It was Christopher Walken’s 100th appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” he said. Actually it was only his seventh, but, he said in his monologue, "I count the reruns."
And he is undeniably a funny figure, who was therefore used in just about every skit (save for the last minute Hillary Clinton one in the opening that wasn’t that funny and a Larry King-Jimmy carter one later about how the latter writes too many books).
No revival of the cowbell skit this time. But he played a creative type directing a production of "Grease" in which he wanted to clean up its slang. Later, in maybe his best sketch, he played a co-worker who lavished a little too much affection on a co-worker in a going away event.
In each sketch he imbued his character with a nervous creepiness in which the tone of his voice becomes the thing of humor. To this end, it didn’t matter that he read just about every line from a cue card. You became used to his looking off at the side of the stage rather than the actors with hom he sould have been interacting.
And as much fun as it must be to have someone of Walken’s capabilities on the show, it almost didn’t matter eventually what he said. The biggest moment of excess was a Walken family reunion in which just about every cast member came on and got to do a Walken impersonation.
It didn’t matter that a sketch about a gardener who put eyes on his plants wasn’t funny, only because Walken was doing it. They depended on him to keep it funny anyway.
It’s almost a reflex for him. But maybe too much of one. He was funny when he announced the band Panic at the Disco.
Another guest on “SNL” named Chris Saturday was our own Sen. Dodd. He was featured having dinner with show producer Lorne Michaels when they are approached by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader about their latest “Laser Cats” adventure. Dodd and Michaels agree to watch and because it’s in 3-D they have to don the cardboard glasses, which made for a good visual. By the end, Michaels had left and Dodd pretended he had liked the video, but ultimately admitted he did not.

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