
 
 Fred Armisen returned to Weekend Update as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on last night's "SNL," and this time the joke was directed as much at the United States government as it was at the recently resigned dictator. 
 
 After explaining to anchor Seth Meyers how bittersweet it was for him to step down from office and how much his people were going to miss him, he went on to insist that he take the opportunity to thank the American people: 
 
 America, thank you. You propped up my regime for over 30 years. I could never have done it without all of your money and support and tear gas. You know what they say, Seth, behind every horrible dictator is an enabling super power. America, you are the wind beneath my wings. 
 
 We tend to expect that kind of pointed satire from "The Daily Show" or Bill Maher, but it's always a nice surprise to see "SNL" remember that it's at its best when it has an edge. 
 
 
 
 
 
 WATCH: 
 
 
 
 

 NBC 
 
 Russell Brand hosted Saturday Night Live this week, begetting a gaggle of English-themed content, and not one but two period sketches. (Sort of.) We just can't get past the accents, I guess. 
 
 In one such sketch, an official from the Pentagon approaches John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi and Rand Paul with a solution to all those disagreements over the intent of the founding fathers: A time machine to whisk George Washington into the present. Russell Brand plays our bellicose first president. Things do not go as planned. 

 Russell Brand can be so funny and charming on talk shows, quick with ad-libs and witty enthusiasm; he seems so sweet when he’s with his wife, Katy Perry. Consider that a niceness disclaimer for what follows. Hoo boy, was this a pretty bad week for Saturday Night Live. 
 
 Coming off a mirthless cold-open that parodied Bill O’Reilly’s interview with President Obama (did you hear? O’Reilly interrupted the President a lot), Brand emerged to deliver a high-energy, low-amusement opening monologue about how tight his pants are and how ordinary married life is even when you’re married to Katy Perry. He concluded, 90 minutes later, without Perry but with a cut finger (“I bled for you!” he crowed). 
 
 Playing an ordinary American joe who’d won a six-week vacation from a Travel Channel host (Kristen Wiig), Brand managed an American accent to deliver dialogue that would have required a private detective to locate any punchlines. The enterprise hinged on Wiig being maniacally enthusiastic; it was a mediocre SNL retread. 
 
 There was a lengthy sketch about a verbally abuse British king (Brand) who used a “royal taster” to sample his food before he ate it. The usually under-used Taran Killam was, thank goodness, all over the place this night. He was good ‘n’ silly as the taster, and Bill Hader equally over-the-top to just the right degree as the chef who hated the king. But the bellowing and the slapstick became tiresome, and it all built to a meaningless voice-over tag-line — “This has been The King’s Speech. Now you can say you saw it!” 
 
 Straining for more Brit-inflected material that could accommodate Brand, there was “A Spot of Tea,” with Brand, Hader, and Andy Samberg all in drag, using falsetto voices stolen from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, screeching to poor effect. I won’t mention Brand spreading his legs in the vain hope of a desperation-laugh. 
 
 Okay, so what was the good stuff? Well, thank goodness for Hader’s Stefon, the pervy New York nightlife expert. Offering Valentine’s Day tips that included a club called Booooooooof (“that’s with nine ‘O’s”) and celebrating “Jewpids — Jewish cupids,” Stefon’s recommendations were excellent as always. 
 
 You could hear the studio audience yelp with surprised delight at Killam’s ferocious Eminem impersonation during “Weekend Update,” accompanying Jay Pharoah’s Lil Wayne on an obscene Valentine’s Day song. 
 
 There was also a funny ad for a British crime film in which everyone spoke with very thick accents. The voice-over cited the parody’s inspirations — Sexy Beast and the Red Riding trilogy — so all we had to do was sit back and admire Bill Hader’s fine, unintelligible-yet-impeccable dialect. 
 
 That was it for the material that made me laugh. Maybe you liked the commercial for the lawyer who represents people injured at Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, or Brand as a violent George Washington? 
 
 (As for singer Chris Brown — my, he dances energetically, doesn’t he?) 
 
 What did you think of Brand and SNL this week? 
 
 Twitter: @kentucker
– Russell Brand bounded across the Atlantic to host Saturday Night Live last night, and not everyone is glad he made the trip. Some reactions from around the blogosphere: Brand's presence "(begat) a gaggle of English-themed content, and not one but two period sketches. (Sort of.) We just can't get past the accents, I guess," writes Peter Finocchiaro on Salon. Hilarity did not ensue. "Straining for more Brit-inflected material that could accommodate Brand, there was 'A Spot of Tea,' with Brand, Hader, and Andy Samberg all in drag, using falsetto voices stolen from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, screeching to poor effect," complains Ken Tucker on EW. "Hoo boy, was this a pretty bad week for Saturday Night Live." One highlight was Fred Armisen as Hosni Mubarak, notes the Huffington Post: "We tend to expect that kind of pointed satire from "The Daily Show" or Bill Maher, but it's always a nice surprise to see "SNL" remember that it's at its best when it has an edge." As for musical guest Chris Brown, "my, he dances energetically, doesn’t he?" writes Tucker. Check out clips in the gallery.