Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

The "perpetually dying" Saturday Night Live

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

#1

The "perpetually dying" Saturday Night Live

Gosh, AP writer Jake Coyle seems to make similar points that I make every time somebody around here starts lamenting about how "unfunny" SNL is "now."

I wish, but I know it won't come true, that this would just encourage people to find some new and possibly legitimate angle with which to critique the show.


NEW YORK (AP) - "Saturday Night Live," like rock 'n' roll, is perpetually dying. Throughout the 31 seasons of the NBC sketch comedy show, on a near annual basis, critics have written off "SNL" for not being "what it once was."

When the immensely popular Chevy Chase left the show early in the second season, his replacement was derided. Three decades later, Bill Murray remains one of our most celebrated comics.

More at link.

New Cast Members Play Big Roles on 'SNL'
Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none
#3

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Gee, Maya comes back this week, Prince is the musical guest. I think Fred Arnisen could have his best "The Prince Show" EVER!
Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none
#4

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

It's not brain surgery for me- I used to laugh a lot at SNL, each season I laugh less. The skits have gradually gotten longer and longer and more and more dreadful. The show is still alive because it has no competition. That's my opinion.
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#5

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I love Maya she is very funny.

My nephew had Chris Farley's motivational speaker on his Ipod - the funniest moment on SNL
#7

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I was on the last Chris Farley SNL. they had the oxygen tank alongside each set he was on. The motivational speaker skit that night was particularly physically demanding that night and every one on the set was expecting him to drop right there. You s hould have seen him after that skit, his face bright red and his veins popping out, the wheezing. I think he died a few weeks later. the last thing I heard him say on one set was, Where's my immodium? lol.
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#8

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Maya's back this week? Yay!! That and Steve Martin hosting are reason enough to watch this week.
http://community.livejournal.com/ltd_brands_suck/
#9

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

After being introduced to SNL when I was 12 that was what I watched even though it only gave me a few giggles and some "What??(s)." 1 1/2 ago I started watching MADTV. That writing I think is so much better. SNL has gotten so that they are afraid to poke fun at people anymore and try and make up sketches that really aren't that funny. I think the only original one that was superb was that ninja with the sword who owned the laundry played by Bill Murray.

-------------------------
Light in the Piazza with Megan and Emi
"Girl you got money runnin' in yo bloodline."-Carl the Bartender

#12

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I can usually watch the first and second skit...well, I don't know anymore. I haven't watched it in about a year or so. The first and second skits are usually ok--and then after that, they just get bad.

Maya=the bomb diggity bomb dot com.
"If it walks like a Parks, if it wobbles like a Parks, then it's definitely fat and nobody loves it." --MA
#14

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Again, apples and oranges. Taped with plenty of time for reshoots and prosthetic make up versus LIVE as it happens. Not to mention MAD's mean spiritedness (those Chandra Levy dating sketches were HILARIOUS!) vs. SNLs sometimes successful sometimes not speaking truth to power.
Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none
#16

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Sueleen, well put!

...did I miss something?

Maybe the "SNL" thing is just...cyclical. A few bad years followed by a few good ones. And I can't believe Seth Meyer has been there for 5 years. It's really been a while since I watched regularly.
#17

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I am an intermittent watcher of the show, and it seems to me that every time I ask someone the following week if they watched it, the response is along the lines identified by FindingNamo, i.e. "Oh, I don't watch that show anymore; it's nowhere near as funny as it used to be." I think that Weekend Update is currently in the best hands I can remember in years - Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are great together! I try to watch that part of the broadcast even if I miss everything else.
#18

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

It was so hysterical and fresh in the beginning. It really startled people. The Killer Bees, the Landshark, Glimmer Floor wax and Dessert topping, Bass O Matic, Point/Counterpoint ("Jane, you ignorant slut!") and on and on...

But there have been great stretches over the years, too. I just don't get why some of the players are still there (example: Horatio Sanz who looks at the cue cards so much you wonder if he ever attends rehearsals)

I get bored very quickly each week. I watch the monologue a couple of sketches and then try to catch Weekend Update if I haven't surfed away to something more interesting.
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

Patrick Wilson Fans --New "UnOfficial Fan Site". Come check us out!

Patrick Wilson Yahoo Group

Patrick Wilson Facebook Fan Page

#19

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I think people get their memories of "how it used to be" a bit gilded. It was funny, yes, but it was always hit-or-miss, which may be part of its appeal.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#20

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Again, apples and oranges. Taped with plenty of time for reshoots and prosthetic make up versus LIVE as it happens. Not to mention MAD's mean spiritedness (those Chandra Levy dating sketches were HILARIOUS!) vs. SNLs sometimes successful sometimes not speaking truth to power.

Namo, I'm saying that regardless of the differences in producing the two shows-SNL isn't FUNNY! you're excusing it from being funny because it's live. that's no excuse. It was live 30 years ago and was funny. I also think LIVE should make it funnier. Reshooting tends to make something stale.
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#21

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

I understand the "fond memories" coloring things but it used to be a real topic of conversation in class and in the workplace come Monday morning. Now there are MANY more groans than compliments.

Does the writing staff really not know how things are being received?
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

Patrick Wilson Fans --New "UnOfficial Fan Site". Come check us out!

Patrick Wilson Yahoo Group

Patrick Wilson Facebook Fan Page

#22

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

What do they care? they still get the ratings. I guess the same amount of people are talking about the show even though they're now groaning!
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#23

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Jane2, you ignorant slut2. But seriously, it is funny. It's not always funny. It's never been always funny.
Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none
#24

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

Nam, lol, very clever. I can't take that away from you. I'm sure you enjoy debates as much as I do-too bad I can't think of anything else to say on this subject!
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#25

re: The 'perpetually dying' Saturday Night Live

One of the things that I thought was too bad was that they chose to make Debbie Downer into a recurring character. The sketch was only funny the first time around because Lindsay Lohan couldn't keep her act together and kept laughing, which caused the whole scene to break down.

Their absurd comedy is hit and miss, for me at least. Some skits, like the "HOT PLATE!" skit were ridiculous, but made me laugh very hard, whereas the skit with Dane Cook as a Target employee was absurd, but not very funny.

BroadwayWorld TV


Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $60
Hot Show
Tickets From $95
Hot Show
Tickets From $77