Hosted by Russell Brand with musical guest Chris Brown, the episode flunked. Big time. Harshly reviewed by critics all season, these new skits continued to fail in revitalizing the series’ once-prestigious reputation. The show can thank Mr. Katy Perry for that.

The episode seemed promising when it opened with a surprisingly hilarious ‘O’Reilly Factor’ spoof,starring Jason Sudeikis as Bill O’Reilly and Fred Armisen as President Barack Obama. The sketch had some great one-liners and actually managed to bring out a few roars from the audience — as if that’s what the show’s objective is. Unfortunately for the viewers, this satisfying feeling was very short lived (five minutes and 10 seconds, to be exact).

Out (of the closet?) comes Brand, rocking his trademark leather pants, a disgustingly tight shirt and his lion mane-esqe facial hygiene. For this particular show, most viewers look forward to the host’s monologue as a way of predicting how smooth the rest of the episode will be. And you’d think that having a ‘professional’ comedian opening up should make things easy. Wrong.

Not only was he painfully spoon-feeding us the punch lines, but his overall stage presence was borderline awkward and undoubtedly uncomfortable. We don’t need you to emphasize ev-ery sin-gle word as if we’re a society of chimpanzees watching the show on mute. In addition, enough is enough with the gawky body movements. We get that you’re a drug addict, but please get your fix before entering the stage. Sorry to break it to you, Russ, but the eye-bulging, arm-flailing attributes are already patented by George Lopez’s comedy.

After struggling to hold our attention when speaking (not joking) about the British queen, ‘The King’s Speech’ and ‘Black Swan,’Brand decided he’d take a poke at his wife’s antics and his personal fake struggle with Hepatitis C, desperate attempts  for a few laughs. When in doubt, start talking about your bombshell wife and rumors of sexually transmitted diseases, right?

Enough with the monologue, though. There was still an entire episode dedicated to persuading us that Brand deserves his title as a legitimate comedian. What’s sad is that the cast is actually very talented, yet the guest appearances and writing seem to hinder their improvisation abilities.

Aside from Brand contributing a bunch of different accented voices, the sketches themselves were not that bad. ‘A Spot of Tea,’ a skit in which Andy Samberg, Bill Hader and Brand portray old women drinking tea during a series of earthquakes, had potential to be amazing, had it been executed in a slightly different manner. A manner excluding Brand.

‘Weekend Update’ was hands down the best sketch of the episode. Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah carried out impeccable impressions of Eminem and Lil Wayne, while Hader played reoccurring character Stefon. The skit’s success had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Brand was absent. Promise.

Just when it seemed there was no salvation for the lack of comedy, Chris Brown hit the stage, and he hit hard (no pun intended). ‘Over the top’ is just one way of describing his butchered vocals and extreme dancing. I take back my previous statement about ‘Weekend Update’ — this was the funniest skit.

Brand and Brown should lay low for a little — actually, Brown should lay low for a while. One thing’s for sure:I don’t think we’ll be seeing Brand live from New York for quite some time.

raparks@syr.edu

Published on February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm