Okay, now THAT was funny. 
I am not an SNL expert, but I remember hearing somewhere (maybe somebody who lived in New York) that there are two runs at the show. There’s a first, trial run with an audience, that if it were aired would last two hours. Then there’s a break in which the sketches that totally didn’t work at all are cut, leaving ninety minutes of material for the broadcast. That’s the way it was explained to me; is it accurate?
Anyway, if that’s true, then it’s impossible for this to be thrown-together improvised padding. If the show suddenly times short for some reason, they’ve got a store of material from the previous run they can use to pad it out as necessary.
I remember, there’s that old Christmas show with Candace Bergen as the host, where at the end they all go to the ice rink and skate around in period clothes; it’s pretty obvious she’s being asked to stretch out a minute or so of dead air, but that’s all. The point is, I’d be surprised if they missed their timing by more than that on anything resembling a common basis.
I also saw an interview with Will Ferrell in which he described Lorne Michael’s growing trust in Ferrell’s comic instincts over the years, and how that freed Ferrell to try some more experimental, conceptual things on the show. Combine that with SNL’s history of tossing in an occasional conceptual piece, more performance art than straight comedy, especially at the end. They’ve had that impulse from the beginning; Chevy Chase says he thought the show should have been “a vehicle to take apart television,” for example.
So they took a shot on something. It bombed. It happens. They move on.
Umm, yeah, I can blame them for making the sketches too long just because it’s easier for them. A lot of SNL sketches are just painfully drawn out, and that’s a big reason why I don’t watch it regularly any more. They’re making comedy to entertain people, not to be most convenient for the set designers, so if the sketch needs to be cut short, they need to cut it short. One of the strengths of most Monty Python is that they generally kept their bits short, resorting to bizzaro animation or a strange interruption if they couldn’t find a way to end it properly, it’s too bad that SNL doesn’t because they do have some funny stuff in there.
Back to the OP, I vaguely remember that sketch and like Ender Will I think it was just an idea that didn’t work. “OK, Worst. Date. Ever. in an airport bar, we’ll make the female strangely paranoid and laugh as they stumble through it”. I think the main problem is that it empasizes the awkwardness without much silliness or weirdness; I could certainly imagine being stuck in that situation.
I think I’ve seen some odd “sketches” near the end of the show called “Schiller Vision” or something. There are usually in black and white and not funny at all. What are these?
I actually didn’t think it was that bad (at least Will Ferrell’s “I don’t want to talk about it” line which I found really funny), and I agree that it was probably more of an experimental piece with more acting in it than an outright attempt at comedy.
I wasn’t sure, though nobody else has mentioned it, if Will Ferrell’s character was at some point intended to be a homosexual (maybe closeted) or bi-curious; perhaps he was somehow hoping ‘Ray’ would be a man. Except that’s really reading too much into the sketch as it was shown. I just thought it might have been part of the original concept of it.
In fact, that rehearsal is put on tape, and acts as back-up should some technical difficulty befall the actual live show. If something happens, NBC will air this other footage, which looks just like a real show, with multiple camera angles, audience laughter, etc.
This is why, in close to 30 years of a live broadcast featuring – let’s be honest – some very emotional, controversial, and substance-abusing performers, there has been only a handful of glitches or embarrassing moments.
These are basically limited to:
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Paul Schaffer accidentally saying “f*ck” in 1980
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Damon Wayans quitting a sketch (and the show) live onstage
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Sinead O’Connor ripping up a photo of the Pope, when in rehearsal she had held up a picture of a child and said something inspirational.
Again, I’m arguing against my own case, so I’ll just admit defeat.
It was a strange high-concept sketch without punchlines that wasn’t funny!
Not nearly as fun as something ad-libbed or screwed-up live. But SNL is designed so that won’t happen.
JasonG
No shit! I’ve noticed this, too. It seems like every time I flip over to Comedy Central to see what’s on, it’s always an old SNL show. I enjoy SNL sometimes, but Comedy Central needs to get some variety back in its programming.
Tangent, old SNL isn’t the problem. Old SNL, from the 1970s, is hilarious. If you see John Belushi or Jane Curtain in a skit, watch it. Watch the epsiode. It went to hell sometime in the 1980s, rebounded for a while, went to hell again, and has yo-yoed for a good while now. But the 1970s episdoes with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players were, and are, consistently good.
Don’t believe me? Candygram!
I agree with Derleth in that the '70s cast was outstanding and that lately it has yo-yoed consistently. I think, and I usually get shouted down when I voice this opinion to friends, that Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon are OUTSTANDING at the Weekend Update. I think Tina Fey is hilarious and her delivery is wonderful. Jimmy Fallon can be pretty funny, but he’s really a new medicated version of Adam Sandler. They make the whole show worthwhile, in my opinion.
I remember the sketch in the OP and I thought it was amusing. Not hilarious, but amusing. I think the joke was really how silly people look when they feign enthusiasm, interest, and enjoyment with other people. It was amusing to see how forced the characters were with each other because they were on a blind date. It’s a very easy situation to identify with because everyone has been there before, pretending to be enthralled because somehow you barely know is talking and expecting you to be interested.
I would say, overall, that I liked the skit.
Of course, I also liked the recently post-9/11 skit (when Sean William Scott was the host) where the employees at a company are supposed to wear something patriotic and Will Ferrel shows up in American flag underwear and a USA belly shirt and nothing else.
Also, to add to the list of embarrassing moments on SNL, didn’t Norm McDonald once accidentally say “f*ck” while doing the Weekend Update? The way I heard it, after he said it, he pulled out the mini-tape recorder he used sometimes for jokes and said into it “note to self: find new job”.
I think one of the best parts about the show is when they lose it and begin laughing. The best example of this was a sketch where Chris Parnell and Molly Shannon were a married couple whose baby was lost by the hospital. Tim Meadows, as a doctor, came into the room. Chris Parnell asked if he could help find the missing baby and Tim Meadows said “No, but I can dance the robot”, danced the robot dance, then left the room without saying anything else. Molly Shannon lost it completely and laughed uncontrollably for several minutes.
–greenphan
First, I believe that it was Charlie Rocket who said “f—”, and that it resulted in him being fired.
Second, what about Martin Lawrence misbehaving so badly that he was banned from NBC for the rest of his life?
In Massive Headwound Harry, Dana Carvey started cracking up when the dog started chewing his wig.
‘I just want to know who the fuck shot me??’ (probably paraphrased somewhat)
Charles Rocket said it when they ran recurring scenes throughout that nights show about ‘Who Shot CR’, a take off of ‘Who Shot JR’ from ‘Dallas’.
i don’t recall paul saying the magic word.
Is there a video clip of that online anywhere?
And is there a great tell-all SNL book, preferably from the '80s on?
Cheri Oteri also said some curse word during the live broadcast; I don’t know if it was the f-word or the s-word. At the end they had her put a dollar in the swear jar.
And I’ve got to disagree with those who swear that every moment of the original series was pure comedy gold. There were some good bits in there, but I think it’s more the case that we’ve seen the best-of in syndication and compilations for so long that that plus nostalgia makes you think that every single sketch was a classic.
My favorite SNL obvious time-filler was from the fifth season.
Steve Martin and Bill Murray looked and pointed at something off-camera and kept saying “What the hell is that?” in hillbilly accents.
I did not see the original of this. I did, however, catch the rerun of it on Comedy Central about a month ago, where she was not shown ripping up a picture of the Pope, but of an African child. I assume this is an example of using the rehearsal footage instead of on-air footage. Which got me to thinking–I’ve never seen video of her ripping up the photo ever, just stills. I guess this is because Lorne Michaels/SNL/NBC/Comedy Central do not want to offend anyone more, but it seems odd that Comedy Central would rerun the segment of her singing that song (albeit the rehearsal version). They already have to cut out 30 min worth of material to make a one-hour show; why was this shown instead of another comedy sketch? It just stresses what is not being shown.
Also, I remember hearing a rumor several years ago about a sketch in the 70s involving replacing the f-word with “flog” as the basis of the sketch. A cast member, at one point, accidentally let fly “fucking” instead of “flogging”.
Governor Quinn:
Charles Rocket did say “fuck,” and he was fired. But that was during the execrable half-year when Jean Doumanian produced the show. Rocket’s profanity was just the final straw in a season of creative bankruptcy; he was fired, Doumanian was fired, most of the rest of the cast was fired and the show went on hiatus until a new producer (Dick Ebersole) got things running again.
Earlier Paul Shaffer had said the f-word on the air, but it was clearly accidental; there were no personal consequences for him.
Norm MacDonald dropped the F-word as well; I happened to see that one live. I laughed for several minutes.
“Don’t put yer liiiiips on it!” That Steve Martin bit was really funny.
Louise Lassers (Mary Hartman) onstage mental implosion on SNL in 1976 was pretty hard to watch. She basically stopped in the middle of a song, sat down on the stage during and launched into stream-of-consciousness psycho babble for several minutes.
And she gave her monologue to a hot dog while doing the above.
I’d also like to know more about the Wayans incident. Any link to more info? Or at least does someone know either why he did it or what they did for the rest of the skit/show?