Yes, even more thoughts I’ve had about TV for the past few days, laid out for you in easy-to-read paragraph format.

MOLLY SHANNON ANNOYS & DELIGHTS – Saturday Night Live came back with a new episode recently starring Molly Shannon (she’s ostensibly there to promote her movie “Year of the Dog,” but I really think SNL looks for any excuse to have it’s former cast members return) and it was … pretty much what I thought it was going to be.  I used to remark when Ms. Shannon was on the show that she didn’t have many characters, just the same character in different outfits and wigs.  That character comes out, goes through her catch phrases and/or crazy falls, and then the sketch is over.  That’s Mary Katharine Gallagher, that’s Sally O’Malley (the I’m 50! Lady), that’s Ann Miller (from “Leg Up”).

And she did those first two characters when she hosted and it was annoying and really not funny.  The laughter always felt more like a reflex from the audience than an actual “this is funny” laugh.

But what Molly Shannon also can do (and I heard Mike White, the writer/director of “Year of the Dog,” mention this in an interview) is be really funny when she’s quiet and not so over-the-top.  Like the Delicious Dish sketch (aka Schwetty Balls) and her typical 80’s mulleted stand-up comedienne.

She did the stand-up comedienne character on Weekend Update and that was great, and she played a quieter part in a very good presidential debate sketch.  So, it was a mixed bag: nothing great, but nothing too awful.

OH, WAIT, MCGRUBER – There was something great!  I totally forgot about McGruber (the theme song of which was stuck in my head all Sunday), the bizarre McGyver character that Will Forte plays, and the fantastic digital shorts they did for his character as he progressed from recovering alcoholic, to social drinker, to a full-on Hasselhoff-ian drunk.  Will Forte was in the very funny MTV animated series Clone High and most of the stuff he does on SNL is bizarre and funny.  I’m sure it’s on YouTube.  Enjoy.

BIZARRE REAL WORLD TIE-IN – When you set your TiVo to record the Daily Show, you often wake up in the morning and find that your tv is still on Comedy Central, and said centralized place for comedy is playing infomercials.  That’s a given for me.  And yet, weirdness ensued the other morning when I happened to get up very early and found that the infomercial was for Girls Gone Wild, but the girls who have, it seems, gone wild were being filmed by former Real World cast members.

I’m serious.  It was some sort of (obviously-staged) contest to see who could film the most drunk women with daddy issues, but it was so odd to see Ace, Tonya, Cameran, and Syrus talking to the camera, Real-World style, intercut with their voices telling the girls on spring break that they have fantastic bodies and they should show them off to the camera.  I know that at this point the Real World has devolved into some sort of hooking-up contest (watched the first episode of this season, and, for the first season ever, couldn’t make it past that one), but I had no idea the stars had crossed over into Reality Porn.  Good to know.

R.I.P. CHRISTOPHER – Seriously, how dark was that on an already pitch-black show?  Plus, how annoyed must Michael Imperioli must have been when he heard about that development.  “Tony kills me?  Awesome.  Wait, how?  In a car crash?  So he crashes into me with his car and … no?  No, I crash the car?  And he gets out okay?  And then he shoots me?  No?  No, he pinches my nose?  That’s … seriously?  It’s not a dream sequence?”

And then Tony goes to two wakes, sees Julianna Marguiles (who looks really good), and then flies to Vegas and takes peyote with a stripper/hooker.  Number of shows that could sustain those plot developments in one episode: 1.  The Sopranos, and that’s it.

Well, maybe Deadwood, if we took out the flying part.

DREAMZ IS DUMZ – “Dreamz,” did you really think anybody would vote for you after you reneged on your promise to give Yau-Man the immunity idol in Final 4?  Quit trying to convince me that you’ve got it all planned out and you’re the smartest person in the room.  I knew you weren’t the minute that you named yourself “Dreamz.”

NEWS FLASH: “ROXANNE” IS ABOUT A HOOKER – Paula Abdul, did you really think it was a good idea for Blake to sing a song about a hooker on your family-friendly show, or did you think the song was about the delightful Steve Martin/Darryl Hannah film?  Or were you drunk?  Or all three?

I partially blame Sting for this, who seems to sing “Roxanne” these days like it’s a tender love song (that is, when he’s not playing a lute, or a lyre, or whatever), but mostly I blame Paula Abdul.  I also blame her for the existence Sanjaya; I think he’s her secret love child and she got him on the show to make up for that.

Then again, I took peyote with Tony, so what do I know?