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After last week's Grammy Awards, one question was on everyone's mind: Who is Bonny Bear? While Best New Artist winner Bon Iver were already well known to indie audiences, casual music fans were unfamiliar with earnest singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, the group's mastermind. That's beginning to change, and last night on 'Saturday Night Live,' superstar Justin Timberlake did his impression of the folk-rock riser, poking fun at his somber music and droll Grammy acceptance speech.
"Sorry I'm late," Timberlake-as-Vernon says, apologizing to Jay-Z and Beyonce (played by host Maya Rudolph) for being late to a party thrown in honor of their newborn baby, Blue Ivy. "I was just wandering barefoot in the woods of Wisconsin. I fashioned this guitar out of a canoe, and I wrote this song for your baby."
In his high-school-English-teacher suit and thinning-hair wig, Timberlake certainly looked the part. He sounded like Vernon, too, singing in an unintelligible falsetto over finger-picked guitar. He joked that his music would be just the thing to knock young Blue Ivy out, and indeed, after a few bars, he fell victim to his own drowsy crooning and conked out. It's a shame, since Andy Samberg, Jay and B's "white butler," had really been feeling it.
Vernon, who might not seem like the good-sport sort, was feeling it, too. Taking to twitter, he praised the 'SNL' gang for the skit, which also featured Fred Armisen as Prince and Kristen Wiig as Taylor Swift.
"holy s---, i was just watching SNL and JT did a Bon Iver hilarious thing!" Vernon tweeted. "Also, Maya Rudolph saying 'bon iver' is enough. I
