Why I'll never watch SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE again!- Page 2

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 4:59pm

I agree that they should have been more alert and sensitive to the current events. I missed that sketch, so I can't say anything about it. However, I do find it surprising they would go forward with the sketch given the recent shooting sprees. Was there no way to rewrite at the last minute to exclude the shooting?

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:08pm

Sueleen, they wouldn't even have to rewrite anything. Two hours of skits are performed for the early audience, and after that, 30 minutes of skits are deleted for the live show at 11:30. All they had to do was cut it.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:10pm

Gosh, I wonder how bad the other skits were that were cut? Is this why they keep playing the (funny the FIRST time) Edible Diaper commercial over and over?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:11pm

Sorry to nitpick, but on a forum where calling a cast recording a soundtrack is grounds for excommunication, I feel obligated to say it...they are called "sketches", not "skits".

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:17pm

"Chewable Pampers!" Yes, they play that one too often, but I laugh every time.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:21pm

"Gosh, I wonder how bad the other skits were that were cut?"

Exactly! When I used to be on the show, we'd all have to wait until 11:00 to see if we stayed, or went home because our skits were cut. It was hard to understand why they always cut some good ones, but left loooooong, boring ones in.

Sometimes it had to do with the times of the skits, but still!

BTW, Priagua, they were called skits on the set.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:43pm

Which Sketches stay and which ones go are determined by various factors, politics of the show, the guest hosts requests, timing, audience response during dress, Loren's whim.
For some reason they cut the yellow feathers flying everywhere when the bus hit someone (it was Big Bird after all who they picked up on that desert road in the first Muppet Movie). It played well in dress but they felt they didn't need it.
I was aware of the shootings but didn't make the connection when I saw the piece considering Nipsey Russel closed the sketch by chasing the buss with a huge hole in his belly.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 5:47pm

Phyllis, talk about diapers-the one SNL commercial that I can't get enough of is the "Ooops I crapped my pants" ad about Depends.

I think it's the funniest thing they ever did!

Updated On: 4/6/09 at 05:47 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:13pm

You're going to stop watching SNL the week before Zac Efron hosts? I wouldn't miss that train wreck for anything in the world!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:18pm

They still do great political satire along with the weekend update. For some reason these and the commercial parodies are always first rate. It is the rest of the show that is always an adventure. I never got to see the skit as I turned off after weekend update.

I can see Obama will be a big fat target this year along with Biden.

Updated On: 4/6/09 at 06:18 PM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:23pm

Rox, I was under the impression the last thing you watched that broadcasted out of Studio 8H was Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:39pm

I read somewhere else online that this season was "tanking" and I don't think I agree with that. More often than not, I've really enjoyed it. I think Fred Armisen's Obama gets sharper each time he does it, I think Bill Hader, Jason Sudekis and Andy Samberg are always solid, and I think Kenan Thompson has gone from being a second-rate Horatio Sanz (which I realize is redundant) to one of the show's most versatile players.

As much as love Kristen Wiig, I think she's becoming a little too ubiquitous (and if she's going to be in like every sketch could we PLEASE have a visit from Aunt Lynda and from the A-holes), but I wonder if that's partly due to the fact that she's the only female in the main group of players.

Speaking of the featured players, wasn't there another woman this year beside Abby Elliot, Casey Wilson and Michaela what'shername? I swear there was one more nondescript blonde girl.
Updated On: 4/6/09 at 06:39 PM

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:48pm

Amy Poehler stayed on for the first part of the season, but I wouldn't exactly say she was "nondescript" at that point, being massively pregnant and all.

ETA: I missed this week's show, so I didn't see the sketch in question, but on the whole I generally don't have a problem with that cartoonishly violent brand of comedy when it's executed well, ala Human Giant. The timing may be off, but from what a couple of my friends told me, they really loved that sketch, so I dunno. Just my two cents! Updated On: 4/6/09 at 06:48 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:50pm

No, I thought there was another featured player, but I think I'm mistaken.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 6:58pm

I actually think the new women show a lot of promise and hope they get more exposure.
And I wouldn't call Keenan "versatile", although he is getting better each week.

[Marianne2]

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

I agree that the show has been lacking in the past few seasons. I'm just not sure what could make it better, besides better writing. Okay, maybe that is the biggest issue after all. I really like Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hadar though.

We actually were discussing this show in a class I had, since I had chosen to do a research paper on it. We were thinking that the reason the show has not gotten cancelled at all is because of the time it airs. I'm sure it would fail now if it were in primetime. However, 11:30pm on a Saturday night is not a highly rated time for new programming. The only real competition SNL ever had was MadTv, and look where that went. Is that even still being filmed or is it completely cancelled?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 7:34pm

Kenan is the least versatile person on the show. He was wonderful on "All That", but he plays the same character in every sketch. Jean K. Jean sounds exactly like Roland Burris who sounds exactly like Al Sharpton who sounds exactly like Plaxico Burress.

I actually think the show has been getting much better lately - like her overexposure or not, Kristen Wiig is still consistently hilarious. Jason Sudeikis's Joe Biden is one of those impressions that is so funny you don't care that it sounds nothing like the real person, Bobby Moynihan is hilarious, Bill Hader is still the best impressionist in years, anytime Will Forte sings you know it's going to be great, and Andy Samberg (and his writer friends Jorma and Akiva) cranks out great Digital Shorts every week. Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliot show great promise. Sure, the show has its weak links (Fred Armisen's Obama, Casey Wilson, Thompson) but it's not the comedic black hole some make it out to be.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:08pm

I hope you vow never to watch Looney tunes again, too. Too much violence. Daffy getting shot in the face all the time, and Wile E. Coyote falling to his death in the Grand Canyon every 2 minutes.

just shameless and in bad taste.

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 8:35pm

Andy Samburg is not funny. He has never been funny. Too douchey for my tastes.

Bill Hader is wonderful. I could not stop laughing at his Gizmo impression. He and Kristin Wiig, and sometimes Will Forte and Kenan Thompson, are the only funny ones left on the show.

The new young girl Abby has a few good moments.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

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

No, he is funny.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

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

No, he is funny.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 4/6/09 at 9:16pm

Andy Samberg has a lot of hits and misses with his digital shorts... and i'd say more misses than hits... for every D*ck in a Box and J*zz in my Pants there is the lame space olympics, or his I'm a boss one from the other night to the space cats stuff..

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

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

I like when he does Cathy.

[ifuweregay93]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 8:38pm

Ok, I never made the connection either, but I can see how it would anger some people. Some of the sketches that night were funny, like for instance the Digital Short was pretty good. I didn't find the muppets sketch that funny at all.

But I was glad to see Andy Samberg in all of the skits but the Easter Album, La Revista Interview and the cold opening.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 9:03pm

"I can see Obama will be a big fat target this year along with Biden."

Thank you, Nostradamus.