I watched SNL this Saturday and noticed that Colin Quinn was no longer doing the Weekend Update. For the first time in a long time it was actually funny again.
I never could understand how that man remained on the show for so long. Did he have a relative high up in the NBC chain who forced SNL to keep him on the show? Did he have the dirt on Lorne Micheals? Was he such a sappy, nice guy that nobody had the heart to fire him?
He had the acting range of a dead duck with a lead weight around its neck. His timing was so bad, I thought there was a tape delay problem every time I listened to him. Watching him do the Weekend Update was excruciating.
Obviously I am relieved he is gone. I thought his replacements (especially the woman) did a great job. Although a corpse with tape recorded jokes would have been an improvement as well.
Anyway, does anybody know the story? Was he fired or did he quit?
Hell, I never even liked him way back when he was on Remote Control and have been absolutely baffled by his moderate success in gaining airtime on a variety of comedy shows. He has no talent. All he has is schtick, and we’ve all seen “surly inarticulate guy trying to be funny” already.
Colin, if you were in vaudeville, this would be the point in your career when the giant hook comes from offstage and yanks you behind the curtain. Do take the hint.
I always thought Colin Quinn was about as funny as a kick in the nuts.
There’s something about SNL and the way it seems oblivious to its own weaknesses. They’ve come up with some of the funniest material in TV history, and then for three years we get Will Ferrell, whose funny quotient ranks just below tooth decay and right above child molestation.
My guess is Lorne Michaels. When a creative enterprise is concentrated to closely in one person’s hands, you tend to get this - some genius work and some ultra-lame crap.
I never understood Lorne’s decision to pull Norm McDonald from the news for Colin Quinn, claiming that Norm “wasn’t funny”. But now that he’s lowered the bar, Stuttering John could do the news better…
Usually after about five posts, there will be someone who posts a contradictory opinion. Even if just to be a Devil’s Advocate.
However, I find that I must wholeheartedly agree that Colin Quinn was probably the most abysmally untalented hack to ever host the Weekend Update.
Norm McDonald is mostly guilty of just being forgettable, indeed I can only barely remember his tenure. But when he was canned for not being funny, and then replaced with Quinn, I realized that Lorne Michaels and the SNL writers were hopelessly out-of-touch with what makes comedy work.
I still feel that SNL lives and dies on the writing and talent of its performers, and I am somewhat heartened to see that the show is finally getting better. Having two co-hosts is working, though we aren’t anywhere near the glory days of Dennis Miller. Still its a start.
The bottom line is that there will always be jokes that bomb on WU. How refreshing to have the new anchors move on, and not dwell endlessly on it like Quinn used to do.
It wasn’t Lorne Michaels that removed MacDonald; it was NBC’s president, who ordered Michaels to get rid of him (his name escapes me at the moment.)
I always liked MacDonald’s deadpan delivery:
“Today, the City of San Diego unveiled its proposed plan for a new airport that would float off the coast in the Pacific on giant pontoons. (True story) The plan is part of a larger city endeavour to have a really giant disaster.”
Or
“Washington mayor Marion Berry has returned from his three-week tour of Africa. Upon his return, Barry said that while he enjoyed Africa, he really missed crack.”
I thought Norm was pretty damn funny, myself. He tends to get badmouthed alot, presumably for his delivery, which I always thought was what made it so funny. Kevin Nealon, on the other hand, really acted like a newscaster, which was what made his WU funny.
I thought Dennis Miller was the last funny SNL news guy - I haven’t liked anyone since, and I don’t think Miller is funny anymore either. I’ve watched one episode of SNL this season and Jimmy Fallon kept messing up the jokes. I think Phil Hartman would have done a great job on SNL news.
Anyway, to answer tevya’s original question, Quinn left SNL to pursue acting. So we can continue to follow his career further down the toilet.