Saturday Night Live

Hated this ep, but I've never once found Jim Carrey the slightest bit funny in anything he's ever done (although the Sia sketch was pretty good, despite him).

I guess that explains why you find SNL funny.

Harry Shearer, a regular in two different stints ('79-80, 84-85):

You were on SNL for a little bit, and it wasn’t the best time for you, right?

That’s putting it mildly! And I went back, stupidly. I went back while Lorne [Michaels] was on his 5-year jaunt in the wilderness, and Ebersol was producing. I thought, “It’s gotta be better without Lorne.” Lorne made it miserable for me. I saw a listicle on the Internet saying, “5 People Who Should Guest Host Saturday Night Live This Year,” and I was on there. I resisted the urge to say, “They haven’t made enough wild horses.”

How do you feel about the state of the show today?

I don’t watch it. I didn’t like it before I went there. I wasn’t an admirer of the idea that at this point in television history, “live” was a good idea. It was basically just an excuse to be sloppy.

Right. I’ve been to a taping of Saturday Night Live, and perhaps it was different back in the day, but now it’s a lot of people reading off cue cards.

No, it was that way back then, too. As a matter of fact, there was a moment the second time I was there and Marty Short, who’s a brilliantly funny guy, was improvising a line in a scene during a camera blocking, and Dave Wilson, the director at the time, said, “Marty, that’s funny! You can say it, but we won’t see it!” He directed to the script, and there was nothing loose about that show.

Why are there cue card readings? There was a show in the ‘50s called Your Show of Shows. Tell me if this format sounds familiar: it was a 90-minute variety show on Saturday night from Studio 8H in New York City featuring comedy sketches and musical numbers. Sound familiar? The only difference was the writing staff was Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner, and they started writing on Monday. Monday was the day they wrote the show, and then they rehearsed for the whole week and memorized it. SNL forever hasn’t been written until late Tuesday night, read-throughs were Wednesday, and a third more sketches were put into the production cycle before it aired, so nobody ever remembered it because why would you remember sketches that might not be produced? It all comes from the way you organize the show. I don’t blame the performers, but to run a show that way where you make a lot of the decisions last minute, there’s going to be a spiraling lack of commitment all the way down the line.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/21/harry-shearer-on-being-nixon-the-simpsons-movie-sequel-and-why-obama-should-return-his-nobel.html

I guess that explains why you find SNL funny.

Wait...soooo...either Jim Carrey is funny, which is why I like SNL, which is unfunny...

...or you're confirming that Jim Carrey is unfunny, which is why I like SNL, which is funny.

(aside from the fact that none of my posts in this thread have amounted to anything close to "Wow, great episode tonight! Typical consistent brilliance from SNL!")

Help me out here, Midge.

first answer best as usual, Tarfu

Anyway I saw the 3 Carrey / McConnalincoln bits, and since 1.5 were funny they've mastered the art of beating a sketch to death in one show!

those harry shearer quotes are great, thanks. i didn't realize how accelerated the SNL schedule was. that explains a lot.

the biggest problem i have with SNL--and this goes back a long time--is that the writers seem to have no clue how to end skits. gags are just repeated with diminishing returns until some arbitrary end point. there's no sense of development or resolution, even just in a formal (not dramatic) sense. often there's pretty funny stuff in the skits, but they just kind of peter out.

"What's the difference between life and a SNL sketch? Life doesn't go on forever." - Eric Idle

I'm genuinely surprised you like Carrey, Morbs. I always saw him as the hackiest ripoff of Jerry Lewis' schtick -- the Black Crowes to Jerry's Faces, the White Stripes to Jerry's Flat Duo Jets, the Eric Clapton to Jerry's Otis Rush, the Lenny Kravitz to Jerry's everybody.

i actually don't find ernie kovacs as funny as i'm supposed to but one thing that i think more shows could pick up on are his "blackouts"--really just excuses for little demented moments that wouldn't be worth stretching out into entire skits. i actually think the brief comedy bits on e.g. letterman (even nowadays!) are funnier than SNL because they are only as long as they need to be.

Carrey is one of the best movie actors of his generation (Pauline Kael concurred in her last interview) ... both in Farrelly stuff like Me, Myself & Irene and this:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/i-love-you-phillip-morris

there are times when Carrey "does Lewis" better than Lewis, and Jack Lemmon as good as/better than Lemmon.

Pauline Kael concurred in her last interview

appeal to authority, minus six points

i do like carrey though

iirc the latest-made role referenced in that jim carrey family reunion sketch was the cable guy. might have missed a grinch but i don't think so.

jim carrey as host in 1996 was one of the best episodes ever

the biggest problem i have with SNL--and this goes back a long time--is that the writers seem to have no clue how to end skits.

^^^ this

when you see fully-formed, well thought-out stuff done like with KITH or Mr. Show this really becomes painfully clear

yeah, it's like they actually conceived the skit as a skit, and not just as a single gag repeated with minor variations...

what up with that?

every now and again SNL will have a mercifully short skit and I scream with joy.

i actually think "what up with that" is one of the better of the recent recurring skits if only because it doesn't aspire to be much more than just loopy

yeah, it has good pacing: what up with that?, talk to guest, what up with that?, talk to guest, what up with that?, lindsey buckingham, what up with that? (but a bit zanier)

that sketch is great precisely because it acknowledges the format's inherent inanity

macgruber skits were appropriate length

and they all had an ending!

that guy kenan must be one of the longest-serving SNL cast members by now, no?

he's done sketch comedy for most of his life it seems.

apparently darrell hammond has the record at 14 seasons, but kenan's closing in at 12

incredible how the criticism that they can't end sketches has been around FOREVER and somehow they just keep getting worse at it

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/snl-star-michael-che-wont-apologize-cat-call-222700611.html

prince's glasses

lold harder @ cedric the entertainers wooden hanger lines in the ad for rock's movie than everything in this ep

this show is awful

there were Uber jokes in three separate segments

Only tolerable moments were Rock's monologue and the Women in the Workplace sketch at the end (McKinnon killed).

its sad we had to sit through the whole damn ep to get to the last sketch that was actually good =\

prince's glasses

― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Monday, November 3, 2014 11:44 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its sad we had to sit through the whole damn ep to get to the last sketch that was actually good =\

― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Monday, November 3, 2014 6:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which one was that

I ... liked this episode? I dunno what everyone's complaining about. there were some poor line readings but that's nothing new.

didn't see Prince, the musical acts get cut out of reruns for some reason

I ... liked this episode? I dunno what everyone's complaining about. there were some poor line readings but that's nothing new.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 4, 2014 10:37 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there were tons of totally bum line readings, a whole bunch of missed cues, some camera fuck ups, and at least two skits that were complete, nearly laugh-free abominations

me + my chica died at the shark tank sketch even thought the impressions weren't good at all (except for kate mckinnon who is like next level)

there were tons of totally bum line readings, a whole bunch of missed cues, some camera fuck ups, and at least two skits that were complete, nearly laugh-free abominations

maybe the laugh free abonimations were cut from the rerun I saw but the rest sounds like yr average episode to me

I couldn't tell what happened in the Rock/Jones sketch. Did she miss a line? Did Rock? Was the blocking screwed up? Was it a directorial error?

it seems like someone stepped on someone else's line, and this confused the guy calling the shots (probably the director)

i wouldn't be surprised if they cut that skit from reruns, hulu, etc. b/c it really was a complete abortion

at first i thought maybe they were going for some kind of richard pryor show "you expect this to be funny, but really it's deep" thing so i gave it the benefit of the doubt for a few minutes but no, it was just a horribly misconceived "comedy" skit

nah I saw that one. it wasn't v funny but I dunno it seems like there's always some of those per episode. things I lol'd at - anything involving Kenan, which felt like most of the episode

Yeah, "How's he Doing?" was pretty good.

But man, Rock was the cue-cardingest host since DeNiro.

tbh i liked the laugh-free couple sketch. i found it sort of adorable. if it weren't for the awkward line readings/errors it would've been a nice low-key thing.

i think this is jones' first real acting gig and i think she's still getting the hang of it

also it is nuts how young she looks, can't find an exact birth year but wiki says she was in college in 1987

Goldie Taylor goes off on some weird rant: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/04/leslie_joness_frustrating_performance_why_im_afraid_she_wasnt_the_right_choice_for_snl/