Of course Adam Levine took his shirt off during his “Saturday Night Live” monologue. He just needed some celebrity prodding first.
The heavily-inked Maroon 5 singer worried that he was “over-reaching” by dabbling in acting. So he weighed advice from a panel of prospective comedy coaches – SNL alum Andy Samberg, actress Cameron Diaz and Jerry Seinfeld – with the three emerging on spinning chairs to parody Levine’s hit talent show “The Voice.”
Samberg’s cameo marked his first appearance on the show since he left at the end of last season.
“What are you doing here?” Levine asked.
“I could ask myself the same question,” Samberg said, playboy-esque with a robe and prop pipe. “I was in over 100 digital shorts as well as three live sketches, and I’ve dealt with my share of singers-turned-actors.” Of course he mentioned Justin Timberlake, the gold standard of contemporary SNL hosts.
Diaz, meanwhile, told Levine he needs to check his ego – and do anything for a laugh, including shedding his shirt.
“You have to be able to take a handful of Ben Stiller’s spooge and stick it right in your hair,” she said, recalling an iconic scene from her movie “There’s Something About Mary.”
Seinfeld, meanwhile, urged Levine to keep his shirt on – saying that like himself, Levine is “not as Jewish as your name … I know that racket inside and out. I spent nine years on this network, threading that needle.”
The episode began with President Obama (Jay Pharoah), celebrating on the night of his inauguration, summoned by the ghost of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Kenan Thompson).
But while Obama wanted to talk politics, a 21st Century, celebutainment-wise MLK focused on Beyonce’s backside and Michelle’s new hairstyle.
“Did you see that girl Beyonce?” Dr. King asked. “Did you see her out there? I was like, ‘what’ … I had to keep pinching myself.”
Evidently King wasn’t too worried about Beyonce’s lip-syncing. But FLOTUS’s haircut – “Is she guest-starring on ‘The New Girl?’ When she gets a haircut, she’s going to say ‘thank God almighty, I can see at last.'”
King and Obama opined about racial progress, how we have an African-American president but no black members of One Direction.
“Do you think they’d want to be?” Obama asked.
“No.”
The SNL team brought laughs in a mock “Soprano Diaries” commercial, spoofing CW’s new “Carrie Diaries” with a 1980s look at high school Tony and his pals.
“Do you understand the pressure I’m under?” Tony (Bobby Moynahan, in his breakout episode) asked a Jennifer Melfi-esque school counselor. “I’m five chapters behind in ‘A Tale of Two Cities.'”
It was so refreshing to see the “Digital Short” intro screen again – something that disappeared with Samberg’s SNL departure. Samberg and his Lonely Island crew produced 101 digital shorts between 2005 and 2012, presenting videos of gift-wrapped genitals and suggestive saxaphonists, movieholic Michael Bolton and Natalie Portman as a vengeful rapper.
“YOLO” will not enter the pantheon of great Digital Shorts, despite appearances by Danny McBride and the episode’s musical guest, Kendrick Lamar. It wasn’t even Levine’s best Digital Short, with that honor going to 2007’s “Iran So Far.”
But “YOLO” was chicken marsala and pinot noir with a favorite ex-girlfriend, leaving you ignoring the flaws and simply appreciating the moment together.
Online romance took center stage in a spoof of MTV’s “Catfish.” Levine starred as “Nev” Schulman, the show’s camera-hungry, Google-savvy host. The skit began in a hotel room, a common – and slightly awkward – occurrence on the show.
“As always, I woke up, and the cameras caught me looking disheveled and cute,” Schulman said.
The segment showed Schulman helping a woman (Aidy Bryant) connect with her Web flame. He’s a model. And his family owns the Applebee’s restaurant chain. He doesn’t have a landline. Or a cell phone.
“He’s probably going to be my husband,” she says. “He’s on the do-not-fly list for being too handsome.”
Uh huh.
The camera crew camped outside the man’s home. The door opened … Definitely not the guy who she expected.
“Dang, what the heck, I got catfished,” the spurned woman said.
One of the episode’s final segments showed Levine sharing an intimate moment with Janet (Moynahan), a Yonkers resident who thinks she looks like “ET when they dressed him up to look like a lady.”
The pop-rocker toyed with his belt buckle, considering his options: to bang or not to bang?
Levine kept his clothes on this time, balancing the swagger with sentimental touches, somehow wringing vulnerability while cuddling with a man in drag.
He followed each piece of Diaz’s advice – checking his ego, doing anything for a laugh and showing some skin. No, Levine didn’t over-reach with his hosting gig, not in the least.