Best SNL Movie

I agree that current SNL would greatly benefit from tighter/shorter sketches, leaving room for some of the most oddball ideas to make it to air.

the current cast is top-notch and this season in particular has been up there with the best (albeit as undeniably spotty as ever

This might very well be true. I haven't even attempted it this year.

IMO one of the major problems with SNL in recentish years (even with a lot of the funniER stuff) is that the writers don't seem to know when a skit should end and just keep them going and going and beating a dead horse until what might have been funny becomes the farthest thing from it.

Shut up Whiney.

just kidding!

I wrote that 10 mins ago before it was a x-post but then my computer froze so I guess I should have said x-post.

the first season of SNL was much more of a variety show than a sketch comedy show -- there's a whole episode which basically consists of a simon and garfunkel reunion. i get the sense that a lot of the freshness of the early seasons comes from the fact that they weren't being pressured to be 'funny' every second and come up with a new irritating character/catchphrase every episode.

there's also a pretty funny sketch called 'citizen kane 2' where the original cast do a bang-up job imitating joseph cotten, et al.

IMO one of the major problems with SNL in recentish years (even with a lot of the funniER stuff) is that the writers don't seem to know when a skit should end and just keep them going and going and beating a dead horse until what might have been funny becomes the farthest thing from it.

they kind of parodied this tendency in the '90s with that "you like-a the juice, eh?" sketch. at least, i always assumed it was a parody...

MACGRUBERRRRRRR, though I haven't seen Wayne's World in a long time and I've never seen Stuart

Blues Brothers, not so much for the lol comedy as for the music and the spectacle.

there's a whole episode which basically consists of a simon and garfunkel reunion.

I think that's the third episode? I saw it this past Christmas. S&G's new single was huge at the time, and the cast were still unknowns, so obv they were biding their time in making it a full-bore sketch show for those reasons.

John Landis's framing in Blue Brothers cuts off the dancers' feet. So much for musical spectacle.

I don't think anyone would describe Blues Brothers as "a well-crafted film".

But the competition in this poll is pretty weak, I gotta say, and BB is at least entertaining.

Here's what should happen in an ideal world to tighten up SNL: Lorne Michaels continues to produce, but in a mostly hands-off role. The writers are given more leeway and allowed to generate material outside of the current insane hours they're expected to keep. Hosts (most of them, anyway) are allowed much less input into the creative process. No more rewriting or pulling sketches between dress and air (aside from anything improvisational/somewhat dependent upon surprise rewrites, like Stefon). Intense scrutiny is applied in deciding which bits can legitimately sustain recurrence. A broader range of material is brought into play (like the more dramatic film work they used to do)... And then the ratings plummet after Joe Lunchpail slowly realizes that the fart jokes have gone away.

Lol @ that sketch. Maybe SNL is just good for when you are a teenage kid or in the chemically-altered mindset thereof. I don't think I would want to watch it sober.

'that sketch' being "You like-ah the juice!"

the first season of SNL was much more of a variety show than a sketch comedy show

For real. It's weird looking back to realize that the cast wasn't individually named in the opening credits until about halfway through the season. For a while there, they held roughly the same status as the Fly Girls.

I wish they had done a "Toonces the driving cat" movie!!

also "you like-ah the juice" and "makin' copies" sketches were hilarious!! <3 rob

^^ target demographic

there's a whole episode which basically consists of a simon and garfunkel reunion

I would watch a movie based on this.

Esp. if Art Garf was also the moose he played in this episode of Arhur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrfbVfYRnqk

WAIT it's THIS EPISODE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXpNzEmNy5I

Blues Brothers in a walk.

kind of genuinely can't understand why anyone would find 'blues brothers' funnier than 'wayne's world,' unless you think car chases are just inherently funny.

I voted for Blues Bros, and basically because of so many scenes without Jake or Elwood.

• John Candy
• The Good Ol' Boys up in the windows at the top of the camper.
• Carrie Fisher
• Ray Charles with a gun
• That lone SWAT team member going hut-hut-hut all by himself.

Yeah, I'm about done with "Your daughters! How much for your daughters!" or the Mission from God lines. But there are too many other silly things that I watch for.

xp They are when you use real cars, and literally pile up dozens of them on real city streets, and completely destroy an actual shopping mall in real life.

Funny? Yeah. Awesome? Even moreso.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/chicago-the-blues-brothers-bridge,57338/

"The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!"

Kinda interesting in sitting back and reading you Chicagoans love/hate with this movie.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/blues-brothers-briefcase-full-of-blues,70668/

In 1980, Aretha Franklin’s career was at its lowest ebb. As late-’60s and early-’70s soul gave way to disco and a new generation of pop stars, Franklin’s declining fortunes on the charts threatened to resign her to permanent has-been status. It seems inconceivable now, as she’s rightfully considered a living legend, a national treasure, and Our Best Living American Pop Singer. But by the end of the ’70s, Franklin’s fan base had eroded so badly that she couldn’t even get a record deal. After 1979’s La Diva failed to remake her image as a disco starlet, Franklin’s long-time label Atlantic—the place where she entered her prime as the defining female singer of her generation with 1967’s I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You—allowed her contract to expire. That same year, her father, C.L. Franklin was shot during an armed robbery of his home, and subsequently spent the next five years in a coma, prompting his daughter to leave L.A. and return home to Detroit. Franklin’s career seemed similarly incapacitated as the new decade dawned.

Given her lack of marquee value, Franklin was especially fortunate to be invited to participate in one of 1980’s biggest movies, the $32 million comedy-action-musical The Blues Brothers. Franklin wasn’t the only soul-music luminary from a bygone era invited to participate in the film—James Brown and Ray Charles also were granted their highest-profile gigs in years, along with even older blues and jazz stars like John Lee Hooker and Cab Calloway. But Franklin ended up stealing the show from all of them, turning in a show-stopping performance of “Think”—from 1968’s Aretha Now, which was out of print when The Blues Brothers was released—and incredibly, reviving her career in the process. Clive Davis signed Franklin to Arista Records in the film’s wake, and with 1982’s Jump To It, she returned to the top of the R&B albums chart, setting the stage for a successful decade that shored up her legacy once and for all. 

In short, fuck Whiney.

My step-dad's from Chicago, and whenever we'd watch this movie, he'd be all "There's no way they could get from Skokie to Forest Park that fast!"

I mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE41YPdPuis

My biggest complaint – and I've mentioned this elsewhere – is classic rock's inclination to play the Blues Bros version of "Soul Man", but not Sam & Dave's.

why would classic rock radio play sam & dave?

Why would they play John Belushi?

It's just weird Boomer nonsense. Someone threw the Blues Bros out there in testing and the damn thing stuck.

The highlights of that film come from Aretha, Cab Calloway (who they KEEP CUTTING AWAY FROM during "Minnie the Moocher") and veteran Jerry Lewis associate Kathleen Freeman as "The Penguin."

Belushi's prime physical tool was his eyes, and they're behind shades for all but one scene.

re Aretha: James Brown's career was also in the crapper at that point. perhaps not as bad as Aretha's, but a far cry from where he was even during the early 1970s.

My biggest complaint – and I've mentioned this elsewhere – is classic rock's inclination to play the Blues Bros version of "Soul Man", but not Sam & Dave's.

OTM ... as o_O as the gray-ponytailed-Boomer-blues lot can be, at least some of them appreciate the real stuff as opposed to the Blues Bros. crap (even if they sound more like the Blues Brothers than Sam & Dave when they try to play r&b in the clubs).

I just did some research and finally figured out that the old Blues Brothers Bar in Chicago turned into the bar (Corcoran's) I used to go to alla the time. I knew it was one of the bars around Piper's Alley. Cool beans. </stuffonlychicagoansarelikelytocareabout>

(Cool because of who used to hang out there, not really because of the Blues Brothers per se.)

I probably drew 500 pages worth of dumb serial comics between 4-7 grades based on goofy shit from the Blues Bros.

Those Good Ol' Boys riding up on top really stuck with me for some reason.

The "I hate Illinois Nazis" scene was based on a rally that happened a block from my house. I stood outside and watched throngs of people (fortunately anti-Nazi demonstrators) walking to the park where the rally took place. I really wanted to go and throw eggs at the Nazis, but my mom would let me (probably a good idea, since I was only seven).

My favorite moment in the "Think" clip the Phil posted is when the cook takes off his hair net and shakes his long jazz hair. "I see I'm needed up front. Hey, a job's a job."

That's "Blue Lou" Marini, btw.

real cars in car chases = YES I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE

I'll accept yr point about Belushi's eyes but, cmon, his other prime physical tool was his BODY, so all is not lost, surely.

real cars in car chases = YES I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE

Almost all of them completely totaled. This was a $30 million movie, in 1980 dollars. That's like Terminator 2 money. And most of it, I'm pretty sure, was spent on destroying Ford Crown Victorias.

I'm pretty sure that level of car destruction was completely unheard of at the time. One of my enduring memories from when I first saw the movie in a theater was the hilariously endless list of stuntpeople in the credits.

and ford crown vics are solid vehicles, they don't destruct easily.

so awesome. it was like watching someone play toy car smashups, but with real cars!