SNL Recap: Jim Carrey Goes Even Dumber!

Perhaps you have no idea what the schedule at Saturday Night Live is like, but it's 100% bonkers. The writers and performers have less than 24 hours to bask in the glory of an episode, or self-flagellate over its failure, before beginning to prep for the follow-up.

A day of pitching is next, and then a writing all-nighter, and after that comes the actual logistics of putting on a live show — the staging, rehearsals, and working out of various kinks. It's a tightrope walk where the tightrope itself is soaked in kerosene and set on fire. After three rounds of this craziness, though, there's a reprieve.

The cast and crew get every fourth week off. You might think that after a short break, everyone would come back rejuvenated, with ideas percolating beyond first-draft level and all unfunny sketch-concepts exorcised. Somehow, though, the episode after a week off tends to be less solid, and last night's was no exception. In fact, it was so abysmal it became perversely exciting to see how bad things could get.

At the outset of last night's episode, it seemed like things could go the other way. Jim Carrey used to be among the safest of bets for SNL. Although he at one point unsuccessfully auditioned to be a cast member, he eventually helped launch In Living Color, where he thrived in the sketch format.

His best movies, like the original Dumb and Dumber, seemed to stretch a single sketch to feature-length, and crush it.

However, it's been a long time since Carrey first became famous enough to host SNL. (So long ago, in fact, that one of the sketches from that episode featured Jim Breuer doing a Joe Pesci impression.) Since then, Carrey, who is undoubtedly one of the more gifted physical comedians of our time, has had his share of ups and downs at the box office, unveiled an obsession with the number 23, bashed a movie he was starring in because of its violence quotient, and endured a very public relationship with known vaccine-truther Jenny McCarthy. It's been a bumpy ride, to say the least. And although it's unfair to blame the host, last night's episode was somehow even bumpier.