Eli on 'SNL', and why sports stars tend to work well

I know this is not about running or Phish, thus defying the tagline of my blog, but I am a big 'Saturday Night Live' fan and I felt the need to comment on last night's episode. What makes me different from every other idiot on the Internet talking about it?  I am not a sports fan. I could not care less about the Giants or the Super Bowl or football at all. I'm not even sure I know what a quarterback does. The NFL could fold tomorrow and it would not affect my life slightest bit. Paradoxically, I enjoy when sports figures show up to host. There always seems to be an easy, laid-back vibe to the show when these folks host. So even when the show is not particularly funny (last night's "Helga Lately" and "TMC - Cheech and Chong), it is always enjoyable.

I spoke with my friend, Gavin, about this phenomenon while we watched Charles Barkley's episode earlier this season. Barkley nailed the show perfectly, and so did Gavin in his assessment. He said that sports figures are in their element in front of crowds, in pressure situations, on live TV. That's why they pull it off. I'll go even further and add that half of a popular athlete's job (and I'm only talking about the biggies here - the ones even I have heard of) is good PR. These guys take that stuff seriously, but the best ones don't take *themselves* too seriously, so they are game for dressing in drag (Manning's "Miss Drag World" - also not funny, but amusing - and Barkley's "Joann's Announcement") or getting smacked in the face with an old fuddy-duddy reporter's microphone (the great Bill Hader in "Herb Welch - Occupy Movement").

Obviously, comedic and stage actors work in front of live crowds, too, but the dynamic is different. When we saw Ben Stiller, Charlie Day and Daniel Radcliffe this season, we were seeing them work in their element and thus the essence of the performances generated from their own presence. Movie stars without the live background, be it from comedy clubs or theater stages, can be a gamble - as Lindsey Lohan and, to a lesser extent, Jonah Hill - when they rely too heavily on either the cue cards or their own star power to pull them through. Though I must point out that while Hill suffered from weaker writing (it happens - not everything can be gold), Lohan performed reverse alchemy, turning gold writing into a scrap-metal show.

Non-actors, on the other hand, turn the show into a writer's game. Sports stars usually do their homework, so they can be relied upon to deliver exactly what the writers produce, even if their acting is stiff. You can tell Manning memorized his lines and worked hard at it. Wisely, they stuck to the formula for great beloved-sports-figure episodes - making fun of himself (the funny "Motion Capture"), saying outrageous things (the hilarious "Text Message Evidence"), or focusing on a key aspect of his celebrity (the absolutely brilliant "Little Brothers") - and Manning aced it each time. 

He also did a bang-up job as the contestant on his girlfriend's game show, "What Is This?" who gets blindsided into having to answer the titular question, with the "this" being that important catch-all for the girl wanting to know the status of their relationship. Definitely one of the top sketches of the night.

The whole episode reminded me of the 'SNL' glory days of my youth when Wayne Gretzky and Chris Evert hosted. Those sports stars were given solid material by the writers and delivered great shows. Last night, Manning did the same.

Oh, and praise is due to "Weekend Update" for Kristin Wiig's Patricia Krentcil and Sasha Baron Cohen's Admiral General Aladeen with Martin Scorcese (!), too!