TDS and Colbert are comedy talk shows. They have interviews and monologues and an occasional taped remote. The writers may spend all day writing about seven minutes of original material per episode.
They also do not have a live band, choreography, blocking, costume changes, prosthetic makeup, inexperienced hosts, or new sets and props every week. And neither them nor *Mr. Show * or Kids in the Hall are done live. So the comparison is fairly ridiculous. They are completely different enterprises.
This is only the second time they’ve done this one, IIRC. I still found it funny.
And it’s better. It’s funnier, sharper, and more insightful. It’s even dangerous and relevant.
You’re listing strengths as if they’re weaknesses. These should make a show better, not listed as some sort of handicap.
Dude, you’re ridiculous. We can’t compare three sketch comedy shows, because two of them get takes!? Have you noticed how much of SNL pre-taped? Commercials, video shorts, etc. There’s more pre-taped material on SNL now more than ever, and no one, including me, cares. Live is overrated. Plus, no one begrudges cue card reading in comedy. From Jon Stewart’s desk to Weekend Update, we’ve all agreed to laugh along if it’s read off a teleprompter or a card. Live isn’t hard; dying is hard. Everyone can agree there’s been some poor SNL episodes. Now go find a poor Daily Show or Report: you can’t. Those shows are just that tight 100% of the time.
Costumes and set changes? If people were genuinely impressed at the technical difficulty of live stage craft, then high school productions would be able to sell tickets to non-relatives.
One thing I found odd about this episode is that it seemed Vanessa Bayer was isolated from the rest of the cast. She was either in taped bits or only interacting with the host. I hope this doesn’t mean she is on her way out. I find her talented and watchable.
But I agree they need to pull Colin Jost from Weekend Update. His delivery is not right for a fake news show. I think it would be better with just Cecily if they don’t have a replacement for him.
You can compare whatever you want. My point is that comparing two vastly different shows is not particularly instructive or relevant. (And The Daily Show and Colbert Report are not sketch shows in any sense of the term. More apt comparisons would be to KITH, Mad TV, Monty Python, SCTV and the like.)
Dangerous? :dubious:
More likely to offend, or at least to piss off some segment of the population.
Safe comedy avoids politics or religion, or at most says something innocuous and unfunny like “politicians - they’re all dishonest AMIRITE?”
Obama kissing Justin Bieber isn’t real edgy. It had nothing to say about whether Obamacare is or is not good policy.
Why would having a skit working one-on-one with one of the more desirable hosts of the season mean she’s on the outs? That means Lorne and the writers like her.
I think we need to give Jost more time to grow into his role. The last few WU anchors did double time in sketches, we’ve never seen this Jost guy before so I think people are unused to him. Is it a silly, funny guy like Amy Poeler, or is he a more serious, sarcastic guy like Colin Quinn? Right now, I would say his biggest problem is that he’s not sarcastic enough, he’s too earnest, and with WU, you need to mock people, not come off as meek and trying to impress
No love for Kyle Mooney’s class president video? That, to me, was the highlight of the evening.
This. All you have to do is compare Louis CK’s previous episode to this one. The quality of writing has noticeably dropped.
I was disappointed we didn’t get a sequel to “Lincoln.” But then again, it’s probably better they didn’t try.
Yes, that thing was weird and amazing. It almost wasn’t comedy exactly–I mean, I know people exactly like that guy.
Something about stand-up comics - familiarity breeds hilarity. Once you’ve jumped on the bandwagon with a comic, your expectations change and all they have to do is show up and you laugh. Whereas when they are new-to-you, they are a harder sell.
When I saw the setup for Black Jeopardy and LouisCK was playing a white professor of African American studies I was expecting that the joke was going to be that “Black Jeopardy” was just the same as regular jeopardy and the professor would be shown a pompous ass for expecting otherwise.
Instead, the joke was that Black Jeopardy would just be nonsense, which feels insulting in a way they weren’t intending.
Does it seem to anyone else that Nasim Pedrad is getting much less screen time lately?
This wasn’t the worst episode ever. It wasn’t even the worst episode of the year. It was purely and simply in and of itself a bad episode. Louis C.K. did a great monolog but he can’t act, not even a little bit. Or at least, he may be able to act elsewhere but he left that at the studio door.
If something is bad, it doesn’t matter what people say about similar things. This show was bad because it was stupid, lazy, and badly done. That’s true regardless of any other show this season or any other season or any other show on the air ever.
Has she ever gotten enough screen time such that it would even be possible to get much less screen time?
She’s been reduced to poor Kim Kardashian imitations.
I don’t watch SNL every week, but I thought this was a fairly mediocre episode. The best skits were the 2 where Louis CK acted really awkward (the 2 detectives skit, and the skit where he tried to win his ex back). Other than that, meh.
“How many holes do we need to make love” “How many holes are you ok with” was great. I’m using that line in my day to day life.
I liked Black Jeopardy.
I was really wishing Black Sean Connery would show up. Or at least Black Burt Reynolds.