The Feeding America Comedy festival gets a standing ovation for bringing together some of our best comics for a great cause. But good intentions do not guarantee laughter.
To be fair, the benefit for hunger relief, which aired Sunday on NBC, faced an uphill battle. Skiing from home without anyone being able to play in it or feedback from the audience is something that even veteran performers are struggling to master.
“Saturday Night Live” finally figured out the formula on its third attempt, the finale of last weekend’s season that hit a hilarious anthem that encouraged parents to fatten their kids with drinks.
“Feeding America” didn’t offer anything as clever as “Let the Kids Drink,” but there were a few moments in the two-hour broadcast that went beyond just stepping on superstars. The five highlights:
Eddie Murphy scores again. The former box office king continued his recent heat series with a new character, Murray Murray, a soulful sensation with six-lifetime achievement awards.
The fictional musician, who could be Dennis Rodman’s first cousin, was praised for influencing everyone, from Ray Charles to Martin Luther King, Jr., while admitting that he organized the murder of Berry Gordy’s cat.
Murphy’s promised return to his roots of interest will not be fast enough.
Life with Louie. Minnesota was well represented by favorite son Louie Anderson, unpleasantly learning how to use Cameo, the service in which the stars offer video screams to fans. Anderson’s coach at his Las Vegas home was nephew Josh Florhaug, who moved from the Twin Cities all last year to pursue his own promising street career in the West. The family affair was nice enough to make up for Donald Trump’s horrible impression of Anderson.
Let’s talk about sex. Again. Relationship expert Leon Phelps had the success of the “SNL” character to deserve his own film, which crashed on arrival. Still, it was a delight to see Tim Meadows revive his good father Casanova and even more so a kick that would answer the questions of Tina Fey, Colin Quinn, Seth Meyers and Michael Che, all of whom have spent time behind the “weekend. Update ”.
Cast a spell. It’s safe to assume that the meeting demand for the “Sabrina the Teenage witch” wasn’t particularly high, but perhaps that made the 1996-2003 police tribute so charming. Some viewers may have been confused when an unidentified person joined the zoom call that passed between Melissa Joan Hart, Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick. But true television fans recognized the intruder as Lucy Davis, who currently plays Aunt Hilda in the Netflix relief “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.”
Shooting the ox. If only we could all live next door to Sarah Silverman. Her sketch captured images of her from a balcony, joking through a pedestrian shark below. David Letterman used to do something similar during the night days, but never with so much charm.
By Neal Justin @nealjustin
