maybe it'll get better

its terrible

terrible is being kind I think

the whole dick in a box music video characters have run it's course SNL

dude gaga could guillotine someone with her hat

welcome to the last 15 years...

Looks like she got off track on the lip syncing...

What's that name?!

It hasn't been funny since Gilda died.

Gaga is a freaking weirdo

I thought it was just me going through the maturation process, turning old!

SNL absolutely sux more than a Kirby!!!

It's Tina Fey and 30 Rock's fault it's been terrible ever since she became the head writer. per her wiki:
"In 1999, McKay stepped down as head writer, which led Michaels to approach Fey for the position.[29] She became SNL's first female head writer, a milestone she downplays."

Might be when the show started falling apart. She was there when Farley and crew were still there but she didn't write any pieces for them. She was probably named head writer cause A. She was a woman and B. cause she was the only left with any experience.

To summarize, she's terrible and probably ****ed adam mckay in order to get the writing gig for SNL. so **** you too adam.

She no longer is the head writer, but she did so much damage to SNL that I feel she steered it down a course that we see today. No longer is SNL a hotbed of comedy. It is more like Mad TV.

[This message has been edited by Explosivo (edited 5/22/2011 12:53a).]

People who complain about how SNL sucks "now" are SO played. Go back and watch an ENTIRE episode or season from the golden years. You guys forget all the junk in those. It's sketch comedy. Not everything will work. Common sentiment now is to say SNL sucks post Farley/Rock etc. You guys realize those guys (Sandler,Farley, Spade, Rock) got fired because people said THEY sucked right?

Explosivo, you are just plain wrong.


She's also the head writer for 30 Rock, which is universally accepted as one of best and funniest shows on television. She's one of the three funniest female comics of all time, if not the funniest, and her sketches on SNL were well received for years before she got the head writer job.

Sober up, and stop acting like you wouldn't hit that so hard it would take the future king of England to pull you out.

I thought the old reporter sketch from tonight was pretty hilarious.

But it has been a long time since I've laughed like that at SNL.

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It hasn't been funny since Gilda died.

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This is not exactly the case. What happened is you got too old. Sorry to break the news, but that's how this works. NBC cycles, writers and cast to keep the dynamic geared towards their target audience. When you start thinking it's just stupid, is when you've aged out of their target audience.

Talk to olds, they say it was best with Gilda, Akroyd, Chevy Chase, etc.

Talk to people a bit younger, they say it was funniest with Farley, Spade, and Rock.

Talk to people a bit younger still, they'll say it was Ferrell, Hammond, Fey, etc.

It goes through ups and downs in overall quality obviously, but if you think it hasn't been funny in 30 years, it's time to stop watching, because they aren't about to tailor it to your generation's sense of humor.

Personally I'm in the Ferrell, Hammond, Fey, Morgan camp. I don't really watch anymore, because I find it stupid, but a generation after me will love it and remember the good sketches as being hilariously funny for years to come. That's just the cycle of the show.

And I'm also in camp that believes the past ten years have produced great material and talent (Ferrel, Fey, Wig, Myers, Fallon, Sandberg, etc)

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People who complain about how SNL sucks "now" are SO played. Go back and watch an ENTIRE episode or season from the golden years. You guys forget all the junk in those. It's sketch comedy. Not everything will work. Common sentiment now is to say SNL sucks post Farley/Rock etc. You guys realize those guys (Sandler,Farley, Spade, Rock) got fired because people said THEY sucked right?

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This is so misguided. We say it sucks because it does suck. Back in the day there was a far higher level of hilarity than there is today. Yes, there were skits that sucked, but they were not the norm. Back in the day they had a cast that could make a so-so skit great. Today they don't have anyone that can do that. You can't really tell me that the cast that makes up SNL today could carry the jock of the cast of the early 90's or the early 80's. There is a reason that Sandler, Murphy, Akroyd, Farley, and Chase went on to have successful careers after they left SNL.

That is BS. I think "culture" is generally a lot funnier now than it was in the 80s or even early 90s. SNL had the golden era no one critizes because of revisionist history, but would have been canceled in the early 80s had Eddie Murphy not carried it until the Phil Hartman et al era began. Sandler and the early 90s crew were universally panned by unfunny morons who thought superbowl ads were Tge epitome of comedy. At least most smart critics now realize that SNL has ALWAYS been panned by old farts.

SNL deals with the same critizism as current A&M undergrads, ie , ole army going to hell since 1877.

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It's Tina Fey and 30 Rock's fault it's been terrible ever since she became the head writer.

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Hang on, so Fey is the head writer on SNL. She leaves to write the most brilliant comedy on TV in the past decade. It is then 30 Rock's fault SNL sucks? And SNL sucks because Fey wrote it? Does not compute, you dumbass. You have no idea WTF you are talking about.

If you look back at the history of SNL there are periods where the members moved on to make movies that people actually watched. There is a correlation there. Like I said earlier, there is a reason that those cast members went on to stardom. They were actually funny. Say what you will about Sandler, but that guy has something. He can make a movie like Happy Gilmore and we all laugh at it. Why? Because he is funny. Nostalgia has nothing to do with it. Chevy Chase's prat falls of the late 70's may not hold the same level of hilarity today as they did back then, but he captured the essence of humor for that era. If you assertion was true then the millenials of the world would think that todays cast is hilarious. That is not the case. Comedy is to a large degree about entertaining the people in the context of your times. In the past, SNL did that. Today they find themselves trying to measure up to the standard of the past and failing miserably. The funny skits that you see on SNL today are the ones that are original. They have cultural relevance. They aren't trying to measure themselves against what was done in 1981. They simply poke fun at the events that are taking place in the world today. I feel like they are too often trying to capture the feel that SNL had in it's heyday. A good example is the Eddie Murphy Gumby skit. Would that make any sense if it were performed for the first time today? NO. It would fall flat. When it was originally conceived it had cultural context. People liked it because it was funny in the context of the times they were living in. Look at the Dick in a Box skit. That was funny because it played on the musical culture of the time. That was funny skit. In 25 years people may look at it and say that it is ridiculously immature and that it carries little if any comedic value.

In short, you can measure the success or failure of SNL casts by the level of success that cast members have outside of SNL. People move on to success or mire themselves in failure because they either have something of value or they don't. It is that simple.

I only watch for digital shorts and weekend updates. The rest usually gets the fast forward button though.

I have watched SNL from the very first broadcast and here are some observations:

a) having good shorts helps greatly. The Land of Gorch, Mr. Bill, TV funhouse

b) having good "commercials" provide touchstone skits. Peyton Manning and the United Way is funny every time I watch it

c) Cast and writers matter. Granted having Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray all in the first cast is hard to repeat. Still each cast since has given us at least 1 decent actor.

d) Acting and comedy take real skill and will go beyond a single show or skit. While Will Ferrell is not my style of funny, his appeal has made it beyond the show for many movies. Sure the Blues Brothers and Waynes World made it on the big screen but Aykroyd and Meyers had great success with films not related to the show at all. Don't believe me, look at the top comedy films of all times and pick out the SNL cast members. Some that come to mind are Stripes, There is something about Mary, Caddyshack, Animal House, etc.

e) The core of the show has always been Weekend Update and clever political satire. The arrival of Jon Stewart and the fact that younger audiences do not follow hard news have both contributited to a shift from the core of the show. I would argue this really may be the single thing folks miss when describing success or failure of the show

f) Don Novello (almost 70) and Don Pardo (now in his 90's) were the "voice" of SNL in a way similar to John Facenda of NFL Films. It is hard to follow these guys, and their work in the "background" sound and feel are pronounced.

g) As an old, I think Fey is talanted and funny - so it is not just an age thing. If Fey and Poehler wind up being the future of SNL spin outs (success beyond SNL skits on the big screen) then this may be the root of your debate. Historically the men of SNL have provided the biggest breakouts from the show. Now it appears to be the women, and this may be the future. Instead of getting your panties in a wad, sit back and enjoy a future of the women on top!

HTH

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She's one of the three funniest female comics of all time, if not the funniest

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Wow. So much fail in this post. I can name the following female comics who are and were MUCH funnier than Tina Fey ever was:

Rita Rudner
Gilda Radner
Jane Curtin
Whitney Cummings
Sarah Silverman (she sucks but she's MUCH funnier than Fey)
Paula Poundstone
TRACEY ULLMAN (without her there is no Simpsons)
Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson)
Amy Borstien (Lois Griffin)
Nicole Sullivan
etc.

The list is nearly endless

CGSC Lobotomy

I agree, as I would not put her in the top 3, but she is talented. While we often see the "face" of funny, most of the best also have very good writers to build their material with.

Not on your list, and well worthy of consideraton are:


Carol Burnett
Phyllis Diller
Lucille Ball
Wanda Sykes
Whoopi Goldberg
Ellen DeGeneress
Betty White

To dismiss Fey is equally unwarranted. She can carry a scene and she can write. In person Kevin Spacey is very funny and has excellent timing, but you never see this in the roles he takes. In the end comedy "popularity" may be no more that appealing to the lowest common denominator so you can reach the broadest audience. In the end what is funny is a personal decision.


HTH

Comedy is subjective. As far as Tina Fey is concerned, she wrote some brilliant stuff on SNL (the Col. Angus sketch for example), and like most writers, she also wrote some crap. As a performer, she was more a vehicle for getting her writing on the air, and she admits that. (The exception is the Sarah Palin - Joe Biden debate, which was written almost entirely by Seth Meyers). Personally, I think Maya Rudolph should be getting more love on this thread.

And despite all the whining and complaining, all of you still watch, and that is why SNL succeeds.

i'm just glad that the SNL of the last few years gave us the lonely island. samberg and crew are the best cast members on the show right now.

The "movies are the answer" people seem to be ignoring the fact that Kristen Wiig just wrote and starred in a movie that's rocking 90% approval with both critics and audiences and has made $60M in 10 days, which has it on pace to out earn Sandler's last movie.

[This message has been edited by 20ag07 (edited 5/22/2011 9:01a).]

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20ag07

.... Kristen Wiig just wrote and starred in a movie that's rocking 90% approval with both critics and audiences and has made $60M in 10 days, which has it on pace to out earn Sandler's last movie.

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Two side of the coin:

Side A) interesting support that SNL is not dead, and can still be a traing ground for future talent (that nobody has mentioned Second City seems odd tho).

Side B) Money skews movie values terribly, as do audience demographics. "Gone With The Wind" is an example of the first because how many nickle tickets would it take vs ten dollars tickets today. You can quickly see how the newer films can continue to set new records. In 1930 the US population was 123 Million. In 2010 the US population was 300 Million. In short, if 10% of the US population saw a movie in 1930, and 10% of the US population saw a movie in 2010, then way more tickets were sold in 2010.

I see two side observations as well:

a) Titanic sold huge numbers of tickets relative to the population. Later research showed large groups of teenage girls were seeing the movie over and over which skewed the numbers.

b) Almost a century later a large group of people are still watching Gone with the Wind. A century from now will a large group of people still be watching Toy Story III?

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i'm just glad that the SNL of the last few years gave us the lonely island.

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This. I am willing to say that Lonely Island stuff rivals anything in the history of SNL. Their latest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY

That's a never ending discussion because people also had nothing better to do at the time of Gone With the Wind, and also didn't have giant entertainment systems in their homes on which to watch movies, etc etc etc. I wasn'tt going down that path.

The point was more that she put out a critically acclaimed movie that audiences are also giving high ratings to and is raking in cash. Those 3 things don't happen often in today's movie landscape.

women have never and will never be funny.

RD, to bad you feel that way, as I find funny women are really good at sex. I would much rather have a woman with a sense of humor long term, than one who was stunning to look at but boring in the bedroom.

You lamos just hate her because she made you laugh with her impressions of Sarah Palin and that goes against everything Republican.

SNL has sucked for about 20 years now......