But it wasn't. For days after, "Tell Him" seemed to be all any individual wanted to talk about.
"That was what folks talked to me the most about," Ms. Faris stated. "It genuinely resonated."
It was also component of a pattern. With the combination of sharp writing and comically savvy female hosts, "Saturday Night Live" this season has been unusually rich in funny, provocative female-focused moments. Among the highlights: bridal shower outcasts, female office perverts, Adele-inspired bawling and Olsen twin impressions.
"We had a wonderful run of female hosts this year, and that is simply because it was such a strong year for females in comedy," stated Marika Sawyer, 1 of the show's staff writers. "When there is a funny female host, I feel a small additional pressure, a responsibility, to write some thing female-centric." She paused. "Of course women in comedy is not always one thing I like to comment on."
Of course. The question "Are females funny?" comes up each couple of years (typically throughout an artistic wave that would seem to make the answer apparent), most lately when David Letterman's comedy booker was removed from his post after making unfavorable comments to The New York Times about female stand-ups. But for "SNL" booking a female host narrows the question: "Is this woman funny?" This season, thanks to a run of female-driven hits, the answer has often been yes. Recognized in the past for its alpha male environment, "SNL" has historically been speedy with a skimpy costume and a light workload when it came to guest actresses. There were bland impersonations, like Anne Hathaway as Katie Holmes distracting wardrobe selections, like Blake Lively's pantsless mall shopper and boring straight-man roles, like January Jones's talk-show zookeeper with two lines. But this season the material has been heavy on female resonance and light on sexy gags. In other words cleavage is out, clever is in.
The general accomplishment of female-fronted comedy in film and tv is absolutely a aspect: Melissa McCarthy hosted following her movie-stealing efficiency in "Bridesmaids." Ms. Faris's gig was component of a push for her film "What's Your Quantity?," and Emma Stone stepped up immediately after appearing in 3 summer movies. Zooey Deschanel and Maya Rudolph took the stage lately as their new shows ("New Girl" and "Up All Night") held firm in the ratings.
"There's no one particular left right here who holds any reservations about how funny women can be," Seth Meyers, the show's head writer, mentioned. "This is a staff that came up via a golden age of girls like Maya and Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler. Getting strong female hosts reminds us how lucky we are to have had that expertise."
The strong is far much more important than the female, and a host with natural chops makes a true difference. Any woman could play the dowdy outcast at a bridal shower, but Ms. Stone turned that character into the rasping, earnest misfit Wallis, holding her own in the sketch opposite Kristen Wiig.
"We gave Emma practically no path on how to play her," said Ms. Sawyer, who wrote the sketch, by the way, with two guys: John Mulaney and Chris Kelly. "We wrote it as a premise sketch. She turned it into a character sketch."
Ms. Stone is equally proud of Wallis. "That was my absolute favored sketch I've ever gotten to do," Ms. Stone, who has hosted the show twice, stated. "I felt much more like a cast member than a host."
Possibly no a single blurred that line much more this season than Ms. McCarthy, who arrived with two decades of improv and sketch encounter. Lorne Michaels, the show's producer, had regarded booking Ms. McCarthy in May, based on his inkling that "Bridesmaids" would be a hit. But he decided to wait and give the public time to get to know her. "With a host, you have to be at the point where the applause will not stop till he or she hits their mark," Mr. Michaels stated. By September, when Ms. McCarthy trotted down the stairs in a black sequined quantity, that was no longer a concern. "There was a genuine excitement in the studio that week," Mr. Michaels stated.
Ms. McCarthy's show — the season's second — was a parade of more than-the-top rated female characters, two of which the actress brought with her from her improv days in the Los Angeles troupe the Groundlings. "There was a reckless abandon in her efficiency," Mr. Meyers stated.
Established comedic identities paved the way for every single woman's turn onstage. "The show takes on the flavor of the host," Mr. Michaels mentioned. Ms. Deschanel, who sings in the band She & Him, opened by crooning about Valentine's Day whilst dressed in a heart-covered dress. Ms. Stone was gutsy and energetic, Ms. Faris wide-eyed and absurd. Ms. Rudolph, a former cast member, revisited her scene-dominating impressions. None of them had to play "Hot Girl No. four." (It is worth noting that for his current turn as host the actor Channing Tatum appeared shirtless or scantily clad in four of his seven sketches.)
"I consider the initial time I did the show, all my sketches were with guys," mentioned Ms. Faris, who made her debut in 2008. "This time around it was very female driven."
A second go-round is frequently redeeming for the "SNL" writers also. "The first time Emma Stone came on, a lot of us didn't know something about her," Ms. Sawyer mentioned. "She was barely the star of something. Watching her later I really regretted not having written one thing where she was."
The chance to seem alongside the cast's comedians (Ms. Wiig, Nasim Pedrad, Abby Elliott and Vanessa Bayer) was component of the draw for Ms. Deschanel. "The guys are great, do not get me incorrect," she wrote in an e-mail. "But one of the factors I mentioned correct off the bat was that I wanted to function with the females on the show."
For females on the writing staff a host of the identical gender indicates far more possibilities. "Sometimes you'll write a sketch with an all-female cast, but you just run out of girls," Ms. Sawyer said. "Sometimes we put one particular of our guys in drag, which can be funny, but then that becomes the concentrate."
With one more woman in the ranks, the material can be staged as it was imagined. That's essential for touchstone bits like the sketch that identified Ms. Stone and the female cast members making use of Adele's "Someone Like You" as a musical answer to job issues and pet parakeet issues alike. "That sketch was amazing since you know you're in a thing iconic, something that is firmly grounded in a certain time period," Ms. Stone said.
The function of the group's quiet leader, Ms. Wiig, isn't lost on the going to stars. Ms. McCarthy cited Ms. Wiig's presence as one of the joys of her time as host, and Mr. Michaels recommended that she brings a certain energy to female-driven sketches. "You have in Kristen somebody who is at the best of her game," he said. "That's being celebrated because of 'Bridesmaids.' People are watching her in a slightly various way now." Ms. Wiig stood alongside Ms. McCarthy in the show's opening sketch and monologue, played a Lifetime mom and a hunk-crazy calendar hunter with Ms. Faris, and stood in as the grossed-out bride for Ms. Stone's shower bit.
Ms. Wiig appears to be the trustworthy, permanent hostess — on and off camera. At the dress rehearsal for Ms. Deschanel's show, Ms. Wiig held Ms. Deschanel's hands and smiled at her as they waited for their cue. Then they went onstage together, to play crab-obsessed party hostesses, of all factors, and to put another point on the board for the girls.
