LOL. How embarrassing (and completely in character) that THIS is what got us back here again after a month of absence.
Weezer will not be appearing anywhere in Hot Mix 2018, so this seems like a good opportunity to fulfill our required bi-annual Weezer shit post.
SNL did a Weezer sketch this past weekend. And there was no way we weren’t going to watch this, our lone SNL compulsion for 2018. What does this say about us?
(Fact check: This is actually not true. In the Spring, we also watched a sketch highly recommended by A/V Club about deciding whether to order the lobster at a diner - a fresh-sounding premise surprisingly unrelated to pop culture that felt genuinely funny throughout the sketch’s first 60 seconds. Sadly, the remaining 75% of the sketch gets overtaken by awkward Les Miserables parody songs. LAME.)
We also did LOL at the Weezer sketch about 10x more than any other SNL-related thing we’ve seen over the past half-decade. (And yes, we’re aware that 10 x 0 = 0 but you know what we mean.) Again, what does this say about us?
So many thoughts...
#1 Upon hearing this sketch existed, we imagined they got four unfunny SNL dumbasses to dress up like Weezer. But this was not the case. Sweet relief. #2 If this had this been cast differently, we probably wouldn’t have laughed once. We had no idea that Leslie Jones was still around at SNL. As long as she is there, the show will always have one (and probably only one) genuinely funny cast member. Matt Damon with hipster glasses was the perfect choice for Leslie’s opponent. (Keenan is occasionally ok, but we’re happy he wasn’t one of the focus characters. We have no idea who the other 3 people are.)
#3 “Is this a thing people care about?” “I'm gathering that Rivers might be a guy in Weezer?” We’re guessing this dialogue speaks on behalf of most people who were watching on Saturday. It feels super niche compared to most sketches that make it to air, even though they apparently also had a Sheck Wes parody video a few weeks ago. Perhaps, it’s not all up to 74-year-old Lorne Michaels anymore. He must have some “pop culture consultants” on deck, because how the hell else would this sketch have gotten approved?
#4 Matt Damon’s character has helped us become aware of a sector of Weezer fandom far outside of our inner circle. There are people who apparently really say things like this: - “You haven’t heard this? This is Weezer’s cover of ‘Africa.’ It’s good, right?”
- “I mean, come on. They’re playing New Years Rockin’ Eve!”
- “’Pork and Beans’ is better than ‘Buddy Holly!’”
- “Weezer didn't start until Scott Shriner got there.” (This can't be a real thing that people really think, can it?)
We couldn’t help noticing (and this is definitely 100% coincidence) that Matt Damon’s character does not defend his take citing any music released between 2013-2016, the recent shockingly ok era that begat surprisingly tasteful songs like “King of the World,” “Everybody Needs Salvation,” and “I’ve Had It Up to Here.” Even that awkward “L.A. Girlz” song wasn’t bad in context. (It reminds us of the Green Album b-sides.) We got excited enough at this ok-ness that we placed The White Album at #60 on our top albums of 2016, which still seems accurate in retrospect.
#5 This past summer marks a full decade since the “Pork and Beans” video premiered on YouTube. It placed very well (somewhere around #3) in Pitchfork’s “Best Musc Videos of the '00s” list, and it won the Grammy Award for “Best Music Video.” People have tried to convince us multiple times that it’s anything other than a gigantic pile of horse shit.
"Pork and Beans" is a video full of keywords, and it launched Weezer’s “keyword” era which inevitably spawned their unfortunate “Africa” cover - a song that sadly will follow them for a very long time and will get performed at every Weezer show for the next 7-10 years no matter how 2018-specific it gets. Keywords are anti-creativity. Coincidentally, SNL is a show that relies on keywords in order to continue existing, occasionally dabbling in tastefulness but ultimately growing worse with every passing year - just like Weezer.
Rivers now wonders, “Why don’t people take us seriously like they do with Pearl Jam?” My dude. Pearl Jam are not a keywords-band. There’s no memes in their songs. They just do their thing and drink wine straight from the bottle and hang out with Liz Phair at baseball games.
We’ve seen Weezer play “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly,” “Suzanne,” and “Across The Sea” as recently as 2011. But now check out their setlist from 2018’s Riot Fest: “Take On Me?” “Happy Together??” “All The Small Things??” SIX cover songs??? What the fuck is honestly happening here? Are they really THAT desperate for keywords? (And again, nothing from 2013-2016 era.)
2016 was not that long ago. Just like we all thought, they can turn it on and off anytime they want. They know exactly what they're doing. SNL took the bait. Weezer loved it. The frustration continues.
