What has happened to SNL? (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

Looks like a writer at Foxnews has the same perception of the show as a few people here.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85983,00.html

Myself, I have not watched the show this season, not because I thought it would not be that good, but because I have had other shows to watch. I don't hate the show or believe it sucks. SNL has gone through periods where the comedy has not been that raw. It will get better, but like any rebuilding period it will take time.

Paul

 

[Jeff_Standley]

I still think Saturday Night Live is great. Although Tracey Morgan is not funny at all using the same character in every skit (minus brian fellows)The show has Minor sketch issues lately but still funny. I thought weekend update was funny. The tommy lee joke was funny. Tina Fey is a great writer for the show. I didnt think that the show was all that bad this week. The 50'2 Ent skit was pretty funny, with the prison gaurd running back and forth on stage telling the inmates to shut the "F" up. I laughed pretty hard. The falconer was mildly funny as it is every time. Any one notice they keep using old skits lately and old comercials. They used the investment skit at the end again. Where was darrel Hammond last night, he was in one sketch. Well just my 2 cents.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Was I the only one that liked Count Chocula Silver, with extra fiber to assist with elimination and big marshmallow bats?

 

[Tommy Ceez]

The perception I am getting now is the humor is like a bunch of liberals bashing a bunch of conservatives. The only salvation is Darrell Hammond, who is the only one in the last few years who is even remotely funny. Sorry all you Will Ferrell fans.

SNL used to give you political humor. Whether or not its left on right or right on left (like the producers would ever let that happen) at least it was funny and showed some knowledge of the political process.

Has anyone noticed that all political humor on SNL is now skits about political TV shows? While Hammond is great as Russert and Matthews it seems to me like the writers turn on a cable news channel and make fun of the show like a bunch of highschoolers with no knowledge of any of the background.

Seriously...whens the last time you saw an 'Inside the Oval Office' skit...I dont mean a parody of a televised speach, I mean real behind the scenes political humor. There is none. The writers have absolutly no idea about society and politics, instead they poke fun at TV.

How many out there were waiting for a UN Security Council skit, COME ON! The French, British, Iraq, Russia, China, and Colin Powell and they couldnt come up with jokes?

Because they had no idea what was going on!
When I cant get some political humor from SNL then all I'm getting is comercial parodies that run 90 seconds (?!?) and tired franchise skits.

Get someone whose read a newspaper to write for the show!

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Tommy,
You obviously have not been watching this season. One of their better opening skits was a parody of Powell's speech to the security council followed by the diplomats' indifferent, but amusing responses.

Regards,

 

[ThomasC]

You obviously have not been watching this season. One of their better opening skits was a parody of Powell's speech to the security council followed by the diplomats' indifferent, but amusing responses.

I think he did see it because he said "they had no idea what was going on!" The responses had nothing to do with politics, but instead were pretty off-topic. Tommy wants (more) political humor, not diplomats and politicians talking about the color of their socks.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

If he had seen it, he would not have said "How many of you were waiting for a UN Security Council Skit". he would have said "How many of you were disappointed in the UN Security Council skit".

Also, IIRC, the first image of the season involved Dick Cheney riding a missile to the middle east. Which I thought was a pretty amusing and pointed commentary. Other sketches have involved a satellite phone conversation between Sadaam and Osama ("Osama, you're scaring me, and I'm Sadaam frikkin' Hussein"), Saddam meeting with his doubles, the Iraqi referendum "election coverage", a parody add with Americans blaming all of their troubles on Sadaam Hussein, George Bush conducting a press conference where only "soft news" reporters get to ask easy questions, Salma Hayek implying that "Chicago" has links to terrorism, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed complaining about his picture (on the news, so maybe that one doesn't count), the opening of the Jennifer Garner episode where Bush doesn't care about whether Iraq has WMD's, the Kim Jeong II opening of the Jeff Gordon episode, opening featuring George Bush's reaction to the mid-term elections on the Nia Vardolos episode, the exploitation of Giuliani endorsements by political candidates, the Ellen Frankel - Andrew Talarico "call my opponent and tell them to stop lying" negative add parodies, etc.

I think it is a bit misrepresentative to say that they are not doing anything but news show parodies, whether you think they are doing them well or not.

Regards,

 

[Grant B]

Funny how SNL always seems to suck and then I see the repeats on CC and they are pretty good to great.
Do they play every episode on CC or do they cut the dogs or edited out some bad skits?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

They edit down to an hour, which helps. The syndicated version of the original SNL aired in half hour edits for quite some time, which made them appear to be very consistent. They tended to be more consistent than most subsequent casts, though not as consistent as some seem to remember.

Regards,

 

[Steve_AS]

Also, IIRC, the first image of the season involved Dick Cheney riding a missile to the middle east. Which I thought was a pretty amusing and pointed commentary. Other sketches have involved a satellite phone conversation between Sadaam and Osama ("Osama, you're scaring me, and I'm Sadaam frikkin' Hussein"), Saddam meeting with his doubles, the Iraqi referendum "election coverage", a parody add with Americans blaming all of their troubles on Sadaam Hussein, George Bush conducting a press conference where only "soft news" reporters get to ask easy questions, Salma Hayek implying that "Chicago" has links to terrorism, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed complaining about his picture (on the news, so maybe that one doesn't count), the opening of the Jennifer Garner episode where Bush doesn't care about whether Iraq has WMD's, the Kim Jeong II opening of the Jeff Gordon episode, opening featuring George Bush's reaction to the mid-term elections on the Nia Vardolos episode, the exploitation of Giuliani endorsements by political candidates, the Ellen Frankel - Andrew Talarico "call my opponent and tell them to stop lying" negative add parodies, etc.

There's also the 'campaign spot' for Uday Hussein that ran a few weeks back, where Uday offered himself as the best candidate to run the new Iraq. His tag line went something like: "People ask, 'Why should Iraqis elect the incompetent son of a former leader?' Well, *YOU* did."

 

[Tommy Ceez]

Yeah, but most of those were TV parodies of politics.

And anything with Saddam is Horatio Sanz doing the Turkish TV show guy with a turban

 

[Tommy Ceez]

Yeah, but most of those were TV parodies of politics.

And anything with Saddam is Horatio Sanz doing the Turkish TV show guy with a beret

 

[Stephen Heath]

Well, personally, if I'm around, I watch saturday night live, it's a tradition, and I think it's been ok these days, but for me personally, nothing will ever beat the Celebrity Jeopardy skits, especially the ones with Sean Connery (I'm pretty sure that was Daryl Hammond playing Sean). I litterally fell off the bed the first time I saw one of those, and would kill for a DVD collection

 

[Benjamin_L]

Jon Stewart's Daily Show is probably the best on TV right now- I wish he'd stop doing celebrity interviews and stick with the wags and fake news reports.

Eric F,

Regarding the daily show, why mess with perfection?
Actually when Jon Stewart took over for Craig Kilborn, I thought the show was breathing it's last breath.

Cut to a year later where Stewart easily, EASILY suprasses Letterman, Leno, and O'Brien in writing and delivery. If only they would come out on DVD! As is, one of my best incentives to get a TIVO is so I can watch daily show clips!!!

In my opinion, the best source of funnies nowadays (Other than The Daily Show) are:

Gary and Mike, Undergrads, and reruns of the Critic on Comedy Central.

Sealab 2021, on around 12:30 am on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim most sundays. I have never laughed harder!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Like someone mentioned earlier, SNL is a tradition: People will tune into SNL no matter how awful it gets, so where's the incentive for quality?

See also Star Trek; they're both franchises that are venerable enough that they'll float on mediocrity, so no-one is willing to rock the boat in order to make then great.

 

[Gary->dee]

It's been an incredibly long time, probably since the early 1980's, that I've actually seen an almost completely unfunny season of Saturday Night Live. Well I think it's upon us now. I try to watch the shows but they are so devoid of laughs it's rather pathetic. Good thing Will Ferrell decided to split because I don't think even his comedic genius could save this stinker of a season. Perhaps it's a combination of bad writing and a generally unfunny and somewhat new cast. I know a few of the vets are still around like Chris Kattan, Darrell Hammond and Tracy Morgan but I think even they realize how bad this season is.

Anyone else think this season of SNL sucks?

 

[Mark Sherman]

The show will be much better as soon as that NO TALENT MONOTONED UNFUNNY F#@$ TRACEY MORGAN gets off the show. the best part of the show is weekend update. those 2 just feed off each other. if there is a skit with TM I turn the channel even on crank yankers if spoonie love comes on IM out.


If you all cany guess I hate TRACEY MORGAN

 

[Philip_G]

really? I like brian fellows.

that goat has DEVIL EYES!

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

The John McCain, Al Gore, Matthew McConaughey, and Christopher Walken hosted shows were very funny. The Salma Hayek and Queen Latifah shows had more hits than misses. The Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher episodes were both pretty dismal and difficult to watch, so at least they treated the ex-couple fairly. Most the rest of it has been bad to mediocre. :frowning:

Regards,

 

[Ricardo C]

SNL is so very terrible these days that I find it hard to imagine it being any less funny.

As far as I'm concerned, the show fell to crap when Norm McDonald took over "Weekend Update". Combine that with Mike Myers leaving, and the last links to what I consider the true "golden age" of the show (1985-1995) were gone.

What's there now? A poor man's Adam Sandler (Jimmy Fallon), a poor man's Jon Lovitz (Chris Kattan), and a whole bunch of interchangeable standup comedians no one will remember in five years. Tina Fey, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz are the only cast members I find even halfway funny. And well, Tracy Morgan calling Lorne "bitch" always makes me crack a smile.

The sad part? The station that airs SNL here in South America (Sony Entertainment Television), doesn't air the show live, it airs a one-hour abridged version, which supposedly shows only the "best" skits from that day.

I've given up on even watching it for tradition's sake. Once Will Ferrel left and took his Alex Trebek and George W. Bush impersonations with him, there's just nothing worth watching anymore.

ok, fine, so the "Hardball" parodies are still funny. "Vagina Navy, over to you" "It's DICK ARMEY!"