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[Flynn]

I don't find the sketches I loved in high school all that funny anymore.

Part of the problem is the show's "catch phrase" mentality. They're funny for a minute, but once you wear out the novelty they're worthless.

Also, SNLs formula hasn't changed a bit. 99% of their sketches are about one person screaming like a retard and everyone else reacting in shock.

I'll take the more thought out sketches of Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show over SNL anyday.

 

[jiggle]

Most of the original skits are pretty flat these days..

The political jabs, celebrity mockeries, opening monologues, and news updates are still entertianing/funny though, imo.

 

[Escape Goat]

Wheres Celebrity Jeopardy? With Will Ferrell gone its dead

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Compared to the 80's sh!t, SNL is video NyQuil.

 

[Fifty]

And it must be said again that they simply do not utilize what good talent they have right now. One of the new featured cast members this year, Rob Riggle, is FUCKING HYSTERICAL (you have to see him live to really know this) but thus far he's gotten every little chance to shine. I guess there's several reason for this, but things need to change ASAP.

Also, I love Amy Poelher, but having her ramble off shitty one liners on Weekend Update is killing her career.

I would have liked to see his act at the UCB theater. Too bad I'm stuck watching 2 seconds of background shit on SNL.

Will Forte and Amy are the two best cast members on the show right now. Man, I bet their whole situation is ugly. Surely the cast members are more talented than these skits, but they supposedly come up with their sketches in the first place. Maybe it's a case of them getting wattered down, or maybe it's something else entirely, but they've got to get better material.

 

[Dreamfixx]

Why is every monologue these days a bad sketch in disguise? That's what irritates me.

In response to the question, they're in transistion. The transition from mid to late 1990's was just as unfunny.

 

[GG-Duo]

I would have liked to see his act at the UCB theater. Too bad I'm stuck watching 2 seconds of background shit on SNL.

Will Forte and Amy are the two best cast members on the show right now. Man, I bet their whole situation is ugly. Surely the cast members are more talented than these skits, but they supposedly come up with their sketches in the first place. Maybe it's a case of them getting wattered down, or maybe it's something else entirely, but they've got to get better material.

Very true. Look at some of the recurring characters ---
Tim Calhoun, Fred Armisen's Prince, The Zinger, Becky, Debbie Downer... those are just absolute top-notch performances, yet their sketches have been very bumpy. there's no consistency at all. (Look at that non-WU Tim Calhoun sketch. such an unfunny mess)

 

[DrLazy]

In response to the question, they're in transistion. The transition from mid to late 1990's was just as unfunny.

Yes, this and nostalga are the reason. Like I said, everytime some big cast members leave the show, in this case it was Chris Kittan, Will Ferell, Jimmy Falon, etc. it takes the SNL audience and the comedians a year to get use to each other.

Have any of you old fuckers watched SNL lately? The episode with Jude Law was actually hilarious. I'm so sick of people who say SNL today sucks, then will later by "The Best of 2004" compilation in five years.

BACK IN MY DAY WE HAD GOOD COMMEDIANS ON SNL, BUT TO SEE THEM I WOULD CLIMB A HUGE FUCKING HILL IN A BLIZZARD WITH NO PANTS. KIDS TODAY JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND.

 

[shoplifter]

Will Forte and Amy are the two best cast members on the show right now. Man, I bet their whole situation is ugly.

My guess is that Amy's stuff would go right over the heads of 90% of the audience.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

Yeah, I think Forte's really talented. I saw the very first Tim Calhoun on SNL a while back, and laughed harder at that then anything I had seen on SNL since the Cowbell.

EDIT:

I'll take the more thought out sketches of Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show over SNL anyday.

I'll concede Mr. Show, but Kids in the Hall? I think they're great, but Chicken Woman, "Squishing your Head" and a guy bleeding from his ear the entire sketch aren't exactly complex satire.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Refresh my memory, but did Tim Meadows ever do anything beyond the token black guy bit? i just remembered him doing The Ladies Man, which was really hit-or-miss with me, and that late night black tv show, which was actually funnier to me than The Ladies Man.

I know it was a one-off, but he earns a place in my heart for his "DAMN IT!" on the shirt-in-a-can commercial.

Part of the problem is the show's "catch phrase" mentality. They're funny for a minute, but once you wear out the novelty they're worthless.

I loved it when this went meta, though, and there was a Smigel cartoon about the life of a catchphrase. "Yeah, that's the ticket!"

 

[Flynn]

I'll concede Mr. Show, but Kids in the Hall? I think they're great, but Chicken Woman, "Squishing your Head" and a guy bleeding from his ear the entire sketch aren't exactly complex satire.

You make a good point, but they always buoyed the easy, familiar humor with conceptual comedy.

 

[Dragmire]

Like some have said, this show transitions. The show was at its worst during the last Sandler, Meyers, Farley years. That was around '95, I believe, because '96 was the first year for Ferrell, O'Teri, Shannon, etc. At the end of the former cast's reign, every skit had a single hook that was supposed to be funny multiple times, and sometimes these skits were recurring. The one that irked me most, enough to remember it, was "you put your weed in there!" This had Rob Schneider, as some new age shop owner, say it about every item in the store as customers asked about them. What could have been a cute joke in a real skit was an entire skit, and usually they offered differences in the recycled punchlines (Adam Sandler's Halloween costume ideas, for example) but not here. Isn't this breaking one of the first rules of comedy? What was this shit, drama?

Really, the audience didn't move through these shows, because if they did, you could probably hear it. Then in '96 or so, the completely new cast, which I was worried about and thought would bring the show down, was obviously fresh new talent, minus the ultimately useless Tim Meadows. It was my first real transition with SNL, and also the biggest one the show has had (at least that I know of). But it was great.

I don't think they need another cast overhaul, like some said. There's a lot of talent there and some funny stuff. '95 had none of that, even in Weekend Update. I love Tina Fey as a Weekend Update anchor. This, the Jude Law episode, is the first time I've seen Amy Poehler as an anchor. She could be good, but she wasn't really special here. Really, people. The show has been far, far worse off.

 

[Teddman]

Like some have said, this show transitions. The show was at its worst during the last Sandler, Meyers, Farley years. That was around '95, I believe, because '96 was the first year for Ferrell, O'Teri, Shannon, etc.

Very true, SNL has always had sucky seasons mixed in with the better eras. Yes, I remember a lot of people complaining even in the late '80's when the cast was getting weaker after Murphy and Piscapoe left, saying it'd become the "John Lovitz and Dana Carvey show." In his last year or two, Carvey was in like every skit and things got really boring.

It's just an off season, or two, or three...

 

[Saturnman]

They should cut 30-45 minutes to the show. That would allow them to ditch the worst sketches and polish the best ones. And dump the musical acts, leave that filler to daily talk shows like Conan or Jay Leno.

I don't expect the show to become miraculously good with those moves, but it won't hurt to streamline SNL a bit.

 

[etiolate]

The fact that Fallon became "too good" to stay on cast says a lot about SNL's current state.

 

[GG-Duo]

ok, finally saw the Jude Law episode.... and it was hilarious, and the crowd reactions reflected that. Perhaps we are just too cynical.

and Ashlee Simpson was clearly lipsyncing in the first song too :/
man.

 

[Diablos]

Despite what you might think, SNL wasn't THAT great even when Farley, Myers, Sandler was all there. Sure when you see the "Best Of" clips, you think back and go "wow SNL was great back then". But if you actually watched back then, anything passed the news was complete garbage (just like it is now), half the skits fell flat. The only thing they had then that they don't have now is loveable recurring characters.

Thank you.