• Alec Baldwin is very excited to be the first host of this season of SNL, so excited he felt the need to hump Bill Heder.

• Netflix had a pretty big week, between splitting off into 2 companies and pissing off their clientele. This song pretty much explains it all.

• What happens when the world’s biggest game of dodgeball starts on a football field? Complete pandemonium.

• One of the wrongest-yet-funniest comedies on TV started back up this week as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia returned to FX. In order to prep for the season, here is the blooper reel from last season.

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Those who watch NBC comedies Parks & Recreation, Community and Saturday Night Live know that some of the considered “favorites” of those shows consist of Donald Glover, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, and Aubrey Plaza. Sure, there are a few others, but now we’re getting all of these names in one place with the new indie comedy The Hand Job.

From Variety:

Hader’s wife, Maggie Carey, is set to write and make her feature directorial debut on the coming-of-age story; Plaza will star as a type-A valedictorian who’s determined to lose her virginity before leaving for college. Project does not have a start date yet, as financing is still coming together.

In addition, TV veterans Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”) and Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development”) have joined the ensemble, while Plaza’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” co-stars Johnny Simmons and Mae Whitman have come aboard to provide comedic support.

So as if the list of stars wasn’t enough with NBC’s top four, they’re adding two Arrested Development alumni to the mix. This could just be the indie comedy (and hopefully more) of the year.

We’re just hoping they keep the title.

Last week may have had a few decent moments, but having someone like Miley Cyrus host Saturday Night Live will only get you so far. That’s why we’re all pretty excited to see Zach Galifiniakis return for a second time this weekend to host the show.

Nobody was sure if we’d see Zach again on the show, let alone this soon, as his last hosting gig didn’t go off as smoothly as it could have. The episode was full of awkward moments and missed jokes, but it seems that Lorne and the gang are ready to give the comedian a mulligan, and welcome him back with open arms.

In promoting this Saturday’s episode, both Zach and regular funnyman Andy Samberg recorded the typical TV spots for the network. We’ve got the whole list of them strung together, thanks to HULU.

Check out the reel after the jump, and join Andy and Zach on Saturday Night Live this Saturday at 11:30pm.

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Welcome to another edition of  On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Will Smith is currently working on a remake of Annie with his daughter Willow taking on the titular role and having Daddy Warbucks played by himself. Nepotism Shmepotism.

• Let’s face it, horror is IN! Even Syfy is getting behind their newest reality show Face Off with a killer swag contest.

• Take a look at one of the ads Fox rejected for the SuperBowl. The sad part is that it isn’t even very clever, or very good…it just has cheating.

• In case you missed it, Pee Wee made his triumphant return to TV last week, as a guest star during SNL’s Digital Short. To say the least, he’s definitely not the classic Pee Wee we grew up with.

• Gamers rejoice as the world of portable gaming and 3D finally align with the Nintendo 3Ds. The only question is…where do I put my Avatar tail?

• In case you have trouble seeing Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises. This may help you visualize it.

• Tarantino fan? Porn fan? Then this one is for you. The Reservoir Dogs porno.

• We love animated shorts, and this one, titled I’m a Monster is definitely one not to miss.

• There’s a brand new film out of China about a married couple who are also retired super heroes. The best part? Their names are Mr. and Mrs. Incredible. This…sounds…familiar…

It’s unfortunate that Saturday Night Live has gotten a rep for being pretty unfunny in the past couple of years. Everybody will, of course, claim “the show stopped being funny when X left” but the truth of the matter is that it becomes a completely different beast every few years, starting when they made the first major cast change back in 1980.

These days, the level of writing, led by head writer Seth Meyers, has been adapted to a younger audience. With bits like music videos from The Lonely Island or the one-liners in Weekend Update, they are definitely appealing to a crowd under the age of 30. Even a skit like MacGruber, which is based on a bumbling protagonist (Will Forte) and the inevitable explosion ending isn’t exactly highbrow comedy, but mostly visual humor and random vulgarity.

Sadly, that’s exactly where the film adaptation of MacGruber picks up. It continues the trend of sight gags that don’t really pay off and more vulgarity than an uncensored episode of South Park. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of SNL, Forte, and the MacGruber skit, but the film lives up to the low expectation everyone had for it, in just being a 30 second skit stretched out into 90 minutes.

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Saturday Night Live has had fans of comedy split into groups since its first major cast change in 1980. Since then, dozens of factions have formed who believe solely that “SNL stopped being funny when [INSERT NAME HERE] left the show.” That statement has been said about just about every past cast member going as far back as Chevy Chase and as current as Amy Pohler.

Recently, the show has had a resurgence in popularity. With the weekly digital shorts of Andy Samberg and his band, The Lonely Island, to some of the more popular skits getting made into feature-length films, such as MacGruber, which is in theaters Friday.

Two weeks ago, Lorne Michaels and his team did something a bit off-beat, and took a cue from a grassroots campaign through Facebook to get Betty White to host. The show got enormous ratings, pulling in nearly 12 million viewers during the live broadcast, which is a rarity in the era of DVR’s and HULU.

It seems that they were able to keep the ball rolling, as the next episode, which was this past Saturday’s season finale, pulled in some of the highest ratings for the show in half of a decade. The finale, which featured host Alec Baldwin and musical guest Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, averaged a 5.8 rating and a 14 share, which is the highest for a season finale since 2005 when Lindsay Lohan hosted.

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Though our vote may have already been cast for Hot Tub Time Machine to go down as the “Comedy of the Year”, we are still early in the running, and by the looks of it, MacGruber may put up quite a fight.

We got our first look at the film back in January, with matching green and red band trailers. Since then, things have been a bit quiet while the film debuted at SXSW last month. Nothing but rave reviews have come from that screening, and we’re all pretty excited to hear more.

Before we get closer to the film’s release date, however, we’ve got some great new marketing for the film on the way. Starting with an awesome new iPhone app which comes with some great tools like The Mullet Generator, Bomb Defuser Challenge, a cool soundboard, and more.

MacGruber is also now trolling around on Twitter, being outrageous, and only a little inappropriate. Finally, there’s a brand new red band trailer, this time focusing more on Val Kilmer’s “Von Cunth” character.

Check that out after the jump, and be sure to catch MacGruber in theaters on May 21. By clicking through you certify you are eighteen years of age or older.

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It’s a grab bag of items on the radar this week. Wolverine and Sabretooth have dinner together, Bruno himself could be the next Man in Black, and in honor of The Flickcast crew attending SXSW some Predators love (of which they may get a taste).

Predators get dark and scary…finally!

Robert Rodriquez‘s Predator reboot, Predators, is starting to get some buzz.  While the first film of the series was a great sci-fi/action hybrid subsequent films have been less than stellar.  Predators star, Alice Braga talked a little about the new film and what we can expect:

“The new Predators are dark. They are really, really scary. So I think the fans are really going to be happy with it. I hope so. The director Nimród Antal, he’s a fan of the Predator films. So it’s like a fan directing this, [it was] like a kid on set, and having that energy was very special. I wish I could tell you more.”

Here’s hoping “dark” and “scary” means an R-rated film and not a watered down PG-13 movie.

Conan will square off against Avatar villain

As an update to our last ‘On The Radar’ article, it has now been confirmed that actor Stephen Lang will indeed play Conan’s villain, Khalar Singh.  Speaking with MTV, Lang stated:

“I have no idea how I’m going to do it,” Lang laughed. “First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

That last threat may seem really out there, but after seeing Lang’s bad ass side in Avatar I have no doubt he can make good on it.

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Each year, right before they start up a new season, the cast of Saturday Night Live gets an overhaul. Sometimes it’s good news, sometimes it’s bad. In the past few years, the show lost members like Maya Rudolph, Amy Pohler, Darrel Hammond, and now it it looks like relative newcomers Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins will not be joining in the upcoming 35th season.

There is no public report on why Watkins was canned, but according to E! Online, the reason for Casey Wilson’s firing was due to her weight.

Our inside comedy sources tell us SNL producers told the curvy Casey to lose 30 pounds during the show’s summer hiatus. They pretty much demanded it. And whether Wilson just couldn’t drop the weight or she just only wanted to give her middle finger some exercise, she didn’t drop a damn pound. And that’s when she was axed, we’re told.

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We haven’t posted much about the film adaptation of SNL’s recurring MacGruber skit here at the site, frankly because none of us think it’s a good idea. There’s now word coming in that Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer may be joining the cast as well, which may actually add to the film’s credibility. From the Hollywood Reporter,

Ryan Phillippe is in negotiations to star in the feature, with Val Kilmer in negotiations to also join the Relativity Media production. Will Forte and Kristen Wiig are reprising their roles from the skits. Jorma Taccone, who created the character and directed most of the skits, is helming; “SNL” producer and creator Lorne Michaels is producing.

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Normally, Fan Film Friday is reserved for a web video that relates to this weekend’s big release in theaters, but seeing as how this weekend is bringing us Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, there isn’t a whole lot to spoof here.

On this week’s episode of The Flickcast, both Christina and I shared our love of A Cappella, which brings us to this week’s FFF. Most people are aware of Andy Samberg’s half-joke musical group The Lonely Island from their digital shorts on SNL. Samberg was even proven to be big enough in his demographic to host this year’s MTV Movie Awards.

Some of their more popular songs have become apart of pop culture today, with one or two standing out. The one I’m referring to? “I’m On A Boat”. Originally performed with T-Pain, the song was a pretty big hit on the ‘net and even inspired the A Cappella group “Acquire A Cappella” from UC Santa Cruz college to do their own version.

Check it out after the jump.

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A few months back, news popped up that Saturday Night Live cast members Bill Hader (Superbad) and Seth Meyers are working on a Spider-Man story titled “The Short Halloween” about a poor sap who dresses like the webslinger for Halloween and gets kidnapped by a few of Spidey’s deadliest foes. While the story was written solely by the comedic duo, the book features art by Kevin MaGuire, who has worked on other not-so-serious titles with another comedic team in Kieth Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis.

MTV Splashpage, who originally broke the story,  now brings us a 13 page preview (sans lettering) which looks pretty cool so you should check it out. “The Short Halloween” is currently slated to hit comic stores on May 13, while SNL is still going strong in it’s 34th season every Saturday.