Saturday Night Live

Cecily has been almost totally MIA, I think this last week she was only in a voiceover?

I happen to really like this cast mostly, but the ideas and writing are just not cutting it.

Too busy filming those Prego ads?

Shrill is great, love Aidy but I think she's ready to bolt SNL and probably should

Che and Colin Jost have been head writers and the show has pretty much gone to shit under their reign

I feel like in the streaming era this has changed, because most people I know just watch it the next day.

― they see me lollin' (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, October 20, 2020 10:51 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

streaming is probably the one thing that's kept me watching, because with no commercials and skipping musical acts I don't care about, it's like a 40 minute show

I don't look in very often, but I gave tonight's debate opening a go--just terrible.

Episode utterly dire. When Adele’s acting is the best thing....

Guessing that Cecily may have some risk that made her decide she didn’t want to be on set

It’s not even interestingly bad, it’s supremely mediocre to the bone

I’m kinda surprised that Africa sketch made it to air.

Yeah that was some racist shit.

And they had a whole sketch about not having to think about Trump anymore. Projection, much? Have they had a single cold open in four years that wasn't a Trump sketch?

The only political sketch that made me LOL on SNL in the last 20 years was Dana Carvey coming back to be George H W Bush, taking Ferrell's Dubya on a hunting trip, pointing the rifle at him as he walked away, and saying "Nope, not gonna do it. It's only 4 years"

I've been informed that Cecily strong is filming a movie in Canada and Aidy Bryant is shooting the next season of Shrill.

Che and Colin Jost have been head writers and the show has pretty much gone to shit under their reign

UMS otm, the worst WU anchors since colin quinn, just hacky unambitious dreck

unambitious dreck

the only ambition that counts in comedy is to provoke a laugh. satire requires more ambition, but SNL has almost always been bad at satire.

thanks i knew what i meant when i wrote ambitious

Chevy Chase as a pratfalling Gerald Ford was hacky unambitious comedy, too. Why would you bother to criticize the show for not delivering what it has never delivered in the past 45 years?

are you arguing that Che and Host are exactly at the same level as all head writers through SNL history

"exactly the same"? no. I am not such a silly goose as that. they are each of them hacky and unambitious in their own individual way.

I think I'm becoming an SNL truther and that maybe the early 90s was the peak

I'm trying to think what 90s image is funnier than this still image
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/p7bwcknzo7n.png

I'll find one...

it's a tough one...
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d7ogcb3mky9.png

they are each of them hacky and unambitious in their own individual way.

While not familiar with whole episodes in the pre-Jost era, it seems apparent that Fey's external work on 30 Rock shows a greater ambition for laughs, structure, satire and emotion. Meyers' transformation of his talk show into a life support system for Gentile's segment could be a later blossoming of ambition that he didn't hold as head writer, but I can't see Che graduating to that from his current outside-work ambition of relentlessly bullying one single leftist ex-comedy writer on Instagram for not being as wealthy as Che. Poehler might be facing a reckoning this year for the way her school retained the same financial structure over the decades that its influence grew, but she also built a school that became one of the most significant developers of American comedy talent in several generations. MacDonald's personal ambition seems limited simply to earn enough money to gamble with, but he evidently saw the Update platform as worth exploiting to make savage and accurate attacks on corrupt or hateful people in power, rather than having them sit at the desk to apologise to in person.

Sitcom writing and skit comedy tied to a weekly live format are wholly different beasts. The tight deadlines and need for material to fill a 90 minute show of five and ten minute segments strongly encourages gag writing, not "structure, satire and emotion".

Che and Jost's respective activity outside of their stewardship of this bad show does support bison's judgment, though, as does comparing their Update work to MacDonald's.

"Poehler might be facing a reckoning this year for the way her school retained the same financial structure over the decades that its influence grew," sorry what?

I think Che and Jost are fine on WU. It's still the strongest segment of the show though Melissa Villasenor's bit was terrible as was the Village People bit.

I was surprised to see SNL's ratings so high this year. Give the people what they want...

"sorry what?"

Keeping tickets at mostly $5 maintained a flow of 4x nightly full houses, but effectively resulted in the students paying to perform & run most of the business, while excluding them from any decision-making power. The workforce"s opposition to moving the Chelsea location to Hell's Kitchen in 2017 was borne out by the financial collapse of that location. The Los Angeles workforce"s complaints about financial mismanagement and diversity have this year been compounded by the aggressive actions of the consultant hired to handle shutdown, and followed by the founders" attempts to transfer the entire business to a diversity board as a nonprofit, and selling off the one location, out of four on two coasts, that they actually own.

I've literally never heard of John Mulaney (usual disclaimer: I'm sure that says more about me than him), but that was a solid monologue. The slumber-party detour was great.

comedian, also used to be on Kroll Show, and was one half of "Oh, Hello" on Broadway. I saw his special in 2018 that he recorded at Radio City Music Hall live, it was dope.

Also it's his 4th time hosting.

I'm so far from keeping up, you can be famous and host SNL and I might not know you...I read up on him a bit after his monologue.

Also was an SNL writer, providing some of the high points of the show during the Seth Myers years (including purposely giving Bill Hader no choice but to break while reading Stefon cue cards during Update).

confused threads for a moment and thought you were talking about Nate Silver

lmao

Mulaney was an SNL writer for some years before his stand-up career took off (creating and writing the character Stefon for Bill Hader, notably). He's hosted SNL once a year for the last three years*, each time mounting an elaborate & musical sketch that he'd had rejected while staff there as the finale.

He has several very good stand-up specials that are worth searching out if you enjoyed his monologue, and a variety special on Netflix starring himself, David Byrne, Jake Gyllenhall, and an ensemble of kids, called The Sack Lunch Bunch.

*not counting tonight

oh xpost

comparing Trump to having a horse loose in a hospital was pretty inspired

(from Kid Gorgeous)

Don’t forget his failed sitcom. Left SNL to have his own show w Martin Short and it was terrible and flopped. This “the comeback kid”.

If you like Mulaney's standup and Bill Hader, they did a long interview/talk together for one of the NYC libraries that has some really funny moments and stories that is worth searching out.

John Mulaney is far and away my favorite stand up comic currently working, and maybe my favorite ever. This was a solid episode though not as strong as his last two hosting duties, but fuck it, I would love for him to just host it forever.

(his stand up specials on Netflix are some of the few stand up specials I can watch multiple times. I don't know how many times I've seen that horse in a hospital bit ... I even saw him do it live...and it's still funny)

at the actual taping in Radio City, a few people got up and left at that point lol - I had a shitty seat and it could have been the usual trove of people who leave early, but there seemed to be a few who didn't like that bit.

We've listened to his "Salt and Pepper Diner" bit possibly more than any other stand up bit ever.

I even saw him do it live...and it's still funny)

I've rewatched just the long Bill Clinton story from The Comeback Kid several times as a reminder of the joy of seeing him do it in 2014.

the JT Bittenbinder story is cry my eyes out funny

as is the Delta Airlines bit. Somewhere my son actually drew that sketch out as a comic panel and it was hilarious, I should see if it's still in his room somewhere (he did it when he was like 11).

I actually thought this episode was pretty mediocre, tbh. I liked the monologue most of all found a lot of the other skits boring, except maybe the "Birds" one.

I also liked Kyle as Influencer Baby Yoda but ymmv

I totally liked him, but I like him in most of his bits.