Even Neil Patrick Harris Can’t Save SNL

by Josh Roth @ 5:00 pm January 12th, 2009

Neil Patrick Harris is an absolute show stealer, he radiates pure talent, and yet Saturday Night Live was able to make even him seem unfunny. Out of the entire episode three of the sketches (including the digital short), and the monologue were the only good parts. The problem with the episode wasn’t NPH, it was the show, they just didn’t give him good enough material to work with. In fact most of the sketches he was in didn’t focus on him at all.

Everybody loved the Election Specials SNL ran over the last few weeks of the 2008 Election because they were fresh and funny, something we haven’t seen on SNL for a few years now. But without Tina Fay and material provided by the candidates (John McCain skulking around the debate floor was hillarious), it’s returned to its mundane status.

Neil’s monologue was pure gold, it felt fluid and natural, especially the bit about Fred Savage stealing his thunder. Save Broadway, which starred an ensemble of Broadway characters meeting to save their craft, was also pretty good, if only to see NPH as Mark from Rent.

Dear lord Penelope was an irritating character, but Neil was able to handle her pretty well, making the bit tolerable. The Today Show skit was pure garbage until Neil came on screen in workout gear, then it became slightly more polished garbage. Two First Names was just another lame excuse to have bad impersonations with Neil just thrown into the mix. Fran & Freba was simply painful, such horrifically terrible writing that even Neil couldn’t save it. I’m still torn on the Frost/Other People bit. it was kind of funny but also relied almost entirely on bad celebrity impersonations (like the Two Names one), NPH barely got a word in edge wise.

But the best sketch of the night was once again the Digital Short, which was an orchestrated version of the Doogie Howser theme, with the cast decked out in blonde wigs and lab coats. For a while now the Digital Shorts have stolen the thunder from the rest of the show. In my opinion most of the creative control should be turned over to the Digital crew, maybe then the show would finally start to improve.