It may have had more star cameos in one episode than any in “Saturday Night Live” history. Yet it was the singing and comic talent of host Justin Timberlake that made Saturday’s new episode maybe one of the best of this century.
It was his fifth time hosting, which meant he got the keys to the mythical 5 Timers Club of the monologue sketch, with Paul Simon and then Steve Martin welcoming him, and before long Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Chevy Chase and Candice Bergen suddenly part of the scene as well, with the added boost of ex-cast members Dan Ackroyd and Martin Short acting as waiters and bartenders.
It had more star power and laughs than any skit at the Oscars, for goodness sake, while avoiding being entirely self-referential.
By then Timberlake had already taken hold by portraying Elton John in the cold open, singing a retooled “Candle in the Wind” at Hugo Chavez’ funeral using actual examples of the Venezuelan’s unusual life.
Timberlake had mentioned that comparisons to earlier appearances only put new pressure on his hosting duties. And to that end, he brought back a couple of his best loved characters. First came the Color Me Badd-looking dude who sang “D.. in a Box” with Andy Samberg years ago; they were back as duo contestants on an old-fashioned dating game show, crooning their New Jack Swing-style romance minus the penis jokes.
But they had competition in the “SNL” duo department, by taking advantage of Martin and Ackroyd’s presence to get them back in the flowered print shirts, plaid pants and matching caps of their characters Georg and Yortuk Festrunk, “Two Wild and Crazy Guys,” dating back to 1977. It was a little scary to see them now — not so much clueless foreigners as weird old uncles.
Had they got the guys from the “Night at the Roxbury” guys, Steve and Doug Butabi, they would have represented three eras of “SNL” character teams.
The next sketch had another singing Timberlake character — the advertising costume, this time for a health food place called Vegan-Ville, competing for streetcorner space with a representative of Sausage Depot. Timberlake’s Tofu-Man character hit the boom box and sang vegetarian versions of a handful of songs including a version of “Ice Ice Baby” called “Brown Rice Baby.” It was so pointed and well realized you could almost see it becoming viral as it played out live.
Follow that with his own catchy new single “Suit and Tie” and you had about the strongest hour of TV entertainment in a long spell. Timberlake not only introduced his own number, but brought out a guest star that most of the current cast seemed most excited about meeting during the final bow, Jay-Z.
Maybe because of the wealth of strong material, Seth Meyer seemed to rush through his “Weekend Update” jokes, which were pretty good. But Bill Hader’s Stefon got more time than ever.
Not everything was sterling however. “The Tales of Sober Caligula” was the kind of sketch Seth MacFarlane could have written. It depended on the number of times he said penis or that he peed on somebody.
“Maine Justice,” which followed, was a pretty solid sketch, based entirely on the fact that everything about it was about Louisiana, including the exaggerated accents and gators, except that it was Maine. Samberg returned as the straightman defendant and was pretty good.
More use came out of Martin, Chase and Short, dressed entirely in their “3 Amigos” costumes to introduce Timberlake a second time. They didn’t quite get their Amigos salute together however.
Still, it was only an introduction to another great song from Timberlake’s new album. “Mirrors” didn’t even need any guest stars to be a winner.
The remaining bits depended on nastier stuff – a trailer for a romantic comedy about Timberlake falling in love with a girl with a penis, and Vanessa Vayer and Cicily Strong as those monotone former porn stars now promoting cheap champagne and mispronouncing every other word like “avernersery.” Timberlake ended up in that sketch as well, as Ricky V.I.Penis.
That meant Timberlake was in every sketch but the NuvaBling birth control ad, every musical performance and three of the commercials. When does he become a regular?