Louis C.K. is amazing. I love that he can just be on the stage, no scenery, no characters, no sketch premise, and be funnier than the whole rest of the show with only his standup monologue.
It wasn’t a bad show, but highlight to highlight, it never got better than Louis’ standup.
Louis CK is great. At one point I believe he mentioned Late Stage Albinism. Isn’t that one of Bob Ducca’s ailments?
I thought “Black Jeopardy” was the highlight. And wow, that Sam Smith was outstanding. Overall a better-than-average SNL.
What was the Final Jeopardy category? Keenan whispered to Louis, “you better be careful with that one” or something, but I didn’t understand the punchline because I missed the category
I liked the show, but there was one sketch I just didn’t “get”. Its the one with Vanessa Bayer and they were talking about loving each other in weird ways, but had this really odd inflection, like they were trying to make it sound like they were reading off cue cards. I kept waiting for a punchline like they were in a commercial for anti-psychotic drugs or something but it just ended
The Final Jeopardy category was “Rap songs that start with the letter ‘N’”.
All I can tell you about that other sketch is that Louie C.K. apparently misread his line and broke up as they went to commercial. Other than that note, your guess is as good as mine.
Horrible, horrible episode. The sketches kept being thoroughly pointless without being funny enough to make a non-ending worthwhile. The Jos. A. Banks commercial was funnier, and it’s always a bad sign when a commercial outdoes the sketches.
The Final Jeopardy category was something like rap songs whose titles begin with the letter “n”. That sketch was weird. It’s nice that SNL has enough black performers and writers to do it, but what was the point? That whites don’t get black culture? Not exactly cutting-edge news. Shouldn’t SNL be pushing the opposite notion, that there isn’t a thing as the black culture any more than the high school president’s campaign bit was supposed to be about the white culture?
Hari Kondabolu has a bit called 2042 and the white minority in which he calls out white people for being worried about the year 2042, in which the white population becomes a minority at 49%. That implies they see the other 51% as a single group, not as the collection of mixed and often antagonistic groups they are. And he forestalls your objection that the 49% that is white isn’t a single group either. They are. That’s what modern day race humor should be like. What SNL does is cheap bottom-feeding stereotyping.
They botched the last lines of the sketch too. She read his, and he read hers.
I happened to be visiting friends over the weekend and watched SNL with them. It has been at least a decade, probably longer, since I last saw it.
Let me say generally that, assuming this is an example of contemporary “humor,” watching it demonstrated conclusively that I just am not with it in any way. I can assure everyone that I love to laugh — but I found few occasions to do so in the course of that hour and a half.
I knew Louis CK as only a name, nothing more. I thought his monologue started slow but got better as time went on. Not side-splittingly better, but at least reasonably interesting and thought-provoking. He seemed to come off fairly well as a straight actor (e.g., the Mr. Big Stuff sketch, which wasn’t otherwise very funny). I might want to see more of him sometime.
I’ll just say in general that the show proved my theory of modern humor, which basically boils down to this: it’s not a requirement any more than something actually be funny. As long as it’s “outrageous” in some fashion, that will pass muster. Or another route to humor is something that is composed entirely of non sequiturs. (“Hey, what we’re saying or doing makes no logical sense whatsoever…isn’t that hilarious?”) The final sketch certainly seemed to fall into that category.
Now here’s what for me was the scary part. I was sitting with my four dearest friends, old college buddies I’ve known for 42 years now. We live in different parts of the country, so we only see each other twice a year. They’re all roughly my age. And all four of them were laughing at just about everything they saw during this episode of SNL. One friend in particular laughed at virtually every line of the monologue. I swear to you, it almost seemed like a Pavlov’s dog thing. “He just delivered another line…I have to laugh now.”
I must have come off as the world’s greatest sourpuss to them. I swear, I was very willing to laugh and be entertained. But with rare exceptions in the course of that hour and a half, I was not.
I don’t showbiz vernacular. What is the difference between Featured Player and Repertory Player?
Here’s my take on it. I’m questioning Colin Jost’s abilities as the head writer; and I think he’s HORRIBLE in Wekend Update. The best talent they have on SNL right now is Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson. Vanessa Bayer is pretty good too; but the rest are bordering on unwatchable. I want to turn the channel when I see Kate McKinnon or Aidy Bryant featured as anything more than a background character. Bobby Moynihan seems very one dimensional to me. He apparently can only play one type of character, regardless of the role.
Whew, now that I got that off my chest. I’m not a huge fan Louis CK, and I thought his monologue was pretty good and the highlight of the show.
Repertory players get paid more and have their names higher in the credits. Some may also get multi-year contracts.
Cecily Strong is indeed great. I find myself wanting to strangle Aidy Bryant.
Anyway, SNL is, as it has always been, 95% crap. People are and will continue to harp on how horrendous it is, only so ten years from now everyone can look back fondly on “the last cast that was actually funny,” because they have succeeded in remembering only the 5% that was actually good.
I’m still amazed Beck Bennett didn’t get tapped for Update. I mean, (a) compared to Colin, it’s what he was born to do; and (b) ain’t that pretty much what got him hired?
No, I suffer from Selective Albinism, but this is really doing a number on my Chronic Shame Disorder and Parker Posey Pox. Luckily I have also been diagnosed as “hard to kill.”
I’m a loyal SNL fan, but since Seth Meyers left, the show is downright terrible. Not at all funny.
But that’s not to say some years aren’t better than others. I don’t know anyone who looks back fondly on the 6th season (the first after the original “Not Ready For Prime Time Players” had all left).
Well, as usual, people love to flock to SNL threads to express “worst. episode. ever” and “SNL hasn’t been great since <insert year from when poster was 17 years old>”. This episode was extremely strong. The Bieber impression on the cold opening was spot-on, Jos A. Bank commercial was hilarious, Black Jeopardy was inspired (SO many great lines in that - “as usual, we started 10 minutes late, so we have to jump to Final Jeopardy”, along with Louis’ amazing straight man act, etc.), etc. The “Who Do You Think You Are?” skit was funny - “this is an actual song, did you guys rehearse or something?”, “I’m, AT MOST, a Mr. Medium Stuff.” The odd pajamas/bad soap opera skit was a little weird - but they were strange interesting characters. Not everything needs to be spoon fed to us to be explained. But of course, if it were, people would complain about that as well.
That’s true. Some years it approaches 98% crap.
I didn’t think this episode was particularly bad; the detective sketch was downright bizarre but at least it was weirdly engaging. They did a good job with Mr. Big Stuff, which was an amusing and well-executed musical bit if not LOL funny.
People need to give SNL a break. They have six days to put together a mostly-live, 90-minute show, from scratch, usually headlined by a person who has no experience doing that. It’s amazing they manage to get on the air every week as it is.
Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do…except perhaps my wife and some of her friends…oh yes and Captain Johnston. Come to think of it most people likes a good laugh more than I do. But that’s beside the point.
I didn’t see the episode, and in fact haven’t watched an episode of SNL in years. It’s possible your analysis is spot-on and I would agree with it if I watched the episode. But I can imagine someone saying much the same thing about, for example, Monty Python when it first aired.
“Funny” is in the eye of the beholder. For something to make a person laugh, it has to hit the sweet spot: not too obvious or expected, but not too disconnected or absurd. And that spot occurs at different points for different people.
I don’t know that they really need to be given a break. Both The Daily Show and Colbert Report typically tape four new episodes a week, Monday through Thursday, forty-two weeks a year and while it’s not sketch comedy, they’ve got more jokes, funnier jokes, fewer players, and less budget. Clearly, it can be done better, because it has been.
Mr. Show was better. As was Kids in the Hall.
If Beck Bennett as a CEO that acts like a baby doesn’t make you laugh, you’re dead inside.
It did the first time I saw it. I’m not even being snarky. But like most good bits, they hand in a carbon copy of it week after week.