SNL: ADAM LEVINE

Saturday Night Live made it's second debut back after a hiatus since December 16 on Saturday with Maroon 5's front man Adam Levine hosting.

The show opened with Jay Pharoah as President Obama after his inauguration and a visit from Dr Martin Luther King, played by Kenan Thompson. While the president is honored to talk with the ghost about some serious topics, Dr King is more concerned with Beyonce at the inauguration.

When talking about Beyonce and her looks, Dr King said, "I felt like I was having one of my dreams."

Levine talked about acting in his opening monologue verses singing with Maroon 5. Andy Samberg, Cameron Diaz (making fun of Christina Aguilera), and Jerry Seinfeld joined the singer/actor on stage as judges like on The Voice to "coach" Levine in being a better actor. Both encouraged him to take his shirt off while Seinfeld encouraged his jewish-ness.


During Weekend Update, which is still one of the strongest sketches on SNL, Nasim Pedrad  returned as Arianna Huffington to talk to Seth Myers about Hilary Clinton's current position in politics. The rest was pretty boring since infamous Stefon, played by Bill Hader, wasn't there to bring in extra laughs. 


Trouble came in but provided for much comedic relief with a sketch of Maroon 5 verses Train (Taran Killam), with Jason Mraz (Jason Sudeikis) and John Mayer (Bill Hader) joining in to "fight"  (smack talk and dancing) Levine. Levine's acting was not up to par in this scene, but it could be due to him having to play himself. His lines were purely read off the cue cards, making the jokes not funny.


Samberg joined Levine again in a The Lonely Island digital short in which they sang about YOLO (you only live once), joined by musical guest Kendrick Lamar. It wasn't funny compared to the original installments from The Long Island but was a nice break in comedy. 


What could have been the best sketch of the night in the height of Manti Te'o's online dating scandal, was Catfish, where Levine makes fun of Nev (and repeating his name as many times as he can) and the now infamous show. But with Levine again focusing all his attention on the cue cards (that could be seen reflected in the windows of the set) and no funny punch lines or creativity, this sketch was merely bland.

In the end, Adam Levine should stick to singing. 


Overall grade - C