My DVR has been busted the past few weeks, but I finally got a new cable box on Saturday morning and, thus, was able to record Saturday Night Live for the first time in awhile — which is to say, I was able to resume the whole “Why the crap do I record this” internal debate. ‘Cause these days, SNL is funny approximately five times every season.

Not especially funny: the sketch institution’s latest parody of the Gathering of the Juggalos, this one, Easter-themed. Everyone knows we love making fun of Juggalos here at MetalSucks, so my objection to this sketch isn’t the topic is played-out; it’s that they’re telling the exact same jokes every time they do one of these things. They need to find something new to add to the formula, or cut it the fuck out.

I also saw an off-Broadway play this weekend, Peter and the Starcatcher, which, despite being a prequel to Peter Pan, featured a much, much funnier parody of Juggalos. I’m not sure how many people in the crowd understood the reference, but, uh, yeah, if you live in New York and you can spare the time/money, go see that shit before it closes in two weeks. It’s pretty amazing.

-AR

Saturday Night Live continues to have a bizarrely metal-friendly season. First there was Dave Matthews’ killer turn as Ozzy Osbourne; then there was some wicked satire of the Gathering of the Juggalos; then there was that Black Flag wedding sketch with Dave Grohl. Now SNL got all metallic on our asses again this past weekend, with a sketch involving 88 year-old host Betty White and… well, I don’t wanna ruin it for you. Just check it out below. Props to Metal Injection for getting this on the web and sparing me the use of Hulu.

-AR

“I’m On a Boat” by Lonely Island (a.k.a. Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg and some dudes who aren’t Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg) works as satire for the following reasons: a) it’s an incredibly catchy and accurate-sounding facsimile of the very rap songs it parodies, and b) its lyrics literalize the visuals of the music videos for said rap songs, which are concerned primarily with the topic of “bling.” (I’m white… can you tell?) Depending on which particular subgenre you wanted to poke fun at, the metal version of this might be “I’m in a Fireworks Factory” (glam metal), “I’m in the Woods” (pagan or black metal), or “I’m in a Warehouse”* (pretty much everything else).

The dudes in Goatmill, who made the below death metal cover of “I’m on a Boat” (which I originally saw on The Deciblog), clearly have no grasp of why the song was ever funny in the first place. They think it’s funny just to take someone else’s funny song and make it metal. But they’ve robbed the satire of its context, so, really, their version of the song just ends up being stupid and bad.

And if you’re last person on the face of the earth who isn’t familiar with Lonely Island’s original, you can check it out after the jump.

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My good friend Rob at Metal Injection thinks that “SNL was actually pretty good this week,” and while I love Rob, I have to violently disagree: a friend and I watched the show when we were so blitzed that watching SNL actually seemed like a good idea, and I think we still only laughed two or three times. And I’m sorry, but Them Crooked Vultures are lame.

One of the better sketches, though, was the below, which… well, the less you know about it beyond that fact that Dave Grohl is in it, the better. Suffice it to say, the evidence is growing that there’s at least one writer at SNL who knows what’s up. If anyone knows who that writer is, please drop me a line. I’d love to interview him or her and ask if they think the show might ever actually be good again.

NOTE: I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with the video embed, but you can watch the skit here.

-AR

Someone on the SNL writing staff must like metal. Just a couple of weeks ago, Dave Matthews did a pretty killer Ozzy Osbourne impression; now, this past Saturday, the show, which is usually pretty terrible these days, did a spot-on satire of that infamous Gathering of the Juggalos infomercial. If every sketch on SNL were still this funny, I’d say the show was actually worth watching.

This same episode also saw the debut of Nuno Bettencourt as Rihanna’s new guitar player. I’m not going to post video of that here, though, because Nuno’s talenters were just as wasted as you’d imagine they’d be playing in Rihanna’s back-up band.

-AR

Andy Samberg can’t single-handedly salvage more than a decade of suckitude at Saturday Night Live, but this past weekend’s skit “The Mellow Show” is pretty fuckin’ funny and of particular interest to metal fans. The skit pokes fun at the light rock stylings of Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz and Dave Matthews, and Mr. Matthews himself makes a cameo appearance as Ozzy Osbourne. Thanks to our brostophers at Metal Insider for picking this one up.

If you’re having trouble with the below embed, check out the video at Metal Insider.

-VN

First Maynard, now this.

Look: I fucking love Vegas. I was there for New Year’s once and I think I had pretty much the best fucking night of my life.

But part of what’s so fun about that town is how friggin’ ridiculous everything is; it can’t be taken seriously at all, and if you try to take it seriously, you’ll probably just give yourself an aneurysm. As a place to go spend a couple of days drunk and act like a total dip shit, I think Las Vegas is just swell – but I think if I had to live in there, I’d kill myself.

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No, not those Giraffes.

This sketch from Saturday Night Live isn’t the funniest thing in the world, but it is metal-related, and it’s a slow news day, and it’s nice to know that at least one of the writers at SNL has an affinity for our kind of music. So, enjoy.

The option to embed this video is totally fucked, but you can watch the video here.

-AR