Why is SNL Still a Thing?

[Homerboy]

Perhaps you missed the caution in all caps at the top of the P&N main page?

Perhaps you missed the words in the name "Politics & News"? Your OP is neither politics, nor news.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Bill Hader is another more recent SNL cast member I enjoyed.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Perhaps you missed the words in the name "Politics & News"? Your OP is neither politics, nor news.

Their political sketches since trump was elected have been awesome though.

 

[woolfe9998]

I have watched SNL, here and there, since about 1979. I have rarely ever found anything on it funny, other than the political humor, and especially the political impressions. Not all of that is even funny, but the non-political humor has virtually always been lame.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

OP deals specifically with links on Newsweek which is a news site that posts both political and non-political news.

 

[hal2kilo]

Thanks for reminding me about MadTV. The Kenny Rogers (R.I.P.) skits were a stand out for me.

Kenny Rogers doing comedy?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Kenny Rogers doing comedy?

Hey, if Tricky Dick can do it, why not The Gambler?

 

[zzyzxroad]

Kenny Rogers doing comedy?

No it was a series of skits that made fun of him. Kenny was a talented singer but those skits cracked me up. If I recall right the same guy who played Kenny also did a Steven Seagal impression that we great.

 

[Pohemi]

No it was a series of skits that made fun of him. Kenny was a talented singer but those skits cracked me up. If I recall right the same guy who played Kenny also did a Steven Seagal impression that we great.

Yep, Will Sasso. He's a funny mofo. He actually made some comments (by tweet iirc) about Rogers right after he passed away, he was obv a fan himself as well.

 

[zzyzxroad]

SNL is still able to pull in great hosts which leads to some classic episodes(Christopher Walken and more cowbell). I consider the below Adam Driver skit to be one of those.

 

[zinfamous]

Chevy Chase, imo, pretty much explored all that can be explored of "the funny asshole." I definitely like him at times--Fletch, 3 Amigos, Vacation, Caddyshack, etc...but could do without him. I never thought he was particularly funny on SNL, but that was well before my conscious time and looking back, it's hard to appreciate how revolutionary that show in those days was for its time, when it was happening.

I guess for his weekend update you have to appreciate that he was playing "Straight News Anchor" but what if straight news anchor was also an unrepentant asshole at the same time? It's kinda brilliant and was the first time that a "fake news show" really existed on TV (pretty sure this predates "Not Necessarily the News," right?), so it's really hard to "get" that today.

 

[zinfamous]

Perhaps you missed the caution in all caps at the top of the P&N main page?

are you OK?

 

[Pohemi]

Yeah I'm pretty sure 'Not Necessarily the News' was early to mid 80s since I can actually recall it on...was it HBO or Showtime? Think it was HBO.

 

[Iron Woode]

I thought this was the most hilarious thing ever when it aired.

I thought the same thing about this on SCTV:

 

[zzyzxroad]

Chevy Chase, imo, pretty much explored all that can be explored of "the funny asshole." I definitely like him at times--Fletch, 3 Amigos, Vacation, Caddyshack, etc...but could do without him. I never thought he was particularly funny on SNL, but that was well before my conscious time and looking back, it's hard to appreciate how revolutionary that show in those days was for its time, when it was happening.

I guess for his weekend update you have to appreciate that he was playing "Straight News Anchor" but what if straight news anchor was also an unrepentant asshole at the same time? It's kinda brilliant and was the first time that a "fake news show" really existed on TV (pretty sure this predates "Not Necessarily the News," right?), so it's really hard to "get" that today.

I think Chevy is over ratted. Vacations, Fletch (first one only) and Caddyshack were funny but his character was very similar. I can't agree with you on 3 Amigos as I thought it was absolute garbage. He also seems to be a complete jerk to work with so not surprising his career has been nonexistent the past several decades. Community was funny but his character was the weakest and it would have been a great show without him.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Yeah I'm pretty sure 'Not Necessarily the News' was early to mid 80s since I can actually recall it on...was it HBO or Showtime? Think it was HBO.

Wow what a blast from the past. I had forgot all about that show. As a kid Rich Hall's Sniglets had me rolling then a few years later Bob Einstein's Super Dave.

 

[nakedfrog]

It's always been about 5-10% funny, 10-15% okay, and the rest yawn-inducing "get on with it!"

 

[zinfamous]

I think Chevy is over ratted. Vacations, Fletch (first one only) and Caddyshack were funny but his character was very similar. I can't agree with you on 3 Amigos as I thought it was absolute garbage. He also seems to be a complete jerk to work with so not surprising his career has been nonexistent the past several decades. Community was funny but his character was the weakest and it would have been a great show without him.

yeah, he's a legendary PoS in real life and generally impossible to work with. He was a complete cancer on the set of Community and I agree, there wasn't a whole lot that he added to it....they Pierce certainly had his moments. I've seen clips of Joel McHale holding no punches when relating what it was like working with him.

as for your thoughts on 3 Amigos...yeah, you can just get right out of here what that nonsense, sir!

 

[zinfamous]

Wow what a blast from the past. I had forgot all about that show. As a kid Rich Hall's Sniglets had me rolling then a few years later Bob Einstein's Super Dave.

They even had those impulse-buy book collections of those, in the "short-long" format of those Garfield collections....and I thought they were the greatest things ever. Also, I was ~6 years old, and also thought Garfield was great. .....6 year old me was a fucking idiot.

 

[zzyzxroad]

They even had those impulse-buy book collections of those, in the "short-long" format of those Garfield collections....and I thought they were the greatest things ever. Also, I was ~6 years old, and also thought Garfield was great. .....6 year old me was a fucking idiot.

Yeah Garfield was bad but as a kid I watched it. I think my all time favorite cartoon form childhood though was G.I. Joe.

 

[Lanyap]

Because Canadians own US TV :awe:

LOL, my wife watches Lifetime and Hallmark movie channels all the time and all of the actors are Canadian. You have some really fine looking women up there.

 

[feralkid]

The show is Good Enough, It's Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like It!

 

[zinfamous]

Yeah Garfield was bad but as a kid I watched it. I think my all time favorite cartoon form childhood though was G.I. Joe.

Yeah, GI Joe was my thing. Way more than Transformers. I think I still have a giant bag of random GI Joe laying around somewhere. I liked them because the vehicles required assembly. My favorite thing was acquiring the various vehicles and putting them together myself. Way simpler than those fancy model kits, of course, but at the speed where I could spend an hour or so and enjoy it. I didn't do much with them after, though, lol. (Friends and I always "played GI Joe" a little different--we would construct elaborate stories for them, more like some kind of nonsense soap opera that we made up on the go. Not just "play army" playing army and shooting each other was fucking stupid. Totally boring.)

I also liked taking apart the figures and mixing up their arm pieces (you could divide each upper arm into two different pieces, and mix them between figures), and of course the torso/leg construction that was a simple rubber band and hook design. "Inventing" new GI Joe figures was a big deal, haha.

 

[zinfamous]

The show is Good Enough, It's Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like It!

lol. I LOVED AL Franken's "One-Man News crew" bits that he did on Weekend Update. It was hilarious.

 

[zzyzxroad]

I think because of SNL's time slot it has been able to endure dry spells.