Zach Galifianakis Spices Up SNL

Zach Galifianakis provided a bright spot in an up-and-down season of Saturday Night Live, critics agree. The star of The Hangover brought his stoner demeanor and—for most of last night's episode—bounteous beard to Studio 8H. Some reactions:

• The opening monologue "was pretty much just Galifianakis doing his stand-up," Annie Wu writes for TV Squad. "But his stand-up is fantastic, so no complaints here."

• "With only a couple of exceptions, SNL relied on skits it has done in the past," Ken Tucker writes for Entertainment Weekly. "And this week, that strategy—undoubtedly influenced by Galafianakis’ brand of incongruous whimsy—worked."
• "The most discussed moment of the night came in the last sketch where Galifianakis appeared beardless. The fake beard he wore at the closing seemed to make it pretty clear that he actually did shave while Vampire Weekend (really good!) played its last song," observes Adam K. Raymond of New York.

(More Saturday Night Live stories.)