Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell

There is no doubt in my mind that Will Ferrell is a great comedian, and was perhaps the only good thing SNL had going for it for a while, but the sketches chosen to assemble on this collection are far from the best things Ferrell has done on SNL. Where's the bad doctor? Where's Bill Brasky? Where's Mr. Turkanian abusing on his employees while Peirce Bronson looks on in horror? Where's the Bush sketches that are actually FUNNY? There were tons of them, why pick that one mediocre one??

Did Ferrell actually get to choose what went on this collection? I'm sorry to think that future generations will think that this is the best that he came up with while he was on SNL.

If you like Will Ferrell, this is your Graceland. He is absolutely the funniest person on the planet right now. If you have the DVD, the extras bring even more to the table.

You will need to watch this over and over to appreciate all of his comic genius. The funniest bit of the show is his Robert Goulet CD pitch for "The Coconut Bangers Ball: It's a Rap". If you know who Robert Goulet is, then you will appreciate this even more. Don't forget to check out the DVD extras in which Ferrell appears as Robert Goulet for an entire segment on Conan O'Brien.

Ferrell's staples such as Harry Carey, Alex Trebek, Marty Culp (the Altadena Music Teacher) and Craig the cheerleader are all funny, of course. The producers did a nice job choosing the best of the best.

There are also unappreciated bits like the homeless man who poses nude for an art class just to make extra money; Jacob Silg, the man with Voice Immodulation; and one bit on the extras in which he plays as gold prospector..... awwwww peaches !!

I have never laughed harder for a continuous period. Buy it now !

It's true that Will Ferrell's contributions to SNL can't be summarized on one DVD, especially not one running a little over an hour (one episode of SNL is 90 minutes), but that's not to say that the material here isn't hilarious. The problem with these collections is that fans have their favorites and almost always a few of them are missing and that's definitely the case here. In fact, some of the particular recurring sketches like "Jeopardy" & "Inside the Actor's Studio" could've chosen better examples than what ended up here for those. Again, what is here is funny and the extras are nice too. Here are the sketches in order that make up the main feature (the sketches are pretty complete except for where I list them as "snips":

Marty & Bobby Culp: Drug awareness assembly VH1 Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult (with Christopher Walken)"More Cowbell, baby!" - A personal favorite! Dissing your dog training video Spartan Cheerleaders Chess Team tournament Robert Goulet: Coconut Banger's Ball Snips - Will in thong at business meeting/Mini Cell Phone at new wave store/Rachel Dratch gives birth to Will Jeopardy: Burt Reynolds, Sean Connery, French Stewart Inside the Actors Studio: Charles Nelson Riley (Alec Baldwin)

The Devil teaches Garth Brooks a song Snips: George W. Bush/Janet Reno boxing Guliani/Clinton, Monica, & Saddam on the phone Space the Infinite Frontier with Harry Caray (& Jeff Goldblum)

Hot Tub Luvas (with Drew Barrymore) Roxbury Guys (with Jim Carrey) Snips: Good Morning Latte/Dog Show Nude guy poses for Art Class (with Lucy Lawless) Family yelling at dinner (with Sarah Michelle Gellar) Jacob Silj: Voice Modulation (on Weekend Update)

Extra Features:

Will Ferrell's audition for SNL as Harry Caray Unaired Dress Rehearsal sketch: Prospector in the Army

Will's Conan appearance in black underwear (plugging Roxbury)

Will's Conan appearance as Goulet

Outtakes: Hot Tub Luvas (with Winona Ryder), Goulet as Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Sketch (with Seinfeld), Voice Modulation on Weekend Update, George W Bush & George Bush Sr. (Dana Carvey), Neil Diamond on Weekend Update, Fight in club (with Ellen Degeneres), Tap dance (with Katie Holmes), and Mini computer email at New Wave shop (with Pierce Brosnan)

As you can see, the disc is above average in content and as far as these collections go, this one's up there. None of these collections will be perfect because the focus is on stars who have done a slew of hilarious sketches and many of them will be left out. Personally, I was disappointed to not see the VH1 Behind the Music on Neil Diamond...priceless. I agree with a previous reviewer that said Will needs something like a three disc set to even scratch the surface of his hilarious work on SNL, but this is better than nothing and probably as good as it will get unless SNL one day sees Season set releases. So I'd say start digging up your dubbed from TV SNL marathon VHS tapes, unless you have none, then by all means pick this up!

The show is so much nice and helpful for everyone. I felt like the show shouldn't end, it was so fantastic

Being in the UK I never really got a chance to see anything other than the film projects that grew out of SNL sketches as it never got an airing here. Of course now I could probably get it on one of the many cable channels we have or even on-line I guess, but generally it has never featured on my "must watch that" list (and yes, I am sad enough to have such a list). The couple of DVD's floating about offer me the chance to go the other way though as I can watch the sketches and characters that comedians now more famous for their films did when they were "coming up" (although one might say that SNL is "up" to a certain extent).

Although I have always found Ferrell's style to be hit and miss, this is a funny DVD with plenty of strong sketches. Ironically the highlight of the piece is not really thus due to him though. I refer to the Blue Oyster Cult sketch which is famous for Christopher Walken, and rightly so. Now that I think about it actually, my second favourite sketch here owes more to others than him, as the contestants on Jeopardy are funnier than the host. Anyway, even within these sketches Ferrell still does well and produces good laughs. The thing that marks him out from those around him is that, if he does crack up, he is usually the last to do it and he holds it together very well. By contrast, Jimmy Fallon seems unable to keep from laughing no matter what he is doing.

As with any sketch show the DVD is not as even as I would have liked and some of the sketches are a bit silly; not a problem in and of themselves perhaps but when they are alongside more inspired silliness then they do seem a little weak – the chess cheerleaders being an example of this. However generally the quality is high and each sketch is funny and imaginative and hasn't dated at all. Well worth a look then as a summary of Ferrell's time at SNL for those unacquainted with it, although I imagine that SNL viewers will find as much missing as present.