Back in June, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Ana Gasteyer let it slip that Ben & Jerry’s was making a Schweddy Balls ice cream flavor based on the well-known “SNL” sketch she starred in with Molly Shannon and Alec Baldwin. Although Ben & Jerry’s played coy at the time, it’s now official: you too can lick Schweddy Balls. The description on the front of the container says:

Vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum & loaded with fudge covered rum & malt balls.

That’s pretty close to what I was expecting. My money was on “…covered with a big load of vanilla cake batter,” but I’ll settle with being happy that there’s no hair in the recipe.

[Time]

Earlier this week, news broke that Jimmy Fallon would return to “Saturday Night Live” in December to host the show that made him famous. It wouldn’t be particularly exciting TV news — except that a sketch from a 1998 episode of “SNL” predicted exactly that.

In the video below, you can see Alec Baldwin — who will host the season premiere of “SNL” in September — take the stage for 1998′s Christmas episode (where “Schweddy Balls” made its first appearance), and during his monologue he encounters the Ghost of SNL Hosts Present (John Goodman) and the Ghost of SNL Hosts Future, played by a 24-year-old Jimmy Fallon. Baldwin then sees a “clip” of a metallic-vest-clad Fallon hosting on December 12, 2011 — a Monday, but not the sort of detail that got fact-checked before people spent all day reading blogs. Such a simple time, 1998. Airport security was light, Alec Baldwin was only starting to get fat, and people were telling Monica Lewinsky jokes. We were all so innocent, and everything was lame and boring because the internet was all dial-up.

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Anthony Weiner seemed a lock to be the Democratic candidate for the 2013 mayoral election in New York City until he failed to realize that the Internet is the worst possible place to have your extramarital affairs. Now Alec Baldwin may be stepping into that void, saying that he “wouldn’t rule out” a run for mayor.

“It’s a long way till November of 2013,” the actor said Wednesday on his recently activated Twitter account, where he had already opined on the Weiner and John Edwards scandals (“Wiener should not resign”; “I lend you my phone to lie to your wife about an affair that could wreck your campaign. Is the phone call a campaign contribution?”) as well as offered his political opinions in general.

A Baldwin spokesman told the Daily News that the actor, who has a long-standing interest in politics and seeking a political office, was considering a run. “I wouldn’t rule it out,” rep Matthew Hiltzik said. [LA Times]

Of course, Baldwin isn’t even registered to vote in New York City (Mr. Fancy Pants Hamptons Residence is registered in Suffolk County on Long Island), but he’s said before that he wants to do something entirely different after his “30 Rock” career ends in 2012, so who knows. You’d think that calling his daughter a “rude little pig” and being the brother of certified wacko Stephen Baldwin would hamper a possible political career, but Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger were both governors, and they frolicked around in feather boas and starred in Jingle All the Way, respectively. Anything is possible.

This past weekend, PBS aired the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor that was awarded to Tina Fey last week (watch highlights here), and the best part was probably Alec Baldwin’s appearance as the famed author and humorist. It works mostly because Baldwin oozes humorous charm with every word he speaks, but I especially liked this bit at the end:

“Tonight’s recipient of the Me Prize is the very talented and deserving Tina Fey. Tina… that’s a very funny name for a man. What? You’re kidding. For humor? But their brains aren’t shaped right!”

It’s true. Women should be restricted to making nests and nursing babies. And maybe some limited training at Subway in the field of sandwich artistry.

[NYT Arts Beat via NY Mag]

Alec Baldwin hosted the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and as usual it was neither as good as we might have hoped or as bad as people are saying it was. Baldwin brought energy and enthusiasm to some otherwise lousy skits, Weekend Update rolled out some of its more popular characters, and Andy Samberg’s “Great Day” digital short (video below) was one of his best of the season.

But it’s never much fun to join the chorus of voices critiquing the show that just aired; I’d much rather list the changes I’d like to see made for next season:

• Fire Jenny Slate. Then push her into traffic.
• Hire a black female cast member.
• No sketches longer than five minutes. It’s unrealistic to expect every skit to be a winner, but a dud that goes on for six minutes is inexcusable.
• Outsource more decisions to Facebook. Even though we’re an overly critical rabble, the Internet has a better feel for what makes “SNL” good than Lorne Michaels does these days.
• Seriously, Jenny Slate has to go.

That’s about it. Here’s hoping Seth Meyers spends most of his summer coming up with funnier sketches than the family that makes out with each other.

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