Saturday Night Live sucks. Sorry to be so juvenile, but it just…it just sucks.
I tried giving it another shot. I really did. I was at my parents’ house with the television to myself the night that Ed Helms hosted. I took advantage and, for the first time in years, I watched every moment of SNL – no channel surfing during the commercials or snack hunting during the musical performances.
Maybe you saw the episode. Maybe you didn’t. It doesn’t really matter. If you’ve seen any SNL the past five years, you know how awful it’s become. Or at least, I hope you do.
This particular episode was unbelievably bad.
The first skit after the monologue is usually SNL’s go-to for laughs, the one that people will be talking about on Monday. Unfortunately, Helms was pushed aside so that Kenan Thompson could do his “What’s Up With That?” shtick. Yes, Kenan Thompson, of Good Burger, Mighty Ducks and Heavyweights notoriety, is still on Saturday Night Live. That should be reason enough to question Lorne Michaels’s current state of mind.
This skit epitomized two themes on the night: Pushing Helms to the side and tossing in surprise guests.
Lindsey Buckingham, some kid from Glee, and (wouldn’t you know it) that night’s musical guest, Paul Simon, were on the “What’s Up With That?” panel before Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell and Jon Hamm’s neck made appearances in a live-action Ambiguously Gay Duo sketch. Because, you know, people showing up who don’t usually show up is just a gut-busting good time.
Weekend Update has always been one of SNL’s most rewarding segments, but this recent installment was so unfunny, I wondered if the APPLAUSE and LAUGH, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LAUGH signs for the studio audience were malfunctioning. It’s hard to make Jay Pharoah’s spot-on Will Smith impression bring out the crickets, but SNL’s writing staff (led by none other than Update host Seth Meyers) found out a way.
Eventually, the show released Helms from his cage, but by then who gave a shit? I’d already lost faith in the episode by then. To be honest, I’d already lost faith in SNL.
What the hell happened? I miss the good old days, the days of (insert jaw-dropping list of comedic legends). Everyone has their favorite SNL time period, and for some, that’s the only reason they still tune in – as if the magic that used to entertain us so thoroughly in the past will suddenly return. It seems the hardest the show is willing to work to try and regain that mystique is by filming a live-action version of a legendary “TV Funhouse” skit.
With lazy writing and one-dimensional talent, Saturday Night Live is in a grim state. The most important television show in American comedy is now so humorless that, I believe, I fear, its legacy will be tainted, like a great athlete succumbing to the twilight of his career. Brett Favre has his dick pics, and now Lorne Michaels has his shit bits.
This makes me angry. Not sad; not disappointed. Angry. I may not be an expert on the world of satirical comedy, but I’ve always been a dedicated SNL fan – just like many of you. And we are why SNL is SNL. To see it crumble into a cringe-worthy circus is disheartening.
The only reason the show is still on the air is from the legacy it built. But unless something changes – perhaps the cloning of Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig – even the show’s most dedicated audience is going to realize the show is delivering an uninspired product. The laughs are fading, and the channels are changing.
There used to be a time when mentioning the end of Saturday Night Live would be blasphemous. Now, it almost seems necessary.
For this, I have one question: What’s up with that?
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They really need to trim down the cast IMO. There are many times when some actors appear in nothing for the entire week.
Now that Pharoah is there, kick Keenan to the curb. He adds nothing except he fits two bills, fat and black. I started watching again this year partly due to all the Pharoah hype, but he’s been underutilized if you ask me.
I’m so tired of Wiig that I skip over almost everything she’s in. It’s not that she’s not talented, but he schitck just gets old. Same with Fred Armisen. I’d like to see them both move on to make room for some of the younger talent that doesn’t get the airtime to shine.
Here’s my issue with people like you that write an article like this: You stretch your own narrow-minded opinion into some barely intelligible article and expect people to revere it as gospel.
Are you actually THAT stupid as to not understand TV shows/comedy/writing/life being about growth and evolution? Here’s a little newsflash for you: The talent, producers, writers, guests, musicians, Lorne Michaels or anyone else associated with SNL doesn’t sit in a room trying to figure out what they can do to impress some loser sitting at mommy and daddy’s house “with the TV to himself” on a Saturday night. (Don’t worry Hank, for the sake of discussion, I’ll go along with your little white lie that you don’t actually live there in the windowless basement full-time)
The SNL experience is iconic for the exact reason you are whining about. The show has always raised a big middle finger to all the societal lemmings, such as yourself, that find any reason to complain about SNL not making them laugh enough. Did you ever stop to think that the fact the show has outgrown your limited comedic tastes was a conscience decision on their part? I am sure you want to live in a world where Eddie Murphy says “O’tay” at 50 years of age and Beldar Conehead makes your sides split, but it’s just not realistic.
Please remember, just because you might not be intelligent enough to appreciate the humor, does not make it any less funny.
If you don’t like what SNL has become, then don’t watch. Flip over to CMT or tournament bass fishing coverage that is a little more your speed. Or maybe hold out for that Jersey Shore marathon? And after you are done processing all that vacuous programming, ask yourself the following question: Is it more idiotic that one man expects SNL to change to appease his tastes or that he sat and watched an entire program solely to complain about it?
Hank, how in the hell did you get Lorne Michaels to read this?
“the SNL experience”? holy hell, it’s a cult now?
someone’s drinking the lorne kool aid…thanks hank for posting what america has known now for the past 8 years. thank god someone has the balls to print it.
adelsig, do you cup Hank’s balls when you kiss his ass? Mind the stepchildren!
Man I’m from the old Belushi era with SNL, 47 now, and this freakin show sucks so bad it’s like you’re sitting in your own living room cringing like you just farted in a funeral eulogy, that’s how embarrassing it is to watch,
and not only that, I’m watching an episode repeat with Jim Carey and it still blows chunks. The worst cringable moment was this soul train Life Skit they did. I’ve never seen something suck so freaking bad on TV.
We did skits in a class in high school and I shit you not I went to school with the deaf actress Marlee Matlin who’s a friend still and we did a silent skit with 4 people and it was funnier than anything on this show tonight.
Then the band they had…Black eyed Keyes or Black Keys or some shit. Boy did they suck donkey dong