When bayer said "Todd it looks like you came as some sort of butt or vagina" i LOLed

And I agree with all those sketches, they were pretty good.

Key and Peele is WAY funnier now.

Haven't really seen anything from this season but Jim Carrey spoofing McConaughey's Lincoln commercials were great.

http://gawker.com/jim-carrey-steals-matthew-mcconaugheys-lincoln-commerci-1651244355

Re: The comment that your junior high years are always the best.

I was getting ready to disagree, but then I actually looked at the cast list for 00-02, and surprisingly enough, I think that's one of the better eras I've lived through. (I was alive for the Sandler/Myers/Farley years but I was too young.)

00-02 we had:
Will Ferrell
Colin Quinn
Chris Kattan
Darrell Hammond
Chris Parnell
Molly Shannon
Horatio Sanz
Ana Gasteyer
Tracy Morgan
Jimmy Fallon
Rachel Dratch

That was a pretty strong lineup. Brought us such classic as the Roxbury guys, Mango, Debbie Downer, Blue Oyster Cult (more cowbell), Ferrell/Dratch in the hot tub, Schweddy Balls, and a bunch of others.

Yep, my junior high years were Sandler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Farley, Hartman, etc. I don't think another cast has touched that one, although Ferrell & co come closest.

My junior high years:

'88

Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Kevin Nealon
A. Whitney Brown
Al Franken

'89

Dana Carvey
Nora Dunn
Phil Hartman
Jan Hooks
Victoria Jackson
Jon Lovitz
Dennis Miller
Kevin Nealon
A. Whitney Brown
Al Franken
Mike Myers
Ben Stiller


Solid. Very solid.

Mine are the same as AggieChemist

See I love the end of the Ferrell cast, but when I think of my favorite year of the show, I refer to 2007-08 (Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudekis, Kenan Thompson, Will Forte, Darrell Hammond, and Seth Meyers)

This is when I started watching the show religiously, so they hold a special place in my tv heart.

I thought te Farrell cast era was the most overrated of all time. WF was great, but the rest, specifically kataan and oteri were just annoying.

I said to my wife the other day that i know how to make SNL good again. Remove the "live" part. Just do the monologue, music, update, and maybe 1 or 2 skits live and have the rest be recorded.

Personally, I think the undoing of SNL has been the success of the digital shorts. As long as they could crank out one good digital short per month or so, SNL stayed popular and relevant.

If every cast member/writer is busting their butts to think up a great digital short idea, which they then can spend multiple takes perfecting, it's less and less time spent perfecting the craft, which is being fantastically funny in live skits.

Anyone want to try and defend last nights episode? That was real bad. Anyone notice how many Uber references there were? Chris Rock who I like was not funny. He played the old black guy. The one sketch where he and his wife were arguing was flat out horrible. She could even remember her lines and ha to rely on the use cards.
90's diversity was ok. Same with weekend update.

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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.

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I think this is dead on. You used to wait until update before giving up on a show. Now update is so painful I dont bother.

I agree that they just don't perform as an ensemble. Mackinnon is the only one I can see holding her own and thriving in the types of Classic ensemble sketches of the Hartman, Dunn, Carvey, Myers or Farelll/Fey years. Now they all seem to be in their own worlds on stage and not working together as an ensemble.

Maybe it's where they pulling people from? Second City used to be be the proving grounds and they honed their ensemble sd acting skills there. There have been strong performers pulled from the Groundlings or UCB but maybe those are changing?

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Anyone want to try and defend last nights episode? That was real bad. Anyone notice how many Uber references there were? Chris Rock who I like was not funny. He played the old black guy. The one sketch where he and his wife were arguing was flat out horrible. She could even remember her lines and ha to rely on the use cards.
90's diversity was ok. Same with weekend update.

---

nope..... just tried to watch it, and fast forwarded through most every skit.

The 90s diversity was ok. Prince was way better than anything comedy-related.

The Taylor Swift thing was funny. I also enjoyed the "How's He Doing" skit.

The Jones/Rock couple sketch was a train wreck. As bad as it was, I couldn't look away. It was as if you could hear the silence from the audience when Jones walked out and looked in the wrong direction and stared. Then, they just rushed through the rest of the sketch.

Jost takes forever with his delivery. He also is just doing a bad Seth Meyers impersonation. It also feels like the jokes are just worded poorly or something. Personally, I thought before Meyers left last year, the show was fine if not improving.. Since Jost took over, there have been more misses than hits. Basically, I miss Seth Meyers.

Decided to give it a go, half because of this thread and half because Chris Rock is one of my favorite comics.

Oh. My. God. It was HORRIBLE.

I don't even like Prince, really, and I was thanking the Almighty that there was a break in the "comedy" portions.

The cast is horrible.


One of the things that, throughout the "lean" years, you could at least count on was the Weekend Update. Even that was found wanting.

Is it the cast as much as their writers? SNL had some funny stuff when they had writers like Conan, at least I think I remember it being funnier. Now when I (rarely) flip to see what SNL skit is happening, it seems like the skit goes from being completely unfunny to abruptly ending, leaving you wondering "what just happened?".

When even Chris Rock can't make the material funny, you know you've got a problem.

I think it's the writing because there are several performers who really deliver when they have something good to work with. Most of the women, actually and especially Kate McKinnon.

I did laugh out loud though at "Swiftamine", the medicine for when you get vertigo realizing you like Taylor Swift.

Worst episode of the season by far. Holy **** the jokes werent even jokes. you can't even give the new people a fair shake because the writing is so damn bad.

Prince was epic badass tho. He's a genius.

quote:

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Anyone want to try and defend last nights episode? That was real bad. Anyone notice how many Uber references there were? Chris Rock who I like was not funny. He played the old black guy. The one sketch where he and his wife were arguing was flat out horrible. She could even remember her lines and ha to rely on the use cards.
90's diversity was ok. Same with weekend update.

---

I came home late last night from the Rose Bowl and decided to watch it off the DVR for a few laughs before bed. That was not even just not funny. It was affirmatively unfunny. The open was horrible. The monologue was horrible. The skit with the girl dancing was horrible. How's he doin' was horrible. Through all that, not a laugh.

This show has taken something other than being funny as it's highest priority.

And Chris Rock...man, he got old and stale fast.

why do you guys keep watching it if you hate it so much?

when i thought the office wasn't funny anymore, i stopped watching it and posting about it.

move on with your lives.

I don't normally watch it, I normally will watch ANYTHING else instead. Because of a couple of the posts in this thread, and my liking of Chris Rock, I decided to give it a go.

Before, I'll see a skit or two if they get posted somewhere. Nothing from this season I've seen has been even remotely funny. The cast, the writing. Horrible.

They'd do better to pare the cast down to Jay Pharoah and just have him do the 90 minutes as Denzel or one of his other voices.

The "How's he doing" skit was funny. The kid with the condom jokes was pretty funny but the jokes were childish. Then again he's 20 years old. Prince was good but I didn't recognize any of the songs in the medley.

Everything else was crap. I watched for Rock and Prince. I doubt I'll watch too many more this season.

Really feels like they're trying to compete with Season 11 (Robert Downey Jr., Antony Michael Hall) and Season 6 (Charles Rocket) for worst season/cast ever.

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why do you guys keep watching it if you hate it so much?

when i thought the office wasn't funny anymore, i stopped watching it and posting about it.

move on with your lives.

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I'll mainly check it out on DVR later Sat. night or later in the week. I'm doing so less frequently.

I think for a lot of us it's tough to give up completely because it's a show that, despite some down times, has been incredibly funny in the past. It's a bummer.

I think it's in real trouble now. There's just so much more on TV now than there was when the show previously hit bad spells.

It's kind of interesting to diagnose the problem. One problem is that previous seasons always had a couple of characters that the show could go to for a reliably funny skit. Does this cast have that? There's just all kinds of things missing.

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quote:

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I think it's in real trouble now. There's just so much more on TV now than there was when the show previously hit bad spells.

It's kind of interesting to diagnose the problem. One problem is that previous seasons always had a couple of characters that the show could go to for a reliably funny skit. Does this cast have that? There's just all kinds of things missing.

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i dont disagree with the last part, but i am curious about how you get to the conclusion that a 40 yr old show is "in real trouble now". it has no comp on Sat night and LM owns late night. the show isnt in real trouble. but it definitely isnt a great season.

Imo, it really hurt them to lose Bill Hader and Jason Sudekis.

seth meyers was the bigger blow. he anchored weekend update, and was head writer. now weekend update sucks, jost isnt finding a groove. I think m che will eventually be good.
I think the cast is fine, but the writing is lacking. kate mckinnon is hilarious, but shes had several episodes this season where she was in 1 sketch, and it came 75 min into the show.

another very weak episode. swiftamine was very funny, and I liked the monologue. prince was a little weird, but still impressive. other than that, not good.

I've always felt Weekend Update worked better with a male and female anchor because there has always seemed to be more interplay and chemistry. Maybe it's just that Jost and Che don't have any chemistry to begin with, but while some parts are good, there's just something off about how it comes together.

Anyone else feel the same?

I definitely agree.

But Jost is just terrible. I don't think anything could help him.

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I definitely agree.

But Jost is just terrible. I don't think anything could help him.

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His delivery reminds me of fresh news anchors who are sitting the big desk for the first time. He has no energy. I think Michael Che and Cecily Strong would be a good WU team. I would say that Che and Aidy Bryant might work well, too.

I think it's odd that SNL took an even greater nosedive when Seth Meyers left, but I've caught Late Night twice and thought it was the worst late night talk show I'd ever seen. So he changes jobs and now both shows suck? Awesome.