Host and Musical Guest: Lady Gaga!

Well, please forgive the insular nature of this post, whilst i appreciate that no-one really want's a blow by blow account of Lady Gaga's hosting stint on Saturday Night Live, i have an intense desire to write one. I do promise that there are some real cinema posts coming along soon, i am going to see Inside Llewyn Davis tonight and recently watched The To Do List, so reviews for those will be up soon, but right now i am far to immersed in the music industry and whilst i accept that SNL is not film, it is funny, and you never know what funny can do. Whilst i am a huge Lady Gaga fan as you may know she has never hosted SNL before despite having appeared on it twice in 2009 and 2011, and i was intrigued by her acting abilities, Gaga is actually a trained actor, and studied at TISCH school of the Arts at NYU, however she has really only started doing  film work this year. Having previously been highly impressed by Miley Cyrus' hosting gig earlier this season, i was looking forward to this episode.

The episode started badly, the first sketch featured various interviews with recently disgraced Toronto mayor Rob Ford on canadian television. Despite Taran Killam's rather uncanny handling of the canadian accent and Bobby Moynahan's transformation into the disgraced mayor, this sketch is way too long, clocking in at 4 minutes, it becomes a bit of a bore, and whilst being current, the subject matter really isn't that interesting to me. Rating: C

The first recorded skit features Jay Pharaoh playing Obama as a severely depressed president advertising a new anti-depressant (formulated for second terms), and also available in republican strength, whilst this sketch wasn't as strong as other SNL advertisements, it was effective, if not particularly funny for the most part. Rating: C+

The first live sketch of the night featuring out host was a fictional morning show hosted by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, called "Morning with Kimye", Nasim Pedrad plays Kim and Jay Pharoah plays Kanye. The sketch is funny and plays up Kanyes arrogance, Kim's stupidity and his apparent control over what she wears. The featured guest that week was Karen, who works at the Apple store, and who thought she was there to fix an macbook air. Kanye then criticizes what she is wearing and Apple calling her a genius. Kanye pits her style against Kim's in a segment called Kim Wore It Better, despite them not wearing the same thing, and decides that, indeed, Kim wore it better. Gaga then pokes fun at her own love of fashion and eccentric dressing style. Overall the three are very funny in this sketch, and it is an fun dig at modern pop culture. Rating: B+

The next sketch features famous people singing bad covers of other peoples songs. It is amusing and fun, and their are some really odd pairings, such as Susan Boyle singing We Didn't Start The Fire and Adele singing the theme song from LA Law, which incidentally has no words. Lady Gaga plays herself, supposedly singing a cover of Express Yourself, but simply singing Born This Way instead, and poking fun at the similarities between the two songs. Overall this sketch is fun, and the celebrity 'cameos' are entertaining. Rating: B

Next Lady Gaga performed Do What U Want alongside R Kelly, the performance was significantly toned down, featuring no backing dancers except one woman who was there simply to hold R Kelly's sunglasses. . . really? The vocals during this performance were fantastic, and the simple staging ensured there were no distractions from their vocal abilities. Overall the whole performance was just a little wierd, and that's me talking. It felt a little improvised, which i'm sure was the point, but it just seemed a little awkward. Rating: A-

The next sketch wasn't great ever, again it lacked coherence, the sketch featured a couple trying to get approved by a co-op board, and meeting the buildings kooky inhabitants, overall it was a little boring and too eccentric to be funny, and again not quite eccentric enough to be funny. Rating: C

I didn't like the next sketch either, it featured children who are part of an acting school, acting out famous scenes from films, Gaga was perfectly adequate in this sketch, and on paper it seems like a good idea, however the whole thing was just a bit shrill and annoying for me, plus i hate children. Rating: B-

The next recorded sketch was a tribute to blockbuster featuring a trio of employees who are laid off, and who go on a spiritual journey, and who are reborn by a Gaga-like goddess as Best Buy employees. The sketch is effective and funny, and highly topical seeing as Blockbusters just closed down all their locations in the United States. Rating: B

The next performance featured Gaga singing Gypsy from her new album, i will admit that i do have a soft spot for this song since hearing it on the album, however this performance really is something special, Gaga sounds fantastic, and the staging is fantastic, i might be biased, but this is just really great. Rating: A+

The penultimate sketch featured John Milhiser and Lady Gaga as annoying and driven stage parents who give their daughter a complicated and inappropriate dance routine to perform at her schools talent show, and then proceed to dance along with her in the audience like annoying pageant parents. The sketch is simple and amusing, and becomes more and more outrageous as it goes on, so overall, success! Rating: A-

The final sketch is as hilarious as it is tragic and moving, Lady Gaga plays a geriatric version of herself in the year 2063 on the upper west side, when everyone has forgotten about her, and she has to call the super up to her apartment just to have someone to talk to, however unfortunately he doesn't recognize her, and knows none of her music, Gaga's willingness to make fun of herself is astounding. The sketch is as funny as it is sad, and is a reflection of the fickleness of fame in our society, and it makes one think about the fact that there are actually people who live like this, and who are unable to let go of the people they used to be. Rating: A+

Overall Lady Gaga sets a high bar for the rest of this season of SNL, her ability to make fun of herself makes her a successful host, and this episode of SNL is the best so far this season, almost topping Miley Cyrus and even Tina Fey's hosting gig's, i mean, if she's as good as Tina Fey she's doing something right, right?