SNL‘s season finale reminded us why we’d been watching trainwreck skits and unfunny hosts for weeks before. Will Ferrell brought back fan favorite characters like George Dubya Bush, the lawyer who hates dogs and, on the highlight of the show, Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!
The Celebrity Jeopardy contestants were Kathy Lee Gifford impersonated by Kristen Wiig as always, Tom Hanks impersonated by Tom Hanks, and Sean Connery impersonated by Darrell Hammond. Kathy Lee got drunk, Tom got his hand stuck in a pickle jar, his face stuck in a dry cleaning bag and confused a pen with a microphone, and Sean made Yo Momma jokes directed at Alex.
The categories included Sounds Kitties Make, States that End in “Hampshire”, What Color is Green and Current Black Presidents. Alex chose the category States that End in “Hampshire” for the contestants, who answered South Hampshire, What is South Hampshire, and Hampshire, England.
The final Jeopardy category was Nonsense Words and by this point Tom had licked his pen, hit his head on the screen and broken it (the screen, not his head) and passed out. Sean seemed to have cooperated for once, his nonsense word being IOISSSb. Once the space saved for his wager was revealed, this turned out to be an intricate drawing of Sean descrating Alex’s grave.
Guest appearances included Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Horatio Sanz, Rachel Dratch, Tracey Morgan, Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd and, of course, Tom Hanks.
Besides two horrible performances from washed-up punk/pop/wannabe-alternative talentless band Green Day and a rapid downhill slide in the quality of skits as the night went on, it was an improvement for this year and a good finale.
Mimi
