Okay, I have to admit, I’ve never really thought about Joseph Gordon Levitt one way or another. In the past year, he starred in the critically acclaimed 500 Days of Summer, and in the critical flop (but box office winner) G.I. Joe. When I’ve seen pictures of JGL, or even caught some movie with him, I just think “talented kid, average looking”. But when I was watching him on Saturday Night Live, I kind of fell for him. He’s really cute! You can just tell what a musical theatre geek he is too. I mean, I can’t think of any major actor who would choose to revive Donald O’Connor’s iconic, magnificent, physical, tour de force performance of “Make ‘Em Laugh” from Singin’ in the Rain. That takes massive musical theatre cojones. I doubt even Hugh Jackman would attempt it. But JGL did it, and did it well. I mean, he’s no Donald O’Connor, but I give JGL a lot of credit for attempting it on live television.

Besides that, I felt like JGL was underutilized. He seems like a sweet kid, a talented kid, an actor with a great voice (and a lovely little New York accent) and a lot of physical grace, so why couldn’t they come up with more stuff for him to do? It seemed like the SNL writers were more focused on giving their cast members all of the good stuff. Because JGL didn’t have a lot to do, I feel like the episode was a little meh. The two funniest parts were the digital shorts, and neither of them had JGL. I have no idea what kind of sick, twisted crap inspired Andy Samberg and Keenan Thompson to do this, but it’s so ridiculously funny:

The digital short that is already getting the most attention didn’t feature any of the cast members. Instead, it was a surprisingly wonderful mash up of the trailer from 2012, that disaster movie about a 2012 apocalypse, and Sarah Palin’s speeches and book tour interviews. The mash-up is about Palin winning the 2012 presidential election… with vice president Glenn Beck. The planet self-destructs:

“The planet is going rogue” is really, really funny. As is “From the mind of Keith Olbermann”. You know he’s going to love that. SNL needs Ben Affleck to come back for another Olbermann impersonation. With Tina Fey as Palin. Oh, Lord. That’s coming, isn’t it?

SNL promotional photos of Joseph Gordon Levitt courtesy of NBC.