Justin Timberlake/Lady Gaga on SNL

I don't normally watch Saturday Night Live (though I do tend to watch some of the sketches that I hear are good) so I don't know how funny it normally is, but this past week, the season finale, was hilarious. In my opinion, there were three top moments: JT's monologue, Lady Gaga's first performance, Lady Gaga's second performance. Not to take anything away from Timberlake, but Gaga completely stole the show. And not just in her performances. She was in two skits and the Digital Short. And she killed them all. Let me break it all down a bit further.

Timberlake came out with a monologue about how he wasn't going to sing on the show (the previous times he has hosted, he was also the musical guest), which he told in musical form! It was clever and hilarious; JT always seems willing to poke fun at himself which makes him all the more likable. As far as the sketches went, they were pretty standard, most of which had been done before when Timberlake has hosted before. There was a "Dress up in a silly costume and sing songs advertising some business", "Barry Gibb Talk Show", "Creepy robot mannequins in an amusement park ride", and a game show. And they were all funny. I was particularly surprised by how much I enjoyed when Timberlake, et. al. were being mannequin robots; it was funnier than I remember the previous incarnation of that being. It was just rather silly.

Really the only sketch I did not find particularly amusing was the game show of "Secret Word". It was the second game show sketch and just fell flat. The characters where overly weird and didn't have any sort of punch at the end. It just didn't go anywhere. I thought the "What's that name" sketch was slow starting, but really came through at the end. I also think that the Barry Gibb Talk Show was one of the weaker sketches, but only because the brilliance of that was always Jimmy Fallon and Timberlake cracking each other up, and they both held it together this time. Weekend Update was funny, but nothing spectacular, though I really enjoyed the cameo of Bradley Cooper. He is always welcome on my tv!

Now for the best thing about SNL this week...Lady Gaga. First of all, both her performances were wicked weird and freakishly amazing. Like really, she killed it. Killed. It. Her first performance started out with her on the Piano and then exploded into Judas, completely with scantily clad dancers (both male and female). I was glad to see that Mark Kanemura (from seasons 4 & 7 of So You Think You Can Dance) is still dancing for Gaga. He is one of my favorite dancers and fits the weirdness of Gaga so well. The second song was Born This Way and was also fabulous. At the end, she gave birth to glitter and gold paint. It was equal parts erotic/sexy and creepy/weird. Which really sums up Gaga fairly well. The thing I was most impressed with is the level of dancing Lady Gaga does on her ridiculously high heels. That takes mad skill!

Lady Gaga also made appearances in the first sketch in a wine bottle outfit, which really made the sketch. Timberlake was doing a fine job singing as a bottle of beer, but the sketch wasn't as good as the previous incarnations of Homelessville or Omeletville. But Gaga in her wine outfit, singing with JT totally sold it. She also killed it in the "What's that name" sketch. She played herself and was really funny. Her other highlight was singing in the Digital Short with Timberlake and Andy Samberg in their third video of the "Dick in a Box" characters. I thought the song, 3-way, was the weakest of the three, but having Gaga singing on the track and in the video saved it.

Really, for as much as I love Justin Timberlake and think he is an amazing SNL host, I think Gaga stole the show and tore shit up. I would love to see her back as a host sometime. It was nice to see her being silly when you usually only see her being weird. If I could get a guarantee that every week of SNL was as entertaining as this season finale I would totally watch every week.

Did you watch? What were your thoughts?