Steve Buscemi Helps Spoof Penn State Sex Scandal, Miley Cyrus on Saturday Night Live

Boardwalk Empire star tops SNL for the second time.

By Brandi Fowler Dec 04, 2011 6:30 PMTags

The Penn State sex scandal isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when we think comedy.  

But, never a show to shy away from controversial topics, Saturday Night Live took on that nefarious news story, as well as Miley Cyrus's self-professed stoner snafu at her 19th birthday party, and managed to mine some surprising laughs.

Boardwalk Empire star Steve Buscemi was along for the ride, hosting the show for the second time and taking cracks at himself while he was at it, addressing his days before the hit HBO show as the quintessential creepy guy (in just about every role he played up until that point). 

"It's been a few years since I hosted Saturday Night Live," Buscemi said. "In that time I've done a lot of movies, a little directing, and best of all I got to be the lead on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The series follows the seedy underworld of 1920s Atlantic City. It's hard to believe, but at that time the Jersey Shore was home to some pretty disgusting people."

Not to shy away from his days as a character actor pre-Boardwalk Empire, Buscemi kicked off the show by addressing that elephant in the room, taking questions from other "character actors" in the audience, like the "guy in war movies you just know is gonna die" and the "sassy female judge."

Then, Buscemi went on to play, well, the "creepy guy" for the majority of the show.

Take for example, the spoof on the Penn State sex scandal, dubbed "Coach Bert," in which Buscemi plays a coach who finds himself in the midst of an investigation after being accused of being a sexual predator—simply based on his creepy appearance. Unlike the actual Penn State case, the school officials in Coach Bert's case, as well as the police, have no evidence, no boys have made any accusations and no wrongdoing has occurred whatsoever. Everything is based on Coach Bert's looks.

Then, in the "Dateline" skit, Buscemi sports a mullet to play a prisoner named Diego, who has no problem admitting that he likes killing, particularly to Dateline host Keith Morrison (played by Bill Hader), who gets a little too excited when hearing about criminal acts.

And then, it was time to bond with Miley over um, "f—kin' weed."

On "The Miley Cyrus Show" skit, Miley, played by Vanessa Bayer, talks about how the media went haywire after videos surfaced of her saying "you know you smoke too much f--k'in weed when your friends get you a Bob Marley cake."

In this skit, Buscemi plays Jeff, a high-as-a-kite hipster who works at a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut and as an extra on pornos. After showing a psychedelic music video of them dancing together, hilarity ensues when Maya Rudolph pops up as Whitney Houston, who at the request of Billy Ray Cyrus tries to talk to Miley about the dangers of drugs (until she finds out Cyrus is just being harassed because of  "a little itty bitty weed").

Other notable sketches featuring Buscemi, included the "SNL Digital Short: Batman," in which Buscemi plays a commissioner who gets really annoyed by a stalkerish Batman (Andy Samberg), who pops up at some seriously inappropriate times (like during the commissioner's prostate exam, where he snaps a picture).

And for once, Buscemi didn't play the creepy guy.

So, tell us, what did you think about Buscemi's second stint hosting SNL?

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