Saturday Night Live

[nelsonmuntz]

There are a greater than normal number of firings of SNL cast members this offseason. Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker were fired, and Heidi Gardner departed. I like Longfellow a lot, and Wakim and Walker are solid. Gardner was ready to move on. The show is inexplicably keeping Jane Wickline, who is lame, laughs at her own jokes, and hams it up for the camera, which I find annoying. I didn't like it when Fallon did it, and I don't like it when anyone does it. The who goes and who stays from the cast is not the important story though. It has been reported that Lorne Michaels feels that the show had stopped being funny. I strongly disagree with that characterization. I thought the past two seasons were the freshest this show has had in a long time. It is a different kind of humor, which made it interesting.

Tina Fey dominated the SNL writing and style for two decades, and even though she was not the Head Writer for most of that time, her imprint was on everything the show did. I think Tina Fey is hilarious, but the show started to feel recycled by the late 2010's. These last two seasons were the first time where the show didn't feel like a bunch of GenX writers trying to get the voice of GenZ.

I was re-watching Saturday Night on Netflix yesterday, and it really brings home the problem with this show. In 1975, Saturday Night was a cosmic break from what TV comedy had been before, reflecting changes in our culture that were not yet reflected on TV, and setting the stage for hundreds of talented comedians and comic actors that would come after. Saturday Night (later Saturday Night Live) was a big middle finger to the prior generation's misogynist and racist humor, which was filled will silly puns, sight gags, and objectification of women. The leap from Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle to Chevy Chase and John Belushi was like the leap from no electricity to electricity. Lorne Michaels was able to lead this change, after stealing heavily from Doug Kenney at National Lampoon and Second City, because he was young and fresh and could articulate just how lame the prior generation's comedy was. He had a fresh take on comedy, and brought in people (mostly from National Lampoon and Second City) that could put that fresh take onto the small screen.

Lorne Michaels is 80 now. He doesn't have any fresh takes left. I don't think an 80 year old, even one that has had as huge an impact on our culture as Lorne Michaels, should be deciding the future of a major comedy institution like SNL. It is time for a fresh take.

 

[Deepster]

I'll try to keep this as un-political as I can. SNL has just gotten too deep down a rabbit hole and forgotten their roots. A show that once had iconic skits now has become a shell of it's former self painting itself into a corner that just isn't working today.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I'll try to keep this as un-political as I can. SNL has just gotten too deep down a rabbit hole and forgotten their roots. A show that once had iconic skits now has become a shell of it's former self painting itself into a corner that just isn't working today.

I don’t think you are the target audience.

 

[Deepster]

When SNL started in 1975, i was 8 yrs old and my best friend's older brother would tape the audio on a boombox and we'd wake up Sunday and listen to the skits. I've watched religiously my whole life.

 

[HuskyHawk]

When SNL started in 1975, i was 8 yrs old and my best friend's older brother would tape the audio on a boombox and we'd wake up Sunday and listen to the skits. I've watched religiously my whole life.

I haven't watched it in years. About the same age as you. My daughter, Gen Z, loves it and was unhappy with the recent firings.

I don't know what the fix is, because the original talent level was so high, as were some subsequent stars like Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Martin Short, Farrell, Nealon and Billy Crystal. Feels like a little of it what you said and what Seinfeld and others have said about modern comedy, instead of offending the hell out of everyone they are on eggshells. "Jane you ignorant nope" doesn't really play in the 2020s. Eddie Murphy in white face doesn't play in this era.

 

[ZooCougar]

The thing about SNL is that they have to make a bunch of funny skits in a short amount of time. 90% might be crap but the 10% that is good makes it worth it.

 

[Deepster]

I haven't watched it in years. About the same age as you. My daughter, Gen Z, loves it and was unhappy with the recent firings.

I don't know what the fix is, because the original talent level was so high, as were some subsequent stars like Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Martin Short, Farrell, Nealon and Billy Crystal. Feels like a little of it what you said and what Seinfeld and others have said about modern comedy, instead of offending the hell out of everyone they are on eggshells. "Jane you ignorant nope" doesn't really play in the 2020s. Eddie Murphy in white face doesn't play in this era.

Another little item is the amount of times actors crack during a sketch. That used to be very few and far between and when it happened, it was hilarious. Now? They fake crack up and break character at least once a week.

 

[Husky25]

SNL is the same as it ever was for most people. Not as funny as when you were 15, but can still reach back on occasion for some extra mph to get the out. Of course, SNL was entering their 2nd golden age as I was entering high school in the early 90s (Carvey, Meyers, Hartman, Franken, Nealon, Farley, Lovitz, Sandler & posse', etc.), so my generalization might be off for others.

I'm not a regular watcher anymore, but will catch the high rated skits on Sunday morning. I think it largely depends on the host. For example, the Nate Bargazte George Washington skits are really solid, but he is not a regular contributor.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Eddie Murphy in white face doesn't play in this era.

I'm not sure why the movie "White Chicks" hasn't gone away, but that's constantly cycling back and forth among different streaming services and sometimes broadcast on cable tv. You can still do white face, but black face will lead to death by firing squad.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The thing about SNL is that they have to make a bunch of funny skits in a short amount of time. 90% might be crap but the 10% that is good makes it worth it.

It has always been that way. A lot of the skits in the early seasons sucked. A lot of the early cast and writers, like O’Donoghue, were more crazy than funny, and Belushi being obviously high on camera isn’t as funny as I get older. Much of the love those early seasons get is nostalgia. Then Eddie Murphy kept the show on the air by himself in the early 80’s

I think they got their hit rate up over time, although the seasons that were more consistent usually had had someone exceptional like Phil Hartman, Bill Heder or Kate McKinnon who could carry a weak sketch.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This thread is making my point, with a bunch of middle-aged white guys saying SNL isn’t funny anymore. Comedy is always generational, and ages poorly for the most part.

Some examples:

Sixteen Candles is a hilarious movie that absolutely speaks to Gen Xers that grew up in middle class and upper middle class suburbs. That movie has two really problematic plotlines (The Geek and the Cheerleader, and the exchange student) that are offensive to Millennials and Gen Z, despite the movie basically being an empowerment fantasy from the perspective of a 16 year old girl. The core plot is the hottest guy in the school going through all kinds of obstacles to be with the wallflower.

Animal House is pretty much unwatchable now with anyone under 40. Caddyshack, focused on the more timeless theme of class conflict, and has aged a lot better than Animal House, even though Animal House was the much more successful movie at the time.

Less controversial, but still relevant to the issue of timeliness in comedy, is a movie like Airplane. Try watching it with someone under 40. Young people didn't grow up watching disaster movies with contrived plots and cheesy special effects, so half the jokes in Airplane don't make any sense to them.

My kids enjoyed Holy Grail, but I had to give a lot of context prior to watching it for some of the jokes to make any sense. Life of Brian is a bit more timeless, although a lot of context is missed by younger people. For example, the stoning scene is hilarious on several different levels, but kids that did not grow up in a society where religion was pervasive in our lives will not get the absurdity of all the rules for a stoning for using "Jehova" to describe a dinner. Young people think the joke is the women wearing beards, which they don't think is all that funny.

Another example from a different perspective is Eurotrip (2004). I think Eurotrip is one of the 3 or so best teen sex comedies ever made, but it is an 80's/90's comedy that came out in 2004, so instead of being a big hit, it ended up flopping even though it became a cult classic on cable and now streaming. There are two scenes in that movie ("Scotty Doesn't Know" and the club in Bratislava) that are two of the funniest scenes in any teen comedy in history. But humor was changing in the 2000's, and the movie just didn't land with young audiences.

SNL needs to get younger, and an 80 year old man from 3 generations ago is not the guy to do it. SNL needs some fresh blood at the top before it figures out what fresh blood it needs in the cast. Anyone who saw the movie Saturday Night will get that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

One other thing I will add:

Try watching a workplace comedy, or really any workplace show, with someone under 35. I re-watched the Big Short with my kids and several of their friends. I was only there to explain what was happening at different points in the movie because they liked Ryan Gossling but they couldn't figure out what the movie was about. All the young people laughed uncomfortably at the scenes where Ryan Gossling is verbally abusing his staff. My first employer was horribly unprofessional, with constant verbal abuse, degrading and demeaning behavior, and bullying towards subordinates. Truly bad stuff, and I had friends where it was worse (one friend of mine worked on a trading floor and had multiple phones thrown at him during his time there). That is what workplaces were like in the 90's. People don't behave like that as much anymore, and it is certainly not a source of humor, so young people don't like it. The Big Short was written by a bunch of Gen Xers about events that occurred in the 2000's. They were just going for laughs with Gossling.

Compare The Pitt with ER. These shows are basically the same show, just in Pittsburgh instead of Chicago, with one important difference. The junior doctors were constantly humiliated by the senior doctors in ER, where that doesn't happen in The Pitt. Times have changed.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Well there you go. out of an unscientific sample population of 2...Not sure 20-somethings generally come home from the bars at 11:30 either.

On the other hand, SNL has averaged 8.1 Million viewers this past season, a 12% increase from '23-'24 and which does not account for streaming or random Youtube searches.

I didn't know ratings were up that much. I thought the last two seasons were pretty good, which is why I was surprised by Michaels taking a deep cut to the cast.

Please Don't Destroy is excellent. They should figure out a way to get them on the show more.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Please Don't Destroy is excellent. They should figure out a way to get them on the show more.

One of them has been bumped up to the regular cast.

 

[temery]

No politics

 

[superjohn]

I'll try to keep this as un-political as I can. SNL has just gotten too deep down a rabbit hole and forgotten their roots. A show that once had iconic skits now has become a shell of it's former self painting itself into a corner that just isn't working today.

It amazes me anyone still watches it or thinks any of it is funny. Last time the show was funny was when Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, and Bill Hader were on it.

 

[Husky25]

I didn't know ratings were up that much. I thought the last two seasons were pretty good, which is why I was surprised by Michaels taking a deep cut to the cast.

Please Don't Destroy is excellent. They should figure out a way to get them on the show more.

According to the Googles.