"30 Rock" is the Funniest Television Show Ever

My wife and I like to watch TV before bed. A lot of people do this. We keep it on after we fall asleep. We put on a sleep timer, but very rarely do one of us stay up to hear the TV shut off. We alternate which shows we pick before bed. We usually pick comedies that we have seen a bunch. It is like comfort food.

The show we are watching now is "30 Rock". This has to be the 10th or 11th time we are going through this show. I did not watch when it was airing in real time, but I knew of it. I think my folks probably watched it. We all love Tina Fey, so when she left "SNL" to do "30 Rock", I'm sure my folks were pumped. And even though I did not watch it in real time, as mentioned before, I have seen it a ton. I have watched it from start to finish many, many times. And I am here today to tell you that I think "30 Rock" might be the funniest show that has ever been on TV.

"30 Rock" is not my favorite show, that is "The Simpsons". And there are other shows I like more, but there is something about the writing on this show that makes me laugh harder with each watch. This show is filled with jokes. My wife read something a while back saying that "30 Rock" has the most jokes per minute in television history, or something like that. And I fully believe it. We are in season four right now and I find myself constantly chuckling at random things on this show.

I do have to say, "30 Rock" is one show that I have made it to the TV shutting off before I go to sleep. That is because I am laughing all the time. For example, we were watching an episode last night where some of the writers take advantage of Kenneth by making up a religion. Kenneth is bringing them a pizza and says, "the pizza needs to be served by a blonde virgin", and smiles and points at himself. It was fantastic. I was howling. And that is how this entire show is made up. In season one, or maybe two, Tracy Jordan talks about a Halloween parody he made and the show cuts to him singing one line from "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah". Not only is that genius, but they ended up making an entire song due to the popularity of this five second clip. When Tracy proclaims, "it is a show within a show! My real name is Tracy Morgan", I cannot help but crack up. I also walk around quoting that all the time. When Tracy's wife gets her own reality show, "Queen of Jordan", and says "HAM", it is perfect. Tina Fey wrote some incredible stuff for Alec Baldwin. One line that has always stuck out for me is when Jack is explaining how he climbed his way to the top stating, "that is why I worked the day shift at that graveyard and the night shift at the Day's Inn". I mean come on, that is next level brilliant.

In the end it is Liz Lemon, the way Tina Fey wrote her, that is as iconic a comedy character as it gets. She has all the juicy lines. She crushes the comedy. The line reads are a stroke of genius. I love every single thing about Liz Lemon. When she gets her own talk show and sings, "you're a star/you're on top/somebody bring me some ham", that is one of the funniest songs ever. When she tells Jack about "lizzing", the way she explains it is amazing. The way she and Pete play off one another is some of the best chemistry I have ever seen between friends and coworkers on TV. The stuff with her boyfriends, namely Dennis Duffy and Jon Hamm is so incredible. I mean, Liz Lemon is a genius character for TV.

I didn't even mention Jenna or Grizz and Dot Com or Dr Spaceman or the multiple people Will Forte has played on the show. And then you get the cameos. Everyone from Al Gore to Pee Wee Herman have shown up here and there.

I have found with each watch I gain even more respect for "30 Rock". It is such a great television show. It will go down as a classic. It is comedy television at its absolute best.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

"The Last O.G." is Still Good, I Want it to Be Great.

I have been watching all of "The Last OG". From its start to where it is now, on season three,

I'm there for it. I think it is a solid show. Tracy Morgan is my all time favorite actor. Full stop. I love everything he is in, and I will watch pretty much anything he is in. He is it for me. He is the comedy actor. He makes me laugh all the time. I do not even watch "SNL" anymore, but I saw he was on a sketch last week and you better believe I watched in on YouTube the next day. He rules.

The other people on the show are great too. Tiffany Haddish is hilarious. Ryan Gaul is funny and can do a bit of drama. The actors playing his kids are really good at portraying teens. Tracy Morgan's mom is really good. Everyone knocks it out of the park. Jordan Peele is an executive producer and co creator of the show. This show has all the elements I look for when I want to watch a comedy show. And it has been really good for 2twoseasons.

We are four episodes into the third season, and while I have been enjoying it, it is kind of doing the same thing. They ended season two on a humongous cliffhanger, but they wrapped it up by the second episode of this season. I love that Tracy Morgan's character wants to give back, he is an ex-convict, but that storyline has kind of run its course. I do like what they are doing this season with a former childhood friend who lost her brother due to Morgan's character selling him drugs. I like how they are showing how his past really hurt other people. And the lady who plays Vecey is tremendous. It is a good storyline this season. I want it to be the main storyline. I feel like, especially after watching the most recent episode, they are going that way, and that is good. I just want them to stay in that lane. Again, I like how they show Tray giving back, but they have done that to death. I also really enjoy his interactions with his kids, but they have done that already. I am bummed out Haddish is not in this season, or she hasn't been yet, but that could do with scheduling or other conflicts. She is such a great actor, and she really shines on this show. I miss her a lot. I appreciate what they are doing with Gaul, her current husband, and the kids though. I just wish Haddish was there to perform. I saw that the next episode does have Tray helping someone out, but it is a guy that lived in the halfway house with him after they were released. I'd much rather see him help out those dudes than helping out a random kid on the street. And that is not because I am heartless, they have already done it. A few times. They have scratched that itch. And have done it very well. I want the show to go in new, different directions because I love it so much. I do not want it to feel stagnant. I was getting the stagnant feel, but then the fourth episode happened, and it has pushed me back to my hopeful feelings of the show doing a new story involving someone else involved in Tray's life.

I really do like this show. "The Last OG" has proven its worth and then some. I just hope it doesn't get content. I want it to go into different stories with different people. I think they are doing that. And I am hopeful that they are doing that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Coming 2 America"

For date night this week my wife picked "Coming 2 America".

Two weeks ago we watched the original movie because she had never seen it, and she enjoyed herself so much that she wanted to watch the sequel. This worked out well for me because, as a big fan of the original, of course I wanted to watch the second one. Eddie Murphy is also on some kind of come back tour, if he even needed one. "Dolemite is My Name" was one of the better movies I saw last year, and he crushed when he finally came back to host "SNL". It seems like he is finally having fun again being funny. He isn't doing the family comedy stuff or the big paycheck stuff. He is more in a "Tower Heist" groove, a very underrated movie I might add, and that is the perfect Eddie Murphy mood for me. He is so funny, and when he has really good material to work with, he usually crushes it. And I did not care at all what the critics were saying about the movie. I know it didn't get the best marks, but hey, neither did "Hot Rod", or the myriad of movies RD and I talked about on the pod a few weeks back, and I like those movies very much.

This is the category "Coming 2 America" falls into for me, the "Hot Rod" category. I had an absolutely delightful one hour and forty minutes watching this movie. There were call backs that were great. They had everyone who is still alive from the original in the sequel. Arsenio Hall was dynamite as Semi, and all the heavily made-up characters he played. I loved the newer character he played, the old man that lives in Zamunda, that guides Prince Akeem after his father passes. I could say the same for Eddie Murphy. Prince Akeem is a classic, but so is the sexist minister and the barber and the infamous singer from Queens. Murphy returned all these characters, and they all made me laugh just like I did when I first saw "Coming to America". Murphy really nails this, or these, roles. Shari Headley, as Lisa, is just as strong and confident and beautiful and proud as she was in the original. James Earl Jones, in his maybe five minutes of screen time, was awesome. His funeral was one of the silliest, yet saddest, and most choreographed things I have ever seen in a movie, and I loved every single second of it.

In the movie, Akeem and Lisa have three daughters, one of which is played by Murphy's real life daughter. They are all strong willed, tough and have the best qualities of their mom and dad. The oldest daughter, Meeka, played by KiKi Layne is almost a replica of her father from the original movie, except she may be tougher. Her story arc is one of my favorite things about this whole movie. She was awesome. They even brought back John Amos, Louie Anderson, Clint Smith and Paul Bates to reprise their roles from the first movie. It was nice to see them all acting and all doing a great job in these very memorable roles. The new additions were excellent as well.

The main story of the movie is that Akeem has a son who was fathered while he was in Queens in the first movie. He is the rightful heir, so Akeem and Semi go back to retreat him. The son is played by Jermaine Fowler. His name is Lavelle. I am a Jermaine Fowler fan. I loved his role in "Sorry to Bother You", he was one of the only things I liked in Pete Holmes' HBO show, "Superior Donuts" was decent because of him, and he does a great job in this movie. For him to keep pace with Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy is a triumph on its own. Add on that this movie also put Leslie Jones in it, as his mom, Tracy Morgan, as his uncle and Luenell as his aunt, and he kept up with all of them. Leslie Jones was hysterical, and she made me laugh any time she was on screen. She is so consistent. Luenell is quietly hilarious in everything she does. And Tracy Morgan, he is my favorite actor of all time, and Fowler kept up with all of them. This had to be a dream for him. They also put Morgan Freeman in this movie as the narrator at the funeral, and that ruled. Trevor Noah was a newscaster from Zamunda, and he was great, and so was his fake mustache. And Wesley Snipes, much like he did in "Dolemite is My Name", nearly stole the show as the rival king from Nextdooria, a great name by the way.

Look, this movie works on a few different levels. It is great nostalgia, it is fun, it gives Eddie Murphy another starring role, it gives some up and comers a real chance and it allows great comedic actors to do funny things over and over again. This movie is good. I definitely would ignore the critics reviews and check this movie out. It is more than worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

SeedSing Classic: Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 5 - I Wish it was Christmas Today

ed note: This article was originally published on December 5th, 2015

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we are looking back at the great holiday music, movies, television episodes, and food of this great season. Enjoy

Day 5: "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" by Julian Casablancas

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four

The conventional wisdom tells us that the winter holiday shopping season peaks on Black Friday. Once the day after Thanksgiving doorbusters are exhausted, the general public falls into a slower holiday shopping pattern. I disagree with this theory. Black Friday does have a large mob of people looking to score off brand electronics for ultra low prices, but the majority of sane people save their holiday shopping for after the mayhem. The first weekend of December is when the holiday shopping season really kicks into high gear. This is when the Christmas spirit starts its full invasion into our culture.

"I Wish it Was Christmas Today" started out as a simple SNL sketch featuring Horatio Sanz seemingly playing a novelty guitar and singing, Chris Kattan head turning and holding a very large keyboard, Jimmy Fallon providing backing vocals and very rarely playing the keyboard, and lastly Tracy Morgan awesomely dancing in place. Every few years the quartet would add a few lyrics, but the singing and dancing remained the same. Tracy Morgan is great in nearly everything he does, but I do think this is the funniest skit that Sanz, Fallon, and Kattan have ever done. Every year I would look forward to hearing "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" on SNL. The simple tune immediately put me into the holiday spirit.

In 2009 The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas released a cover of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today". The simplicity of the SNL version was replaced by a hyper kinetic ultra joyful new song to celebrate the holiday season. Casablancas version of the song starts at the top and never relents. For just under 4 minutes, the holiday season gets the positive excitement it so truly deserves.

Both the SNL and Casablancas versions of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" celebrate the happiness of Christmastime. There are endless stories on the news of people complaining about the length and commercialism Christmas. Fox News invented the moronic War On Christmas to continue their agenda of splitting the country and feeding the idea of white christian victim-hood. "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" leaves all the negativity behind and says that Christmas kicks ass.

Today I will be out starting my holiday shopping. My house is decorated. my spirit is getting into high gear, and "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" will be on my playlist. The crowds at the stores, the idiots at Fox News, and all the naysayers will not dampen my holiday spirit. I love the awesomeness of the holiday season.  I do't care what anybody says, I wish it was Christmas today.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He is hungry right now and really wishes it was Thanksgiving today. Tell us about your favorite time of year by writing for SeedSing.

SeedSing Classic: Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 5 - I Wish it was Christmas Today

ed note: This article was originally published on December 5th, 2015

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we are looking back at the great holiday music, movies, television episodes, and food of this great season. Enjoy

Day 5: "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" by Julian Casablancas

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four

The conventional wisdom tells us that the winter holiday shopping season peaks on Black Friday. Once the day after Thanksgiving doorbusters are exhausted, the general public falls into a slower holiday shopping pattern. I disagree with this theory. Black Friday does have a large mob of people looking to score off brand electronics for ultra low prices, but the majority of sane people save their holiday shopping for after the mayhem. The first weekend of December is when the holiday shopping season really kicks into high gear. This is when the Christmas spirit starts its full invasion into our culture.

"I Wish it Was Christmas Today" started out as a simple SNL sketch featuring Horatio Sanz seemingly playing a novelty guitar and singing, Chris Kattan head turning and holding a very large keyboard, Jimmy Fallon providing backing vocals and very rarely playing the keyboard, and lastly Tracy Morgan awesomely dancing in place. Every few years the quartet would add a few lyrics, but the singing and dancing remained the same. Tracy Morgan is great in nearly everything he does, but I do think this is the funniest skit that Sanz, Fallon, and Kattan have ever done. Every year I would look forward to hearing "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" on SNL. The simple tune immediately put me into the holiday spirit.

In 2009 The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas released a cover of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today". The simplicity of the SNL version was replaced by a hyper kinetic ultra joyful new song to celebrate the holiday season. Casablancas version of the song starts at the top and never relents. For just under 4 minutes, the holiday season gets the positive excitement it so truly deserves.

Both the SNL and Casablancas versions of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" celebrate the happiness of Christmastime. There are endless stories on the news of people complaining about the length and commercialism Christmas. Fox News invented the moronic War On Christmas to continue their agenda of splitting the country and feeding the idea of white christian victim-hood. "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" leaves all the negativity behind and says that Christmas kicks ass.

Today I will be out starting my holiday shopping. My house is decorated. my spirit is getting into high gear, and "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" will be on my playlist. The crowds at the stores, the idiots at Fox News, and all the naysayers will not dampen my holiday spirit. I love the awesomeness of the holiday season.  I do't care what anybody says, I wish it was Christmas today.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He is hungry right now and really wishes it was Thanksgiving today. Tell us about your favorite time of year by writing for SeedSing.

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 5 - I Wish it was Christmas Today

ed note: This article was originally published on December 3rd, 2015

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 5: "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" by Julian Casablancas

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four

The conventional wisdom tells us that the winter holiday shopping season peaks on Black Friday. Once the day after Thanksgiving doorbusters are exhausted, the general public falls into a slower holiday shopping pattern. I disagree with this theory. Black Friday does have a large mob of people looking to score off brand electronics for ultra low prices, but the majority of sane people save their holiday shopping for after the mayhem. The first weekend of December is when the holiday shopping season really kicks into high gear. This is when the Christmas spirit starts its full invasion into our culture.

"I Wish it Was Christmas Today" started out as a simple SNL sketch featuring Horatio Sanz seemingly playing a novelty guitar and singing, Chris Kattan head turning and holding a very large keyboard, Jimmy Fallon providing backing vocals and very rarely playing the keyboard, and lastly Tracy Morgan awesomely dancing in place. Every few years the quartet would add a few lyrics, but the singing and dancing remained the same. Tracy Morgan is great in nearly everything he does, but I do think this is the funniest skit that Sanz, Fallon, and Kattan have ever done. Every year I would look forward to hearing "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" on SNL. The simple tune immediately put me into the holiday spirit.

In 2009 The Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas released a cover of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today". The simplicity of the SNL version was replaced by a hyper kinetic ultra joyful new song to celebrate the holiday season. Casablancas version of the song starts at the top and never relents. For just under 4 minutes, the holiday season gets the positive excitement it so truly deserves.

Both the SNL and Casablancas versions of "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" celebrate the happiness of Christmastime. There are endless stories on the news of people complaining about the length and commercialism Christmas. Fox News invented the moronic War On Christmas to continue their agenda of splitting the country and feeding the idea of white christian victim-hood. "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" leaves all the negativity behind and says that Christmas kicks ass.

Today I will be out starting my holiday shopping. My house is decorated. my spirit is getting into high gear, and "I Wish it Was Christmas Today" will be on my playlist. The crowds at the stores, the idiots at Fox News, and all the naysayers will not dampen my holiday spirit. I love the awesomeness of the holiday season.  I do't care what anybody says, I wish it was Christmas today.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He is hungry right now and really wishes it was Thanksgiving today. Tell us about your favorite time of year by writing for SeedSing.

The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.

Ty is ready to embrace SNL again with the news that Tracy Morgan will be hosting

Go ahead and get the tv out of storage

With the recent news that Tracy Morgan will be hosting the second episode of the upcoming season of "Saturday Night Live" I have a renewed faith in the people at NBC.

I'm so happy and was extremely pleased when my wife told me this news and I confirmed for myself by checking online. As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Tracy Morgan fan. He was my first stand up comedy show I went to. I've seen the majority of the movies he's done(he was exceptional in his last role in "Top five"). His character, Tracy Jordan, on "30 Rock" made him the household name he deserved to be. That is one of the most iconic and hilarious characters that's even been on TV. I would love to see the movies that Tracy Jordan had the posters of in his dressing room, especially "White cop, Black Cop". But, what I liked most, was the absurd characters he did on SNL. Brian Fellows is one of my all time favorite skits that's ever been on SNL. Astronaut Jones was so bizarre and uproarious. His impression of Star Jones in the best one out there. When he played Shaquille O'Neal's dad on a skit and had to give him a spanking, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. I could go on and on about the many hilarious characters he played during his stint on SNL. The fact that the people at NBC and, Lorne Michaels especially, reached out to him and asked him to host is so, so great. For all the shit that's talked about Lorne Michaels, he does do some great, thoughtful things sometimes. Sure, the episode Morgan hosts will get great ratings, but what Michaels did by inviting him is an extremely classy move. He's putting Tracy Morgan in a very comfortable situation for him, by putting him back on the stage where he became a star. This is also a great idea and place for him to make his return to comedy and acting. Like I said before, he's being put in a low stakes situation, for himself, other people take the hosting of SNL way too seriously. Morgan will thrive on this stage. He knows the SNL stage like the back of his hand. He was there for a good amount of time and appeared on many skits during his run. I can't think of a better spot for him to return to the small screen.

This gives me hope that SNL may be turning a corner and getting back to some good skits and writing with the decision to have Morgan host. Normally, they'd stroll whoever the flavor of the month is, like last season when they had the girl from "50 Shades of Grey" host. That episode was awful. There were some decent hosts last season, Chris Hemsworth blew me away with how funny his episode was, but for the past couple of seasons, SNL has been in a rut. I think that should change with the people they've booked to host the first couple episodes of the upcoming season. They have confirmed flavor of the month, but also a comedian of big fame and a hugely successful movie, Amy Schumer and they have one of their prodigal sons returning in the aforementioned Tracy Morgan. Schumer will be good, because this is what she does. Tracy Morgan will be great, because he's done it before and he deserves this more than anyone right now. He's a comedy legend and that legend began on the stage of SNL. I can't think of a better way for him to honor the memory of his deceased friend by going out on that stage and crushing SNL. I hope they do all his famous characters because that will make me remember the good old days and he is so comfortable doing them. I love that Morgan is hosting and I haven't been this excited for an episode of SNL in quite some time. Thanks SNL and, more importantly, thank you Tracy Morgan for doing this. The world needs you and your comedy back and I cannot wait for you to host SNL.

I'm filled with joy and anticipation.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and co host of the X Millennial Man podcast. When he heard Tracy Morgan was going to be on SNL, Ty did the Super Bowl shuffle. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Ty gives his praise to the Tracy Morgan interview.

This is Ty's follow up to his article on Tracy Morgan.  You can read his original thoughts here.

I just watched the Tracy Morgan interview on the Today Show and that is one strong man. He showed a lot of strength in just doing it and he hit a home run. He didn't try to tell jokes or be funny, he just told the truth and showed that he's a real person that has gone through a terrible tragedy. He lost one of his best friends and he showed his true emotions on national television. He misses his friend dearly and just bringing up the name Jimmy McNair brought him to tears. Anyone who's lost someone can really feel for Tracy Morgan. Matt Lauer asked him if he was going to go back to performing or acting and Morgan responded as only he could. He said he loves doing comedy, referring to it as her, and he wants to get back to it, but he also said that he's not 100 percent yet. He has two scars on his heard where he suffered brain trauma and he's still using a cane from the broken leg, but today was the first step toward his return. This interview was everything I hoped it would be.

Tracy Morgan is on his way back.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing. Give him a follow on twitter @tykulik

Before you watch Tracy Morgan on Today, Ty remembers what made him so damn funny

Tracy Morgan is a personal comedy idol of mine

This coming Monday, June 1st, I want all fans of comedy, especially my generation(millennials) to tune in to the Today Show and watch Matt Lauer's interview with the great Tracy Morgan. This will be his first interview since the horrific accident with a WalMart semi truck nearly a year ago. In fact, the first stand up show I saw was Tracy Morgan at the Saint Louis Funny Bone. I feel like a lot of people have forgotten how hilarious a sketch performer and comedic actor he is. He was a phenomenal cast member on Saturday Night Live with such memorable characters as Brian Fellows, Astronaut Jones and who could forget his great portrayal of Star Jones(quintessential line, "Yes, I am a lawyer" starting every sentence of the character). He was revitalized with his role as Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock. He's  also criminally underrated as an actor. He's the only one worth watching in a crappy movie like "Cop Out" and his scenes in the fantastic Chris Rock movie "Top Five" are some of the best comedic parts in a very funny movie. The fact that this accident happened was a terrible thing. Amongst the many reasons why it was so awful was, he was in development with FX for a TV series that for all intents and purposes seemed to be on the fast track to hilarity.

I don't think Tracy Morgan gets the credit he so achingly deserves. He's so very, very funny. So, do me and yourself a favor and tune in, as I will be doing, or DVR the interview with Matt Lauer and sit back and enjoy the mere fact that, at the very least, Tracy Morgan is on his way back. Let's just hope his full recovery comes sooner rather than later because the world needs some more hilarity from the great and very underrated Tracy Morgan.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing. Give him a follow on twitter @tykulik