THE FLEETING PERFECTION OF 'WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?'

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I DVR Saturday Night Live every week. My eventual replay is heavily fast forwarded for all the usual reasons: the sketch drags past the expiration of the funny, the sketch was a great idea poorly executed, or the sketch flat out isn't funny.

I keep recording it because usually, and maybe only once per show, something is very funny. A betting man would play the odds that one funny pit is the SNL Digital Short (examples below). If you're lucky enough to see a Dick in a Box or an I'm on a Boat on the first airing, there's a sense of ownership, and, let's be honest, it's fun to teach others about these phenoms rather than being the student.

The flavor of the month in my world is a beautiful symphony of the absurd: What's Up With That.

The first of two installments of this Kenan Thompson-starring sketch aired Oct, 17, 2009, with the very unfunny Gerard Butler guesting:



I remember seeing this on my DVR rewatch of SNL and laughing (mostly at Jason Sudekis's dancing in the background), but it didn't raise much interest.

Then two Saturdays ago they did it again:



The sketch is so absurd and filled with detail that it simply takes a repeated viewing. In fact, I dare you to watch these a couple of times in a row and NOT have it infect you.

I'm in love with it. I sing 'Oooooooooo...weeeeeeeeee' and 'What's up with that?' at every opportunity--both appropriate and inappropriate. Do you realize how often in a day you could say 'What's up with that?'

WUWT is at a great place. It's about to launch virally and there are only two available to watch. What SNL will do now is ruin it. Like many of their sketches there's a very limited place to take the concept. Rather, they just duplicate it to diminishing returns. See The Barry Gibb Talk Show below. It was funny once, kind of funny twice, painful the third time.

A similarly-typed sketch was Tracy Morgan's Brian Fellows. The sketch has the same skeleton every time. In that case it was the over-produced intro, Tracy Morgan yelling "I'm Brian Fellows" again and again, the guest host of the week highlighting an animal that offends Fellows, and a subsequent dream sequence with that animal. Always the same. The opportunity for anything new came with how outlandish the relationship was with that week's animal. With nothing new, it got boring fast. "I'm Brian Fellows" as a catch phrase is no "We're two wild and crazy guys."

Same with What's up With That?. It's not rocket science. Every future occurence of the sketch will have:

• Kenan singing the same intro song
• A three guest panel (guest #1 speaks, guest #2 is a random celebrity, guest #3 is Lindsey Buckingham--a fantastically absurd choice for a bumpable celeb
• Guest #1's comments get sung back to them and ultimately interrupted by Kenan's need to stand up and sing
• The weekly guest host is a quirky (unfunny) walk-on guest
• A cast member makes an appearance as a dancing D-list celebrity
• Jason Sudekis dances <--again, the best part
• Guest #1 acts confused
• The show has run out of time and guest #2 and Lindsey Buckingham are bumped

Where can they take this? See again, The Barry Gibb Talk Show.

Right now, it's perfect, so enjoy the right now. Ooooooooh Weeeeeeee...What's up with That?

Dear Sister


Two Worlds Collide aka Hangin' like my nuts.


The unfunny installment of The Barry Gibb Talk Show