It’s been years since I stayed up and watched Saturday Night Live. There. That felt good, admitting that. There was a marked decline in talent and writing a few years ago on SNL, and basically I decided that if there was any particularly good skit, it would be easy enough to simply watch it the next day. This is my explanation for not watching the season premiere of SNL this weekend, despite the fact that my favorite lady Tina Fey was the host. I love Tina and everything and she usually gets a higher-quality of writing than other hosts, but still… I wasn’t going to sit through the whole episode just to see if there were one or two funny skits.
Thankfully, everyone is still talking about only one skit in particular. Tina did a really wonderful spoof of Girls – other SNL cast members played the regular cast members on Girls and Tina played the “new girl” of the show, Albanian refugee/immigrant Blerta. You know what? If this was really a show – a sitcom about self-absorbed millenials and one tough-talking refugee, I would LOVE IT. And I would watch it. Here you go:
Genius. Again, this isn’t about Tina Fey “not supporting female artists.” This about Tina feeling/saying/acting like female artists should be treated just the same as men – as in, everyone gets to be spoofed and joked about, male or female.
And it seems that Lena Dunham agrees – she was at Mindy Kaling’s house watching SNL (Mindy tweeted a photo of it and Lena re-tweeted the photo) and Lena also tweeted this: “The SNL parody of Girls was a true honor.” She ain’t mad. At least she’s not mad about it publicly. And I doubt she’s mad about it in general too.
Photos courtesy of SNL.
I would hope that Lena isn’t mad! I would consider it a high honor to be spoofed by Tina Fey.
I agree. I thought the skit was very funny. When Saturday Night Live makes fun of you ,it is considered a honor.
That was hilarious! Thanks for posting, Celebitchy.
Tina Fey ROCKS – and she’s a normal person!
That skit was the only funny thing on the show. They should feel honored.
It takes a lot to offend her, and her character is similar in that way.
ROL B.S. Tina is supporting women by saying they should be treated as equals to men. When has she made fun of a famous man?! She only bags on women. Her whole shtick is being a mean girl who shrugs it off by saying im just being funny. She is not funny at all. She is just a rude, untalented, mean girl.
have a donut Kim, it might sweeten you up
“You’re 24? What the hell is wrong with you?”
That’s exactly how I felt when I attempted to watch the show which debuted when I was 27, so there you go.
Same with me. All I could think of was; how can we almost be the same generation? I never watched the rest so I wouldn’t know if it was just a pilot hate that I felt.
ha agreed. I just couldn’t get into the show.
Same. I logged in just to co-sign, because I am truly baffled by this show’s appeal.
This spoof was brilliant. Honestly, I couldn’t get interested enough about this show to even attempt watching it.
Me too. I loved the spoof, but that line made me laugh hard. It was my exact reaction to the real show- I wanted to like it because everyone raved about it, wanted to support a young woman writing/directing, but…damn, grow up and quit whining already!
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I even tried watching multiple episodes (4 I think) and felt hatred the entire time. Blah.
I feel like the characters start off so childish so they will have somewhere to go. They’ll all learn lessons and transition from “Girls” to “Women”. A bit heavy handed, but I think that’s going to be the point of it all.
Those promotional photos of Tina are just gorgeousness personified. The top photo’s a takeoff of Virna Lisi from Esquire, right?
The skit was fantastic – I didn’t watch the episode but it was very well-done, and funny, and Lena Dunham has always struck me as having a great sense of humor about herself. She went on Howard Stern after he did his typical indelicate critique of her body and her nudity.
Michael K. of Dlisted had a hilarious post about this, about ‘hate-watching’ the show and how ‘truth-tellers’ like Blerta, an abuelita with a bag full of slappin’ sandals and the ghost of Sophia Petrillo of ‘The Golden Girls’ should become ‘Girls.’
That was hilarious.
I think it’s clear that Tina is not crazy about Girls and Lena, and this spoof encapsules perfectly why. It’s such and overrated, annoying show with not a single likable character and full of white girl problems. I can’t stand it when people lose their shit over this show.
I tried watching Girls once. It was awful. I’m really disturbed to be in the same age bracket as that mouth breather, Lena Dunham
Ditto! I can’t stand the show and found it had no redeeming qualities. Cringingly awful to be in that supposed demographic!
That skit was perfect. Girls is a pile of self absorbed crap. Bravo Tina
My favorite line, “You dress like baby.”
Totally- lol!
Holy Shit that was awesome!…all hail Tina Fey!!.
+1000000000000000000000000000000
The writing on this episode was especially terrible. I can’t believe how awful it was. The only funny skit was E-Meth.
I wish we got SNL in my country. I don’t know why we can only get really old SNL episodes on DVD here
I actually liked the show. The car salesman and his crazy wife, Arcade Fire or new cast member, Girls, there were quite a few good sketches.
Me too! I thought it was a really solid episode. I liked the intro bit with the newbie hazing/induction, the e-meth commercial, the game show skit… wasn’t a fan of the car commercial one (the depressed wife part, at least)– but it was pretty solid.
Tina Fey is not and never has been funny. She had great writers writing the skits that made SNL funny when she was head writer. She wasnt writing anything funny herself.
It was a great skit, and thought the regular SNL cast members were hysterical. And “women supporting women” doesn’t mean a woman’s work- not her body type, etc- but her work is exempt from a lampooning. I watched “Tiny Furniture” and remember being amazed that she got a HBO series based on that!
I tried to watch Tiny furniture but didn’t finish. Too revolted actually. I get the whole “let’s represent all women on television” movement, but let’s not forgot that some of us want to be dazzled and participate in a reality far from our own when we tune in. Escape, if you will. You can just as effectively portray unattractive women’s issues through having the less hot girl in a ponytail & glasses live them. We have imaginations. If we needed to be hit over the head with concept of unattractiveness in our characters, we could just tune into BBC!
“We could just tune into BBC.” Oh snap.
Tina’s hair looks great in that second promo photo. I agree about the show and how the funny skits are few and far apart in recent years.
I think she might be posing as the iconic Farrah poster, perhaps an homage to the nip incident?
I have not been a Tina Fey fan in the past.
I officially am now!
That was fantastic. I wonder if Lena will go all Kanye on twitter for being spoofed. LOL
It is the truth and the truth should just be the truth rude or not. I think it was funny and we need more of it. I find selfies to be the rudest thing on earth and it sure shows how needy and desperate some are when they send out selfies all day long. Again funny!
I have never seen Girls but I have read some of the hype on the show and of Lena. Seems this show gets WAY more attention than any other show. And you know “any other show” really means male actors, male writers, male directors, male producers… I know all shows should be criticized but it seems this show’s criticism is over the top, as if people expected it to be perfect. I also wonder if people are even more critical because of her privileged background- like that never happens to her male counterparts. I am not suggesting to give her a pass because it’s a new type of show- just give it the normal amount of criticisms (and parodies).
It gets way more attention than most other shows, too, and certainly more than it deserves. Why? Because it’s an all-woman cast. If you’re going to pull the gender card, you have to at least be honest about how it applies. There’s good and bad in the mix. If this were an all-men cast in a similar fictitious situation- see Entourage- nobody would take the show seriously or care much about it. But because it’s all-female and deals with ~women’s issues~, there’s a significant portion of the population that will automatically laud and defend it.
I think there’s a good laugh here and there in the interactions but the characters themselves are mostly insufferable and the plots are stupid. The show doesn’t deserve all the attention- good AND bad- that it’s been getting. It’s mediocre.
No one expected if to be perfect, we expected it to be GOOD. It is not. I think a lot of people give it a pass because of the all female cast, like its somehow representative of women and feminist and GO WOMEN. So women like myself (I’m 22 and should relate to their ‘real’ problems) watch it and realize how awful it is. Those girls are self absorbed and whiny about the most trivial problems.
I wish I was friends with Tina Fey.
That is all.
She’s great! 🙂
🙂
“Don’t talk! They’ll know you’re simple! And they’ll throw you in the river!”
I plan to steal this and use it widely.
my mom said that to me the other day
It sounds like something my mom could say to me. What’s the Albanian connection, I wonder. Mom is also a tough-talking, BS laser-cutter immigrant and first generation American.
Brilliant. Perfect parody. Note-taking worthiness.
I didn’t think Dunham would be upset. She doesn’t appear to have the energy to be upset. A little whiny maybe but not mad. Hard to be mad anyway when faced with a perfect ‘truth hurts’.
I never noticed they were whining Millenials. I think I half/watched while doing laundry.
I’m gen X, I just noticed the fat chick gets laid every episode. Also, I dug the 90’s throwback fashion. I was like, whoa, I’m vintage now.
Does someone knows where I can see this video in Europe? These SNL videos can be seen just in the States.
Yes. Anyone have a link? I can’t watch it in canada either 🙁
Try the Huffingtonpost.
Hulu?
it’s up on youtube
The Girls parody was fab! I watched the first couple of episodes and just…couldn’t continue. It wasn’t for me. I get that it may strike a chord with some, but I just couldn’t with any of those girls. Each one was more horrible than the next. But there really and truly are people like them that exist, and I guess it’s kind of brave to have a TV show that is about unlikable people. And Lena Dunham clearly is more ambitious than the character she plays, so I can kind of forgive her.
My favorite moment of the show, however, was Tina’s monologue when she threw shade at Katie Holmes’ tap dancing abilities because I REMEMBER watching that episode live and thinking, “Holy crap, Katie Holmes can’t tap dance for shit. Did she just learn for SNL?” It’s hilarious to me that she told them she was a great dancer and then clearly wasn’t and the way they dealt with that was having Will Ferrell dance worse onstage next to her.
It would be great to see Tina Fey with Jim Carrey – either in a movie or real life.
Am I the only person who enjoys watching Girls? I totally think Lena Dunham is in on the joke. She knows that her characters are vapid, whiny, and suffering from self-induced first world white girl problems.
I really don’t think you’re supposed to root for Hannah et al.– I think you’re supposed to groan and fondly/ashamedly remember your own stupidity when young. At least, that’s what I do when I watch Girls!
i don’t know, if it’s supposed to be a joke then why isn’t the show the least bit funny??? if i wanted to spend an hour a week listening to vapid, whining, first-world white girl problems, i’d have a standing date to take my teenage cousins out to dinner.
I also enjoy watching Girls. I’m 41, and I think it’s funny, often disturbing, and sometimes thought-provoking. So what if it’s about a bunch of spoiled twentysomethings? I watch plenty of shows that don’t speak directly to my experience, and I can still enjoy them.
Girls makes me feel good about my own life, but worried about what it’s going to be like when my two daughters are in their dating years!
JLM -I haven’t watched the show but I don’t like what I’ve heard about it’s representation of twentysomething dating. I still have male friends from that time in my life and many fond memories.
I agree with you JLM-I enjoy the show. These are characters, who says they have to be likeable in order to be interesting? Anyone remember Seinfeld?
Lena is talented and totally in on the joke. Tina is jealous that Lena is actually a talented writer, something Tina will never be.
Ether your Lena or you a Lena’s super fan but girl stop just stop.
HA.
Hahahahahaha
Haha hahahahha
Ha.
Lena Dunham is a derivative, vacuous member of the thrift store Gestapo.
I only watched the first season because I cancelled cable shortly after it ended, but I liked it. And I liked Tiny Furniture too.
I think the show is supposed to lambast self absorbed girls like Hannah while still letting them be human.
I haven’t seen the second season but I enjoyed the first season of “Girls.” I don’t think it’s meant to be taken too seriously.
I thought the SNL parody was really funny and I’d be willing to be that Lena Dunham and the other actresses on the show laughed, too.
Yes, that is exactly how I felt when I watched it. Actually I caught the middle of an episode with a really intense dinne party. Good to know.
I think Tina has tapped into a great show idea. A refugee adapting to a new culture and listening to girls with “First World Problems”.
GOLD!
See also Chris lillee and his australian private school girl “ja’ime” who befriends Sonali the refugee “because she’s totally hot”. (Hint: it’s a parody.)
Oh Mindy! Lena on your couch watching SNL? Booo! Does this mean I have to quit you The Mindy Project?!
I feel conflicted as well but I love Mindy. I guess I will have to assume Lena is probably not as hard to take as her awful show.
Wrong look, Albanians are not dark as she is portraying, her character looks very Greek or Italian.