Megan Fox hosted the well-publicized premiere of "Saturday Night Live's" 35th season, and the "Transformers" and "Jennifer's Body" star anchored an uneven show that featured plenty of water cooler moments. Here are the top five moments of the show:
5. We Get it, Megan Fox is Pretty
Fox has been overexposed to America as a beautiful face, but has yet to prove herself as an actress (Michael Bay's "Transformers" movies aren't exactly driven by dialog). "Saturday Night Live" could have been the forum for her to show off her comedic chops; unfortunately, the writers asked little more from her than to don different wigs -- she wore five throughout the night.
Of course, a host needn't be the star of every sketch, but her role in "Russian Brides" was insultingly thin, and her inclusion in Kenan Thompson's "Grady Wilson's Burning Bedsheets" sketch was little more than an afterthought. However, she worked well with what little she was given. The "Live Lounge" fake commercial was quietly one of the better skits of the show, and she and Kristen Wiig had some entertaining interplay during the slightly-too-long "Flight Announcement."
4. Digital Shorts Fall Flat
With songs and skits like "Motherlover" and "Laser Cats," the digital short has helped keep SNL relevant in the Internet age by being a forum for the show's edgier comedic pieces. Saturday night's efforts, "Megan's Roommate" and "The Date," both failed to live up to the existing standard. Neither brought half the laughs of the "Bladdivan" sketch.
3. Really, U2? Three Songs?
In a departure from the show established schedule, U2 performed a third song over the closing credits, the Achtung Baby classic "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." Whether this is a result of U2's relentless self-indulgence or the writers' lack of material, I don't know. But frankly, it's an improvement over the cast standing there and waving while the "SNL" band plays the same closing music every week -- Bono swinging from a glowing red microphone is certainly more interesting than whoever replaced G.E. Smith.
2. Kristen Wiig Is Funny; Kenan Thompson Is Not
The best "SNL" cast members can take a repetitive one-note joke and make it funny every time; the worst can't pull it off once. We see the best and worst of this every time Wiig and Thompson get onscreen, from their "Weekend Update" characters (Wiig's travel writer, Thompson's French comedian) to their starring roles in sketches (Wiig as a flight attendant, Thompson as Grady Wilson).
1. Jenny Slate's FCC moment
New cast members Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad made headlines late this summer when they were announced as replacements for Casey Wilson and the excellent Michaela Watkins. And Jenny Slate fell flat on her face in her first sketch as a biker chick in the umpteenth installment of "SNL's" "Average Person Hosts an Unfunny Talk Show." Her acid-washed jeans-wearing, teased-hair biker chick was supposed to say "fricking" every sentence, but she slipped up and dropped the F-bomb, then followed it up with a puffed-cheek, wide-eyed face that said, "Oh crap, I'm fired, aren't I?"
This will surely be in the news for days to come, as we await the FCC's fine at the ready and the judgment of "SNL" overlord Lorne Michaels. It's just a shame that the quality of the show wasn't strong enough to make headlines.