Lena Dunham will host ‘Saturday Night Live’ for the first time: will she be funny?

wenn20963906

In case you missed it, Dustin Rowles at Pajiba had a funny take on how Girls has become a total hate-watch for many people, mostly because of the writing and how ridiculous these characters are. You should read it – go here. As you might remember, I kind of defended the show during the first season, just because… it’s just television. If people didn’t care for the show, they should just turn it off. Plus, I liked the idea of a young woman who was writing/producing/directing/acting and I think the simple fact that Lena Dunham had all of those jobs at such a young age was what alienated a lot of people straight off.

But as the show has continued and we’ve seen more of Lena… I can’t say I’m really a fan. I don’t hate her or anything, but her shtick is wearing thin. But we’re about to get a lot more of Lena. She’s just scheduled her first-ever hosting gig for Saturday Night Live for March 8th. This will also be the first time The National is the musical guest for SNL too. While this will be Lena’s first time on SNL, the show has spoofed her before, and quite memorably. Tina Fey was the host, and magic was made when Tina’s “Blerta” was added to the cast of Girls:

Lena later called the spoof a “true honor”. She also tweeted about her SNL gig yesterday, writing: “Thank you for the SNL love. Dream come true. Can’t wait to debut my character “girl who googled serial killers all night & has lots to say”!” Yeah… and therein is yet another problem. Will Lena be funny? No, seriously. Will she be funny? I feel like SNL is just outrage-baiting, quite honestly.

PS… How is it that Mindy Kaling has never been asked to host SNL?

wenn20984451

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

26 Responses to “Lena Dunham will host ‘Saturday Night Live’ for the first time: will she be funny?”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Karen says:

    Mindy Kaling would be hilarious, my god. Every line she spoke on the office was hilarious and the Mindy Project is great. I think Lena will be great, but really the host is only as great as the writing they’re given. To me, even a great like Louis CK didn’t come off as that funny when he hosted. SNL is not my favourite.

    • Kiddo says:

      Yeah, it will boil down to the writing and maybe someone else playing her character or something like that.

    • dizzylucy says:

      I would love to see Mindy host. I was always amazed NBC didn’t use their Office connections to get more of that cast to host.

      I agree it will come down to the writing. SNL is, and always has been, hit or miss, and it needs to be a good host/writing combination.
      I thought Kerry Washington’s was pretty great, and the first Melissa McCarthy (her most recent episode was lacking, through no fault of hers).

  2. Sayrah says:

    Lena was really funny at Howard Stern’s birthday.

  3. InVain says:

    SNL has been awful the last few years.

    But no – I don’t think she’ll be funny. I don’t think she or GIRLS is funny.

    • Tapioca says:

      Tru dat. The headline has its colon in the wrong place and should read: “Lena Dunham will host SNL: for the first time will she be funny?”

      • Elizabeth says:

        Yes!! Haha

      • Mingy says:

        LOL!

      • Helena Hand-Basquet says:

        I was coming here to say just that. I just don’t get why she’s a thing. I’ve never seen her be funny. She’s nailed down entitled, whiny and a lot of other things, but not funny. At least not yet.

        And the getting naked every five seconds for no good reason? Just why? We get that you love your body, Lena Dunham, and that’s fantastic. But you could wear clothes sometimes, too, girl.

        [scoots over to Pajiba]

    • Irishserra says:

      I was thinking the same thing about SNL. I pretty much quit watching it regularly because it’s just not funny anymore. Lena just might fit right in.

  4. Hillshmill says:

    To me, SNL is funniest when they’re just ridiculous and don’t put a lot of meaning behind the skit. Sketches like the Target Lady, or Debbie Downer. I’m not sure Lena can be funny without being hyper aware of herself. She needs to let go and not think too much about the comedy. Remember when Molly Shannon just threw herself into chairs as Mary Catherine Gallagher? I don’t think Lena could ever do that. And I say this as a Lena fan.

    • Patricia says:

      I remember laughing until it hurt at Mary Catherine, did you see the one where she knocks over the bathroom stalls? That was so good. That’s real comedy!

  5. GMarchetti says:

    Will she get naked on it too?

  6. MooHoo says:

    I just watched Girls on DVD for the first time – 2 series in a row – and really really enjoyed it (although I did think Lena sometimes milked the camera for fleshy exposure where it really wasn’t that called for). It was a bit mad sometimes but very entertaining. If we didn’t know anything about Lena and her mates in real life, their connections or whatever, then the show would be taken as it is – new, refreshing and stand alone entertainment – and no one would bitch so much about it.
    As for SNL, it’s not that funny anymore so chances are good that someone with Lena’s talent might make something of it.

    • Mingy says:

      I loved the first season, and some of the second one (I didnt like hannah’s OCD ones)…I saw the first 3 episodes of season 3 but hated it, I just can’t stand it anymore.
      I don’t think she’ll be funny on SNL, but I’ll watch anyway..I probably won’t have anything else better to do.

  7. Patricia says:

    I will hate watch this so hard.

  8. ughinsomnia says:

    I am so completely over Lena Dunham. Her racism bothers me, her face bothers me, her entitlement bothers me…pretty much everything about her annoys me now. I thought Tiny Furniture was a really, really good movie when I first saw it, but it seems like she just plays the same character in everything she does: White Privileged Crybaby.

    Blah.

  9. RememberThe'80s says:

    For the love of God– that last picture!

  10. Nerd Alert says:

    Ugh. I try to like SNL. Mostly now I just watch the highlights on my AppleTV the next day because it’s seriously not that funny right now. It’s a shame, because some of the cast are really funny in their own right and don’t have any good material to work with. BUT I saw on one of the links that Jim Parsons is hosting and Beck will be the musical act this weekend! I love Beck, AND Jim so I may have to watch the whole thing.

    As for Lena…I doubt she’ll be funny off the cuff. Being smart doesn’t make one good at live acting.

    As for Mindy, she WOULD be good on SNL, but her fame doesn’t match our love for her, Kaiser. To be on SNL as a host means you have to be quite famous, controversial, or on a show that’s doing really well (critical acclaim doesn’t count, just ratings). Sad but true. It would be funnier if they had actual talented people hosting, rather than athletes and mediocre talent.

    • FLORC says:

      If there is talent on that show these days that talent is soon to leave in a hurry.

      This promos only saving grace is Tina.
      They need to fire the whole cast again and start from scratch or accept the end gracefully.

      • Nerd Alert says:

        No, it’s not the cast. At least five of the cast members are funny when they do stand-up or other shows.

        It’s the crap writing. They need to completely fire their writing staff and start over.

  11. Ethy says:

    In Mindy’s book, she talked about how she wrote for SNL for a minute and was kind of terrible/not assertive enough. I think none of her sketches made it to TV and she left really quickly and on a weird note.

  12. Luciana says:

    In my opinion, she’s not funny on Girls, or anywhere else, so I don’t see why she’d be funny on SNL. I wanted to like Girls, I really did – I just couldn’t make it happen. Since she is the main writer, creator, etc… I do tend to put the bulk of the blame her. However, I don’t have any specific hate or dislike of her aside from not liking her show, or not liking her on her show. I do think it’s a bit sad in general that she’s being touted as having achieved something incredible for doing what men do all the time (write, create, produce, direct). At the same time, go Lena for getting it done!

  13. Isabelle says:

    Lena is actually funny in her interviews and when she is her normal self. Like her better when she isn’t Girls.