Saturday Night Live

What did you guys think of the little guy with the big ears randomly doing 90 seconds of standup in the middle of Weekend Update, is that a thing the featured players do now

Standard thing for feature players. I thought his was pretty funny.

imo that's a plus to Mooney's weirdo skits, at least he's trying to break out of the skit setup rut

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, May 17, 2021 4:21 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I like him a lot..just feels like he should be working in the larger Mr. Show/Kids in the Hall diaspora, like Tim & Eric axis, I Think You Should Leave Now etc

I was pleasantly surprised at how funny I thought Andrew Dismukes’ Update segment was. It does seem to be standard for featured players, but often in a bad way: “OK, you’ve barely been in three sketches all season, so if you wanna come back, make this count.”

xp

yeah Dismuke has been there all year and barely gotten any screen time in sketches, it was good to give him this to see why he got hired. That was funny enough.

Looks like they hired him just in case they need someone to play Mulaney's little brother in a sketch.

I thought the Key ep was much better than the Elon Musk one fwiw but it was still on the low-average side.

I think that’s pretty standard. I remember brooks whatever his name was doing a bit on weekend update. Was Peter Davidson still featured when he did his first update standup? Felt like it’s a last chance for some of these featured types to make an impression. Thought he was pretty good.

That Update slot can pay some unexpected rewards. I thought Ego Nwodim's harried Disney mom on the Elon ep was great, better than anything Elon was involved in.

yeah that was really funny

Leslie Jones also basically did standup bits on Update too, it's been fairly common for the featured players in the last 4-5 seasons.

I didn't watch, but all of twitter seems convinced Cecily, Aidy, Kate and Kenan (and probably Pete) are gone after tonight.

That makes sense—they've all been there FOREVER, Kenan in particular—but it would be wild if they just do a total reinvention like 1986 or 1994.

Bowen Yang = Jon Lovitz in this scenario.

I watched and also looked at twitter during the episode and didn't see anybody saying that (or anything about the show)

apparently all of Eurovision are being cast in SNL next season though?

I didn't see anyone say that but maybe they were just assuming that since the four of them opened the cold open by themselves and there was extra applause. I wouldn't be surprised if Kate and Aidy both leave, they clearly could make the jump to movies or their own shows now. Kenan already has but honestly I don't think he will ever leave now, I think he'll stay on the show for another 15 years.

this episode was probably the strongest of the season, each sketch was funny which is something that barely ever happens. Anya TJ was one of the better hosts; she was in almost every sketch and didn't seem very cue-card reliant either.

Jost and Che trading jokes written for each other was definitely the hardest I laughed at anything on SNL all season (granted, not exactly a super high bar).

And I can't see SNL doing a total reinvention -- not keeping anyone from the previous season -- ever again. The two times they did that -- 1980-81 and '85-'86 -- were notoriously shitty seasons, despite a handful of decent performers (and Eddie Murphy singlehandedly saving the show in '81, obviously).

wouldn't be surprised if Kate and Aidy both leave, they clearly could make the jump to movies or their own shows now

Aidy has just had the third season of her own show (as lead, regular writer and EP) air

yeah I know. but it also got cancelled.

siurely that would be an argument against jumping to her own show

season three of Shrill was fantastic and it was definitely set up for a fourth season, real bummer it got cancelled

Being a comedian is a thorny career path. Same thing for anyone who depends on building an audience & fan base. At least Aidy has some viable options to choose from. In her business, that's being a roaring success.

yes she will succeed on another show if she is given one, which I'm sure she will be, if she leaves.

if Kate, Aidy, Cecily and Kenan all leave, who is the funniest person left? i'd say Beck Bennett.

he consistently makes me laugh, but at the same time, i'm not sure you want him to be your funniest cast member. the cupboard feels kinda bare to me.

Anya was a great host, a natural, and the cold open was surprisingly affecting, but the rest of this episode (great Weekend Update goofiness aside) was only a couple of beats better than the usual SNL this season. Which is to say, in the words of my kid, "it was ... OK."

The opening didn’t make me think anyone might leave…but Cecilys bravura Jeanine Pirro weekend update performance felt like a sort of send off.

agree, re: the Pirro bit. very much a send-off.

the opening itself didn't feel final - esp. for Kenan or Pete, idk know where ppl are getting that? - but McKinnon and Bryant's emotion did feel like something was up.

also agree that Anya was a great host, much more natural than most. and that the episode overall was just a bit better than usual.

idk, i still like this show even though they have real clunkers too often.

@4:50 possibly the most disturbing shit I've ever seen on SNL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc0FeUMQIA4

Man, that's some early Ferrell! And-despite probably watching that ep when it aired-I totally forgot that Nancy Walls and David Koechner were on SNL.

One of my all-time fave sketches.

I see awful late-90s SNL castmember Jim Breuer is refusing to perform stand-up in venues that require proof of vaccination. From that era are all the men officially now either a "cancel culture/you can't say anything anymore" conservative or just full-blown right-wing nutjob?

Roughly 86-94 it's a definite majority (Mike Myers excepted). Bruer seems more like a holdover from that era, I think of late 90s as starting to be informed more by the Adam McKay-Will Ferrell sensibility.

Might be due in part to where SNL was harvesting their talent. Stand-ups vs. improv players. Or maybe not. But it fits.

Oh no, Jim Breuer, please. Please don't withhold your comedy magic from us, please. If I don't get to see you do Goat Boy in your mid-50s I might as well be dead from COVID.

Chris Rock and Kevin Nealon still have their heads on straight (Rock just got Covid, btw). Carvey seems old these days and a bit baffled by some aspects of modern culture but he doesn't strike me as a reactionary loon. But Miller, Lovitz, Schneider, Breuer, not to mention Victoria Jackson... a lot of brainworms there (actually I'm not sure if Lovitz is a pain in the ass or not, I seem to remember him getting fairly conservative post 9-11).

I finally went and started watching Norm MacDonald's talk show on Netflix last night, forgot that Spade actually seems like an alright guy these days.

Yeah, Spade's ok.

don't forget Sandler... not outspoken but a quick Google reveals he's got a history of donating to Trump, Rudy, etc.

xpost Based on what? He's one of those "I don't talk politics" guys, which is a bit like calling yourself an independent, which is a bit like being a Republican.

Norm flirted with some reactionary/conservative stuff, but he might have just been poking bears. Lovitz I thought skewed conservative, but it's hard to tell if whatever I read once (I forget) was inaccurate, a one-off, or if he did a subsequent PR rehab move. For example, Tom Brady got tainted by the Trump stink, but I sense he's made a concerted effort to destink himself via smart PR moves and, one suspects, bathing in tomato juice. My Brady stan buddy insists he was never a Trump guy, but regardless I explained to him that the perception that he was, er, trumps whatever his personal views may actually be.

There's some debate/confusion about Sandler.

It might very well be a different Adam Sandler. Read this article about a street busker named Adam Sandler from Ashland, OR.
Beneath Elmo’s Mask, a Man With a Disturbing Past https://t.co/g5UKumVYpN

— Jonathan Small 😗🎶 (@JonathanBSmall) August 9, 2019

hmm. so the public record Trump donations are unlikely. However, more reputable sources suggest he has a history of being a registered R and apparently performed at their convention in 04? I don't remember that but I was mostly off the grid in the lead up to that election

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3PP_SWHUQQ

probably the best troll ever

I finally went and started watching Norm MacDonald's talk show on Netflix last night, forgot that Spade actually seems like an alright guy these days.

― akm, Monday, September 20, 2021 10:29 AM bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, Spade's ok.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, September 20, 2021 11:06 AM bookmarkflaglink

xpost Based on what? He's one of those "I don't talk politics" guys, which is a bit like calling yourself an independent, which is a bit like being a Republican.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 20, 2021 11:31 AM bookmarkflaglink

Based on podcast interviews and Stern show appearances in recent years. Most of these guys who peaked in the early 90s grump about the comedy police and all that bullshit, but Spade sounds aware of where he went wrong in the past, acknowledges why it sucked, and doesn't do it anymore without being shitty about it.

He's no hero, but he's more mature than a lot of these ball bags.

I can see why comedy guys don't want to talk politics. The audience who will pay to see a comic who was on SNL in the 90s probably has a higher percentage of conversatives than your average UCB show. Gaffigan was staunchly apolitical until Trump drove him nuts.

Norm flirted with some reactionary/conservative stuff, but he might have just been poking bears. Lovitz I thought skewed conservative, but it's hard to tell if whatever I read once (I forget) was inaccurate, a one-off, or if he did a subsequent PR rehab move. For example, Tom Brady got tainted by the Trump stink, but I sense he's made a concerted effort to destink himself via smart PR moves and, one suspects, bathing in tomato juice. My Brady stan buddy insists he was never a Trump guy, but regardless I explained to him that the perception that he was, er, trumps whatever his personal views may actually be.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 20, 2021 10:31 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Norm's such a pure comedian that you can kinda ignore his political views, which are generally pretty bad - he cozied up to Kellyanne Conway at one point which was pretty gross and was really vocal about Shane Gillis being fired from SNL, which was odd because Gillis is such a hacky comedian, idk why Norm would stick his neck out for someone like that.

as for Tom Brady...hate to defend the guy but iirc his association with Trump was in 2015 when he was still a joke candidate, I don't think it went much further than "ha ha we are both famous people". like Norm I feel like Brady might be the kind of person with no real political views whatsoever

Like I said, it's a matter of perception. Brady for sure considered Trump a friend, and there was at least one appearance of Brady's where he wore a MAGA hat. I think the blowback was strong and he kept mum after that, but I've noticed he still continues to take baby steps away from Trump. There was a Stern interview in 2020 where Brady said, diplomatically, that Trump was just a friend, and a friendship doesn't mean political support. And then there was this past summer where Brady actually made an appearance with Biden and threw a couple of more pointed zings Trumps way, followed (or preceded?) by an interview where he basically threw Trump under the bus as a star fucker who kept calling him and bothering him and asking him to go golfing. And then (along with the hair transplant) comes a series of self-effacing TV ads that I see all the time. Feels very image makeover to me.

I feel like Brady might be the kind of person with no real political views whatsoever

I feel like one thing that is easy to forget for those of us who are online all the time is that lots of people, maybe even most people, don't have particularly strong political views -- like, even if they have a party they usually vote for, they just do not *care* that much.

Brady's political views probably resemble those of most politically casual people with a net worth well over $100 million. iow, he mainly wants to be rich and stay rich and favors any policies that support those goals.

In fairness to the 80s/90s SNL era it did produce a liberal United States senator.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/snl/images/c/c2/SNL_Phil_Hartman_-_Ted_Kennedy.jpg