Oh, you thought awards season was over? Well, it is, but there’s plenty of room to drag out its last throes on late night, like Jonah Hill did to kick of “Saturday Night Live” last night.
The whole thing just reminded me of something that kind of nagged at me last season, even if I didn’t have an issue with it in principle: I still don’t get how Hill got as far into the season as he did. I mean, yeah, he grew up in Beverly Hills and has plenty of friends pulling for him in the industry, but I just never thought his performance in “Moneyball” was much more than serviceable (as I note now, the same word I used to describe the work back in September), and familiar.
But I’m not trying to take anything away from the guy. I’m happy for him and it looks like he’s poised to hit 2012 running with “21 Jump Street.” Still, I don’t think he really moved much beyond his comfort zone for that role.
Anyway, last night’s monologue was a send-up of Hill as a power-tripping, pretentious dolt in the wake of his awards success. And the bit with Tom Hanks at the end got a chuckle out of me. In fact, the whole episode was above average, I’d say.
Check out the monologue below or, if you can, view the full episode at Hulu.
For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.
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