Robert De Niro on 'SNL': Was he any good?

The legendarily intense actor tried his hand at comedy on "Saturday Night Live"... again. Was he funny, or merely "serviceable"?

The dramatic actor hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the third time, even doing one sketch in drag and "bumping and grinding with Sean "Diddy" Combs."
(Image credit: Screen shot, Hulu.com)

Robert De Niro hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the third time in his career, to promote his new film Little Fockers, the latest addition to the Meet the Parents franchise. How did De Niro, best known for deliberately unamusing films such as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, perform in a live-comedy situation — and occasionally in drag? (Watch the video, below, to see De Niro in unusually shapely form)

De Niro didn't flop, exactly: "It would be going a little far to say that the third time was a charm" for De Niro on "SNL," says Mike Ryan in Movieline. But he was, "let's say, serviceable," or even "surprisingly... OK." He'll never be "one of the great hosts," but it's kind of "endearing" that he keeps on trying. And while there were some good sketches, De Niro's drag turn only made a bad Andy Samberg rap sketch "much worse."

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