Cold Open: CNN Special Event — This is one bit of current events that was totally lost on me, so it wasn’t nearly as effective is it may have been for you … if you saw what it was poking fun at. I can make a guess, but that’s about it.
Monologue: Jesse Eisenberg — Well, I voted in my poll yesterday that Facebook’s Zuckerberg would appear in the monologue, so kudos to those who voted with me! I had completely forgotten that Samberg — another ‘berg! — did the Zuckerberg impressions for SNL, so this was pretty awesome. I did think that Zuckerberg’s smile was maybe a little … I dunno, creepy? Fake? Also, Eisenberg did great throughout.
Estro-Maxx — I have a feeling we’ll be seeing this fauxmercial a couple more times in future episodes. I love how SNL will take a product that would never appear on traditional television and give it the look of a real commercial.
Mr. Wizard’s World — This skit was pretty great. The kids taking more balloons was hysterical. I don’t remember — was this something that kinda-sorta happened on the real show? Best line: “Balloons make things grow.”
Don’t Forget the Lyrics! — This one started out funnier than I thought it was going to be, but something about it fell flat toward the end.
WXPD News — We’ve seen Herb Welch before at least a couple other times. Once again Hader makes it funnier just from cracking up and getting others to crack up with him.
The Creep — I dig most SNL Digital Shorts, but this one just didn’t jive with me. If the point was to creep us out, I think it worked. Who were the two other guys with Samberg?
Musical Guest: Nicki Minaj — Not my kind of music (I bet you’re sick of reading me say that week-after-week, huh), and I sorta got the impression this girl was trying too much for the Lady Gaga look with her outfits and hair. Speaking of hair, it was great that she kept the Blackenstein hair for the second number.
Weekend Update — Usually I’ve got something to say about one of the “special guests” on Weekend Update, but there really wasn’t much to talk about this time around.
The Essentials: Bride of Blackenstein — I caught a blacksploitation movie a long time ago, and some of this was pretty spot-on for what it was like. So far it seems as though we’re seeing almost as much of Nicki Minaj in skits as we are of Eisenberg!
Skins Product Placement — This was pretty damn funny! It started out great with Samberg as an immature MTV exec, then mistakenly knocking over his fake MTV Award statue. The products the Skins kids were pushing were hilarious.
Spa Talk with Tyla Yonders — This one was just OK, the funniest part being the organic poop Yonders used on the clients’ faces. Thank God something like this couldn’t be a real show.
El Shrinko — For a last skit of the night, this was pretty funny. My favorite moments were when “Derrick” stumbled into the commercial, and the three girls trying to read the cue cards and flubbing the product’s name.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Jan 30, 2011 @ 01:03 EST5EDT
I could appreciate Zuckerberg doing the Samberg impression in his voice.
And Eisenberg was like every creepy kid I ever knew in Mr. Wizard’s World.
And you know what? Samberg going on after he knocked over the award was fun. He just made it part of the skit by knocking it right off the table.
I will say, Eisenberg really had a good sense of timing. I was worried his nervous comedic persona would get in the way, but he was really spot on for most of the show.
The other two guys with Samberg in the Creep sketch were Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, his fellow Lonely Island members. They’ve been in many other digital shorts, including “I’m on a Boat.” They also write for the show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lonely_Island
How have you missed the whole Michelle Bachmann thing this week with her Tea Party response to the State of the Union? It’s probably gotten more press than the actual SOTU address! You have to watch it because the opening bit was hilarious in that context.
It was great to see John Waters as part of The Creep Digital Short, and Nicki Minaj was terrific as the Bride of Blackenstein (and yes, there is a real Blackenstein movie).
Have not laughed as hard as I did at the Bride of Blackenstein sketch in a long time. We need more Jay Pharoah!
The opening sketch was also a riot and very spot-on — although if Kristen Wiig had looked away from the camera to do “LIVE FROM NEW YORK…” it might have been perfect. YMMV.
Half expected to see Timberlake make a cameo but John Waters! was a treat.
Good show, as these things go.
I’ve long refused to learn who Nicki Minaj is, but I was beyond impressed with her. I didn’t bother to watch her musical performances, but it’s really rare to have a musical guest in two sketches to begin with, but she was great in both, which was pretty unexpected.