Snap Judgment: 'SNL'

Some quick observations about the 31st season premiere of Saturday Night Live two nights ago:

1) Come back soon, Tina Fey; please don’t let us suffer through Horatio Sanz (far left) trying to read the news again for another week. (Sanz wasn’t terrible, just relentlessly mediocre, and he’s the show’s worst offender when it comes to failing to maintain a TV news-like poker face and cracking up at the cue cards.)

2) New guy Bill Hader’s gift for impressions should be a real asset; his Al Pacino was uncannily good — and funny.

3) Nice way to defuse the Kanye West situation: a funny sketch bringing back MVP Mike Myers to joke about his embarrassing moment alongside West at last month’s Katrina telethon. This seems to be SNL‘s standard operating procedure for its more notorious guests (from Monica Lewinsky to Winona Ryder to Paris Hilton): defuse controversy by making a joke acknowledging the scandal without actually allowing the guest to restate his case and defend himself (or further embarrass himself).

4)The JetBlue sketch wasn’t really funny, but it shows some moxie to make fun of a sponsor who’s bought a number of ads airing during the same episode. I guess this, along with 3), is what passes for daring in TV comedy today.

What did you think of the premiere, PopWatchers?

addCredit(“Saturday Night Live: Dana Edelson/NBC”)