Saturday Night Live TV Show • Page 191

that's actually very very true. Now you can say the benefit of most of these other shows is that they're not all entirely live but still i agree

 

Lorne also hires improvisers then refuses to let them improvise

 

That's true, but also I would say that I don't think the show should get a pass because of its chosen format (not that you specifically are giving it a pass, I'm just saying that a ton of people like to say "But it's live!" as an excuse). Lorne chose to make the show live. The writers all signed up for a live show. They should be delivering a better product than they are, is all. I'd honestly be happier if the show went bi-weekly for good, just so that they'd have extra time to work on the writing. As it stands, they clearly don't take advantage of the weeks they do have off (like before this past weekend's show).

 

Haha I noticed that too at The Groundlings. SNL has been around long enough that comedy nerds have been raised on some of the weaker seasons of the show too.

It always hurts in those classes to see originality get punished in favor of the person who has written yet another "weird outcasts fall in love" sketch. (That was the Groundlings archetype sketch, not sure what UCB's is, but if I had to take a guess, it's straight-character-plays-themselves-and-points-out-weird-things-about-situation.)

Very true! It always warms my heart to see people like Jenny Slate and Casey Wilson being successful. Or shit, Donald Glover, Steve Carrell, etc.

 

And stand-up comics who don't know how to write/perform in sketches. Their strong suit is stuff they've written to be said to the audience on WU

 

And when he does actually hire sketch people (like the Lonely Island and the Good Neighbor guys) they wind up being the most creative people on the show. And they also don't get used as much as they should. It's madness.

 

Yeah I mean this is like 90% of what SNL does these days. And it's extremely noticeable.

 

Agreed! The show is caught right now between not being good at doing the old show, but the parameters of the old show not letting the new kids do what they're good at

 

If Aidy and Kenan leave it’ll be real bad

 

Yeah I mean I don't even know if the show will ever be able to give me, specifically, what I want out of a sketch show until Lorne is out of the picture. I recognize that this is very much my own thing, can't speak for anyone else, but I like my sketch comedy weird and absurd more than anything else, which is why so much of what Beck and Kyle used to do appealed to me so much. Everyone always points to Ice Cream as the example of how this show can still be good sometimes, but Ice Cream was six years ago and the show hasn't been able to do anything close to that since (outside of, like Papyrus). But that's the kind of humor I wish the show would do way more of. And I think Lorne is so out-of-touch that he probably doesn't "get it." Like, I can see Lorne being unable to figure out why Ice Cream is so beloved by people. And that's really the ultimate problem with how the show has been going the last few years.

 

I feel like Mikey/Alex/Heidi/Chris/Melissa is a really strong foundation for the next “era” if Kenan, Aidy, Kate, and Cecily leave.

 

Yeah I agree these are the most promising younger people in the cast, and that the show has had in a while actually. I really wish Melissa would get more screen time to show her skills like she did on Update these week.

What I should have added to my prior post was that when Kenan/Kate/Aidy etc. leave, the show will be in a bad state if they don't replace the head writers/a bunch of the writing staff. I like all the young cast members but none of them is anywhere near Kenan's level of putting the entire show on his back week-in and week-out. Not yet at least. So the material has to get stronger to compensate.

 

Ice Cream was SIX years ago?! Geez.

I remember their first/second year, I really like some of the Good Neighbor stuff, like the Frat House, both videos with Miley, Ice Cream, Blockbuster, etc.

 

Kenan does a lot of heavy lifting for passable sketches

 

I just want weird stuff. I want out-there premises and absurdity. I want more Bruce Chandling and Bruce Chandling-type stuff. And no I don't care that the audience never laughs at it, I laugh at it and that's all that matters.

 

well UCB says there's two ways of playing a sketch... One straight man who points out the funny thing, one weird person and everyone points out the funny thing, or everyone is in on the game. To me, unfortunately, people NEVER do the 3rd suggestion. I think sometimes the "everyone is on the game" idea is what brings out the best humor and is used by far the less.

OR if you want a straight man character, don't make them SO blunt about the joke and/or you dont have to keep mentioning it over and over again. This happens in SNL sooooooooooo much. "Dad stop being so weird" is said like 100 times in a sketch about "weird dad". And not only that, they jump the gun with this aspect and it kills the sketch so quickly. Give the audience some more credit...they get it. Try to surprise them in how you're going to execute this sketch/joke and that's where the big humor comes in.

 

Surprise is absolutely an element missing from this show. Remember way back when Kate and Jim Carrey danced to Sia out into the audience? It wasn't that funny, but it was fun to watch. It was surprising and kinetic!

 

They are wayyyyyyy too quick to go from 0-100 when it comes to those kinds of sketches too. They don't ever escalate properly on this show. It always goes from "normal dad" to "batshit insane dad" with no time in between and then the straight character always has to point it out.

 

Definitely.

Another more recent example is the Beck Bennett hide and seek digital sketch. A boyfriend playing hide and seek when meeting girlfriend's parents premise is funny, but what made it even funnier is that the Dad got into it right away. "I'm going to find this punk". And then to add an even funnier twist is the end Beck "i just wanted to impress you" and dad practically being impressed at all this for some reason.

 

The classic Birthday Boys Weekend at Bernie's sketch is such a perfect example of escalation within the sketch, if anyone's ever seen that one. I got to see them do it live a couple weeks ago and it was awesome.

 

Kenan Thompson is bringing All That back to Nickelodeon

 

I’m surprised people didn’t like the last ep. I thought it, and the Schriber ep we’re the best of the season.

 

Chris Farley would have been 55 today.

Here's an article from a local magazine about him that was written in 1994 and was republished this past December on the anniversary of his death.

 

One of the most crushing losses ever. All this time we would have had with him, gone. So sad. Rest in peace.