Watch the full Saturday Night Live Zach Galifianakis Episode

Comedian Zach Galifianakis returned to host Saturday Night Live for the second time in two seasons, this time bringing with him a more realistic set of expectations. When he hosted last season, there was an unreasonable amount of hope surrounding his appearance: he's very funny, therefore the show would be very funny with him on it. It didn't really turn out that way, mostly because the show didn't know how to really use him (a problem they encountered again a few weeks ago with Russell Brand).


This time, I expected the same thing going in, making this week's ho-hum episode less of a disappointment. It was the kind of show I've come to expect from SNL this season.

Once again, one of the night's better sketches (if not the best) -- involving parents having to tell their kids that the family dog has passed away and the circumstances around the pet's death -- isn't available on the NBC site. "Scared Straight" is, though, which makes me think that NBC actually wants us to remember the episodes as being worse than they actually are. I no longer get worked up when Saturday Night Live turns in an uneven or lackluster show. It's what I've come to expect. That actually puts the show in a good position; when they do get something right and make me laugh a lot, I'm falling over myself to praise it. It's a lot easier to get excited when the bar is set so low.

Sketch Highlights

• "Cold Open: March Madness" - I didn't laugh a whole lot during this sketch, but I have to applaud the fact that it created some sort of context for the show's usual political opener. Combining the upcoming race with a college basketball sports show at least made some of the material seem fresh, even when it wasn't. This is the kind of invention Saturday Night Live needs more of, particularly in the opening sketch. (Watch the "Cold Open: March Madness" video)

• "Zach Galifianakis Monologue" - Listen. I think Zach Galifianakis is a very funny, very talented guy. I also think he's reached a point in his career where he has the kind of mainstream acceptance that has people laughing at every single thing he does whether it works or not, simply because he has engendered enough good will in stuff like The Hangover and Due Date (but more likely The Hangover, because I don't know if many people saw Due Date). That was the vibe I got during his monologue this week, which had the studio audience cracking up but which left me cold. Once again, I applaud Galifianakis for doing something different with the monologue, but his approach to comedy doesn't quite mesh with SNL's format; his rhythms are too slow and his punchline's a little too abstract. It's easier to make that kind of thing work in stand-up. This also felt like material that Galifiankis only recently came up with -- it had the vibe of stuff he would work out in a club, not premiere in front of millions of people on live TV. It felt like we were supposed to laugh just because he was wearing a red Annie dress and pink underwear (and, just in case we didn't catch it on our own, he kept flashing them to score another cheap laugh). Oh well. I'm guessing I'm alone on this. (Watch the "Zach Galifianakis Monologue" video)
• "The Talk" - Yiiiiiikes. The Talk is not enough of a thing that we can make fun of it yet -- especially when the only joke is that it's a rip-off of The View. I gathered that from the commercials, so there's not really a joke there. Worse, the sketch required the audience to have some fairly intimate knowledge of The Talk for the jokes to work, and no one has that kind of knowledge of The Talk. It also felt like Galifianakis was just shoehorned into the sketch -- something I observed the first time he hosted the show, and which was in full effect in a few instances this week. (Watch the "The Talk" video)
• "Kings of Catchphrase" - There was a lot here that I liked, even if it did feel almost 10 years behind the trend (the stand-up tour craze seems to have long passed). I liked how each of the different comics had an easily identifiable style, but I really wished the catchphrases had been more rooted in reality. There were a few that pulled that off -- Fred "Insert Joke Here" and Vanessa "I'm crazy" Bayer -- and they were by far the funniest. More than anything, I like that the sketch incorporated every member of the cast (minus Nasim Pedrad, right?). The show doesn't do that enough. (Watch the "Kings of Catchphrase" video)
• "Scared Straight" - This is never funny. Not ever. Kenan Thompson mugs, recounts the plots of famous movies and then makes a bunch of prison rape puns. F this sketch. (Watch the "Scared Straight" video)
• "Digital Short: Zach Looks for a New Assistant" - To say that this might have been the high point of the episode might be a slap in the fact to the SNL writing staff, since it depended entirely on Zach Galifianakis doing some improvised banter with kids, and kids being kids. They seriously say the darndest things. (Watch the "Zach Looks for a New Assistant" video)
• "Corn Syrup Commercial" - There was a moment in this sketch where I thought I could sense where it was going, and I was hopeful. It has a decent idea at its center. And though it never became terrible, it never delivered on its potential. Not the worst, not the best. Bobby Moynihan did make me smile at the end, though. (Watch the "Corn Syrup Commercial" video)
• "Celebrity Scoop" - Hey, a sketch about a Canadian talk show? Great idea. In 1981. Everyone is doing a different accent, and Zach Galifianakis is saddled with a terrible part that's odd for the sake of being odd and once again only scored any laughs because it was him. I like the central joke about how all Canadians are super nice (because it's TRUTH), but there wasn't much else here. (Watch the "Celebrity Scoop" video)
• "Titanic" - Double yikes. Sometimes, the 11:55 sketch is a masterpiece of absurdity because the writers know no one is watching. Sometimes, it's a complete miss that probably shouldn't have seen air. Guess which one "Titanic" was? (Watch the "Titanic" video)

• Original Air Date: 3/12/11
• Host: Zach Galifianakis
• Musical Guest: Jessie J.