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If this doesn’t get you a little bit excited for Christmas, which is about a week away, well then bah humbug to you dear sir or ma’am.

Everything about this is just great, from the goofiness of the song and childlike chords and piano part, to Jimmy Fallon not laughing, Chris Kattan’s head move thingie and Tracy Morgan doing nothing. It’s so bizarre and wonderful at the same time, much like Christmas.

Seeing as you won’t be getting any treats like this because of the writer’s strike we’ll take what we can get. Why is Tracy Morgan relegated to being the official dancing man when we know he can sing?

And yes, this will certainly be included in our 2007 Christmas music mix that we’ll be sending you off with on Friday for the holidays. Expect some old favorites, some new ones, some to get stuck in your head and hopefully some unexpected gems.

This past weekend, the cast of Saturday Night Live performed the show from the bowels of the Upright Citizens Brigade in Chelsea. Michael Cera hosted the evening and Yo La Tengo was the musical guest. Though the audience only numbered around 200, it featured among others such as Will Arnett, John Krasinski, Samm Levine, Julian Casablancas and Norah Jones. Tickets were rumored to be going for about $300 a pop on Craigslist ($20 face), but there is no price you could put on seeing something like this.

(photo via NY Times)

Michael Cera’s monologue consisted of him reading past host’s monologues in his deadpan, awkward delivery, such as Donald Trump’s (”Who’s bigger than me!”), Paris Hilton (”That’s so hot”) and Snoop Dogg (”I see the word schnizzle”). By all acounts it was a great night of comedy and music, with former cast members returning to pitch in and the change of venue allowed the sketches to be a bit more risque, it helps that this was not broadcast.

With the extra sketches, some of which may eventually reach the small screen, the live “SNL” felt much like an amped-up TV “SNL.” Though not everything hit, and there was some scattered yawning in the audience, the final scene, with Will Forte as an unexpectedly forthright gold lamé-clad street performer, killed. It dated from his time in the Groundlings the Los Angeles. comedy troupe. Though he had performed it for his “SNL” audition, it was way too dirty for television — a theme of the evening. Even the weeks-old “Weekend Update” jokes were racy.

Proceeds from the tickets were to go to SNL’s production staff, most of whom had had been recently laid off; some were in the audience. But the performance was less about money than community. (A sold-out live version of “30 Rock,” the Tina Fey comedy, is scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the theater.)

Sounds like it was a great night of comedy. Read more about it from folks who were there on the A Special Thing Message Board.

One final note, an audience member did note that Amy Poehler was filming this for a potential documentary about the writer’s strike, which means hopefully we’ll get some YouTubage of this event sometime soon.

This was a sketch that was cut from the last episode of SNL, the one right before the writer’s strike of doom occurred.  It’s got everything you could ask for: a subtle build breaking out into citizen on cop violence, tech geekery and crystal meth.  It was cut when some of the sketches ran long that night.  Which is a shame, because this is funnier than just about anything else than ran that night.

Via: Culture Bully

Lost in all the Oscar hoopla was a stellar two song set from Arcade Fire on SNL this past Saturday. The started off with “Intervention” and then closed with “Keep the Car Running,” both cuts from the forthcoming Neon Bible.

Arcade Fire certainly delivered the goods and made the Rainn Wilson hosted show worth tuning in for. Sure makes me wish I could have gotten down to NYC for their five night run at Judson Memorial Church. If, like me you didn’t get down to see those performances you can grab the Friday show at Hearsay and the Saturday show over at NPR.

Is it just me or does Winn look an aweful look like Christopher Walken’s creepy art son in Wedding Crashers?

Look at Winn on the left and the actor who plays Todd Cleary in Wedding Crashers in the photo on the right. He’s the creepy one on the far right, in case you couldn’t tell. Enjoy the aural pleasure of “Keep the Car Running” from SNL. And in case you were wondering, Sak Vide Pa Kanpe (as taped to Winn’s guitar during their first song) means “An empty sack cannot stand up” in English. It’s a creole saying.

Neon Bible streets 3/6