HOT CELEBRITY

Before I write anything about the Blake Lively/Rihanna “Saturday Night Live” last night, I'm just going to ask that you don't take any of these potato chips here. Because I'm super hungry.

Appreciate it.

There's an interesting mix of new and old going on this season of SNL. And by new I mean the young'uns like Taylor Swift, Megan Fox, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rihanna and Blake Lively, who is best known from “Gossip Girl.” (Which got a shoutout in a parody set at “Gossip Girl: Staten Island.”)

And by old I mean Wolf Blitzer jokes. The political humor like the Tareq and Michaele Salahi White House party crashers skit that opened the show.

(Funny, but went on a little too long, which is what will eventually be written on SNL's tombstone.)

It was a pretty topical night, from the White House/Obama cold opening to the inevitable Tiger Woods parody with Kenan Thompson playing Tiger and Lively taking on the role of his angry Nordic wife Elin Nordegren. (Another Tiger Woods joke emerged in Seth Meyers' Weekend Update.)

It was also an interesting night for product placement, from several UPS commercials starring Bill Hader as "a man in a lady wig” to the ladies' bowling tournament, hosted by Jason Sudeikis (fast becoming my favorite cast member) and Will Forte, and sponsored by Vagisil.

For some reason, despite the fourth-grade humor, I couldn't stop laughing during this skit. “When you get a surprise between your thighs, Vagisil!” “I scream, you scream, we all scream for vagina cream.”

Overall the show was pretty much down the middle. Lively was … well, lively … and seemed at ease — and certainly fared better than January Jones — but she didn't quite hit the highs of Taylor Swift or even Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Reynolds and Gerard Butler.

I was worried for the night as a whole during her monologue, which consisted of a Christmas song with the cast dressed as Muppets.

(Remember that skit, was it last season, when the Muppet bus got into a hit and run? Genius.)

But things got better. Not necessarily for her, especially in the umpteenth “Pretty Woman” type skit with trashy chicks in a high-end department store (with Kenan Thompson as Lively's mother “not by vagina”).

(Yes, it was a banner night for “vagina.”)

Also not sure I loved the Weekend Update visits from Abby Elliott as recently fired actress Brittany Murphy and Thompson as clean hip-hop singer Bill Cosby.

But there were some high points, including the Underground Festival promo with Sudeikis and Nasim Pedrad (she seemed to be a in a couple of skits last night but I didn't spot Jenny Slate). (“You know we got mimes runnin' all around this b*tch!” “Literally everyone is given a pitchfork!” Long live Ass Dan.)

Rihanna was basically co-host considering she was given the honor of being in one of Andy Samberg's SNL Digital Shorts. (And yes, I do consider that an honor.) She sang to a classroom of kids while Samberg mumbled as Shy Ronnie.

Not one of the best Digital Shorts, but it was OK. Did she get to do that through her Justin Timberlake connection? Just asking.

Loved her chainmail headdress during her first song. She looked like a knight in shining armor. Where can I get one of those?

The last skit of the night is usually something trippy and experimental. It often doesn't work at all (see the January Jones cloud skit).

Last night it was the potato chip skit with Sudeikis inexplicably dressed as Colonel Sanders with Forte as a NASA recruiter and Lively as the recruiter's assistant, who attacks Sudeikis for stealing one of the 35 chips.

(“You don't take people's potato chips!”)

The skit was so oddly accented, so impassioned, so absurd, so gross and so perfectly timed for the end of the night, I freakin' loved it.

I don't watch “Gossip Girl,” but I will stop making fun of it for a full month out of respect for Lively's level of commitment in this skit.

Congratulations.

Gina Carbone wonders if “Twilight” fans will stay up next week for Taylor Lautner as host. She's guessing yes. Write your thoughts on SNL to Carbone">gina_carbone@comcast.net.