What Do You Think of This Jeremy Renner-Starring Avengers SNL Sketch? [VIDEO]

I thought Renner was fine (I’m maybe slightly biased), but the skit overall didn’t wow me. And yeah, I didn’t like what they did with Black Widow. =(

I think my favorite Renner skit on SNL was the one with the three guys pointing guns at each other, though it definitely made me think of that one CollegeHumor skit Zachary Quinto did.

“Black Widow’s sexy mugging for the camera ticks me off a little bit”

Oh, good grief… it’s called parody. Look, I know you guys THINK you’re being all feminist and stuff on TMS, but true feminists don’t tear other women down, which is pretty much what every post I’ve seen lately on this site has done. It’s tiresome and I refuse to read any more of it. Bye-bye. I know you won’t miss me. The feeling is mutual.

I love Jeremy, but I approach any episode of SNL with a pint of vodka and low expectations. I was right to do so as the episode was awful. The only redemption was getting to hear him sing in the opening monologue. Too bad the monologue was so lame. LOTS of missed opportunities in this episode – including the Avengers bit. At no fault of Jeremy’s, mind you — the writing is awful as ever.

In Ms. Pahle’s defense, she did conclude her Black Widow comment with “… but then again, it’s just a comedy sketch.” And I would assume it was the continued marginalizing of Black Widow’s character as “the obligatory hot chick” that ticks her off (I agree). I saw no attempt at “tearing” another woman down.
I do understand your senstivity to that issue, however. Too often, I see “feminists” preaching at women they label “part of the problem.” So instead of men telling women how they should think, dress and live their lives, it’s women telling women how to think, dress and live their lives. And it’s all bullshit.
But I, personally, haven’t noticed that on this site (or it just hasn’t bothered me, I suppose). I love The Mary Sue, and will continue to read every day. Keep up the good work, ladies.

I really saw no problem with what Rebecca Pahle wrote. Even in parody, there is something fairly problematic with the reducing of Black Widow’s character into “the hot chick”. Ya dig?

Bah. Now I have to go on a search to find it cause I’m Canadian…

Rebecca was tearing another woman down by sharing her dislike with how a female character was portrayed on television?

I agree that the bit with BW was lame, but the rest of the Avengers sketch had me guffawing. (“Why don’t you take an arrow out of an alien you just shot?” “That’s unsanitary.”) The “showdown” sketch and the “Can you identify this body” sketch were both hilarious too.

Though, I am really ready for SNL to retire “The Californians.” I don’t understand why they think it is so funny (The cast members were cracking up the whole time?)

“The Californians” felt like this big, overall joke I wasn’t getting. I felt like I was missing something. Or it wasn’t funny. Or both. Probably both.

Rebecca’s last post that has a woman in the headline:

“Sunita Williams To Return from the International Space Station Today, Will Make Earth a Little Better by Being On It.”

Way to tear women down, Rebecca! How dare you! I find your “Things We Saw Today” and “Look At This Awesome Candy Store” posts to be as destructive to women as made for TV Christmas Movies on ABC Family!

Made for TV Christmas Movies on ABC Family are destructive to the living.

I thought Black Widow’s sexy mugging was parodying the use of her character in the movie. In fact the whole skit parodied the movie’s absurdities (and perhaps the comics, too, but I’m not familiar with them). I was not a fan of that movie (didn’t dislike it, but didn’t love it), so I found the skit hilarious!

http://themarysue.tumblr.com/post/34044791725/gailsimone-risainwonderland

Hey, I only saw the movie once and didn’t read the comics. I’m sorry if I did miss some things regarding her character. But it did seem to me like she was nothing but a token female sexy pin-up. And, of course, she’s the only woman on the team. She has no special powers at all (why can’t a female character be a god or a genius or a super soldier?), and the only thing she seemed to bring to the film was sex appeal. The skit was making fun of that (and Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her).

Out
of all the clips, the two I’d say were my favorite were the Avengers spoof and
the Coroners. Kate McKinnon was hilarious as Black Widow. I laughed so much
with this skit. I wasn’t able to see the show last night on TV since I was
working late at DISH. I pulled out my laptop and watched it on DISH Online the
morning after, so it was nice that it was available so soon. I sure hope that
he hosts again soon, and I can’t wait for his movies in the future.

I see your point, but I have to respectfully disagree. Black Widow is sexy, yes—but so are all the male Avengers. It’s a highly attractive movie. I don’t really feel like the movie treated her as a “sexy pin-up” more than it did Thor, Cap, etc. As for the special powers thing, I thought it made her MORE kick-ass that she was able to do everything she did—go up against the Hulk, beat all those Chitauri—without having the ability to fly or super strength on her side.

Thanks, Duchess. Yes, that is what I was going for. Black Widow was clearly more than just the sexy eye-candy character in the movie, so that she would be reduced to that for a joke seems a bit lazy. It just rubs me the wrong way.

And to add to your list of why BW rocks: she managed to trick the God of Lies. That takes skills.

Yeah, I thought the comedy in the sketch as a whole was pretty weak. I think that it would’ve been way funnier for him to be one of the other avengers, but he as “himself” just fell flat. The other sketches he was in were much more clever-especially the one with the guns (which I am sure was parodying another movie that I haven’t seen.)

It really rubbed me the wrong way, too, and I felt like that whole skit just went for the laziest possible interpretation of the characters. Oh, Hawkeye’s useless and Widow’s just there as a pair of boobs. Come on. A few of Hawkeye’s lines made me laugh (“And I killed 11 aliens! You’re welcome!”), but it was just poorly written in general.

Renner was fantastic!!! Plus the man can sing!!

My favorite was the body identification sketch, because it took a lazy and silly premise and ran right to the most ridiculous point with it. Plus his cue-card addiction actually made it even funnier.

Out of the whole show, the only sketch that really had me cracking up
was The Standoff. But this one was…it was still kinda funny. Less
funny, I think, to nerds, because “what does he do when he runs out of
arrows” is a nerd-joke for the archery heroes that’s almost as old as
“Aquaman sucks!” (And it’s hard to turn off the nerd-part of my brain
that goes ” Did you not SEE the Widow/Hawkeye fightscene? When he is
out of arrows, HE BEATS THE CRAP OUT OF THINGS WITH HIS HANDS.” But
that’s just me.)

The scrunchie comment was gold. Though I liked: “How many arrows did you bring?” “All of them. Like, eleven!”

I know what you mean about the Black Widow mugging for the camera. It just didn’t feel funny because it wasn’t making fun of anything that happened. Because in the actual movie, there really wasn’t a whole lot of fanservicey shots of Widow at all, but when people talk about it or parody it, they act like that’s the big thing to make fun of, because in most other movies, there would have been a lot of fanservice. So basically, people are geared to expect the lady in the tight suit to be doing sexy things, and just sort of trick themselves into thinking that’s what they say, because duh, what else would she do.

Leaving aside that context, the mugging was still kind of funny.

“and the only thing she seemed to bring to the film was sex appeal.”

1) Convinces Bruce Banner to come in from the cold.
2) Plays Loki enough to find out what he’s after (SHIELD does nothing with that info, but she gets it).
3) Breaks Loki’s mind-control on Hawkeye with percusive maintainance.
4) Holds her own on the ground fight with Captain America against an army of aliens.
5) Commanders an alien vessel and steers it via stabbings.
6) SHE’S THE ONE WHO CLOSES THE PORTAL.

She pretty much contributes as much to the fight and movie as anyone else.

“But it did seem to me like she was nothing but a token female sexy pin-up.”

And I think that’s the problem people have with the parody. Because of this knee-jerk, “she’s a token female sexy pin-up.” Because really…she wasn’t. Was she sexy? Yup. So was Iron Man. So was Thor. So was Hawkeye (oh, those thews). We get a naked Bruce Banner. For pity’s sake, we are introduced to Captain America with a close up on his shapely bum as he works a punching bag. There’s a lot of sexy folks in that movie. And Widow is wearing a skintight suit. But oddly enough, there’s not a lot of “male gaze” going on in the shots with her. There’s never really a moment where the sole purpose of the shot or character is to be sexy. Whedon showed a boatload of respect to the actress and the character by not shooting her any differently than he did any other hero.

But people have this kneejerk reaction–the one lady in an action group is there to be sexy. That’s her primary function. It doesn’t matter if it’s actually true in the movie, it’s what we automatically think. Which is a crying shame.

Oh man, I forgot about the Coroners. That was some straight-up Monty Python or Hollow Men hilarity going there, and Renner was pretty good at it (even if he was reading a cue card the whole time…I mean, his eyes never strayed).

That was a lousy skit to open on. And it went on for so freaking long. What the heck was supposed to be funny? It was like watching high schoolers putting on a skit at a pep rally.

It honestly can’t be that hard for alleged comedy writers to write a five or six-line parody superhero song. And yet…nothing particularly funny in any of them. That was a shame (but the boy can sing).

Again, I’m sorry. It was not a knee jerk reaction. (It’s a shame all my comments are getting thumbs down clicks, too.) Again, I only saw the movie once. That’s the feeling I got from Black Widow’s character. I know what you mean about the male gaze and what not… (I heart Laura Mulvey), and I agree with you there. Probably not Joss Whedon’s fault that I got the impression that I got because the source material is dated. I think the skit was making fun of the entire movie. Tony Stark being snarky and too cool for school (it got old), for example, or Captain America and his… shield? Really? He uses a shield. To fight aliens LOL (The skit totally made fun of that, too). Black Widow, what does she do? She fights in a skin tight suit. And fights badly. (Johnansson was terrible in those fight scenes.) I think what she needed was her own movie. She doesn’t have the back story that some of the others have. So, she’s the only girl (again, really? Would it kill writers to have two girl leads in one action film?) she has no special powers, and no background. She fights badly, and she’s sexy. Maybe hardcore fans and people who see the movie more than once will pick up other aspects of her character, but most of us are used to women (and people of color, and other minorities) being treated like tokens in action films, so the skit played to that assumption, and played it nicely. Now come on, kids… give trolls thumbs down, not people trying to have thoughtful discussions and arguments about the stuff we all love.

I forgot about that one! Yeah, that one was pretty funny too, actually. The cue-card addiction made him seem kinda spaced out, which did work with the character.