This season on SNL, Fred Armisen, also the co-creator and co-star of the IFC hit comedy Portlandia, showed up to “Weekend Update” as the character Randall Meeks, a tech zealot who was showcasing the marvels and convenience of wearing Google (News - Alert) Glass.

The accessory Armisen donned on SNL was not really Google Glass (the screen, for instance, was directed over the left eye, whereas Google Glass is designed to target the right eye). The presentation, as to be expected from a sketch comedy act, was a spoof on users who are so psyched about Google Glass but look absolutely ridiculous wearing it – with jerking head bobs and repeated speech commands – and who ultimately are defeated by their wearable technology. Simply, it does not work. In fact, life was easier without it.

Soon after Armisen's appearance as the hopelessly hopeful Randall Meeks, Endgaget filmed an interview with him – not in character – and gave him a pair of real Google Glass glasses to test out. The interview comes across as somewhat comedic – but not intentionally so. Armisen, clearly a total sweetheart, appears to be really trying to give Google Glass a chance (saying after his demo, “I feel bad criticizing it at all, because I know people worked hard on it...”).

Politeness aside, Google Glass, from what we can see here, totally blows. Okay, maybe that is too extreme. Rather, there are severe kinks that need to be worked out.

As seen in the parody SNL sketch, Google Glass is really bad at recognizing voice commands. Armisen asks for directions to Iceland (absurd, perhaps, but not something Google Maps couldn't attempt to master), and ends up with directions to the Glass House Tavern bar.

At one point the gear crashes, or does something so of-its-own-mindedness that Armisen has to ask his interviewer for assistance.

As the interviewer points out, this version of Glass is not what will be released commercially next year, suggesting that many of these issues will be resolved.

Until then, we laugh.