probably less "design" and more like "unavoidable artifact of the process"; I'm pretty sure everyone involved would want the show to be seamless top to bottom but that is very, very hard to make work on that production schedule.
― ¶ (DJP), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 17:32 (seven years ago) link
Plenty of people involved in the show have complained that the unexamined tradition of exhaustedly blazing through several days of all-nighters doesn't do much for the quality of the show.
― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 17:32 (seven years ago) link
They could change up the production schedule--have the writers work on non-current events related sketches during breaks, etc.--but yeah, I think Lorne keeps it the way it is because that's what he thinks works.
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:07 (seven years ago) link
yeah i always felt that, like their offseason is long and most of the material isn't topical - even the weekend update character bits tend not to be timely.
― harold melvin and the bluetones (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:09 (seven years ago) link
i usually ended up liking it for the people who made me laugh no matter what they did. which isn't an endless list.
top seven people who kinda always made me laugh no matter what awful stuff they were forced to do:
will ferrell darrell hammond phil hartman jan hooks jon lovitz amy poehler molly shannon
― scott seward, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:18 (seven years ago) link
that's off of the top of my head. i don't know why i thought of darrell hammond. but he did make me laugh a lot. martin short doesn't really count. he's comedy all time.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:20 (seven years ago) link
They do so many game show sketches because the sets are easy to build in a week.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:31 (seven years ago) link
my friend ted's dad is the set designer. been there since the beginning.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
Presidential Medal Of Freedom for Lorne.
"Hallelujah" right on time!
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 20:12 (seven years ago) link
Do people like Michael Che? He's getting TV commercials and his own Netflix special and a lot of press, like he's a breakout star or something
― Evan R, Friday, 18 November 2016 20:16 (seven years ago) link
He's a traditional stand-up.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 18 November 2016 20:22 (seven years ago) link
i like michael che
― jingo unchained (Will M.), Friday, 18 November 2016 20:26 (seven years ago) link
so bummed we lost Jay Pharaoh as Ben Carson
― flappy bird, Friday, 18 November 2016 22:37 (seven years ago) link
^^^ ditto
Big beautiful boobs and buildings.
― rudy githyanki (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 20 November 2016 09:04 (seven years ago) link
i like cecily strong. don't think she gets a lot of attention even though she is a staple of most sketches.
― Treeship, Sunday, 20 November 2016 15:54 (seven years ago) link
I watched the clip of the Anderson Cooper sketch--there is some kind of lack of giving a shit about making comedy in the writing that must come from needed people to feel like they should chuckle every ten seconds or so. Like, if the joke of the scene is that these media pundits are all robots following a programmed loop then why are they making cracks about how crappy the set is? Or saying "I'm the good one"?
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Monday, 21 November 2016 19:48 (seven years ago) link
I thought this week's episode was the best this year. It helps to have a pro like Kristen Wiig, of course, so that they don't have to shoehorn in some unfunny celebrity into every sketch.
― schwantz, Monday, 21 November 2016 21:08 (seven years ago) link
Far from my favorite character, but can't believe they did a Target sketch and DIDN'T include Wiig's Target lady.
― dan selzer, Monday, 21 November 2016 21:10 (seven years ago) link
lol this bit rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DHJrswOKw
― flappy bird, Monday, 21 November 2016 21:27 (seven years ago) link
And the Wiig character they did do was one of my least favorite of hers (the surprise party thing).
OTOH, I think that the Chappelle episode was much better than this one (and the Cumberbatch one, which was even worse than the Wiig).
― nickn, Tuesday, 22 November 2016 05:39 (seven years ago) link
That Goddesses sketch should definitely have been on instead of that recycled Wiig character sketch. At least they didn't bring back Gilly or the Target Lady.
― rudy githyanki (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 22 November 2016 10:28 (seven years ago) link
http://www.avclub.com/article/colin-jost-receives-37-kinds-criticism-transphobic-246323
― rudy githyanki (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 10:41 (seven years ago) link
Is the Jost Tinder joke like the "sleep, that's where I'm a viking" gag in that some people read it one way and other people read it another way; and if you read it the first way (emphasis on "37") it's not TOO bad, but if you read it another way (emphasis on "gender identity") it's pretty much a literal hate crime on live television, and he's so fucking stupid that he never bothers clarifiying and just links to thinkpieces
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:21 (seven years ago) link
(just to clarify, the "37" reading is still bad)
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:23 (seven years ago) link
gender binaries are dumb but come on, 37? that's absurd.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:24 (seven years ago) link
if u are looking for gender bending solidarity maybe look elsewhere than a 40-year-old establishment comedy show news segment hosted by smug white guy
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:26 (seven years ago) link
Just because a viewpoint is the right one doesn't mean it might help you lose an election.
― schwantz, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:27 (seven years ago) link
Think I forgot one more negative in that sentence. I'll try again:
A morally-correct viewpoint can still be an election-loser.
― schwantz, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 17:41 (seven years ago) link
i fuckin lost it when they showed the picture of Trump & Obama shaking hands and Jost said "President-Elect Trump showed how brave he is by meeting with the founder of ISIS."
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 18:12 (seven years ago) link
I mainly thought the target was Tinder, as in smug sillicon valley types competing to see who can be the most woke. But then come on, explain the target, apologize if others got hurt. Even if it's true that being pro-transgender helped Trump win, what a smug way to tell a tragic joke.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 18:59 (seven years ago) link
The only people who should have to explain jokes are people in the Excelsior thread, to me.
― schwantz, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 19:07 (seven years ago) link
"Ok everyone, I just want to be clear about who that joke was aimed at so that you can laugh correctly. Always be punching up, people!"
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Monday, 28 November 2016 19:24 (seven years ago) link
I re-watched some of Saturday's repeat, the show that aired the week the Access Hollywood story broke. There was no point in the whole election where Clinton winning seemed like more of a sure thing. Watching Kate McKinnon dance around to Kool & the Gang felt so strange.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 00:07 (seven years ago) link
the episode from the week before, with wiig, is great; particularly the late-in-the-show sketch with the cat adoptions
― akm, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 00:14 (seven years ago) link
The two Wiig cut for time skits are as good or better than most of what aired that night.
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 01:01 (seven years ago) link
“We’ve actually tried to make ‘S.N.L.’ a safe space across the political spectrum,” Lorne Michaels, its creator, told me in his office near the “S.N.L.” studio on the 17th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
fuck this show and fuck Lorne Michaels, this false equivalency horseshit got us where we are today.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 00:26 (seven years ago) link
...NBC and Trump have a 15 year business relationship, there's no 'false equivalency horseshit', he's actually their guy
― sleepingbag, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 00:29 (seven years ago) link
anyway john cena was funny
― sleepingbag, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 00:30 (seven years ago) link
agree ! he falls into the lineage of like peyton or eli manning being sortof stiff but also a capably funny performer and easy to write for imo
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:10 (seven years ago) link
I thought he was pretty good but not great, a bit stiff w/ the card reading but a natural performer. I figured wrestlers would have an advantage in SNL skits over most athletes.
― dan selzer, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:12 (seven years ago) link
SNL's false equivalency horseshit goes back to decades
Xp
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:12 (seven years ago) link
what's an example?
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:41 (seven years ago) link
Bringing Palin on springs to mind
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:53 (seven years ago) link
Strategery vs. Lockbox
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 December 2016 03:56 (seven years ago) link
the dumb reporters asking dumb Gulf War questions sketch
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 14 December 2016 13:59 (seven years ago) link
mostly in equating slapdash improv crap with comedy
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 14 December 2016 14:08 (seven years ago) link
Jim Downey has been injecting a strain of conservativism into the show for most of the time it's been on the air. Just saw that he's returned this season after a few years' absence.
― The Pleasure Principal (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 14 December 2016 14:14 (seven years ago) link
chance is the only good thing about this episode. the cavalcade of trump jokes are unilaterally dreary.
― the klosterman weekend (s.clover), Sunday, 18 December 2016 06:00 (seven years ago) link
chance is definitely gonna host in 2017
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 18 December 2016 06:32 (seven years ago) link
This cast is in desperate need of a leader or visionary or... something. I'm amazed how bad it is given the beyond-fertile environment
― rip van wanko, Sunday, 18 December 2016 09:58 (seven years ago) link