SNL: Fred Armisen and Some Very Special Guests Start a ’70s Southern Jam Band
There were plenty of fantastic moments in SNL’s Season 41 finale, and while the last sketch of the night might not have been the most laugh-out-loud funny among them, it was definitely the most wonderful. Host Fred Armisen brought a few of his fellow SNL vets together along with a couple of special guests to form the perfect, subtly quirky ’70s southern jam band, complete with 20-something members and a tambourine or two.
Armisen is joined by The Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone (who debuted an outstanding new Digital Short), as well as SNL vets Maya Rudolph and Jason Sudeikis for the feel-good, laid-back jam sesh. Oh, and you’ll probably also notice Armisen’s Portlandia co-star and real-life BFF (and Sleater-Kinney badass) Carrie Brownstein in the background, strumming on a guitar.
Like all unnecessarily over-staffed bands of the ’70s, this one has a little too much going on for it, from the headbands to the sunglasses to the surplus of instruments and band members who seemingly exist just to like, hang, man. Armisen taps into the sort of humorous specificity that makes Portlandia so entertaining, blending silliness with perceptive wit so effortlessly that the final sketch of the night is not only a joy to watch, but it’s the perfect note on which to end this season.