Results tagged “saturdaynightlive”

Just a few short days ago, Hannibal Buress got the news that he had been hired as a writer for the new season of Saturday Night Live. Just a few short hours ago, he found a few minutes to speak with the Chicagoist Podcast - probably in between counting his lucky stars and shrieking with glee.

While we still got some laughs out of this one - we don't think the Lincoln hand gag is that far-fetched at this point - we were confused about the Chicago accent that the usually pretty stellar Jason Sudekis gave Blago. First, Blagojevich doesn't have a Chicago accent and second, it wasn't even a good Chicago accent. But the hair was fantastic. Fucking fantastic, as Patti would say...

At this point we're sure that Blago doesn't find this embarrassing but rather immensely flattering that he would be recognized by Saturday Night Live. And Amy, it's not Fisher Price people, it's Lego people.

SNL, which has had record ratings this fall by regurgitating Palin’s interviews virtually verbatim is continuing the political story lines by focusing on the transition. Last night, they portrayed Rahm Emanuel and his infamous mouth. Funny stuff.

Bill Zwecker has been following the story of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin possibly popping up on SNL one of these days to have a little fun with former Second City star Tina Fey and Fey's Palin impression. Says the Z-Man, "I'm hearing some sort of Palin tweak of Fey's American Express commercials is in the works. While next weekend's 'Saturday Night Live' will be a rerun, it is possible Palin could appear Thursday on the first of NBC's 'Weekend Update' specials in prime time." Well, that'll be interesting, as Fey has no love for Palin, saying at the Emmy Awards, “I want to be done playing this lady November 5th."

Hey kids, gather round -- it's time for our obligatory Sunday morning SNL clip filler post! This week, we could have gone with the shooting fish in a barrel opening sketch of the Palin/Couric interview, or the rather predictable presidential debate sketch, but our favorite moment of the night (well, until we bailed out at 11:15) was Bill Clinton on "Weekend Update" giving a rousing "endorsement" of our own Barack Obama:

Last night's season premier of SNL was lackluster and sluggish ... except for the opening sketch, which was sheer genius. Second City-alum Tina Fey lived up to the hype and gave a stinging impersonation of VP wannabe Sarah Palin. Fey looked so much like Palin, in her blazing red jacket and stacked hairdo, that the perfectly flat accent (shades of Fargo?) and the smarmy smiles were like icing on the cake.

Naperville is getting a special off-year census because the Census Bureau thinks there might have been significant population growth in the area. Only certain neighborhoods (Naperhoods?) will be surveyed, and answering questions should only take a few minutes. And now, the reason we're posting this story: This 2000 SNL clip! Yay! I can't think about the census without thinking about this sketch. Today's video day around here, so what the hay, let's keep it going.

Cartoon for Chicagoist by Tim Daly

After weeks of speculation among dozens of people, last night's edition of Saturday Night Live revealed their choice to play Barack Obama for potentially the next four years -- Chicago's Fred Armisen. While the sketch was a somewhat amusing take on the press infatuation with Obama, if Illinois' favorite son locks up the nomination Armisen needs to work on his impersonation. It makes Will Forte's GWB look Will Farrell-esque in quality.

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Kanye just completely ganked his second performance on Saturday Night Live. He started "freestyling" on "Everything I Am," and boy was it not pretty. Time to start trolling for video. Thoughts?

The best excuse to see TV stars sans makeup, The Tenth Annual Chicago Improv Festival continues through Sunday at The Athenaeum, Park West, and sites all over the north side. (Yes, south siders, they do hate you, get over it…) Chicagoist attended the opening show Monday night at the Cultural Center, featuring the only three performers dedicated (or crazy) enough to perform at all 10 festivals: Joe Bill, Susan Messing, and Mark Sutton. They brought...

We’ll admit it, we haven’t watched "Saturday Night Live" in … well … let’s just say that the last time we watched "SNL" we thought it was about time for Kevin Nealon to finish up.

See enough sketch comedy and you’re bound to experience a head shaking, teeth gritting night when you’re questioning why you abandoned the warm, comforting glow of your Magnavox. At last weekend’s Chicago Sketchfest, we eavesdropped on a few patrons in that predicament, discussing what they’d like to see abolished in sketch comedy: "Casting a woman in your group for the sole purpose of being 'the girlfriend', 'the spouse', or the object of lust." "Mistaking 'zany'...

Sure, a comedy festival provides exposure and an excuse to get out of town for a weekend. But as the Sixth Annual Chicago Sketchfest gets underway, we’ve learned that comedy troupes also come here to nourish their inner fanboy (or girl) and to network. We contacted three veteran troupes to see how they make the most of these weekends.

We’ve done a little improv in our day, and we know just how challenging it can be to chock-full of humor and energy for an hour or two. But being the improv giants they are, Second City will be hosting a 24-hour marathon of comedy and music beginning this evening at 7 p.m. as part of their benefit event, “The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa.” Tickets are $10 for the entire day...

Chicagoist has been around the comedy world long enough to know a few things. We know that when one of your players drinks ten beers before a show, that’s a bad sign. We know that when you get kicked off a team at one place, there’s always somewhere else to go. We know every conceivable idea has been put on stage in one way or another, and that sometimes, the gimmicks upstage the funny. That’s...

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made...

Its concept isn't much of a stretch: Fey plays Liz Lemon, head writer of a late-night comedy sketch show (!) called “The Girlie Show.” Everything is going just fine until a new network VP (Alec Baldwin) is brought in to vamp up ratings. Idea #1 is to bring loose-cannon star Tracy Morgan, err Jordan, onto the show since he appeals to the missing demographic of “males between 18 and 49.” And Dratch plays a cat wrangler.

Five Second City theaters around the country, including Chicago, will now serve as a comedy testing ground for NBC/Universal TV as part of a two-year deal. NBC writers will be allowed to visit any Second City theater to see performances of scripts they have in development or watch as characters they’ve created get workshopped for the best way to deliver a funny catchphrase that everyone will be sick of in six months. NBC will also...

The wait is over folks. The final cast for “Saturday Night Live” has been announced. There were a few surprises (Chris Parnell is gone? Seriously? He was just getting good), along with Horatio Sans (no surprise there). Horatio is a friend of Chicagoist, a damn funny guy, and has one of the dirtiest minds we’ve ever known, but sometimes, the kid just laughs too much at his own jokes. We hope he comes home though; Chicago hasn’t been the same without him.

A new poll conducted by Scarborough Research shows that the White Sox are rapidly gaining popularity in Chicago -- even approaching the Cubs. If the trend continues, the Sox may even pass up the Cubs in popularity very soon.

Remember the old Saturday Night Live “Superfans” sketches where they pondered who would win in a fight between say, Mike Ditka and the 1992 Chicago Bulls? The city saw a real-life version of that matchup yesterday when it was Ditka vs. The Entire Chicago City Council on the proposed smoking ban. True to form, Ditka, a longtime fan of cigars, pulled out three of the signature moves in his unstoppable fighting style:

Start hording those ImprovOlympic mugs, shirts, and ticket stubs, ‘cause “ImprovOlympic” is no more. The 24-year old company that gave us large blocks of the Saturday Night Live cast, much of the talent behind Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and “that dopey guy” from Scrubs has changed its name to I.O. Theater. In a story you’d expect to find in The Onion, I.O. Owner and Director Charna Halpern received a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee ordering her to drop “Olympic” from the company name lest someone actually think the Wrigleyville club was qualifying people for Beijing ’08. Back in its formative years, the club was embroiled in a dispute with a stand-up comedy club owner claiming to have copyrighted “improv.” And since the club's been competition-free for decades, they've merely lost a bit of marketing cache.

Who knew that an unassuming ensemble show in the University of Chicago's Reynolds Club would spawn the most celebrated improv community in the world? On July 5, 1955, the Compass Players performed an improvisational revue skewering the day's headlines, the intensely serious nature of U of C students, and irresponsible spouses. Future celebrities on stage that night included Roger Bowen of M*A*S*H fame and Hollywood Golden Girls Elaine May (who envisioned Gene Hackman in drag for The Birdcage) and Barbara Harris. The talent behind Compass would launch Second City, which would feed prime time sitcoms, Saturday Night Live and countless movies.

Chicagoist's foodies are rarely surprised when they hear about restaurant expansion, especially when that restaurant is a popular brand with proven success.

After 6 years, Jimmy Fallon announced that he is leaving Saturday Night Live. Although NBC hoped that he would renew his contract, Jimmy had made it clear that he wanted to move on, so his departure was not a surprise. Chicagoist, being the dork nerds that we are, especailly liked Jimmy's portrayal of Nick Burns, the unfriendly computer tech guy. Of course we also loved him on Weekend Update. We wonder who will now sit at the newsdesk next to Tina Fey. It may be selfish, but we would love to see one of our Second City comedians get the position.