Take A Break

The slimmed-down Jonah Hill hosted SNL this week and did a decent job. According to David Sims at The AV Club, here are some highlights:

Hill as a wannabe samurai in J Pop America Fun Time Now was one of his few non straight-man roles of the evening, and while the sketch still works for me, I think I enjoyed Hill more because his lines were so intentionally garbled and he kept breaking, and less because of the material.

[.... Bill Hader's] Stefon cheered me up no end and provided half the notable quotes of the episode. For some reason, this never gets stale, perhaps because every time Hader does the character you’re just watching him to see when he breaks. This time, it was almost immediately—the first sign of trouble was when he referred to “that old Pakistani woman that looks like a California Raisin.” But obviously human Roombas really took the cake: “when you put a midget on a skateboard and it slides around on your floor eating garbage.” The midget joke always kills, even though you know it’s coming. “Eating garbage” was what got me (and, I think, Hader).

So Sims can't wait until the actors break up.  He even notes he liked it despite the material.

As they say on Weekend Update, Really?  If actors breaking character is so wonderful, then why bother to write funny or smart sketches?  Why should the actors even try to say their lines when they know the audience just wants them to mess around?  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this is already happening, and the cast members play up the live aspect by screwing up intentionally, or at least don't fight the urge to laugh.

If actors were really trying hard to do it right, and very rarely there'd be a mistake on air, it might be a memorable moment.  But the last thing a critic should do is encourage it as a regular feature.