Ben Affleck was the host on the season finale of Saturday Night Live this weekend. I’m not going to front like I even bothered to tape it. Just about the only celebrity that could get me to watch SNL again is Matt Damon, and he hasn’t hosted it since 2002. (He did do a short in 2011 with Val Kilmer, Katy Perry and Andy Samberg.) In contrast, this is Affleck’s fifth turn on SNL. He wants us to like him, he wants us to think he’s funny, and he’s willing to mock himself.
In his opening monologue (video below), Affleck referenced his Oscar acceptance speech and blamed “uncharitable souls” on the Internet for pointing out that he called his marriage “work.” You said it, Ben, no one put words in your mouth. You know this was his idea. He claimed that his speech was misconstrued, and then had Jennifer Garner come on stage to verify that she knew what he meant.
While winning an Oscar was a huge thrill, giving an Oscar acceptance speech is completely terrifying. You remember in my speech I thanked my wife while also saying the essence of marriage is work. And we’ve worked together on our marriage. And then some uncharitable souls on the Internet took that to mean that our marriage is some kind of manual labor. That’s not it, you define what’s important to you by what you dedicate your time to. And my wife knew exactly what I meant. And so to disprove the naysayers I asked her to come tonight.
Would you just now dispell this notion and tell the people what I meant?
Garner: Well yeah, it’s a way that we talk privately about how committed we are to our marriage. Not sure why you had to share it live to a billion people.
Affleck: Our marriage is the work of love. What would you have called it in a speech?
Garner: A gift. I would have said thank you to my wife, ‘our marriage is a gift.’
Affleck: Yeah, that’s one way to go, I guess. It’s a gift to the work of marriage which you gifted me with enormous work.
Garner: Well if we’re going to be completely honest here why don’t we go ahead and mention who does all of the work.
Affleck: That’s too inside the people don’t want to hear that…
I want to tell you how I wish I had ended that speech, ok? I couldn’t do any of the things I do without your support. You’re my angel, you’re my life and my world.
Garner: You’re reading that (shows cue card)
Affleck: I mean yeah, but it’s true. I love you.
Garner: Thank you. You’re a lot of work. [they kiss]
That was cute! It won me over. I thought it would be cheesier than it was, and it kind of speaks to their whole media strategy. Ben opens mouth, sticks foot in it, Jen saves his ass by being gracious and sweet about it.
As for the rest of the show, Pajiba has the rest of the skits for us as well as a nice overview. They call Ben “gracious” and “charmingly bumbling.” It was the last episode for castmembers Fred Armisen and Bill Hader and they got an emotional send off. Maybe they’ll get decent comedians to replace those two but it won’t be the same. Kanye West was the musical guest.
Ben’s marriage comments start at about 1:50
Love it!
I thought it was great. Loved it, too.
Who cares about their marriage?!?!?! Stefon and Seth Meyers are now a couple! Seth ran to the church and fought off Anderson Cooper for Stefon’s hand. Furkles, Alf, and DJ Baby Bok-Choy were there.
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/ben_affleck_discusses_oscar_speech_b1oC8TuQLuOTHlYrMCbBsO?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=TV
(scroll down for the video)
I agree with cares about their marriage.
For somthing that wasn’t a big deal and was taken the wrong way they sure are making it one. First Jen letter about how Ben didn’t mean it like that months after it happen and now this. Are they really that worried his Oscar acceptance speech “hurt” their brand ?
No, I think he decided to poke fun at himself. Isn’t that what SNL does?
+1 bluhare
Loved it! I’ve watched the Stefon skit 4 times already, each time picking up more references from past skits among the wedding guests. Furkles & Human Traffic Cones. It was a great send off.
I’m hoping @Eve saw it. 🙂
“Who cares about their marriage?”
Clearly the dozens of bloggers that have posted about it. Not to mention the thousands who have over the years posted in the comments
*rolls eyes*
I said it sarcastically because there happened to be an awesome wedding in the episode five years in the making that celebrated a longtime member of the cast and his departure. That was the absolute highlight of the episode, and perhaps the season. Jeez.
Kate
You couldnt explain that without getting hyper densive? What are you? Twelve??
@ Kellz
Are you serious? Maybe if you had read the rest of my original comment beyond the first sentence I wouldn’t have had to muster up that hyper-defensive eye roll. Maybe don’t take “Who cares?” so literally next time. And thanks for calling me twelve. I do look pretty young.
Reading is fundamental Kellz. If you had actually read Kate’s comment, you would have understood her intent. Also judging by this, and your bat $hit crazy whitewashing post on the Star Trek thread, you are hyper sensitive and need to learn some people skills.
Wow. This thread is epic in its bitchyness.
Ladies take it outside! Nobody is interested in Mean Girls the online edition.
Kanye seemed like a major A-hole. I liked his first number. But did you notice he never said a word to anyone at the cast call? His ego is well known to be rancid, but it’s getting worse. Which I didn’t think was possible. Dude has talent, but it’s almost not worth it anymore.
I skipped through his music because I’m not a fan, but I did notice he didn’t speak to anyone at the end – he looked like he didn’t want to be there and was uncomfortable.
Kanye was a regular SNL target for awhile. Hes had beef with the show even dissing them in Power. Its surprising he even agreed the show.
No one approached him or even looked his way.
He’s much shorter than I thought.
Dlisted has a gif where he is standing there side-eyeing everyone. It is hilarious. What a douche.
I’ll check it out gogo, thanks.
I thought it was funny, it worked for me.
I thought addressing the speech and making a joke of it was an excellent move on Ben’s part! I might be a sucker, but I completely bought into Ben and Jen’s authenticity and charm during the monologue.
Side note: I don’t know how I will go on without Bill Hader on SNL! Tell me it isn’t so!
Ha ha…that’s awesome. You know people are still gonna hate on him for this though. The dude just can’t win. Still, I love it when celebs make fun of themselves.
+1
BILL HADER IS LEAVING?!?!I didn’t know that. Nooooooooo!
I hate that Kanye is a genius musically. His personality and life choices and attitude are maddening. But the music…
I like Ben Affleck. Not ashamed at all. Always have, probably always will.
+1 to really all of this, about Kanye and Ben.
I’ve loved Ben since Good Will Hunting.
Kanye`s music is good, but if you listen to the lyrics, a lot of them are TERRIBLE… seriously awful
Does anyone else ever get the feeling that Ben is on a perennial campaign for something? Not Oscar…more President, starting with Senator? It’s all too contrived and tryhard for me. I think absolutely everything he does is with an eye to the 2024 campaign. I hope i’ll be dead by then.
You hope to be dead by then if Ben Affleck is in some kind of political office ? A little harsh, don’t you think ?
+1 About him always seemingly campaigning for something. (Not your dead part. lol)
I don’t think it’s political.I really think that he wants to act again and wants to be seen a movie star instead of just a director.And he doesn’t want the controversy to hurt his movie career.If he could star in 4 or 5 movies a year that are a successful as Argo,he’d do it.
I thought it was cheesy and awkward. But I think a lot of people liked it. Also I went to the taping! Ben seemed tired, not really into it, but he would wave to the audience between skits a couple times. Bill Hader did too.
I am a fan of Kanye’s music, not Kanye the man. Sometimes you have to separate the 2. A lot of the younger audience came more for Kanye. I came for everything, I’ve been watching SNL since I was 12.
One thing I didn’t like that a lot of my friends also mentioned, is that when he introduced Kanye (and this felt like he was speaking to the studio audience) he said “Ok everyone, the man you all came for, Kanye West” But he said it in a tone like, “well you all didn’t come here for me”. He seemed a little peeved, like with the 5 time bit, where he was like why aren’t I being treated like Timberlake, I feel like he was a lil upset. I was thinking to myself you have a family and an oscar, you revived your career! cheer up! maybe he was just tired and grumpy from the week idk.
you can watch hulu and decide (when he introduces kanye the first time)
The taping sounds cool. I can imagine why Ben seemed tired, I’ve always heard they pull all-nighters pretty much every night of the week prior to pull the show together.
I’m sure some hosts don’t go the distance but Ben seems like the type who’d be all in to help make sure the show is the best it can be.
That was sweet I love them
while we were watching SNL i couldn’t get over the unshakable feeling of WACKNESS this bit was giving me. 🙁
it’s like she’s his mom or something. 🙄
>she is<
😆
I think many women take on the role of mother to their husbands. Many men are just like big kids.
last i checked, dudes don’t wanna f*ck their mothers.
jussayin. 🙁
RHONYC meet my friend Sigmund Freud………
Be sure to watch the “Hermes” sketch. That’s the funniest one of the night – I love the two women.
I thought Kanye sucked – I can’t get past his ego. I wonder what his mom would think of him these days? His attitude and pretension are insufferable.
hermes was the best skit, hands down.
LMAO!!! Yes, comparing his d*ck to a snickers cuz it’s full of nuts and satisfies you LMAO
LOL I was cracking up at Fred Armisten singing in his fake British rock band, always funny!
I was hoping Ben would reprise William, the creepy/flirty UPS dude LOL
Ben i love you but stop talking about the speech! Just let it die!! You’re not on X factor stop trying so hard
Here’s the thing….it is forced and over the top and they do court publicity through their marriage.
But they have been married for years, have 3 children and neither of them GOT famous through their marriage. So it’s cute to me.
Is anyone still talking about their marriage? The expiration date on that joke was two months ago. I bet Garner made him do it.
I enjoyed it. To me what made it cute was when Jennifer Garner tells him he’s a lot of work. I kind of think that was unscripted. His chuckle seemed pretty genuine.
I watched it and was cringing to the point of embarrassment for them. Ben just kept digging himself into a deeper hole and Jen looked nervous. If he just let it go, no one would care. They are really campaigning to prove something (as someone said above) but it’s not clear what that is. I think things are really tough between them and they probably spend a ton of time in couples therapy. Maybe their therapist encouraged this idea of publicly “apologizing”. Whatever. He needs to zip it and figure out what he wants because he doesn’t seem happy where he is…like he’s confined.
Please do a post on Kanye – if he had deigned to make fun of himself or participated beyond his screaming (singing), it would have gone a LONG way in repairing his image. He needs to stop taking himself so seriously and man up and laugh a bit because he’s about to spend the next year covered in baby vomit.
Kanye’s performances were unbelievable. He gets on stage and really challenges people. He may be an asshole, but most great musicians are. I’m a Kanye apologist, what can I say?
I never got why so many people whoare talented in one thing get a pass for being assholes.
We aren’t giving him a pass, we are just saying we like his music. How many a rockstar were drug addicts. People love the rolling stones…Kanye is not a role model neither are a lot of artists, I don’t have to like them to like their music.
If you wanted every successful and talented musician to be likable, and not have their moments of being a jerk or not doing drugs, or cheating on their wives, or not being there for their children then we would have to rule out a lot of great music. It’s sad but true.
I love and adore Ben but I didn’t watch because I do not love and adore the big mouth man-child that is Kanye West. He has such a big ego and very little to back it up with but curse words, race baiting and his too cool for school attitude and yet he ends up at the end of the day with the biggest talentless fame whore in the world. So I hope that he meant it when he proclaimed in song that he would be moving “my family” to Paris! Go ahead and try to get Kimmode to move and never do the show again, now that would be a gift from heaven! Again love Ben and Jen, Kanye West is a gutter sniper a little more.
I don’t know if I would call it race baiting. He’s talking about issues that exist in today’s society. Maybe not your society, or even mine, but in his.
Ugh – I am officially sick of Ben (as well as Ben and Jen). He really should be careful because he’s getting close to being overexposed again. Just because he’s not with diva JLo doesn’t mean he can’t become overexposed. No one wants to hear this contrived crap anymore. Just focus on your movies Ben.
I hope no one ever calls them private again!
They have the most overexposed kids in Hollywood and are quickly having an overexposed marriage.
Her entire career is based on overexposing their kids and him as a “family man”.
She’s got nothing else to offer for years now.
I thought I was going to like it based on your recap but actually thought it came off more forced and awkward than expected. I don’t know what to make of the two of them (well, really, it’s Jennifer that confuses me – I think he’s pretty easy to figure out).
At the end when he pulls her in for a second hug and whispers to her, I might be a sucker, but I think that was real, and very sweet.
They care way too much what the public thinks of their “marriage”. They are putting their whole relationship in the public eye and are way less private then they pretend to be.
The Oscars were months ago and most people completely forgot his speech.
Clearly not. Wasn’t this very site harping on it a few weeks ago? Wasn’t she asked about it by some interviewer too?
Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.
+1. Dude can’t win.
Lb is right… every time there is some sort of Ben/Jen news, it continues to come up. Every article I’ve seen either mentions it, or posters start talking about it.
I’m sick of it myself, as I think it was a non-issue. Since it did seem to be gossip-worthy for so many, and continues to be, I think it was an obvious choice for some SNL self-mocking. 😉
It seemed kind of awkward, but cute. That extra hug (and whispering)at the end seemed genuine to me.
Notice no one laughed during their chat. Awkward.
Kinda pathetic
Awkward
Less is more
…yeah….
Gawd was this past SNL unwatchable!
I didn’t watch the Oscars this year and to rehash this between them was a major eye roll.
I’m a fan 🙂
I thought they might have heard/seen last weeks’ article in the Star mag. and wanted to draw attention from that also. I do agree they are getting close to over exposure.
Well I have two snarky things to say. 1. Ben’s monologue was awwwwkward. I mean I was just mortified they were doing that. It was awful.
2. Why does everyone keep calling Kanye a “musical genius”??? I watched his performances and it was an absolute pile of garbage. The band was okay but he sucked balls. Someone please enlighten me.
Kanye’s musical strength is in producing.
He has a great ear for production but to me, his rhyming skills are pretty basic.
That being said, if you don’t like or appreciate hip hop, then you probably won’t enjoy his music.
I used to be a Kanye fan,but I didn’t like his performances or his songs.And I can’t help but notice that since he got Kim pregnant he certainly seems more miserable than usual.And it is a little awkward to sing about materialism enslaving people while wearing a million dollar in gold chains and sleeping with the biggest fame whore in history.
About KW I don’t think he’s much of genius either. Time will tell however if people are still playing his stuff in 50 years…maybe he is but from what I heard I’m pretty sure they won’t be. There is nothing uplifting in anything he’s written that I’ve heard and what a bad voice. And would a true genius have to use the term muther-fu**** every other word? Don’t think so.
I love them, they seem real… that was cute that she agreed to join in the fun:)
He’s as romantic and oblivious as my husband
Marriage is work. Especially when your guy is great but oblivious and lacking romantically
I sympathize with Jen.
I thought it was uncomfortable and it pretty much showed they care about what people think of them.
She’s adorable. One of my favorite celebs.
It’s funny how ppl are supposed to hide the facts of life in this age of vulgar-tell-it-all-make-your-life-totally-public-lifestyle. Yes, marriage is work. Yes, staying thin takes a lot of effort. And so on. Jeez…
I love this cute couple and their cute kids.
stefan’s farewell skit was brilliant
i like hip hop but kanye’s music seems very generic to me. plus the words to his new songs were a riot if you consider he knocked up the biggest fame whore in history and he is forever linked to her pimp.
seriously, way too much has been made of Ben and his marriage is work comment. it is work!!! amazing how people overanalyze and make a big deal out of every single comment. no wonder people have publicists and prewritten questions and answers for interviews, when people make such a big deal out of nothing!
Jennifer Garner is so cute and seems like she really wants her marriage to work. I hope Ben is good to her.
I don’t get this “laughing at yourself” when at the same time they are throwing “shade comments” on us (“uncharitable souls” on the Internet). Ben, this uncharitable soul basically has seen most of your movies (including all the cr*ppy ones and they were quite a few). You gotta be a really charitable soul to spend your hardworking money on those. Just saying…
These American actors could learn a thing or two from British actors who acknowledge reading what we write and address with so much class.
I loved it, thought it was really timely…of course they were going to address it because it was the only controversial (not that it really was) thing that has plagued him recently.
I think they are real and he cares that people think he dissed his wife in public and he wants to set the record straight for her that he in no way meant to do that and that he loves her and acknowledges her sacrifices to allow him the opportunity to do this. I think he did it for her more than for anyone else and I think that is quite lovely. And all you jaded, chip on shoulder naysayers can think whatever you like, this is just my opinion. I prefer to see the good and give them the benefit of the doubt instead of instantly trying to analyze it to shit and find ways to make it negative. It was his way to correct his tribute to her. I think they are genuine.
Love them and their adorable family. I for one cannot get enough of them. But understand to each his own, so don’t start lambasting me with negative replies.
Forgot to mention, hated the Kanye West parts and fast forwarded through them. He comes off as very arrogant and extremely unfriendly. I think everyone was very uncomfortable around him at the end of the show. He looks like a ball of anger.
He maybe a great musician, but it is hard to get past his personality to listen, so I don’t. He is a big turn off to me.
Again, just my own opinion and I realize others probably like him and his anger/negativity, so go for it if it turns your crank.
It was nice to see that Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck are comfortable enough to poke fun at their marriage. It was a great show on Saturday even if a few members left. I’m definitely glad I didn’t miss the finale. I worked late at DISH on Saturday night, so I made sure to set my DVR to record the show. I catch up on my shows when I’m cleaning up around the house, and being able to stop a show in the living room and resume it in the kitchen with my DISH Hopper helps me to stay productive.