So. Bad.