Nicki Minaj’s transition into the mainstream continues with the announcement of her being booked as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

Lately, Nicki’s talked fashion with Joan Rivers on E!’s Fashion Police and mother-son split personalities with Ellen DeGeneres on daytime TV.

And now the burgeoning rap star will perform material from her platinum debut album, Pink Friday.

Nicki’s SNL episode will air on January 29. The show will be hosted by The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg.

I really hope the producers of the show use her talent in a sketch or two!

Source

Even if you don’t live in New York State, chances are that you’ve heard of gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan, of the Rent is Too Damn High Party. He is absolutely hilarious, but also very serious. I don’t know who I’m voting for, for governor just yet but I am not mad at his cause (especially as a freelancer). However, how am I supposed to take a man who looks like the Black Hulk Hogan and is often called Papa Smurf seriously? In addition, Saturday Night Live has concocted a funny spoof of him played by Keenan Thompson. When it comes to pop culture, you’re nobody until SNL spoofs you. Check it out:

It’s official. My new answer to questions I don’t know the answer to is going to be, “The rent is too damn high!”

NBC announced new additions to the Saturday Night Live cast on Tuesday and one of them is Jay Pharoah, who is also the first Black person added since 2003. Jay Pharoah is a 22-year-old comic from Chesapeake, Va. who ditched college to begin his stand-up comedy career. He began performing at 15 and eventually became a resident joker at Virginia Beach’s Funny Bone. He also became an internet sensation based on spoof videos that featured him doing dead-on impersonations of Denzel Washington, Charlie Murphy, Eddie Murphy and others. The Washington Post recently featured the young comedian and brought up an interesting question: Is Pharoah SNL’s new Obama?

If the answer to that question is yes, then Pharoh will replace Fred Armisen as SNL’s resident president. Armisen, a White man, has gotten a lot of flack for his Obama impression because of his significant lack of melanin (um, but Obama is half White so that wasn’t too far fetched) and according to some, not being funny.

Only time will tell what the show will have in store for Pharoah, but it’s safe to say that this young man might become a superstar. Saturday Night Live has a good track record of finding promising talent. Plus, the show has been really boring for the past couple of seasons so this might be the game changer that they needed. The new season kicks off on September 25. Congrats Jay Pharoah! As they say in show business, break a leg (not sure if that applies to comedians too but you get what I mean).

The Washington Post

Betty White’s guest appearance on Saturday Night Live was a hit (I’ll spare you cliche use of the word “golden”). Saturday’s episode, which also featured musical guest Jay-Z, posted SNL’s highest overnight ratings in 18 months. The telecast averaged an 8.8 rating/21 share among 56 local markets tracked by Nielsen. That’s a high for the series since Nov. 1, 2008, when Ben Affleck hosted and Presidential nominee John McCain appeared alongside Tina Fey as Gov. Sarah Palin.

Saturday’s episode was No. 1 for the night, topping all prime time programs on all major networks. In addition to White’s appearance, SNL alums Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon also appeared on the episode.

Final ratings are due from Nielsen on Thursday.

Did you catch Betty White on SNL? What did you think? I thought it was a good come back from Gabourey Sidibe’s episode (which was the writers’ faults). Jay-Z even dedicated a song to Miss White. Check out some clips below:

Betty White is MacGruber’s grandmother.

US Census.

Jay-Z dedicates “Forever Young” to Betty White.

Source

There was a lot of hype building up to Gabourey Sidibe hosting Saturday Night Live but did she deliver? She taped her episode on Saturday and while she still shows potential of having a promising and diverse acting career, this particular performance garnered mixed reviews.

I prowled Twitter and various other message boards and read comments like, “This episode was very hit and miss (like many others). Gabby did mess up some of her lines, but she tried and seemed to enjoy herself. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as the complainers on this board would have you believe,” and “I thought she was great!”

I thought the episode was boring in general and I did not love Gabby the way I thought I would. Check out some of the skits below:

She came close to cracking up in the cranky old lady skit but other than that, she delivered her lines well. Most of the blame should go to the writers for penning corny skits. If you’ve seen her on The Soup then you know she can be funny but unfortunately, the Gabby/SNL experience was off the mark.

What did you think — love it or hate it?

One of the biggest lessons I learned growing up was that success is the best revenge.  Contrary to what Howard Stern, Robin Quivers and other negative individuals believe, Gabby is doing just fine. The Precious star and Academy Award nominee has been tapped to host Saturday Night Live.

If that ain’t a metaphorical middle finger, then I don’t know what is. As a rookie, she’s a better actress than a lot of veteran actresses in Hollywood and her personality is amazing.  She’s confident in her skin and people (especially in Hollywood) could learn a lot from her.

No further details have been released about when her show will air, but I’m sure she’ll be fine, especially with her bubbly, witty personality. She already gave us a glimpse of her comedic side by making a funny post-Oscar appearance on E!’s show, The Soup.

For those still in doubt, SNL is not the only gig Sidibe has scored since her feature film debut. She has a recurring role on Showtime’s upcoming The Big C, about a teacher living with cancer, set to premiere in August.

Love it!

Source

Let this story be a lesson to all of you: Facebook can change lives.

Or at the very least, get somebody some work. Golden Girl and new sugar mama in my head, Betty White, can attest to this.

David Matthews, 29, of San Antonio, started a little petition on Facebook to get Betty White a hosting gig on Saturday Night Live back in December. Half a million signatures later and executive producer Lorne Michaels has confirmed that White will indeed host the show on an upcoming episode.

Speaking with USA Today, Michaels said: “It isn’t something we would have said no to,” but the campaign “validated that, ‘Oh, that’d be fun.’ … It was the outpouring of affection from fans, and we feel the same way.”

Some worried that the 88-year-old actress might not be able to handle hosting an entire late night show.

White, humbled by the attention, said not to worry.

“I’ve got so much energy, it’s ridiculous. I love working. My schedule is a feverish one, and I’m used to that,” White explained to USA Today.

Whatever, she could probably out flex you if you dared her to do it. I can’t wait to watch her work the show.

Now who’s willing to start a petition to get Frankie on Jeopardy?

Source

This week Rihanna will join the likes of Beyonce, Janet, Madonna, and other pop phenoms as she takes the stage of Saturday Night Live this week.

Now, with respect to Rihanna – whose new album I love – has anyone ever watched one of her performances and wondered if you were going to fall into a coma shortly before she wrapped her set up?

As pretty as she is and as great as she styled her live performances often leave audiences wanting more. Like more movement, eye contact, singing on key.

I’ve enjoyed some of her recent performances of “Russian Roulette,” but I’ve also cringed at some. I have no idea why people swear she’s kicking it with Satan. If she were, she’d be murking Beyonce and Lady GaGa on stage by now.

That said, best of luck to Rihanna this Saturday. Hopefully she rises to the occasion. And hopefully, she attempts to do a skit. It would be nice to see her funny side. We already get enough of her sexual appetite.

Source

I loved Tracy Morgan as Hustle Man on Martin and I thought he was funny as an original Saturday Night Live cast member. But did you see him on SNL last Saturday? He wasn’t very funny.

In the opening segment, he played a filmmaker who killed most of his cast in a skit that dragged on way too long. It was only funny in the first 20 seconds. He then moved on to playing a dimwitted, hallucinatory animal-lover on “Safari Planet,” a transvestite in a spoof of HBO’s Big Love and Whoopi Goldberg on “The View.”

I’m not sure whether the writers are at fault or Morgan (or both), but he was weak as a host. Check out a clip below from his segment on “The View.”

more about “tmorgan“, posted with vodpod