I think SNL has been pretty bad the last coupleof years, yet I think the cast they have is actually very talented. Do others get that impression? While I find a lot Kristin Wiig’s characters annoying I think she has good comedy chops. Bill Hader, Will Forte, Keenan Thompson, Fred Arminson, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis are not anything close to deadweight. And I think it is a good mix as well.
Yet the show generally sucks, they recycle the same skits and characters, so much of their humor these days is “shock” for shocks sake. Do they just have really crappy writers these days? Or am I wrong and they simply have a bad cast? It is a real shame, IMO, because I just feel that this could be an excellent group and it is being wasted.
No, I think the cast is good, and some of the characters are pretty funny. I like “Gilly” (though even that’s getting tired) and Andy Samberg’s “Make-a-Wish” kid. IMO, the problem with SNL, for many years now, has been that there’s nothing left for them to do! In the first 10-15 years, there was always a way to push the envelope; now, there’s so much more permitted on TV that there’s nothing left to get people’s attention. Nothing shocks anymore, and that was always SNL’s strong suit; you know, the “water-cooler” stuff (“Did you see that?”)
Also, there doesn’t seem to be two or three people who make a good steady combination. Remember Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri? The cheerleaders and the “Morning Latte” sketches were true bright spots during those years. Go back further, and you get Dan Aykroyd/Steve Martin, Billy Crystal/Christopher Guest, Gilda Radner/Bill Murray, etc. The best sketches have always been two steady characters playing off each other, and that seems to be sadly lacking lately.
The show has sucked for a while now. Some of the girls are pretty good, Hader’s okay, as is Arminson. But okay just don’t cut it. there’s no huge talent. No Eddie Murphy, Darrel Hammond, Dan Akroyd, etc. But most important is the presence of Will Forte. He sucks funny from a show like a black hole. Just get rid of him and the Funny Quotient skyrockets.
It isn’t just you. I think Kristen Wiig, for example, is quite talented (and hilarious in some of her small film roles, e.g., Knocked Up and Ghost Town) and yet is responsible for some of the most annoying sketch characters ever inflicted on the audience. It’s at least partially due to the time constraints, I suppose, but for a very long time the show has operated using the highly flawed formula
irritating + repetitive = comedy
which, goddammit, just isn’t true.
In a perverse way, I almost cringe when they stumble across a concept that *does * make me laugh, because you can bet your life they’ll do it again the following week, and the week after, ad nauseam, until every last bit of humor is wrung out and ground into the carpet.
I always thought Darrel Hammond was a poor man’s Phil Hartman. Keenan can be funny at times, but it seems like his default setting is “fat black guy in a wig.” I’ve complained about Seth Meyers on this board, so I’ll do it once more: I don’t think he’s the best head writer SNL could have, I think he’s funny at times, but he also seems to lean on the gay panic jokes too much.
I think they need to shake up what they do on the show, and that’s not just dumping new cast members. I’ve read the articles talking about how all the skits are written by comittee now, writers staying up until early morning deciding which set of words are funniest in what skits. When the results are what we see on Saturday night, there has to be a better way to do it.
Earlier casts didn’t shy away from reusing characters, Murray’s lounge singer, Roseanne Rosanna Danna, Mr. Robertson’s Neigboorhood, Hans and Frans, Wayne’s World, the Church Lady, the man LIVING IN A VAN down by the RIVER, etc etc. were all used several times over. What kept those skits funny? SNL has to figure that out and not lean on re-using the same skits over and over with barely any changes.
I agree with the op. I like the cast a lot. It’s my favorite snl cast in years. Lots of people who I think of as funny and talented. That being said, I think snl is pretty terrible right now. Sometimes there is only 1 funny sketch per episode and I’m easy (I crack up ever time the “what up with that” sketch is on) I don’t have an answer to why this is.
Adding to the mystery is that whenever I’ve gone to see a show at one of the improv theaters where some of the players started out, the shows are piss yourself funny.
Maybe the show needs a looser less scripted feel… who knows
I agree he’s somewhat weak, but he’s been delivering the good lately: his Whoopi, Whats up With That, French def-jam comedian, and general goofy/fat guy antics.
Forte on the other hand has his MacGruber and lots of cringe-worthy “How is this man on television?” moments. His annoying politician shtick is actually annoying.
If anything Forte keeps getting worse while Thompson keeps getting better. Its interesting how much better the weaker guys from just a few years ago are today like Hader, Thompson, and Sudekis. Thankfully, they’ve parked a lot of Wiig’s annoying characters. I think for half a season it was the Kristin Wiig show. shudder
I have to disagree with most people in this thread. The show is pretty darn funny. Last week’s was just weak from a host with very limited comedic skit acting skills, although his standup is excellent.
I actually think the cast is pretty talented (at least in the other projects they work on – Bill Hader is a perfect example), but the show is pretty awful. Kristen Wiig and, to a lesser extent, Andy Samberg seem to be the only ones left with some life in them. I do like MacGruber and French Def Jam, but they can’t be the backbone of an episode.
I don’t want to turn this into a whole thing (ha ha ha, yes I do) but the cast is quite blah. Again, they’re talented, but sometimes it looks like almost all of them have been cloned and re-cloned from one Generic White Bro™, each coming out of the CloneMaker2000 looking slightly different (more hair, bigger ears).
The two new female cast members aren’t horrible but they don’t stand out, and it is just too weird that they basically replaced two hot brunettes with two hot brunettes. If they don’t make a splash, will we get more of the same, over and over until someone sticks? I refuse to believe that this is the best there is (okay, the best… that is willing to join the cast of SNL). Are there really no funny Asians, black women, fat girls, redheads? It’s not like the bar is particularly high, and the celebrity and political spheres are more than just doughy white dudes – Hell, the recent cringe-inducing sketch where two people had to pretend to be Chinese should have been a wake up call.
Oh, but I do think the new boy Bobby Moynihan has tons of potential.
I have TOTALLY seen enough “family members making out with each other” skits.
I like all the current cast members, some more than others. Hader’s awsome and I agree about Wiig, she’s got talent but some annoying characters (yeah, Im looking at you, Target cashier lady!).
I’m surprised at the lack of Asians and black women on the cast. Casey Williams was on the chubby side; she was dropped for the 2009-2010 season.
I think there’s never been a truly fat woman as a cast member because the variety of characters she would be able to do would be more limited, compared to someone with normal proportions.
I’m kinda surprised people don’t like Jason Sudekis more - he’s a solid utility player, IMO, much moreso than Darrel Hammond (who has never been funny; then again, I hate people who only do impressions). I think Kristen Wiig has talent but not on SNL. Sudekis seems more like a character actor to me - he’s there to make the whole thing funnier, not to hog the glory.
I’m not as down on SNL as most of you are. I’ve been watching it since the very first episode in the 1970’s. The one constant since then is that everyone always thinks that the then-current season is the WORST EVER. The reason is because as the show fades into history, you remember all the good sketches, and forget the bad ones. And when they show ‘classic’ SNL skits, you only see the good ones.
Hell, I remember back in the days of the original Not-Ready-For-Primetime players when they couldn’t even figure out how to end a sketch that was going nowhere. More than once the cast just stopped trying and walked off the set, or broke character to say, “Well, this sucks.” or words to that effect.
There’s only been one truly horrible period in SNL history, and that was the time when Lorne Michaels left the show and Dick Ebersol produced. All the other cast eras had their strong moments and lame skits.
Go back in the archives and read what people on the SDMB were saying about Will Ferrel when he was on the show. The cheerleader sketches were almost universally hated. Cheri Oteri came in for her share of hatred, too.
I think some of what SNL is doing now is better than it’s ever been. In particular, their fake commercials and Digital Shorts are almost always very good. Weekend Update is still funny. Bill Hader does great impressions. His alien sportscaster is hilarious. “Laser Cats” will be remembered fondly as goofy silliness. The new female cast members are very talented. And notice that almost all the cast members can actually sing (some very well), and some of them can dance, too. It’s a very talented bunch.
