Potent Potables

I filled my free time over the past few days, for reasons I really couldn't explain, by watching every episode of Saturday Night Live's Celebrity Jeopardy, which you can see here. Here's what I found:

Best impression by a cast member: Jimmy Fallon as a manically unfunny Robin Williams.

Worst impression by a cast member: Darrell Hammond as John Travolta. How can you do John Travolta and make him unrecognizable?

Best impression by a host: David Duchovny as Jeff Goldblum. This is my favorite kind of impression, of someone you wouldn't even think would be worth doing, but Duchovny made you know instantly who he was.

Worst impression by a host: Lucy Liu as Catherinze Zeta-Jones. She couldn't even keep a British accent going over the course of a six-and-a-half-minute sketch.

Best celebrity walk-on: Tom Hanks being a really good sport as himself.

Worst celebrity walk-on: Alex Trebek, who basically just walked out on stage, said a couple of unfunny things to Will Ferrell, and ended the sketch. You can see how, if Trebek volunteered to make an appearance, the producers would feel like they had to jump on it, but it was utterly pointless. What could it possibly mean in the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy universe to have two Alex Trebeks onstage? It just doesn't work. Here's a much better idea: Make Trebek a contestant.