Saturday Night Live

Relatively great episode and def helped by the star power. Esp Will Forte. Army episode was decent as well.

I don’t generally enjoy SNL when I see it, but what I saw of this weekend’s episode was very funny. Has it been like this recently? Should I go back and watch some recent eps? (The last one I saw was Josh Brolin, and didn’t think that was so hot…).

Yes. The Ramy and Kristin Wiig episodes were bother better than average and probably better than the Ryan gosling one, which was also decent. Maybe they’re in a good streak. Relatively speaking.

Agree. The Ayo Edibiri episode was good earlier this season too. By SNL standards I think they’ve got a pretty good average this year

Cool, I’ll circle back!

Sometimes I think the host has a lot to do with the vibe and quality, and sometimes it probably doesn't. Gosling is game but he breaks too much for sure and was causing everybody to break. Sometimes that's fun, sometimes it's annoying. Even Heidi Gardner breaking during the beavis and butthead skit was a surprise, she's usually a pro. Feel like maybe she hadn't seen the full make-up yet and turning around and seeing Mikey Day like that did it.

Brolin is also game but almost too much, too eager and too reliant on the cue cards. That episode wasn't so good. Ramy and Wiig were great, and as mentioned, with all the guest spots and the joy of having her back, I imagine everybody brought their a-game for her episode.

Especially Will Forte who is an all-time genius underrated during his run and since.

I feel like contemporary SNL peaked with the potato chip sketch.

the beavis and butthead sketch was so goddamned funny, made more so by Garner breaking. It takes some kind of balls to make a sketch about B&B 30 years after their heyday.

Yeah, I was just gonna say (xpost) that the laughter during the Beavis & Butt-head sketch was great - honestly it was half the fun of it. (The extras sitting in "studio audience" were extreme pros for keeping straight faces throughout...)

Also, part of what I loved about it was (as you say) the "randomness" of the concept – why B&B? I like that they weren't going for some "larger point" or whatever... also, they knew when to end the sketch. (The cold open was also great, for similar reasons – though a lot of that was also just Kate McKinnon doing her thing, and Gosling not keeping it together.)

But the cast breaking ... that's always funny, but it's not necessarily because the *skits* are funny.

My wife loves the current Weekend Update guys; I think she watches just that segment on YouTube every week.

the caitlin clark appearance this week was good.

probably said above but my favorite WU stuff with Che and Jost is when they write jokes for each other, don't see it before the show, and Jost is forced to say incredibly offensive stuff

I've rewatched it, and seeing everyone break is funny, but I think my favourite part is still the little squint Kenan's character does near the start when he first notices Ryan Gosling

Watching the Kristen Wiig ep. now… dang, these opening monologues are star-studded.

Beavis and Butthead sketch was hilarious, I haven't laughed that hard at SNL since BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BASKETBALL

"oh come on, you sat em next to each other?"

"I'm just interested in A.I."

also I'm impressed they just let the concept of the sketch sit instead of playing everything to death, it's not like them to do that, dare I say the current crop of SNL writers are good at comedy

Exactly - it has almost an "alt comedy" vibe that I don't associate w/SNL... take a silly/random idea, and do it justice without overplaying it. A few of the sketches in the Kristen Wiig episode were like this as well (though I didn't think they were as funny).

(The "Jumanji" sketch from that ep. resonated for us, because we have that Ticket to Ride game sitting on our shelf; we played it once...)

The first Lisa from Temecula sketch was another one where I was like, wow, they're going to actually let the funny just be funny here and not step on their own toes