On Thursday, Lorne Michaels revealed the new SNL cast. Story here.
To me, the most significant change is the ouster of the completely dreadful Horatio Sanz. Praise Og for that!
Also Seth Meyers replaces Tina Fey at the Weekend Update desk. Amy Pole-whore stays. (Actually, I think she’s O.K.)
But, the dreadful Dane Cook is the host for the season opening show. Ugh.
I’ve put in my two cents worth (and more) of comments. Anyone else want to comment?
Chris Parnell is the most versatile player they’ve had since Will Ferrell (and Phil Hartman before him). I think it will be a major blow to the show to lose him, even though I predicted a month ago that he would be one of the cuts. I’m just a huge Parnell fan (a doughy white guy who raps better than many of the hip-hop stars on the radio, and can play anything from stoic straight man to flamboyant queen), and the cast won’t be the same without him.
As for Dane Cook, this is all you need to know:
"ARRRRGH! HEY, HOW’RE YOU GUYS DOING?
HEY, REMEMBER THUNDERCATS? THOSE WERE FUCKIN’ RAD! AND SILVERHAWKS, THEY WERE LIKE THUNDERCATS IN SPACE! FUCK! YEAH!
SO ONCE I KICKED MY FRIEND RIGHT IN THE TAINT!
YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN GREAT! JOIN ME ON MYSPACE! YA-YOW!"
(Rips shirt off.)
With Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch gone, the cast now only has two women. I wonder how that will affect things.
Wait … just found out about Kristen Wiig. To be honest, I never knew she was in the cast; her profile is so low.
Agree totally with BBVLou’s assessment of Parnell- a versatile pro who will be missed, but obviously not popular with Lorne or whoever because he was fired a few years back and supposedly rehired at the insistence of Farrell.
I expect big things from Krsiten Wiig, I think she has the potential to be the best feamle cast memeber in a long long time.
Keeping Hammond was good if they want to keep doing any political parodies- he’s about the only one who really gets into those type characters- the younger members don’t seem as interested in political humor.
Basically you have your pick of stars to host the season premiere, and you pick Dane “MY FANS ARE THE GREATEST IN THE WORLD I WOULD BE NOWHERE WITHOUT YOU I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU” Cook? Do they not know their core audience are not Dane Cook fans- many barely know who the hell he is? Oh well.
She joined as a “Featured Player” in the middle of this past season, so she’s quite new. But she’s cute, she’s a gifted impressionist (she does a great Katherine Hepburn and Megan Mullaly), and she has two recurring characters so far: the Target lady (not funny; too “Mad TV” for me) and the female A-hole, a clueless, vapid, spoiled bitch in a couple with Jason Sudeikis as the male A-hole.
I suppose, but he has never really struck me as that funny. For an impressionist, he seemed a bit wooden, and he never seems to “smile” with his eyes, if that makes sense, which kinda creeps me out a bit. :dubious:
I’ve said before, I dearly hope that Seth Meyers invents a character to do as the Weekend Update anchor. I always loved that Chevy and Dan Ackroyd didn’t just do themselves, but no Update person’s really done it since.
And I would love to see Seth (in something like his Anderson Cooper character) and Amy revive the old Ackroyd-Curtin Point-Counterpoint (Amy, you ignorant slut!).
What’s wrong with that? His last appearance was one of the better shows last season, along with Natalie Portman’s.
Anything that results in more air-time for Bill Hader is a very, very good thing. Let’s hope that’s the case here.
Without Sanz, who’s going to be the Fat-Guy-In-Residence? Kenan? It’s a principle as old as comedy that you’ve got to have a fat guy.
I can’t imagine the thought-process that went into cutting Parnell and keeping Hammond. Sure, Hammond does political impressions, but Will Forte is their W impersonator, and, as Wee Bairn noted, the show’s been generally moving away from political parody in recent years. (I expect this trend will continue now that Tina Fey is gone.) Not to mention that Bill Hader can do jaw-dropping impressions of seemingly anyone.
(Sorry if this posts twice.)
See posts #2 and #5.
But, as the saying goes, YMMV.
Dane Cook must be liked by *some *people. It’s just that I’ve never personally met any of them.
I only know him from seeing that one episode of Saturday Night Live. Apparently you guys are more familiar with his work than I am. I don’t know, maybe he’s really irritating most of the time, but he was funny when he hosted SNL.
My roommate is actually a huge Dane Cook fan, and got kinda pissed when I did my impression from post #2, culminating in me ripping my shirt off. “He’s nothing like that, man!”, he said.
OK, you’ve got me curious.
Who are in the core audience for SNL and how do they differ from Dane Cook fans?
Dane Cook fandom is mostly college age but really the wide range of college folks- nerds and frats. I think his style is better than his material. Absurdist stories mixed with actual jokes. A good example: the bit about seeing the child licking the ice cream cone and Cook smashing it into the kids face to teach him about life. Kind of funny- The kicker of what makes it stick out is that Cook then adds something weird like “then I ran off into the woods”. WTF! THAT’S what makes it interesting.
I thought Dane Cook was hilarious on the last show. The cashew nut skit had me in stitches (“the shape hugs the shaft! If you use peanuts, they’ll fly all over the place!”).
I haven’t seen any of Dane Cook’s other works, but based on his last appearance, I like him.