SNL's 40th season is sucking it up

48,981 Views | 326 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by Counterpoint
Ryan the Temp
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I know ... the age old SNL debate ...

I am a pretty die-hard SNL fan, and I've stayed true through some "rebuilding" years a few times, but this season has been consistently bad so far. The writing is just lackluster, boring, and not particularly creative. The skits seem to be a lot longer this season as well. I suppose that's good because there are fewer skits to trudge through (and less writing and creativity required), but it also means that viewers have to choose to either sit through a skit that gets old fast or change the channel. Ratings appear to indicate viewers are opting to just change the channel.

A good example of a total lack of creativity was the "Carrey Family Reunion" skit tonight. How much creativity or writing is required to put together a skit where all the players just imitate characters from Jim Carrey's various movies, complete with regurgitated dialogue? And that skit also went on WAY too long.

Some of the newer cast has shown real promise and has done well with establishing fun recurring characters, but we've been seeing a lot less of those good characters and more concentration on the host leading the skits. I've always thought SNL was at its best when the host was just something a little extra to add to the ensemble in a skit instead of a skit revolving around the host. Making fun of the host has always been fun, but it works better when they aren't trying too hard, but it's hard to say the writers are trying too hard when it kind of seems like they are phoning it in to begin with.
InnerCityAg
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This show seems to be cyclical. Years of suck, then a couple years of being good until everyone leaves.
LHIOB
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They say that the best cast is the cast of your middle school years. I havent watched a full episode in years. I know Im biased but I feel they used to push the envelope and be creative.

The Chris Farley Show was so simple yet so amazing. It was Chris being Chris and a guest trying to keep up. They didnt need Sir Paul to be funny. They needed Sit Paul to be himself and let Chris create the comedy. It was so perfecf.

Im those days the host was molded to the cast. Now they change the show to fit the host.

Get off my lawn and all that but this show is better when the cast is the star and the host is lucky to be a part of it.
YouBet
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I know noticed there were two different episodes airing last night both aired for the first time. Was the first one a Jan Hooks memorial?
et98
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The costume contest/Chandelier video parody had me crying in laughter because it was so well done.

But yeah...I was expecting more from the Jim Carey episode. There was nothing in this episode that could compete with the lifeguard sketch he did when he hosted in the 90's.
Clavell
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quote:
They say that the best cast is the cast of your middle school years.

I was 14 in SNL's first season so certainly the case for me. Saturday night parties usually had the show on in the background that people would watch during my HS years.
$240 Worth of Pudding
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They've done that family reunion skit with Christopher Walken in the past so this isn't totally on this seasons writers, but I agree with you. So far this season is utterly terrible for the most part.
It's easy to reminisce about how great the old skits were but time has a way of romanticizing that. I was in college during the Farley years and The Chris Farley show skit caught plenty of hell then for being too simple and not requiring effort. Hell, in the mid 90s there was legitimate talk that SNL might actually get cancelled....not just on the street but talk in Rolling Stone, etc. That's how bad people had felt it had gotten. Now that's considered one of the "golden" casts.

The one thing that really irks me more than anything now is how the cast just seems to go through the motions. They literally stare at the cue cards during an entire sketch. No effort put forth whatsoever.
DustysLineup
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quote:
The one thing that really irks me more than anything now is how the cast just seems to go through the motions. They literally stare at the cue cards during an entire sketch. No effort put forth whatsoever


Good point. Something I didn't know until recently is that many of the "classic" cast members like Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz had known each other for years from stuff like The Groundlings and the comedy club circuit. Their chemistry and experience allowed them to perform characters and bits they had been developing for years, and they had the chops to act or improvise when sketches broke down.

It's going to be harder and harder for SNL to cull from the best talent out there with today's talent having so many more career options on cable and other forms of media.

But I definitely agree with the Middle School observation. I actually understood all the pop culture references in my teens.
Complete Idiot
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I saw Chris ROck is hosting next week with Prince as musical guest.

THat is some star power.
Orlando Ayala Cant Read
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That show is ****ing awful. When is NBC gona sack up and fire Lorne Michaels or at least reassign him? I know he's iconic and help create the show but damn if the dude is unable to recognize sh**y television.
TCTTS
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I happened to catch some of an old episode the other day and one glaring problem with the current iteration of show finally hit me... there aren't any "adults" in the cast anymore.

I get that skewing younger overall is an attempt to reach that same demographic, but without any cast members whatsoever in their late-30s/early-40s (or older), there's no veteran to "trust" or balance out the cast; no one who can play the dad or game show show host type who doesn't feel like a 25-year-old just doing an old man impression. It's been so long since they've had a Phil Hartman/Kevin Nealon/Chris Parnell/Darrell Hammond type, which seems like a fairy easy role to fill (no one will ever touch Hartman in terms of talent, but you get my point).

Instead, it feels like SNL is constantly every single cast member's first real job straight out of the Groundlings or wherever. And I'm sure a lot of the older cast members in the past are likely comparable in age to the current cast - a lot of this likely has to do with my own age at the time - but Will Ferrell/Cheri Oteri/Molly Shannon/Norm Macdonald/Tim Meadows/etc just came across as so much more older/wiser/polished than what we've been seeing these past few years. Is Lorne really that out of touch that - or that scared of SNL seeming "old" - to not try and have just two or three cast members who skew a bit oder than the rest? Guys who at least feel like veterans even if they're not?
BigRobSA
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I don't watch it like I used to. It used to be part of my "must see" list. It hasn't been since the late 90s or early 2000s, for me.

I'll check it out once in awhile. It's nowhere near as good as it was at its past worst seasons. It's bad now. I think TC makes a good point with the age thing. But, beyond that, they're just not very talented. Not like casts of old.
Hello Newman
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Wouldn't know, haven't watched it in 10 years.
Sex Panther
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That's a really good point TC, I think you are spot on with that assessment.

And isn't Darrell Hammond actually the announcer now? Does he not do skits? If he's there every Saturday night, I don't know why they wouldn't use him. He was always extremely underrated.
Muy
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No mention of Dana Carvey? One of the most talented comedians of all-time, even when he was doing a worn-out character.
Ryan the Temp
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Kenan Thompson is the senior cast member. He's 36 and has been on SNL since 2003. This is also his last season, which will leave Bobby Moynihan as the senior cast member. Moynihan is 37 and has been on SNL since 2008. After those two, it's Jay Pharoah and Taran Killam as the next most senior, and even though they've got three season behind them, they still seem very green.

Given the inexperience of the current cast, I think SNL is going to be rough for the foreseeable future.

BTW - SNL has 26 - twenty-six - people on the writing staff. With that many people, how are they turning out such crap?
TCTTS
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quote:
That's a really good point TC, I think you are spot on with that assessment.

And isn't Darrell Hammond actually the announcer now? Does he not do skits? If he's there every Saturday night, I don't know why they wouldn't use him. He was always extremely underrated.

Yeah, he is. And no, he doesn't do skits. Makes no sense why they don't use him on the show itself.
TCTTS
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quote:
BTW - SNL has 26 - twenty-six - people on the writing staff. With that many people, how are they turning out such crap?

That's INSANE.
Jacques
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quote:
quote:
The one thing that really irks me more than anything now is how the cast just seems to go through the motions. They literally stare at the cue cards during an entire sketch. No effort put forth whatsoever


Good point. Something I didn't know until recently is that many of the "classic" cast members like Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz had known each other for years from stuff like The Groundlings and the comedy club circuit. Their chemistry and experience allowed them to perform characters and bits they had been developing for years, and they had the chops to act or improvise when sketches broke down.

It's going to be harder and harder for SNL to cull from the best talent out there with today's talent having so many more career options on cable and other forms of media.

But I definitely agree with the Middle School observation. I actually understood all the pop culture references in my teens.


Watching the older shoes it's pretty clear that a big problem is the quality of the acting. Older casts just had better actors.

That really handicaps the show.

The middle school observation is not bad. I never enjoyed the show more than when I was in middle school. But i can see it's gone through several cast flips through them and had never been this weak.
GiveEmHellBill
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quote:
BTW - SNL has 26 - twenty-six - people on the writing staff. With that many people, how are they turning out such crap?
What's that phrase about 'too many cooks...'?

Twenty-six writers makes it impossible for any one of them to truly find their 'voice' on the show. It also most likely means that, on any given week, at least a dozen of them have none of their sketches make it to air and therefore contribute nothing to the show. That's got to be demoralizing to young writers.
mid90
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I watched the Jim Carrey Halloween costume dance skit from the most recent episode last night.

B.r.u.t.a.l.

The acting was incredibly terrible. I'm not sure it could have been worse if they tried. And the dancing around the studio went on for way too long.
mid90
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Re: Keenan Thompson being the most senior actor

I really don't think he provides much seniority to the rest of the cast. I loved watching him in nickelodeon stuff as a kid, and always wanted him to be great on SNL. But, he's never had much of a presence on the show IMO. I can't remember a show when he had more than one significant role in a skit, and the roles he's had were never that great IMO.

Just my $.02
Gigem314
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quote:
quote:
BTW - SNL has 26 - twenty-six - people on the writing staff. With that many people, how are they turning out such crap?
What's that phrase about 'too many cooks...'?

Twenty-six writers makes it impossible for any one of them to truly find their 'voice' on the show. It also most likely means that, on any given week, at least a dozen of them have none of their sketches make it to air and therefore contribute nothing to the show. That's got to be demoralizing to young writers.
They've had a lot of writers in the past as well, but do they have people on the same level as Handey, Conan, Sandler, Meyers, and Fey? I don't think so. The humor just isn't good. It's like they're trying to be too clever, instead of silly like so many of the older skits were.
AggieChemist
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I love that they're showing the SNL "Classic" episodes beforehand now. This week was Tom Hanks/Aerosmith from like 1990. We had Aerosmith on Wayne's World, Tales of Rrrrrrrrrrrrribaldry, and a few other good laughs all before bedtime.

Get off my lawn.
helgs
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A lot of people like to feel superior and chime in on things that they think suck with "wouldn't know haven't watched in 10 years...", etc. etc., but the show is actually pretty great. For one thing, the set and costume design now are leaps and bounds better than even just 10 years ago. I think they stopped hiring impressionists (the last really good one being Bill Hader), and just started hiring comedians. I think the jokes are much better written but the delivery has been off the past few years, partly in fact that the cast, collectively, is very young and inexperienced in anything outside of stand-up comedy.

I think SNL has a bright future. I love watching it on Sunday mornings with coffee like a grown up.
COOL LASER FALCON
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I think Jost is the problem. I cannot get over how unfunny he is on weekend update and just can't imagine him successfully guiding and directing a group of writers. I also noticed a a big drop off when Meyers left last season.

TC raises a very good point about the age of the cast.

A bunch of the newer cast members are all from the same improv group, so hopefully that will lead to some good chemistry and sketches as they come into their own.
boy09
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The episode 2 weeks ago with Bill Hader was great beginning to end. Looks like this thread is full of people that didn't watch it.. Saturday's show had some decent stuff too. The season opener with Chris Pratt was ok. Sarah Silverman wasn't very good, but it's not like every episode is completely unwatchable like most of you are suggesting

I hope we're almost to the end of this period where it's "cool" to hate SNL...
COOL LASER FALCON
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I did miss the Hader episode unfortunately. I thought Chris Pratt and Silverman were pretty bad episodes.

quote:
I hope we're almost to the end of this period where it's "cool" to hate SNL...
I really think this will exist for as long as SNL does, but most people on this thread seem to be fans that watch regularly and have enjoyed recent seasons.
Ryan the Temp
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quote:
The episode 2 weeks ago with Bill Hader was great beginning to end. Looks like this thread is full of people that didn't watch it.. Saturday's show had some decent stuff too. The season opener with Chris Pratt was ok. Sarah Silverman wasn't very good, but it's not like every episode is completely unwatchable like most of you are suggesting

I hope we're almost to the end of this period where it's "cool" to hate SNL...
I've been watching SNL for at least 20 years, and I've always been quick to defend it during the occasional slump, but I've never seen it like this. The Jim Carrey show was almost completely unwatchable, and not even the vomit gag could save it. Silverman was just as bad. Chris Pratt was marginally better. Hader's show was better because he is a genuinely fantastic performer who could probably make the best out of any skit. He's good at what he does, he gets the format, and he has worked with many of the cast for years.
Btron
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The only one that stands out to me is Vanessa Bayer. I think she has some good comedic talent, timing and I find her entertaining. But not too much range, so she's playing the same characters over and over.
FtBendTxAg
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Kate Mckinnon is by far the most talented and it's not close.
jrod2181
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AliasMan02
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quote:
The only one that stands out to me is Vanessa Bayer. I think she has some good comedic talent, timing and I find her entertaining. But not too much range, so she's playing the same characters over and over.


Her romcom character last week was really funny.
$240 Worth of Pudding
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I don't know why but Cecily Strong just annoys the hell outta me. I don't think she's very funny.

I agree about Kate McKinnon being the star of this cast though.

As for Keenan....his idea of comedy is apparently doing a quiver/pucker thing with his lips or just screaming "NO!" in a sketch. That dude is useless. Except for "What's up wit dat"....that was far and away his best stuff, and they don't even do it anymore.
Mozart Paintings
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I didn't think this episode was terrible...... parts of it were no good for sure.

- The Jim Carrey reunion was awful
- The billionaire show was awful (other than Cecily Strong being dressed up)
- I hated the opening monologue
- Iggy Azalea could not have been worse. As bad a case of lip synching as I've ever seen.

But I got a kick out of some of the sketches.

- The Buick commercials was funny
- Didn't mind the halloween costume party sketch (has more to do with the fact that both my daughters are dancers and know that video well)
- The news was funny. Agree about the white dude (don't know names) and his lack of funny, but I think the black dude is damn funny. Rom Com girl was funny, drunk uncle went on too long
- for whatever reason, Paul and Phil cracked me up. I think I want to go as them for halloween.
 
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