Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious

I don't really watch "Saturday Night Live" that much any more. I'm not into the current cast (save Amy Poehler), and the writing is so lax and predictable these days, I don't like any recurring characters...I just can't get that into it. Since Will Ferrell left, there have been maybe 2 or 3 funny sketches.

And one of the things I have hated MOST about the episodes I've seen from the past two seasons are Chris Parnell's annoying whiteboy raps during "Weekend Update." It's this really stale, terrible concept in which he comes on and does a sexually explicit rap song themed after the hot chick guesting on the show that week. (I'm sure there was a Britney Spears one...he did another, but I forget who the girl was...like it matters...Paris Hilton maybe?)

Anyway, you can probably imagine the whole scene just from that description. He speaks "ghetto," he does all the gang banger hand signs, he's wearing a big stupid looking chain around his neck, blah blah blah. So when I heard that a new sketch was making the rounds online - one in which Parnell and a new guy on the show rap about The Chronicles of Narnia - I didn't bother to even look it up. How good could it be?

Well, I watched it today, and it's really funny. I think it's because Parnell stopped doing bad imitations of typical rap songs and started doing comedy-rap from his own perspective (and that of his lanky, frizzy-haired new Jewish friend). This isn't a song about breaking out his nine and inviting Lindsay Lohan to his candy shop. It's about him and a buddy going to a bakery to eat cupcakes before taking in a matinee screening of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Relatability + Honesty = More Funny Than Schtick.

Oh, and they sneak across the street to load up with candy to sneak into the theater, because snacks there are too expensive.

And the whole video is done in a riff on old Beastie Boys videos and Jay-Z's "99 Problems" video from last year. It's all really clever, like the part where they stop to check MapQuest to find the "dopest route" to the theater. Best SNL skit I've seen in a while. Go check it out...