Zach Galifianakis is getting high marks for hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. He "played a role in nearly every comedic segment," says Aaron Couch at The Hollywood Reporter, "and we think Galifianakis trails only Justin Timberlake as the best host of the season." High praise indeed.
There were a lot of great bits — a Jennifer Aniston look-alike contest with Galifianakis and Hangover co-stars Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, for example. "But what might have been the best moments," says Todd Cunningham at The Wrap, came in a sketch about a Jeopardy-themed game show about Game of Thrones, called the "Game of Game of Thrones." (Watch above.)
The premise of the sketch is that Galifianakis learns "it's not easy being dressed as a green dragon while enduring game show humiliation," says Lauren Davis at io9. It "pokes fun at fans' encyclopedic knowledge of A Song of Ice and Fire by casting the costumed Galifianakis as a fan who knows everything about Game of Thrones and nothing about anything else."
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Poking fun at super-fans of fantasy entertainment isn't "the most original premise," says Samantha Grossman at TIME, but the actors really make it come to life. "Above all, this sketch offered Galifianakis the opportunity to dress up in a weird costume and generally just be weird, which is clearly a good thing."
As a bonus, here's Grossman's pick for brilliance from Saturday's show. The video, in which Galifianakis plays neurotic wannabe public-access TV host Darrell, is in two parts. "When the first part ends, you'll think, 'Okay, I guess that was funny,'" Grossman says at TIME. "But trust us — watch the second part, and everything will be perfect."
Part 1:
Part 2:
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