WTH! Justin Timberlake, ‘SNL’ Alumni Fall Apart on Beefed Up Episode

Posted March 10, 2013 by J Matthew Cobb in HiDef

Fifth time hosting ‘SNL’ wasn’t a charm for the “Suit & Tie” guy

Justin’s decent acting skills aside, tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live sucked worse than a Sunset Strip prostitute. He sung in almost every skit, reprises practically every role he’s most remembered for and the so-called humor was set to the tune of ho-hum scores (the Meat Lovers/Veggie pizza battle scene was sparred from a disaster when it ordered a ‘Harlem Shake’).

Things were so bad that even SNL digital short man Andy Samberg didn’t even crack a smile. Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin looked lost and quite uncomfortable; Paul Simon looked out of place when the credits went rolling up.

Sure, Justin was in his element when he performed the Jay-Z guested “Suit & Tie” and “Mirrors.” What do you expect; dude can dance and hum. Must I add that he looks quite dapper in…suit and tie. But the Spartacus orgy skit was a hot mess and looked like the defeated Roman Empire in its last days. And the ‘Dating Game’ skit needed one of the Wayans brothers as a director. The show’s big cold open, a skit mocking the America-hating Hugo Chavez using Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind,” felt bizarrely untimely. And what the hell was that ‘My Girlfriend Has a Dick” digital short about? Seems like every week ‘SNL’ pokes more glory holes in gay culture and stereotypes than anything else. That’s when you know Mr. Lorne Michaels is singing the blues in those board room meetings: When gay jokes seem to be the only thing that seriously bails your act out. Saddest thing about it – the jokes were so dry, it needed KY Jelly on it.

This is a big week for Timberlake. While breaking a seven-year silence on his recording career, he’s pumped every penny into this marketing campaign for his forthcoming LP, The 20/20 Experience. He also recently announced he’s hitting the road with Jay-Z for a joint tour. And he’ll be sitting comfortably on the set of Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show from Monday to Friday all this week. It’s an advertiser’s dream, something that’ll surpass anything he can concoct over there at MySpace.com. A bump in pre-sales will be expected and the first week of sales will probably go through the roof. But the disaster of last night’s episode of ‘SNL’ should be forgotten like a very bad hangover. The only thing that salvaged the show from becoming a natural disaster was Seth Meyers‘ timely news bits and Steffon’s latest club buzz on ‘Weekend Update’.