I haven’t watched SNL for a while and just wanted to see it last night because of Jim Parsons.
He was OK, but wow has SNL sunk in terms of writing! Almost nothing was even slightly amusing, let alone funny. They PAY writers to do this? Seriously - I have seen improv groups do better than this without a script.
Yeah, I have to say, the part of the show I saw – I followed my usual routine of bailing right after Weekend Update – was pretty dire. In particular, the sketch about The Bird Bible was … damn. I can’t remember the last time a sketch that inert was pushed up that early in the show. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad if it was incredibly annoying or condescendingly stupid, but it was just a big ball of nothing. As for the new Update guy, I’m willing to cut him some slack for not being totally polished yet. It’d be nice if he didn’t do that same little smile after every delivery. And he’d certainly earn a few bonus points in my book if he somehow convinced his girlfriend, Rashida Jones, to make an appearance at some point.
I found the show unimpressive, too. I wonder how many SNL writers have been shunted off to work for Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers? Lorne Michaels has a business interest in seeing those talk shows do well, so it may be that the most-talented writers are now gone from SNL…
I’m not a regular but I had high hopes for Parsons. I thought the audition sketch for 12 Years A Slave was kinda funny.
But Peter Pan was a dud, as was the mystery game, the Ellen spoof, and the guy in the elevator with a bag of poop? Why was he taking it home?
I believe the poop was still ensconced in his underwear, and he wanted to salvage the underwear.
(And this will surely rank as my favorite of all the posts I’ve written…)
It was, but that underwear is never gonna come clean, so why is he taking it home?
Spend some time in the poop threads. 
For the record, that was the first show without Seth Myers as head writer.
Up until last night, this season has been really funny.
If this is any indication of the quality of humor without Meyers, then this show’s in a ton of trouble.
Meh. The 12 Years a Slave had a few laughs and I enjoyed the Ellen impersonation but other than that I have to agree with SykoSkotty - Seth Myers presence as head writer was obvious.
He also had to change clothes.
I though he just didn’t want to throw it in a garbage can on his floor. I agree that Parsons’s talents were wasted & most of the writing sucked.
ThreadS??? :eek:
There was quite a lot I laughed at in this episode, including the Bird Bible commercial. It was just so insane that it worked for me, especially with Kate McKinnon’s weirdness. Of course, I might not have been sober…
“Do you see how they’re all birds?”
“I would have made the wise men owls” “Let’s just enjoy it for what it is.”
The serial killer hiding in plain sight sketch was hysterical, and I love Taran Killen’s Jebidiah Atkinson character on Update, giving snarky movie reviews. He sounded like a lot of Dopers.
Oh, and “Do you have any North parts?” was one of the best things I’ve heard on SNL all season.
The episode didn’t work for the most part for me, but I still laughed a lot.
Oh, and whoever said that they don’t like Jost smiling after his jokes must have really hated Seth Meyers since he CONSTANTLY smiles ALL THE TIME.
I did laugh out loud at that line. The sketch had a touch of Jack Handey absurdity (always a good thing, in my view).
(And: true enough about Meyers smiling all the time.)