Thanks to the wonders of technology, I was able to watch the show on DVR, and I mean, it wasn’t like Eli was the funniest host the show has ever seen, but it was definitely one of the better episodes of the season (for whatever that’s worth).  He was relatively loose and self-effacing, and pulled off quite a few genuine laughs throughout the night … particularly once he managed to relax and slow down a little bit. It certainly wasn’t the train wreck I was expecting it could turn into, and once again Eli did alright following in the footsteps of his older brother.

One of the better moments came during a fake motion capture session at EA Sports for their Madden franchise, where Manning is asked to perform a touchdown celebration for the game. Eli responds with a series of bizarre maneuvers, ranging from hugging himself to drinking water to girlishly throwing a grenade – the last of which was hilarious in its execution. Ultimately, Eli decides on his ideal signature celebration: making a sandwich, dropping it on the ground and looking around sheepishly before picking it up and eating it.

Well, someone over at EA Sports apparently enjoyed getting the SNL treatment, and decided to animate Eli’s sandwich celebration for real, posting it to Youtube on Tuesday. And aside from the fact that he’s wearing a Patriots uniform, it’s pretty excellent:

SNL writer Sarah Schneider was apparently thrilled at the tribute to her sketch. We can only hope that the gang at EA Sports actually includes this celebration in the game, if only as an easter egg of some sort.

WATCH THE SNL MOTION CAPTURE SKETCH, PLUS A BONUS SNL DIGITAL SHORT AFTER THE JUMP

For my money, the funniest bit of the night was (as expected) a pre-taped SNL Digital Short featuring Eli as the ambassador for the “Little Brothers” program, which offers to help younger siblings overcome adversity … “especially when that adversity is an older sibling”:

As a younger sibling myself, this somehow delighted me to no end.

This is his response:

[H/T Scene & Heard]

(Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images via BleacherReport.com)

The New York Jets introduced Tim Tebow as their backup quarterback today, which means that the circus has officially rolled into town for Rex Ryan & Co.

The anonymous player quotes and speculation as to whether Tebow will compete for starting time with the newly re-upped Mark Sanchez have already begun, and we’re months away from the start of training camp.  Just wait until Jets nation gets a real taste of Tebowmania …

For his part, let’s just say that Tebow is “excited” to be a Jet.  In fact, let’s let Timmy say it … a total of 44 times during his 30-minute session with the media:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

[H/T Buzzfeed]

Yup … pretty much.  Except replace “me” with “the Broncos”, since Timmy probably won’t be sticking around for whatever happens next in Denver.

(Image via Youtube.com)

Jimmy Kimmel has gained some internet notoriety recently by challenging his viewers to pull cruel and unusual pranks on their children, video tape the results and post them to YouTube. The resulting “I told my kids I ate all their Halloween candy” and “I gave my kids a terrible present” were hilarious. Downright mean, but hilarious.

Well, for Super Bowl Sunday, Kimmel set his sights on the adults of America, challenging folks to unplug their television set during a crucial moment of the game (preferably at a large viewing party), and record the reaction for our viewing enjoyment. Predictably, the prank was not very well-received … but surprisingly, no severe beatings or hospitalizations were reported:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

I have to admit, as a Giants fan who had my heart in my stomach for much of the afternoon, if someone had pulled this at my Super Bowl party, I probably would have calmly delivered an open-handed chop to the adam’s apple before clotheslining them to the floor. That’s just not funny, dude.

Although, as with everything in comedy, it all comes down to timing. Some of these folks had the nerve to pull the plug during the final hail mary, while others played it safe and just shut the TV off at a less stressful moment during the broadcast. BIG difference. The lady Ryan Fitzpatrick fan going crazy after her boyfriend shut off the TV during Madonna’s halftime show was simply awesome.

Well, the “Sh*t ____ Say” phenomenon that’s been sweeping the interwebs – which has seemingly been exhausted to cover every race, gender and social substrata – has finally reached the NFL.

This “Sh*t People Say During the Super Bowl” compilation, courtesy of theguysfromtheinternet, should give you a pretty good sense of what to expect if you’re planning to watch SB XLVI with friends this Sunday. We really didn’t plan on enjoying this (let alone re-posting it), but it’s actually pretty funny … particularly the commentary on Madonna’s halftime show:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

[thanks, Benstonium]

With just 33 tweets since Jan 7th, @Ohrnberger has already racked up 16k+ followers with his unique, off-color views on life and the world we live in. And although none of his tweets have anything to do with the NFL, Ohrnberger clearly isn’t afraid to tread into territory not all athletes are willing to go … and more importantly, the dude is just plain funny.

Even his teammates Chad Ochocinco and Rob Gronkowski have endorsed Ohrnberger, with Ocho going so far as to call him the “funniest athlete on Twitter”, and Gronk revealing that the 3rd year lineman is the “funniest dude on the team” and “claims his followers will never be disappointed!”.  Based on what we’ve seen so far from Ohrnberger, that seems like a pretty good bet.

Here are a few choice Ohrnberger-isms, in addition to the nuggets presented in the banner pic above:

• Does anybody know if there are any gyms/sports clubs in the Boston area that offer intramural ribbon gymnastics classes for plus size men?
• Just got out of a cab that smelled like an egg salad sandwich got gang-raped by a half dozen brussel sprouts, the cabbie was very nice tho
• I wish aggressive yo-yo-ing was still cool. That was the last real hobby I was good at prior to the invention of internet pornography.

[@Ohrnberger = Followed]

Since he won’t be taking the field on Sunday against the Ravens, hopefully Ohrnberger can at least use his rapier wit to help keep his teammates loose heading into the big game.

Poor Casey here – a die-hard Packers fan – apparently let her “friend” Megan convince her to apply sparkles to her nails and don a Clay Matthews jersey on Sunday instead of her normally-preferred Aaron Rodgers gear to the sports bar. And inevitably, Green Bay lost.

Here is Casey’s reaction to this chain of events::

UPDATE: Even Clay Matthews agrees: it’s all Megan’s fault

(Image via ninersnation.com)

As the San Francisco 49ers prepare for their upcoming Divisional Playoff showdown with the New Orleans Saints, head coach Jim Harbaugh is using a rather unusual motivational tactic to get his players ready for battle. It seems that the crazy, nastyass Honey Badger has become the unofficial mascot for the Niners during their 13-3, NFC West championship run.

In addition to being the world’s most fearless animal, the Honey Badger is also the subject of a wildly popular (and hilarious) viral video. Apparently, prior to a recent game, Harbaugh spliced the video together with 2011 49ers highlights and showed it to the team. You see, much like their ferocious weasel-esque inspiration, the San Francisco defense “just takes what it wants”, leading to a league-high 35 takeaways this year. And since then, the “honey badger don’t care” mentality has taken over the locker room.

Check out this report from CSNBayArea:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

We can dig it, but the Niners better hope they do better against the Saints than LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu, who had previously adopted the Honey Badger nickname, and got shut down by Alabama in the national championship game on Monday.