Timberlake “brings sexy back” on SNL

“Saturday Night Live” is one of those wildcard television shows. When it’s bad, it’s painfully awful, but when it’s good, the show provides some of the biggest laughs around.

Thankfully, this week’s episode belonged to the latter category.

The show featured a solid cold open with Elton John, played by Justin Timberlake, serenading the recently deceased Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez.

Justin Timberlake returned to host “SNL” for the fifth time, joining the show exclusive “five-timers club” of returning hosts and musical guests. In light of this, the monologue quickly turned into a sketch showing Timberlake entering the fictitious club.

On sheer amount of cameos alone, the opening monologue sketch was the highlight of the show. Fellow five timers Paul Simon, Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, and Chevy Chase all made hilarious appearances as well as Martin Short and Dan Akroyd.

Besides the monologue, the best sketch was probably the “Dating Game.” Notably two of the shows three contestants were Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg reprising their roles as the “D!@k in a box guys” as well as Dan Akroyd and Steve Martin reprising their classic SNL characters, the two Czech “Wild and Crazy guys.”

Another funny sketch was “Veganville,” featuring Timberlake once again appearing as a rapper, this time in a tofu costume. Better yet, the sketch ended with a “Harlem Shake.”

Another highlight of the episode was a hilarious fake romantic comedy movie trailer starring Justin Timberlake and Nasim Pedrad. The title? “She’s got a #!@k”. Enough said.

The fake commercial for the fake diamond encrusted female contraceptive “Nuvabling” was another high point.

“Weekend Update” was rather brief this week, featuring a few solid punch lines before we were treated to another appearance from City Correspondent Stefon.  Arguably the best “Weekend Update” character ever, the best joke of this segment was “New York’s Hottest Club is...‘Your Mother and I are Separating’”.

However, not every sketch was fantastic this week. In fact, two were so painfully unfunny it took all my willpower to stay tuned.

“Maine Justice” featuring a courthouse in the titular state was awful. Notably, Andy Samberg appeared in the sketch, but rather needlessly considering he played a generic and forgettable character.

Another sketch that tanked was “The Tales of Sober Caligula,” based on the infamous Roman Emperor. Not a single thing worked in this one.

Closing out the evening was the second installment of “Moet and Chandon”. Featuring Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer as two ex porn stars who sell the titular champagne, a lot of great one liners were squeezed in here, complimented by some appearances by Justin Timberlake.

All in all this was one of the best, if not the best, show this season. Nearly everything was very funny with a multitude of great cameos to boot. A fantastic effort by Timberlake and company.