Mikes Film Talk

SNL was hosted by “Game of Thrones” favorite Peter Dinklage.  “Tyrion Lannister” got to be naked and harassed (by Leslie Jones) and he sang about space pants.  Overall  the show was funny and in honor of the sword and sex HBO series, Game of Thrones very  “sex heavy” and Gwen Stefani was the musical guest.

The start of the show had a very flat  opening spot. With its focus on Donald Trump feeling forced as it must have been relatively slow week in the world of politics.  Dinklage was not allowed to do too much in his first monologue although his ” Petey no read-ee” was very funny.

Several skits fell flat.  Winnie the Pooh for example had Dinklage in a pooh bear onesie.

The best two gags were the Space Pants/Mafia sketch (where Stefani joined Dinklage in song) and the “Naked and Afraid Celebrity” pre-taped segment where Peter teams up with a sexually harassing Leslie Jones.  Out of the two it was Space Pants with Dinklage’s robotic singing and dancing that was the episode’s clear highlight.

Of course one cannot have Peter Dinklage on without having a “First Look” at Game of Thrones skit. The other pre-taped segment featured a “mo-cap” dragon (played by Bobby Moynihan) that was distracting the HBO “special” participants and creating havoc on set. 

Sex was a prevalent theme, from the Glory Hole sketch, which featured bread rolls being shoved through a “glory hole,” to the honeymooning husband wanting to shag his new wife with a corpse outside the window. During the “Naked” segment, there was even a “sexual” sight gag where Jones’ pubic hair (over the 21 day time period) becomes a pixelated jungle. In this instance it was brilliantly funny, Leslie’s “foliage” grew faster than Dinklage’s facial hair.

Weekend Update provided the most laughs per minute and Pete Davidson with his Hulk Hogan perspective was truly hysterical. Keenan Thompson‘s David Ortiz was also good value, but then Thompson is always spot-on with his “interpretations.”

Dinklage was, despite a poor open and that Winnie the Pooh sketch, impressive his first time up on the SNL stage. He apparently was not told to “look” like he was reading the cue-cards.

One other amusing skit was the “Barbados Body” where a dead body kept floating up against a honeymoon couple’s underwater hotel room window.

The Close but no Cigar Award goes to the Danish crime re-enactment.

Stefani got the obligatory two musical numbers (three if one counts “Space Pants”) and proved that her talent does not diminish despite a 10 year gap since last appearing on SNL.

The final skit was disappointing although it did give Dinklage a bigger part to play in the proceedings.

Overall, the show’s theme of sex, which was prevalent even in the Weekend Update segment, while funny, was too much. The fact that there were only two Game of Thrones references was surprising and a little disappointing. The two GoT moments featured Moynihan, playing George RR Martin during the monologue and then in the HBO special, where he played the motion capture dragon. These two skits were really the only mentions the show got.

Peter Dinklage’s first gig as SNL host went well, overall, and even though the show was not a resounding success (sorry Lorne Michaels but having sex be the show’s entire theme smacks of desperation Game of Thrones or no). The whole thing was saved, though, by Peter’s “Naked and Afraid” and those space pants.