Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga starred in the season finale of Saturday Night Live this past weekend with JT performing hosting duties while Gaga signed on as musical guest. A stellar line up that’s for sure. Rarely do I watch SNL but I made a point of staying up so I could catch the show knowing that’s what everyone would be talking about the next day.
JT opened the show making sure we all knew that this was in fact the first time he had hosted the show and not also been the musical guest. Yes, he made sure we all knew that in addition to his fine comedic skills he was also an amazing singer and dancer and sadly for all of us he would not be blessing us with his fine vocal skills, instead allowing Lady Gaga to fill that role. Of course he felt the need to tell us all of this while singing his opening monologue. Just so we all remembered that he can in fact sing. Got it.
And while I might be in the minority here, I do think that JT always does a good job when hosting SNL, but I would also say that every sketch that was really good this past weekend was one that involved Lady Gaga. Who knew she was so funny?! From the ‘Liquorville’ sketch to the digital short featuring Andy Samberg, Justin and Lady Gaga to even the ‘What’s My Name’ game show sketch, it was Gaga who really brought the funny.
I have a feeling JT will be trying to take credit for the high ratings that the season finale brought, but I don’t remember the last time that the studio audience were lined up around the street at 6 am for a chance at a seat when it was just Justin Timberlake hosting and singing. Just saying. JT might want to jump on the Gaga train stat.
Then there were the Billboard Music Awards that aired last night on ABC. I suffered through the incredibly terrible hosting job done by Ken Jeong. Seriously, is his 15 minutes not up yet? I suffered through the ridiculous ‘Elvis’ bit with the Modern Family guy, I suffered through Zack Galifinakis, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper (ok that was not suffering) appearance that was obviously coordinated by their studio hoping to bump up the opening weekend numbers for The Hangover Part II, I suffered a lot. Because it was mostly all bad. All for the promise of not one, but two Britney Spears performances. What I got was a terrible Rihanna performance of S&M. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why she wasn’t dancing and only writhing around on stage until Britney came out to join her. Oh yes, then it all made sense. Brit can’t move on stage anymore so therefore no one on stage can move either. Unless there’s a pillow fight. Wait, what?! For some reason after their 30 seconds of dueting on S&M, Britney and Rihanna engaged in the lamest pillow fight ever seen. I was embarrassed for them both. For reals.
But Britney looked amazing! She really did, so I held out hope that her next performance with Nicki Minaj would totally make up for the cringe inducing opening number. Wishful thinking. Britney joined Nicki on stage to ‘sing’ another 30 seconds of her hit song ‘Til The World Ends’ and could barely walk down the stage. Let’s make this clear – Brit is about to embark on a world tour to support her upcoming album Femme Fatale, where prime tickets will probably be in the ballpark of $300 per – and she can’t lip synch for more than 30 seconds at an awards show? This does not bode well for good concert reviews.
Dear Britney,
I love you, but you’re making it really really hard to defend you. But you look really good, so there’s that.
Love, Me.
Beyonce was one ray of light during the show, only because of the awesome stage show she put on. Sad that she had to do it to the stupidest song ever. And PS Beyonce – pretty sure that the girls who run the world aren’t going to do it in their bra. Or hot pants.
I also really enjoyed The Far East Movement and Neil Diamond, but that terrible hosting job by Ken Jeong pretty much cancelled that out. I did appreciate Selena Gomez making sure to kiss boyfriend Justin Bieber on the lips for all to see when he won an award though. Take that all you crazy Beliebers! Honestly, the drama that is teen love is so fun. Can’t wait for the twitter threats to start! So, all in all, very few high moments in an otherwise bad, if not embarrassing awards show. All that was missing was Usher performing another version of OMG and the craptasticness of the Billboard Music Awards would have been complete.
Scene and Heard
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
Printer-friendly version