SNL: More Painful than a Dentist's Drill

Published on March 7, 2005 By Gideon MacLeish In Entertainment

So, now that we have a TV again (see my article "Luddite no More"), I decided that Saturday evening I would sit down and watch SNL, as I hadn't been able to in months.

Now, don't get me wrong; as far as humor goes, SNL has always had a bit of a "rise and fall" tendency; when the core comedians leave, it takes awhile for the other comedians to step up to the plate.

Soooo, I watched the show. It was a rerun, from during the election, but it was HORRIBLE. I don't mean corny, I don't mean cheesy, I mean downright AWFUL. We wrote better skits for junior high school TALENT DAYS, for crying out loud. And I survived the Joe Piscopo years even!

Now, I can forgive the fact that the Bush and Kerry roles weren't very convincing visually; you have to work with what you've got. But the fact is, these guys did not capture EITHER politician in a convincing caricature (a la Dana Carvey's Bush 1.0 and Ross Perot). It was painful, awful drek (and I survived "A Night at the Roxbury").

The ONLY redeeming quality of the show was the Robert Smigle cartoon.

Oh, for the return of good sketch comedy!

Comments (Page 2)

Gideon MacLeish

on Mar 08, 2005

I think SNL has the best female cast ever.

Now, there we can potentially agree. The problem is, the female cast has been slow to "grow" into their roles, and Lorne is overly reliant on the female contingent for political correctness (if you read the memoirs of people such as Gilda and Jane from the first cast, SNL has a pretty bad history as regards females). But they need to be careful in going too far the other way; Horatio Sanz is only a heavyweight as far as his bathroom scales are concerned, NOT as a comedian.

philomedy

on Mar 08, 2005

Horatio Sanz is only a heavyweight as far as his bathroom scales are concerned, NOT as a comedian.

I wholeheartedly agree. He has never been funny.

Dusk411

on Mar 08, 2005

I was watching a 60 minutes interview with Lorne Micheals. It turns out that the guest hosts pretty much decide what skits get on air. Then, Micheals edits the ones out for time.

I think that's part of the problem. SNL needs to let their writers and comedians have control over the show.

NJforever

on Mar 08, 2005

I didn't think anyone could get me back watching "weekend update" after they screwed Norm MacDonald, but Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon ruled. I like Amy Poehler too, tho, so I'm not that bummed.

I only recently started watching SNL, so the best SNLer I ever saw was Fallon. Yes, he was great at Weekend Update. I was mad, because the year I started watching was the year before he left, so I only saw one year of him.

SNL has been declining even more since Fallon left, IMHO.

Dynosoar

on Mar 15, 2005

I've watched SNL since its inception, and it's sad to say I believe it died long ago.....
Memories? Ah, Andy wrestling women, Mr. Robinson's neighborhood, Noogies, cone heads, Billy Crystal, Jane's crush on Cronkite( basically the first 4 years in toto )

Highlites since the beginning;

Leon Redbone, John Goodman w/ Dan Ackroyd, Wayne and Garth,
Buckwheat, The lounge singer, Will in the hottub....

Since Dana Carvey left, the cast has seemed, well, sub-par...Jimmy Fallon was just too wierd, and Will seems very adept at childrens comedy - not late night....

Mad TV is OK, but tends to go for the gutter ( like Mad Mag ) and the least worst copy of SNL had to have been "The Kids in the Hall"

Waiting now to see how "The Sketch Show" goes, it has the makings of a Tracy Ullman genre ( hopefully )

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