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# Daniel Craig can’t save a sinking ‘SNL’ episode (but Big Bird almost does)
- URL: https://www.theomnicosm.com/daniel-craig-cant-save-a-sinking-snl-episode-but-big-bird-almost-does/
- Published: 2012-10-07T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-16T21:01:24.000Z
- Description: A republished recap of the Oct. 6, 2012, episode of ‘SNL’ hosted by Daniel Craig.
- Author: Bill Kuchman
- Tags: The Cold Open • From the Archive, SNL Season 38, The Cold Open, SNL, Daniel Craig, Sesame Street, Big Bird, The Cold Open • Episode Reviews

*I wrote* SNL *recaps for the original version of Popculturology (and its predecessor, The Bill Kuchman Chronicle) from 2012 to 2015\. The opinions voiced in these recaps may be outdated based on the events that have occurred since their writing. This article was originally published on Oct. 7, 2012\.* 

Welcome to the third edition of *Sunday Morning Live*, **The Bill Kuchman Chronicle**'s look at the latest edition of *Saturday Night Live*.

### How'd Daniel Craig do?

For a guy not known as a comedic actor, **Daniel Craig** did his best. He poked fun at his knack for playing characters who kill a lot of people. He mocked England. He even did creepy stuff with cross-dressing **Fred Armisen**. This was not a good episode of *SNL*, though. It was uneven, and once again, something appeared to go wrong at the end of the show. There was an extra commercial break before Muse came out for their second song, and we then got to see last episode's *Undecided Voter* sketch again. Look, **Lorne Michaels**, it was good the first time, but a repeated sketch is the sign of a sinking episode. Not good.  
  
Craig was really only featured in one sketch. This one was necessarily great, but it made me laugh based purely on Craig yelling out ridiculous things while his construction coworkers made catcalls at women walking by. "She's like sexy times five, plus her boobies, carry the boner, equals yubba dum dum."

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### What were the best sketches of the night?

This is the part of this weekend's *SNL* that everyone is going to be talking about. **Big Bird** — the REAL Big Bird — made an appearance on *Weekend Update* to address Republican presidential candidate **Mitt Romney**'s plan to cut government funding for PBS. Big Bird didn't have anything mean to say about Romney, instead telling **Seth Meyers** a few jokes of his own. If you want a real Muppet, you're not going to get him to say mean things. Side note: I'm super jealous that the *SNL* cast got to hang out with Big Bird during the show's closing.

I wasn't sure where this sketch was going at first, even thinking it was going to be a spoof on *Aliens* seeing as how the sketch's Ramirez character was a complete ripoff of Aliens' Vazquez. Instead, we got to see **Bobby Moynihan** at his weirdest. Kitty. Did anyone else think Moynihan had an eerie **Chris Farley** thing going on in this sketch? It was the face or the hair or something ...

### How about debate stuff? Any locked-box jokes?

No locked-box jokes, but *SNL* went to the debate well for two sketches, the first being the cold open. Despite the belief that no one watches *SNL* or that the show has lost its place in pop culture, *SNL* still wields a great deal of power when it comes to shaping the public perception of candidates. Ask **Sarah Palin** how much **Tina Fey**'s portrayal of her affected her career. That said, the cold open should be a warning sign to President **Barack Obama** that he's losing *SNL*. A bad debate on Wednesday is one thing. *SNL* and **Jay Pharoah** reminding everyone about it on Saturday is even worse. "Hear that, Mitt Romney? You are a badass motherf—er."

*SNL* returned to the debate with an MSNBC sketch covering Obama's performance under the headline of "The Worst Thing That Ever Happened Anywhere." **Cecily Strong** replaced the departed **Abby Elliott** as **Rachel Maddow**, with **Keenan Thompson** as **Al Sharpton**, **Jason Sudeikis** as **Chris Matthews** and **Kate McKinnon** as **S.E. Cupp** joining her. Right after the sketch aired, Cupp tweeted, "Well that was ... surreal." Also surreal? Seeing *SNL* go after Obama and MSNBC like this in the same episode.

### With 007 himself hosting, did *SNL* work James Bond into the episode?

*SNL* did do one James Bond sketch, but it unfortunately didn't involve **Darrell Hammond** showing up to play **Sean Connery** (which would've been awesome). The episode's pseudo Digital Short was a look at the Bond girls we never saw, giving the female members of the cast the chance to show off a few of their impressions.

### Did Fred Armisen do anything of worth this episode?

Nope. I'm pretty sure Armisen is being phased out now, especially after Pharoah became Obama. How many times can *SNL* dress Armisen up in drag and expect us to still find it funny? I'm not posting that sketch here, since I don't want to even cause you to accidentally watch it. It's time for him to go.

****Deep SNL Thoughts** is written and produced by ****Bill Kuchman**.   
Copyediting by ****Tim Kuchman**.  
  
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