I just watched last night's show.
It just seems to get worse and worse with every week now.
The only thing that's remotely funny is Weekend Update. The rest is just painful to even watch.
90 minute show
minus 15 minutes Weekend Update
minus 10 minutes music
minus 15 minutes of commercials
That leaves 50 minutes or so of actual content for which they have to write.
They have an entire week to develop the stuff, and it still sucks horribly. It's like they are trying to be as bad as possible.
Compare something like "The Daily Show" wherein the writers crank out 15-20 minutes of actual comedy four days a week, and you have to wonder what the SNL folks are doing all day? :nono2:
If they need a new home for Conan, then give him the SNL slot and let him throw together something worth watching for a change.
The funniest thing I've seen "relatively" recently that was on SNL was Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. A lot of times when I see bits, the first word that comes to mind is "annoying."
I don't agree that it stopped being funny in the 80s, the 1992 Presidential election was great on SNL. But then that does seem to be something they do pretty well, politics.
The Tina as Sarah bits were by far the funniest thing they've done in years, but it was funny because it was for the most part so painfully true.
Besides, at that point, Tina was a guest star and Palin was supplying more comedy than all of the SNL writers combined...... and still is.
SNL is one of those oddball things where NBC virtually "owns" that spot from 11:30-am on Saturday nights because back when it started, no one wanted to even try to put a show in that time.
SNL has become an institution of sorts... and nothing else has been able to knock it off its perch. I also suspect it is pretty cheap to produce, as once anyone there obtains any kind of real fame/stardom, they go off to make movies or other TV shows and get replaced with new/younger cast/writers.
I agree it hasn't been good to me in years... but in fairness, I have to admit whenever I catch an old rerun (or one of those best of DVDs) of when I remember the show as being funnier... my memory is always better than the reality.
Also true that many cast members of the last 10 years or so have actually been much better in other things after SNL. Phil Hartman (although deceased, rest in peace) was a great example of a very funny and good character actor who was never really properly used on SNL. He was popular there to be sure.. but really blossomed when he left the show.
I agree... some years nothing keeps it going but momentum. Some years, usually election years, they really shine, but as to the answer to your question: It's probably pretty cheap to produce and gets decent ratings. So why not?
Over time, we've become more of like casual viewers here....when we remember to watch it. The only exception is when they get into the election year content - then it becomes must-see TV.
NBC is going down the tubes... they're having trouble recruiting any real talent for SNL and also their scripted dramas and comedies. Although I have to say I've taken a real liking to Community and Parks & Rec recently. They're quirky and probably only appeal to a smaller audience but I like them. And, of course, The Office (a perennial favorite of hdtvfan000001 :lol is on my must-see list every week.
SNL is one of those oddball things where NBC virtually "owns" that spot from 11:30-am on Saturday nights because back when it started, no one wanted to even try to put a show in that time.
SNL has become an institution of sorts... and nothing else has been able to knock it off its perch. I also suspect it is pretty cheap to produce, as once anyone there obtains any kind of real fame/stardom, they go off to make movies or other TV shows and get replaced with new/younger cast/writers.
Agree. Understand that this is really one of the deadest slots on OTA TV. The other networks don't even bother with it. How many people are actually home watching TV on a Saturday night at 11:30? The network's prescious demographic is probably out and about, and everybody else is in bed.
However, because the first and to a lesser extent the third generation of SNL people successfully (and evenhandedly) lampooned politics, the current staff, and much of the media, seem to think that the current SNL crew has had that mantle passed to it. Of course these people are not nearly as talented, or nearly as brave.
It is kind of like expecting the Cleveland Browns to be good because of Jim and Paul Brown.
NBC is going down the tubes... they're having trouble recruiting any real talent for SNL and also their scripted dramas and comedies. Although I have to say I've taken a real liking to Community and Parks & Rec recently. They're quirky and probably only appeal to a smaller audience but I like them. And, of course, The Office (a perennial favorite of hdtvfan000001 :lol is on my must-see list every week.
As for SNL - they've somehow managed to keep an audience over the years in good times and bad....so there are likely bigger fish to fry in their lineup challenges that SNL these days. Perhaps Leno can host it soon...
A certain frequent poster hasn't checked in here, so I'll play his role!
**** Parody of another user starts here! ****
You folks just feel entitled to a funny and entertaining SNL. The fact is it's a new world for network TV and you just can't expect the same type of entertainment you were used to in the past. After all, NBC has highly paid executives who obviously know more about broadcast TV than you do making the decisions about what and when shows air. If it's relatively inexpensive to produce, then it doesn't need any viewers to make money. And you, as a viewer, are just looking at this from the wrong perspective - why do you feel so entitled?
I was mildly amused at the Sigourney Weaver sketch where she was playing herself and looking at posts on the internet and getting happy and sad at every single post about her.
I found myself wondering if they were looking at actual posts somewhere... or if just parodying the concept.
Last show I watched was 20 something years ago. People have sent me shorts and clips from SNL that I watch with little less than a grimace. SNL was funny when I smoked funny little cigarettes in the 80's. Maybe that is still true today.
SNL is cheap, they pay their performers next to nothing, and they have no idea in hell what they'd replace it with. These are the same geniuses that brought you Jay at 10. I imagine the comedy bottleneck is Loren Michaels, who's barricaded himself into his office and only McGyver could blow him out of there. Michaels wouldn't know a funny gag if he choked and gagged on it.
...in fairness, I have to admit whenever I catch an old rerun (or one of those best of DVDs) of when I remember the show as being funnier... my memory is always better than the reality...
Yeah. I remembered SNL's King Family Christmas Special as having struck me as hysterically funny when I first saw it, but was really disappointed when I saw it again a decade or so later. I don't know if it seemed less funny because I had changed, or maybe I found it so funny the first time because of the novelty of the idea of it.
The million replays on the McGrubber character became a source of severe nausea pretty quickly....it may have been funny the 1st million times they did it...but then after that.....:barf:
McGrubber is a perfect example of SNL's being out of touch.
Who less than 30 years old has a clue what's being parodied there?
Yet that's the audience they claim to entertain.
They don't just beat a dead horse. They beat it, shoot it, stab it, run over it, blow it up, glue it back together and beat it again.
McGrubber is a perfect example of SNL's being out of touch.
Who less than 30 years old has a clue what's being parodied there?
Yet that's the audience they claim to entertain.
They don't just beat a dead horse. They beat it, shoot it, stab it, run over it, blow it up, glue it back together and beat it again.
And the Macgruber movie comes out in April...One reviewer (from a site called "The Vertex") that saw a early screening called it the best SNL movie since Wayne's World. If it's anything like the skits, I've lost more faith in future generations.
I'm also 35, and I love the "MacGruber" sketches -- in small doses.
One problem with "SNL" has always been that, whenever they come up with a sketch/character that seems to click with the audience, they keep doing the exact same thing over and over and over again. (Despite the semi-praise for the segment in the first post of this thread, even Weekend Update is not immune from this phenomenon, with their "special guests" that come on to do commentaries.)
Ever since I got a DVR, I've been watching "SNL" that way regularly -- so that I can easily fast-forward through the sketches (which I sometimes do after watching 5 seconds' worth, because I can tell exactly what's going to happen).
The only funny SNLs I've seen in the past few years are the ones with Justin Timberlake hosting.
As far as NBC goes, my wife and I enjoy many shows on that network. The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, etc. Just hope none of them get canceled prematurely like Studio 60 did.
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