I hear about Saturday Night Live all the time: it is a constant cultural reference point for US Dopers. It sounds like it was pretty good, and it also sounds like my sort of humour. I think I’d like to see some of it, both because I’d enjoy it and also just to see what all the fuss is about.
I notice that a DVD set has been released of the early years of the show. I understand that the early years are considered to have been the show’s “golden age”. Certainly, many of the performers on the show then are household names now through subsequent movie roles.
However, I wonder whether the show is full of very specific references to then-current politics, personalities etc that are going to leave me floundering? I was alive (although young) in the seventies, and I lived here, not in the US. I have a modest but not great degree of knowledge of US popular culture and events of the seventies and later.
Australian TV picks up vast amounts of US TV, but not SNL. The fact that Australian TV buyers did not pick up the show (as they do with most popular US shows) of itself suggests they thought the show wouldn’t translate.
Does the show comprise mostly humour revolving around political/celebrity/news de jour, or is it just general “human condition” humour of the type that will still play well to a 39 yr old Australian?
Definitely the former. Most sketch comedy, by nature, doesn’t age well, and SNL is no exception. Most people have fond memories of the performers themselves and a few memorable characters or sketches, but generally the show has been a product of its time throughout its long run, and older episodes always seem dated and a lot less funny. This is true for the original “Not Ready For Prime-Time Players” (Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Ratner, Bill Murray, etc), the era that followed where Eddie Murphy reigned supreme (although the “Best of Eddie Murphy” DVD is a worthwhile purchase), and the '80s-'90s era that most people remember fondly, having not actually watched it in about a decade.
Actually, I’d say it’s about half and half. You do get inevitable references to current events and celebrity foibles (most inevitably on the Weekend Update segment), but there are quite a few general humor sketches. A lot of the SNL references you may have heard about are from the stock characters and bits that develop, and most of those are not too current-events driven: for example, Waynes World (which you probably know anyways), the Church Lady, Matt Foley the motivational speaker, to name the first few that come to mind.
I wouldn’t recommend getting the complete first season DVDs right off the bat (unless you have something like NetFlix in Australia); rather, check out some of the “Best Of” compilations. These are kind of unsatisfying in themselves because they’re fairly short, but it will at least give you an overview of what everyone’s talking about. There are lots of “Best Of” DVDs out there – just think of a favorite actor or comedian who was on SNL and they’ve probably got one. As a bonus, those DVDs are pretty cheap, at least in the US – you can usually find them for a couple bucks in a discount store.
SNL DVDs might be interesting from a cultural perspective but they age badly. I wonder if you can take a look at some skits on Youtube and decide from there.
I personally enjoy really good guests over the cast. On any given show there will be two or three really funny skits and a bunch of stinkers. But Sting, Joe Montana and Walter Payton, and Justin Timberlake stand out to me as great hosts.
Not on free to air, but it’s readily accessible on Pay TV. I used to watch it a fair bit when I was younger (David Spade, Kevin Nealon, Adam Sandler etc era) and I thought it was ok, although fairly hit and miss. There were plenty of references I didn’t get, but I’m used to that.
It’s on Comedy Channel in Australia. From my experience, though - and you may completely disagree - SNL is very American, and it took me a long time before I understood it (that is, I saw the sketches, and could see why people thought it was funny, yet I didn’t find it particularly hilarious). The concept of an alien form of American humor is a little odd to think of at first, because we get so much American TV, but SNL is funny in a way that is peculiarly American, much more so than things like Seinfeld or The Simpsons or Friends. I found I only really started finding the show funny after I’d begun to culturally integrate myself into American society. It’s kind of amazing how valued a part of American culture SNL is. There are many more popular shows, but there are few that have such an integral role in American culture.
I’d recommend starting off with some of the more famous sketches (check YouTube) - “More Cowbell” should be funny to anyone, and the recent viral video things like “Dick in a Box” and “Lazy Sunday” are easily accessible. After that, the Weekend Update is easiest to get a handle on. If you watch the show, remember that it’s only important to see the first half of a sketch. The second half is just more of the same. (Does anyone know the Monty Python quote about life being different to an SNL sketch because it doesn’t go on forever?)
I haven’t watched the DVD set, but from what I’ve heard, that first season isn’t at all the most representative of the show. It took them awhile to find the format and make good use of the regular cast, so that the very early episodes don’t look much like what we normally think of as “SNL.”
When the show’s “golden age” was may depend more on how old you were when you watched it. One of the things that made those early years golden was how unlike anything else that had previously been on American TV it was, how many taboos and rules it broke. If you’re going for historical value, that first season is well worth watching. For entertainment value, it’s probably not the best.
I agree with some of the other recommendations, that you check out some of the “Best of” compilations or the individual sketches available from places like YouTube.
As for SNL in general being particularly American, well, compared to any other sketch comedy show that I can think of, SNL does more with what’s going on in current events and popular culture. There will typically be at least one political sketch each week, featuring cast members impersoning the President of the United States and other key political figures and giving their take on what’s in the news. This is one thing that SNL, at least sometimes, does extremely well. (It’s even been said that SNL is at its best in election years.)
SNL also does quite a few sketches based around celebrity impersonations, as well as other references to current trends, fads, TV shows, movies, American culture, etc. So there’s a definite risk of becoming dated and/or not traveling well. (There are also, it must be said, a fair number of timeless, non-culture-specific sketches.) SNL is, after all, a live show, which is both a strength and a weakness.
> Does anyone know the Monty Python quote about life being different to an SNL
> sketch because it doesn’t go on forever?
Say what? How could the Monty Python show mention Saturday Night Live? Saturday Night Live didn’t start showing until after the Monty Python show went off the air. And besides, making a joke about an American TV show would have been quite strange for Monty Python.
The original cast and the Pythoners were quite close for a while. **e-bow ** is probably talking about a quote by Eric Idle who was especially friendly with Ackroyd and Belushi. So not a quote in a MP show, but a quote by a member of Python.
Thanks, What Exit? I did a search and found a website that says:
> As England’s venerable satirist Eric Idle asked, “What’s the difference between
> life and a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch? Life doesn’t go on forever.”
That was still a confusing way for e-bow to put it.