Betty White's SNL stint: Less than golden
Posted by ashertrix , Saturday, May 8, 2010 11:50 PM
Think of it as another Facebook faux pas.
Perhaps no show could have lived up to expectations created for this week's Saturday Night Liveby the Facebook campaign that got Betty White her first hosting job after a 35-year wait. And in the grand scheme of things, 90 mediocre minutes with White is still preferable to time spent with most anyone else, if only because our collective affection for her makes even the worst material look a little better.
Yet in the end, Saturday's overhyped NBC broadcast mostly served to explain why SNL seemed so reluctant to bring White on board. Clearly, they didn't know what to do with her.
So they had her make some blue jokes, bear the brunt of multiple "isn't she old" jokes, and pump for the upcoming MacGruber movie — and then make a few more blue jokes. I realize White's juxtaposition of angelic manner and gutter language has proven to be a sure-fire laugh-getter — but 90 minutes of it? Surely after the first dozen times she says "lesbian" or makes some sexual reference or gets bleeped out for cursing, the routine begins to lose some of its punch.
On the plus side, you knew what you were in for pretty much from the start of this overcrowded installment, which backed White up with a slew of returning female stars, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. As if to salute White's age, the show opened by recycling old skits: the Lawrence Welk/twisted-sisters bit, MacGruber, and a "muffin" variation on Alec Baldwin's far funnier "schweddy balls" routine. Watchable? Sure. Special? Decidedly not.
None of this was White's fault, who once again proved that she is both a pro and an extremely good sport. What laughs there were, outside of Weekend Update, were pretty much provided by her and her alone, and that's not something you can say about every host.
She just deserved better. And after a 35 year wait, so did we.
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