Saturday Night Live

Maine Justice is really the sketch that made the least sentence but I liked that the actors seemed to realize how dumb it was and just decided to fuck around

the best snl skits are the absurd ones that aren't really making fun of anything in particular. my favorite this year was kevin roberts, "can a bitch get a doughnut?"

Maine Justice was one of my favorites ever, though it wasn't quite as good when they tried to repeat it (and I think it was just two and done with that one).

If anyone's interested, Sasheer Zamata was on This American Life having a conversation with her mother this week. That might sound boring, but it totally wasn't.

Maine Justice is the one my brother and I quote the most mostly due to how ridiculous it was.

That and the potato chip sketch.

If it were still April 1 I'd honestly think tonight's entire show was a prank.

Waste of Peter Dinklage IMO. He sold Space Pants, which was pretty lazy but at least entertaining. None of the other sketches had, like, endings.

At least I can report, with relief, that none of Gwen Stefani's new songs will be relentlessly stuck in my head this time around.

When have snl sketches ever had endings

Space...Pants?

I think I always have the same conversation with my wife after the first episode after a break. She'll say "why isn't this episode better they had weeks to write it!" and I'll say "I think the point is they haven't been working for a few weeks."

Not a good episode but some ok moments. Glory Hole skit was unbelievably stupid but I laughed. Underwater honeymoon was probably my favorite, really sold by Taran's amazing oscar worthy performance as corpse floating underwater.

just watched Space Pants. felt like two disparate sketches merged into one. Mafia dudes felt like they were in a holding pattern. as an actor I felt awkward watching it. just a mob boss sitting there asking the same questions w/ a gun pointed at two dudes w/ them giving filler answers.

Dan otm the floating corpse was amazing

never saw maine justice before but it's great, lol

me and my bro used to do the Jason Sudeikis "Dey got some good schoos up there, das troo, das troo" thing for a solid month

When Sudeikis gets up on his desk and starts shaking his feet, the best!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh75XWRaugg

I'm not sure why I like this cast so much when the writing is generally so terrible. it's like they just don't know how to write sketches or characters.

I like quite a few of the current cast but, yeah, I've been finding a lot of the sketches woeful for quite some time now, and often a whole episode won't contain a single good sketch, just funny moments within the sketches, generally based on the delivery of lines. real fallow period in that respect for sure.

so true! the cast seems so likeable and talented, with the right collective sensibility, but where's the beef?? are they lazy? on drugs? wtf

maybe having that total dud colin jost as head writer muddies the waters

lorne probably going senile too

the church lady opener was godawful, otherwise i laughed a bit @ this last 1 idk; that mom hair sketch was fine

This may have made the whole season worth it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6LpKOJVf0

...

Like the Drake as Hulk Hogan sketch last week, I just...don't know what to say or feel.

Was that a ten to one bit?

I just saw Second City perform last week for the first time in, oh, 20 years? Let's say 20 years. Anyway, hit or miss as usual, but I know they've been making efforts to move improv away from the usual white male default, and this cast included two African-American women and a Korean-American man. The last got me thinking and doing some lazy research, and I was shocked to learn that not only has SNL never had an Asian-American cast member (actually, that's not that shocking) but has only twice had an Asian host, once with Jackie Chan and the other Lucy Liu (who I think cohosted). There have been over 800 episodes!

http://uproxx.com/tv/snl-potato-chip/

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/taran-killam-jay-pharoah-to-leave-saturday-night-live-w433408

That's wild, Killan is like their Phil Hartman/Darrell Hammond utility player, you'd think he'd be on the show for a decade

Also, shout out to Kenan, who's gonna tie Hammond's record if he sticks around this season

I haven't been watching for awhile but I assumed Killan was one of the more popular cast members?

I don't think he's that popular. Like he's great and dependable and has his moments to shine, but you don't see him jumping out and leading a movie or sitcom you know?

he's the lead in an upcoming lorne michaels produced movie!

as the straight man for bobby moynihan to go nuts around but still kinda surprising they didn't pick up his contract.

he was one of like 3 people on the cast who can actually act

huh, he's also the writer-director of a movie with arnold schwarzenegger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We%27re_Killing_Gunther

killam was really becoming almost a will ferrell-like figure as far as amount of screen time vs. the rest of the cast was concerned. he was in like half of the sketches! i was burning out on him a little bit but he will definitely be missed. jay pharaoh i always felt was never really used as well as he could be (i.e. get him to learn like 3 new impressions a year and let him loose every ep)

snl really getting to the point now where it's like "who's on this show again?"

It's just because we're olds. But yeah. It's been like four years since I consistently watched so I have no idea who half of these whippersnappers are.

if by whippersnappers you mean comedic genisuses like Kyle and Beck you should pay more attention!

i dunno about that, there's just a remarkable lack of old faces rn. Only four of the current cast have 5 years under their belt! (i couldn't believe it when I saw that Cecily has only had 4 year, feels liek she's been there longer, which I think is a testament to how great she is consistently. she feels like such a key part of the show imo)

side note: arguably still has the strongest female ensemble in SNL history right now assuming they don't lose anyone, and maybe the weakest male ensemble in SNL history (love kyle mooney but he is not a cleanup hitter. killam was the closest thing)

beck is fantastic too, hopefully he can develop more awesome characters and maybe do a fucking voice or two, and please for the love of god no more thna like 2 baby man sketches next year pleaaaaase

if by whippersnappers you mean comedic genisuses like Kyle and Beck you should pay more attention!

― dan selzer, Tuesday, August 9, 2016 9:29 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I admit that I'm totally at fault here. My lifelong SNL obsession just tapered off a few years back for no apparent reason. I'll get on a kick and marathon everything I've missed at some point.

I guess there was a moment a few years ago (2012) when they had a LOT of vets on the roster at once. Samberg, Hader, Armisen, Kenan, Wiig, Sudeikis and Meyers had all been there at least 8 years, Abby Elliott/Bobby Moynihan/Nasim Pedrad were approaching "vet" status (about 4 years each), and the new people felt like an injection of young talent vs. filling the void (McKinnon, Cecily, Aidy, Pharaoh, Brittain, Killam, Bayer, Tim Robinson).

It was one of the biggest casts @ 20 (and I think I remember complaining that it was too big lol) but it had the right blend of "people who have been doing this a while" and "new people to keep it fresh."

It's also the smallest cast it's been in a while right now, at 14, so they'll have to make that work (or add people). Aidy, Kate, Cecily, Vanessa, Bobby and Kenan as the vets, Leslie/Pete/Sasheer/Kyle/Beck entering their "shit or get off the pot" seasons, some guy named Jon Rudnitsky still whose face I will hopefully be able to conjure on command by seasons end (seriously, this guy is entering his third year and I can't remember what he looks like).

Seriously this cast would be perfect if they added two more solid dudes. One who could ground a scene (a Sudeikis or Forte) and one who is just absurdly likeable and not alienating (a Horatio Sanz type) and I am now fantasy booking SNL someone stop me

Rudnitsky is not coming back this season

i guess i will never remember his face! wow so that's a cast of 13... hasn't been that small in a while! (2007)

why yes i did make a spreadsheet that shows me these fact why do you ask

I have a spreadsheet, too! Not updated in a while but still.

This is the one time I wish I were still plugged into the improv scene and could make some predictions/suggestions of new SNL cast members.

(Although more people went to SNL from Chicago during the period that I was plugged in than I expect to see happen again anytime soon.)

they're bringing back darrell hammond