By Rachel Lutz, Staff Writer
“Thursday Nite Live” had its season premier this past Thursday, February 25. While there wasn’t much variation between the skits- most featured those awkward mornings hours after a party- they were well-thought out, and the episode in all was an hour chock-full of laughs.
Just like “Saturday Night Live,” this version started out with a political spoof, which aired on “SGA-SPAN.” The skit was a little too long, but it was worth it. The central idea was how the Student Government Association planned on spending the extra money they had earned through the cancellation of the football team. Ideas included putting on The Vagina Monologues more than once a year or giving the statue outside of the Spiegel theater breast implants. A memorable line from the skit was “there’s only two types of people in the world that don’t take no for an answer- rapists and winners. Which are you?” It was a good way to get the crowd and television audience hooked for the rest of the night.
Another highlight of the night was the Public Safety training videos, which occurred twice throughout the night. It was focused around the protection of the University’s feline population, and not the safety of the students. The second time this clip aired, as a Public Safety interruption, a cat was wanted for various criminal offenses, and it was oddly hysterical.
A strange skit that seemed to be one long inside joke with the cast was about a girl that became angry because she was forced to rewrite her script for a skit. It escalated into a fake gun fight, with no one surviving.
Something that made this sketch interesting was the fact that they forgot to censor an F-bomb that was accidentally dropped. In the end, the writer still had to rewrite the script, and it was hard to figure out what the point of the whole thing was.
The fake Vietnam War veterans’ skit was memorable. Three veterans tried really hard to be ridiculous, and it came off a little cheesy, but it still had the audience laughing. When the man in the wheelchair with amputated legs got up and walked around, many of the audience members were shocked but still found it funny.
The TNL News segment was packed with punch lines, including ones about guidettes, the recent Toyota recall, and Snuggies, one of which was worn by the host. The best part of this segment was the rant about random cat videos on YouTube.
There were a couple skits that didn’t work. The girls’ bathroom skit, the HTVi advertisement with the small chair, and the breakfast with the B-list celebrities all were able to deliver a smile, but they were nothing spectacular.
The musical guest, Jacob Vanags, had two great performances. A keyboard was set up with a microphone, and the audience was skeptical at first because the set up seemed so simple, but were amazed at his talent. Although the vocals seemed a bit pitchy in places, the musical accompaniment was impressive. His Myspace lists his next performance as back in Kent, Ohio, which is his home town, on March 27.
The University community has a great season of “Thursday Nite Live” episodes to anticipate before the semester ends. The next episode is set to air on March 18.
Noah Redfield delivers the TNL news quite seriously in his fashionable leopard print snuggie. (Caitlin Spiess/The Chronicle)