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March 3, 2008

Wilco, Juno, Hillary Visit Saturday Night Live

The revolving doors at 30 Rock gave passage this weekend to a varied set of Saturday Night Live guests: pro-Obama rockers Wilco, pro-Clinton politician Hillary Clinton, and pro-lesbian thespian Ellen Page. And after all that, it was a pretty weak episode. We mostly blame Ellen for that; that droll lifeless "I don't want to be here" vibe isn't just an act, it's her only act, making for painful sketch comedy viewing. (OK she was pretty inspired during the lesbian sketch.) The hightlight, by far, was Tweedy, Glen, Nels, et al, first for a horny "Hate It Here":

And then for "Walken" and its outstanding Tweedy suit:

Turns out Wilco can act, too. Check the promos.

Tweedy speaks!

Nice delivery. As mentioned, Hillary Clinton came by, with an editorial response to the opening sketch:

Nice and relaxed show of humor, Hill, and much less cringe-y than her last SNL-related debate appearance. We close with Samberg as Diablo Cody using the word blog too many times:

Next week: A band called Vampire Weekend.

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13 Comments

That was basically Juno if she went lesbian... That Samdberg/Diablo Cody bit was mind blog-oling.

Posted by: Luis at 03/03/08 10:29 AM | Reply
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Really? You truly liked Wilco's performance? The whole time I kept thinking, "What the hell happened to this band? What kind of music is this? Who is it for? Fleetwood Mac fans?" I'm all for genre-jumping and I think Tweedy, up until now, has done an excellent job of going beyond his alt-country roots, but I find his new music shark-jumping.

Posted by: krup at 03/03/08 11:48 AM | Reply
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snl and dad rockers have this in common: no one cares anymore.

Posted by: Brandon at 03/03/08 11:51 AM | Reply
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I thought it was great. Nels is great. This is the best linup of wilco yet, that sounds like more than the jeff tweedy solo project.

Posted by: dannygutters at 03/03/08 11:56 AM | Reply
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God they're awful. I occassionally wonder why I didn't get into Wilco and then I hear them and I remember.

At least Nels is getting a paycheck and still does amazing projects of his own.

And why is it when you think SNL is going to have a killer show with a guest that you'll like it turns out like this. In fact my favorite episode of all time was one with The Rock (Bigfoot sings)...go figure.

Posted by: Bingo T. Klown at 03/03/08 12:08 PM | Reply
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Wilco was good. And what is with all this hillary love. First, they give Tina Fey a huge rant about how hillary should be president. And now they use the same damn sketch and actually bring her on this week. The joke was that this is not an endorsement even though it blatantly is. Could you be more out of touch?

Posted by: brad at 03/03/08 12:20 PM | Reply
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this is the first time ive ever been let down by wilco, tweedy looked like elvis.. i still love this band very much though, dont get me wrong.

Posted by: mailman at 03/03/08 12:31 PM | Reply
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And not only do they have fred armisen in blackface doing obama, but he sounded retarded, literally. and the 'tv funhouse' racist crap?? im surprised they didnt put him in a turban.

Posted by: paulie at 03/03/08 12:44 PM | Reply
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Wilco is always amazing. I too had trouble getting into their latest material, but I love Tweedy's work so much that I eventually adapted to it. They're still one of the best live bands around.

Also, I love Ellen Page. She seems like she'd be awesome to be around, but she could easily turn around and kick your ass and make you cry. Me like.

P.S. I WAS A STRIPPERRR.

Posted by: The Other Matthew at 03/03/08 3:26 PM | Reply
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krup, i think yhf and ghost is born are more shark jumping, considering everything else in their catalogue. (and what's wrong with fleetwood mac?)

this was a weak episode compared to last weeks, which showed some promise. wilco was good, but a usual andy samberg ruined everything he was a part of.

Posted by: brent at 03/03/08 4:28 PM | Reply
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I love Wilco as much as the next guy but I do not enjoy this honky-"Let it Be"-jam band bullshit.

Posted by: Aaron at 03/03/08 4:29 PM | Reply
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"and the 'tv funhouse' racist crap??"

Ugh, yeah, I think I cringed throughout the whole thing. The weird digital short made me laugh out loud but probably just because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. And Ellen Page probably could have been better, she just looked really really nervous the whole time.

Posted by: Dani at 03/03/08 9:34 PM | Reply
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YEAH TWEEDY!
ahahaha.

Posted by: alex at 03/03/08 11:43 PM | Reply
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