Under drizzling rain outside Jesse Hall, “Saturday Night Live” star Seth Meyers diligently signed autographs and posed for dozens of pictures for a crowd of comedy fans after his stand-up performance Monday night.
The event was sponsored by the Missouri Students Association/Graduate Professional Council Special Events Committee and the Department of Student Activities. Liz Ambrose, the senior chairwoman of the Special Events Committee, said Meyers seems to enjoy performing on college campuses.
“He’s been a big hit on SNL and Weekend Update,” Ambrose said. “When we asked for feedback, we got a lot of good responses and decided it was a good idea.”
Meyers, the head writer for “Saturday Night Live” and host of its news parody “Weekend Update,” started off the night by poking fun at the Tigers’ unexpectedly short basketball season.
“How’s everyone doing basketball-wise? Still hurting?” he asked the crowd.
During his act, Meyers recounted trips to Amsterdam and Las Vegas, where he once drunkenly ordered enough room service food to cause the hotel staff to set his table for six guests.
The last half of Meyer’s act mainly focused on politics. He lambasted former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for their extramarital affairs.
“I feel bad for the voters of California,” Meyers said. “How could they have known something would go wrong when they elected an ex-bodybuilder/movie star/sexual harassment hobbyist from Hitler’s country?”
Meyers also recounted two separate incidents of embarrassing himself in front of President Barack Obama, one occurring right before the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, which Meyers performed at.
“Obama’s a funny guy,” Meyers said. “He laughs at himself before we can get to him. Sometimes that makes me miss (former president George W.) Bush. He lacked that self-awareness.”
Meyers then dug into the Republican presidential candidates, calling the GOP debates the “best reality show on television.”
“Let’s be honest here, the GOP did not put out their A-team,” Meyers said. “Rick Perry was the perfect candidate for you if you liked Bush, but you thought he was too cerebral. Poor Mitt Romney knows he’s going to be the nominee and just wants someone to like him for a fucking second.”
Meyers rounded out his act with a collection of Weekend Update jokes that NBC censors hadn’t allowed to air on SNL. In his signature Weekend Update anchor style, Meyers delivered several unaired bits that had the crowd in stitches, including one he said was so unique, the SNL writers wrote several punch lines for it.
“Police in Germany arrested a man with no arms for stealing a TV set from an electronics store,” Meyers said. “Man, how lazy do your employees have to be to stop a guy from kicking a TV out the door?”
Freshman Ashley Wineland said she came to the show out of pure love for Meyers.
“It’s been a while since I laughed that hard,” Wineland said after the show.
Morgan Russell, a senior at Missouri State University, said she found out through Meyers’ Twitter account early Monday that he was making a stop in Columbia.
“I saw his tweet this morning, and I actually hadn’t heard about it before that, but I decided to come by,” Russell said. “I’ve seen some of his stand-up outside of SNL, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect.”
Freshman India Bloom, an SNL fan, said she enjoyed Meyers’ performance.
“I really like stand-up comedy,” Bloom said. “I think it’s the coolest job ever. Best $22 I’ve ever spent.”
