So, a food company tries to change to a healthier oil to fry their fries in but the healthier oil doesn’t taste as good. So they find something to compensate… oh the horror. I’d be perfectly happy (actually happier) if they went back to using beef tallow.
My teeth are whiter due to “science”… my hair is cleaner thanks to “science”, and my blood pressure remains in check due to “science” and even (GASP) “chemicals.”
I think we are hijacking just a bit though. So, back on track… I like SNL and have been watching it off and on since the very first episode. Some seasons/episodes are better then others, but to say it all has been crap is a huge stretch.
And in particular… this episode was pretty good… other than when Sir Paul rocked out like a bad garage band.
I had the sound low and the Close Captioning on while watching SNL and the caption said “mother trucker.” I am pretty sure that Jackson did not say mother trucker.
I’m kind of surprised that happened. The guests on What’s Up With That would obviously be in on the joke. I know the first guest generally plays the angry part because their piece about their charity work gets stepped all over, but I would think they can keep that in check. Still pretty funny though.
The post above by woodstockbirdybird said that they Hulu version cut out Martin Short’s monologue (and presumably the version on NBC.com is the same). I think they do that because of song clearance rights.
“Always been crap” is my point of contention. John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Dan Akroid, the list goes on and on and on and on. How you can deny that there has been some great comedy to come from this show is unbelievable to me.
If it were crap even 51% of the time it would have been cancelled after the first season.
I recently watched the one with “Lina Wertmuller being interviewed by Baba Wawa” on Netflix after reading about it here on the Dope. The bit with Buck Henry casting for a crowd scene was hilarious! Belushi’s Samauri appearances weren’t bad, either.
Well over 51 percent is stupid crap. Always has been. I’ve watched it since the beginning, and there are moments of inspired silliness that usually go on too long. Now that is some good fish! I snicker at the stupid sex and fart jokes, but an episode of SNL is not like Blazing Saddles or Money Python where people memorize the whole thing because it is so funny or strange. What do you remember about the episode where Joe Montana was on? The lonely roommate who says exactly what he is thinking. Out of the whole 90 minutes the shocking nature of the last few seconds of that sketch is classic, and the only thing remembered. It is rare that an episode has more than a few such moments.
If I gave it more than a moment’s thought I’m sure I could come up with plenty more. You are comparing a weekly live comedy show to a movie, and a BBC comedy show (and hey, if it is British it is cool) that was shown in repeats more often than it was new, and certainly didn’t run for 30+ years.
My argument is still that if you were right… the show would have never survived. My argument is that it is that more people enjoy it than don’t. You clearly don’t… I do. I’m in the majority.
All that is necessary for it to stay on is that it make money for the network. It doesn’t require anything near a majority of the people to like it, and I very much doubt that a majority likes it. It is popular with college kids who probably don’t get to watch much TV any other night, and it has no competition in that time slot.
Don’t get me wrong — it has had some great moments. I still laugh every time I think of Bill Murray playing Hercules. But they are few and far between.
One obvious example — the Daily Show has to crank out jokes about current news stories for about four shows a week, about 15 minutes per show. Weekend Update has all week to write about five minutes, and sometimes not even that, when they waste most of the segment on the “unprepared singers” or “the girl you shouldn’t have started a conversation with” or whatever. Yet IMO there is no question that the Daily Show is consistently funnier, as well as more sharply satirical, than Weekend Update.
Please explain how a rating of 2.8 proves that the majority of people like SNL, which is what I disputed as a fact. Actually, that’s much lower than I would have thought, given its lack of competition. As for the Daily Show, it’s just my opinion (which “IMO” made explicit) that it’s consistently better, but almost anything on a major network will get higher ratings than almost anything on basic cable.
I agree with you there. IMO Carson was always good, and SNL had some good years, but most of them were decades ago. I honestly can’t remember a show from this century, except the ones in the last few months. I can remember a lot of the shows featuring Akroyd, Belushi, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, Norm McDonald, and Bill Murray.
To be fair, I actually watched the old shows. Now I have them on, but I’m usually reading or doing something on the PC at the same time. I’ll watch the first few seconds of a sketch, but if I see it’s going to be the tenth rendition of Gilly or something, I tune it out.
Also to be fair, I don’t know a lot of the shows they are apparently spoofing, although I doubt it makes much difference, because when I do know them, they still don’t seem that funny. One exception was their recent spoof of Homeland, which I liked. But I don’t know who they are targeting with the Lawrence Welk parodies — if you’re old enough to remember him, you’re not going to think the 14th time around of the same gag is that funny. IMO.
An exhausting Google search of “TV Ratings SNL” and another on “TV Ratings Daily Show.” Something like TV by the numbers. I don’t know what they mean, and I really don’t care too much… but like I said why let facts get in the way of a good argument.
Bottom line is any show that has run for 30+ years can’t have been crap since the very beginning. I’m not a cheerleader for the show… I probably only catch it once a month anymore if I’m lucky, but I still usually get a laugh or two out of each episode.
I remember watching it in the early days though and it was the topic of discussion at work/school the next day. Back then there weren’t as many cable shows competing, so anything on one of the “big three” was a truly big deal and again not crap the whole time.
