Why I'll never watch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE again!

[etoile]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 2:52am

Why I'll never watch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE again!

When home late Saturday evenings my television viewing habit has always been to watch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Always have - since the inception of the show. All these many years. Continued watching time and time again even when I didn't find much of the show funny. I stuck it out. I knew some shows where better than others. Felt some seasons found their footing better than others. Some talent used well, other talent wasted. Realized often a flat episode could redeem itself with at least one prized glimmer of creativity and humor. But I'll watch no more. Never again. My decision to seek alternate entertainment was determined during this past April 4th episode.

See, there was this skit. A skit with several Muppet characters. A skit where these several Muppet characters where depicted riding in a car. A skit where these several Muppet characters riding in a car were stopped by a uniformed police officer. A skit where this uniformed police officer was identified as Nipsy Russell. (How funny was that? And still, it gets even better.) A skit in which a shot rang out and one of the Muppet characters in the rear seat appeared to be holding a shotgun pointed in the direction where the uniform officer had been standing.

Now I can't tell you how the skit ended. At the point the shot was heard I reached for my remote. Turned off the television set. Walked out of the room. Vowed never to watch the show again. I can not fathom anything that could have possibly followed in the skit that would mitigate my disgust towards SNL's open season on police.

I don't find the gunning down of anyone to be funny. I especially don't find the shooting of any police officer to be a source of humor. I don't find any levity in the brandishing of a firearm towards any public servants who, by occupation and in service to their community, took a vow to time and again risk their safety to assist strangers. Most officers enter the profession because they possess a compulsion to better that community and help others. When you shoot at a police officer, you are pissing on an authority figure sanctioned your government. I think you're pissing on your government and all its residents. I think if you kill a cop, you'll kill anyone. The public becomes a little less safe.

I find any shooting to be a serious, somber, and weighty occurrence. Not funny, not cute, not to me.

Now it appears that SNL has always kept abreast of current events. So were they ignorant, imperceptive, or just indifferent to the traffic stop slaying of four Oakland, CA police officers just two weeks ago? Had they not heard that day's national news where a mere seventeen hours prior to their show airing three Pittsburgh police officers where gunned down, assassinated, executed, fatally killed by a devil who fired hundreds of rounds at additional responding law enforcement and who later stated he wished he had killed more?

I'm disturbed that SNL was that callous and insensitive in airing that skit. Do they just think the shooting of police is fodder for pop culture sport? Perhaps it's just my sensitivities that are out of whack, but I say shame on you SNL. Shame on you. Shame.

Condolences go out to all loved ones, family, and friends of the far too many victims of the past few weeks.

My views were already made known to NBC. When I determine their advertising sponsors, I'll tell them the same.

Updated On: 4/6/09 at 02:52 AM

[Radiana]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 4:00am

I haven't watched the show in years because for me it just got boring. I have to say that it was a dynamite show for a couple of decades.

I agree with everything you said. Who on the writing staff could be so sick? Maybe it's time for SNL to just retire.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 4:45am

SNL should have retired about 15 years ago when they decided to remove any intelligence and wit from the show.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 7:06am

I still watch and hope! The only half-way funny episode this year was with Dwayne Johnson. Where have all the writers gone? I missed the opening skit so I didn't know how this past week's show started but I'm guessing it wasn't very good. Personally, I'm not that big a fan of Seth Rogan- I don't think he's all that funny. I also hate that they keep repeating the fake commercials instead of coming up with a new one each week. They need to hire writers from The Daily Show and Conan!

[romantico]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 7:13am

I usually watch the opening skit and weekend update and that's it. Depends on who the host is but the show is very lazy as I describe it. Like watching a high school talent show.I saw the Muppet Skit and thought to myself what a waste.That's the best they could come up with?

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 7:21am

I haven't watched this show since Gilda Radner et al. SCTV was always better anyway.

[Q]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:32am

"I saw the Muppet Skit"

What happened after the shooting?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:39am

I still watch this show, although obviously it's in no way what it was in 1975, and I found the Muppet sketch hilarious. I did find the shooting of a police officer in very bad taste, although they did do it as cartoonishly as possible, having Kenan just topple over with no blood or gore on them. Still, this isn't the first time SNL has done a gun sketch in bad taste - anyone remember the hilarious "Dear Sister" digital short that accidentally premiered the day of the Virginia Tech shootings?

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:42am

I only watched it for the Fey/Palin skits, I then turn it off after it.

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:56am

It used to be only worth it for the Weekend Update...now the cast is just horrendous and it's not even worth it for that.

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:19am

"I found the Muppet sketch hilarious."

Really? Even after the day's tragic events in Pittsburgh? I just don't see how the shooting of a police officer from the backseat of a car - no matter how 'cartoonish' - could be hilarious.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:22am

Let me rephrase that. I found the runup and aftermath of the shooting in the sketch hilarious. I too found the shooting in poor taste.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:44am

Etoile, I agree with you. When something so tasteless is put on air, I always think it's only to get people talking about the show when ratings are down. I'm not sure that even Lorne Michaels thinks that skit was funny. Ratings are more important.

I don't see how anyone could think there was anything funny about that skit.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:49am

Joel McHale pretends to shoot an intern every week on The Soup.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:54am

I don't have a problem with shootings of civilians. What is in bad taste to me is comical shootings of police officers, soldiers or other authority figures by civilians.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 10:06am

"I don't have a problem with shootings of civilians."

Really?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 10:11am

Once again, I misphrased it, and you jumped on me. It's not so much a problem when there's a comical shooting on a comedy show, but it's different when it's a police officer, especially in light of recent events.

Now please. Find something I said in that last passage and take it out of context.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 10:49am

"Once again, I misphrased it, and you jumped on me."

All I said was "really?"

didn't know that was considered jumping on you. But you did realize that was all I was asking, didn't you, because you answered the question. thanks.

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 10:58am

Once Tina Fey left it went to an all time low.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 11:07am

It's obvious that etoile never taught in the NYC public schools.

It was always my policy to follow-up the reading of a Shakespearean play with a good movie version of it. The students would complain if I showed the Zeffirelli version of ROMEO AND JULIET because they wanted "the one with the guns".
They audibly cheered whenever a character got shot in the film.

In Polanski's MACBETH, the classes were literally out of their seats jumping for joy when Macbeth was graphically beheaded.

In the Jason Robards-Richard Chamberlain JULIUS CAESAR, the applauded every stab that Caesar received in his murder. They also cheeered Laurence Fishburn's smothering of Juliette Lewis in OTHELLO.

There is something terribly wrong with the section of our society that can laugh and cheer when others are killed.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 11:22am

Can they just rename it The Kristen Wiig Show?

She's the only one who's funny.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 11:27am

Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Will Forte...

Also, here's some wholesome SNL fun.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/66319/saturday-night-live-easter-album#s-p2-sr-i0

Updated On: 4/6/09 at 11:27 AM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 1:12pm

When it comes to SNL, if I'm home at that hour on a Saturday night, I'm usually in bed with a good book...or someone who's read one.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 3:31pm

See, I'm in the minority, but I wasn't a fan of the Tina Fey era. I enjoy 30 Rock like gangbusters, but I found the humor during her reign on SNL to be some of the most smug and condescending its ever been, particularly her weekend update, which always struck me as "This is funny because I think it's funny, regardless of whether or not it actually is." I don't miss her chiding the audience when they didn't laugh loud enough at her jokes.

As for the show, I thought the Muppet sketch was one of the weakest. As for the controversy, I didn't actually make a connection to the Pittsburgh shooting, but I can understand why someone might.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 4:25pm

I never found the show funny. It was alwyas a poor-man's SCTV to me. Completely banal and forced "humor". From day one.