Cold Open: Lawrence Welk — You could tell right away there was a lot of energy going on in the audience with this sketch, and I couldn’t agree more. With a great guest cast — including, of course, Betty White — and a non-political open featuring the guest host herself, this was a great way to kick things off. Plus, I love tiny doll-hands girl — so, so fantastically creepy.
Monologue: Betty White — Best freakin’ monologue of the season, and all she had to do was stand there and talk. No crazy song and dance necessary — this monologue rocked. And in case you have no idea why she was thanking Facebook, you might want to take a look at the page that helped make it happen.
MacGruber — At this point I’m really loving that Ms. White is appearing even in the pre-recorded sketches, because I think some people were worried her 88.5 years couldn’t carry an entire episode. I guess having pre-recorded segments helped that a bit.
Delicious Dish — “My muffin hasn’t had a cherry since 1939.” I think we all saw where this was going to go as soon as White was introduced as “Dusty.” A funny as hell sketch, with returning cast members Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, but it still couldn’t quite beat the Schweddy Balls sketch from long ago.
The Manuel Ortiz Show — With so many returning cast members, I guess it was only a matter of time before we saw the show cram a bunch of them into one sketch. Didn’t care the for this one. For that matter, I don’t think I ever cared for this returning sketch.
Gingey the Lesbian — Best line: “Believe me, one thing I would not miss: balls. Terrible little things.”
Musical Guest: Jay-Z — Most people knew what they were getting into when they saw Jay-Z was the musical guest tonight. So, you either dig Jay-Z and loved these, or you don’t care for him and weren’t impressed at all.
Weekend Update — The Whitney Houston sketch was great, and seeing Amy Poehler and Tina Fey back on with the “Really?!?” sketch: really awesome, that’s what it was. This far into the episode and only one minor complaint with the Manuel Ortiz show = not too shabby.
Scared Straight — This is one of my favorite recurring sketches, mostly because the three guys sitting in the chairs usually have a hard time composing themselves as Kenan goes to town on them. They seemed to keep it together this week, but having White yell “Wizard of ass!” made up for it.
CSI: Sarasota –“CBS: The old people network.” I dunno, something about this one didn’t get me as much as it should have … or could have, I guess I should say. Maybe it was the David Caruso jokes that were pretty lame?
Thank You For Being a Friend — Clever of them to throw a mask over Betty White’s face to allow for some easy stunt casting. Kind of an odd short but fit in well with the Mother’s Day theme; nothing like Betty White saying “motherfuckers” for Mother’s Day.
Census Checker — This was a short but great sketch to end off the night, and you know how uncommon it is for this show to end off on a high note. anyone else wish there was a little more of Tina Fey in the episode, though? Blarfengaar!
Some extras, from dress rehearsal:
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on May 09, 2010 @ 01:05 EST5EDT
Best episode of the season and best episode from start to finish in decades!
Found a video of the SNL Digital Short with Betty White!
Happy Mother’s Day, motherfuckers!
Betty White is awesome. Great show.
First time I watched an entire episode of ‘SNL’ from beginning to end and enjoyed all of it.
I can’t decide which line was better:
“You’re barking up the wrong lesbian.”
“WIZARD OF ASS!”
Oh Betty White you are a national treasure with a heart of gold and the mouth of a sailor.
The best musical guest of the Season was during the Digital Short ;-)
I was already crying after the cold open. Christen Wiig is really carrying the current cast. She’s so awesome and cute…
Oh and Amy Pohler is pregnant again, right? She was wearing something black and puffy on thursday’s Parks and looked really far along on SNL. Loved her on “Really!?”, especially because the writing was so good.
I think it speaks volumes that such a good episode with so many former castmembers manages to not include Darrel Hammond. That guy should really not show his face on the show anymore. Not even to remind Keith who he is ;-)
“Cold Open”. Amusing. “Wizard of ASS”. Funny. “The Manuel Ortiz Show”. I don’t know why … but I was laughing.
The rest of the show? What the hell? Did the writers just abandon all sense of sense and replace it with “old” and “taco” and “balls”?
Nope. I tried and it didn’t work. So … really? This was a good episode? Maybe I’ve just lost touch.
But I don’t think so.
I have a feeling that since Alec Baldwin is hosting next week, we’ll get more of Tina Fey then.
Overall, such a great episode. Betty White kicked some serious ass!
It was unreal. I was at a college party and someone came running in the room “It’s the Betty White episode of SNL!!!” So 20 of us were in a dorm room watching as Betty White just made sex jokes all night.
I can die happy.