# Was the '22 SNL season opener as awful as it appeared? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** talk-variety-show\ **Created:** [October 2, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590 "2022-10-02T19:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/61 "2022-10-06T07:02:00Z")
I wonder. . .do you remember how many bits they had per WU? Maybe they do more of them per episode now. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/62 "2022-10-06T13:23:41Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I wasn’t the only one that noticed the new font: [Washington Post: SNL Opens 48th season](https://wapo.st/3C4tIfm) mentioned it in the review I gifted here. I wasn’t questioning that the font had changed; I’d noticed it, too. It’s been changed several times over the years. I questioned that someone would think a design change made by the graphics department would have any bearing on the quality of the writing or performances within the show. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/63 "2022-10-06T14:53:15Z")
Not sure how many they used to do. I WAS JUST TRYING TO MENTION THAT IT IS A CONCEPT BUILT INTO THE PREMISE! DOES ANYONE LISTEN TO ME? BUT NOOOO! ARGH! OOF! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4Q4JfaHjAng/hqdefault.jpg "ButNo") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q4JfaHjAng) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/64 "2022-10-06T15:39:01Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I dislike the characters they introduce to do bits in the weekend update. Bowen Yang as a bug this time. Or previously Baby Yoda, guy with a yacht, etc. I just never find those funny at all. I usually got a laugh out of their Eric and Don Jr. bits during Weekend Update. > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I’m continually surprised that the first episode back isn’t the best of the season. With all the time away from the show, I’d think every single writer and cast member would have banked two or three solid premises just by accident as they live their lives and watch the news. I wonder if they sort of ration those out over the course of the season; if you’re going to hang onto a joke about a politician since late May, it’ll probably keep until February. Only the ideas that popped up since about September would be current-events relevant, and maybe not even all of those. I agree with you though; not as terrible as described upthread. I do fear that it’ll be the model for the rest of the season; I tend to feel like the cast departures were a bit too drastic and recent for the show to really get their footing this season. Aren’t they like 3-4 people down vs. the normal cast size this year, even with the few new hires they’ve made? ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/65 "2022-10-06T16:47:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That rooftop bar sketch, I feel like SNL has done that one multiple times before. Starting with the Czech brothers. It reminded me a little of Tom Hanks’ recurring Girl Watchers sketch. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FnDGawHdKUg/maxresdefault.jpg "Girl Watchers - Saturday Night Live") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnDGawHdKUg) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/66 "2022-10-06T17:24:38Z")
That show sucked on Ice! > [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Michael Longfellow comes off as kind of creepy and intense. Is he intended to be the “new Pete Davidson”? That’s exactly what I thought. I hate him already. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/67 "2022-10-06T20:25:29Z")
Weekend Update has been berry berry good to cast members who might otherwise be overlooked. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/68 "2022-10-06T23:15:54Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > DOES ANYONE LISTEN TO ME? BUT NOOOO! ARGH! OOF! You’re not the only one. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > That’s a real thing? > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I was surprised when they had what I thought was a fake commercial for BeReal, which turned out to be real.1 And what I thought was a fake commercial for T-Mobile, which turned out to be real. And then what I thought was a real commercial for McDonald’s, which turned out to be fake. > > 1 I’ve never even heard of BeReal so of course I thought something that utterly idiotic had to be fake. AAAAARRRRRGGHHHHHHHH!!! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/69 "2022-10-07T00:58:37Z")
A lot of us were saying THAT when the show was on a major slump in the mid 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/70 "2022-10-07T01:22:32Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I wonder. . .do you remember how many bits they had per WU? Maybe they do more of them per episode now. Weekend Update for Episode 1 ran 15:27, which seemed exceptionally long to me. There were three bits. The McConnel-Walker campaign bit ran 3:25 Michael Longfellow’s monologue ran 2:43 The Lantern Fly ran 2:45, leaving only time for the goodnights. Knock off an additional 15 seconds for the open and applause, it means that Che and Jost were on for just over 6 minutes, less than 40% of the runtime. I compared that with a WU from 2017. That ran for a much shorter 8:29. Of that 3:32 was given to a Kate McKinnon/Ruth Bader Ginsberg skit, leaving about 60% for Che and Jost. Once you get under 50% of Weekend Update actually being Weekend Update, I don’t think you can call it Weekend Update anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/71 "2022-10-07T04:30:40Z")
And suddenly I feel lazy 🙂 Thanks for the effort and the info. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/72 "2022-10-07T05:16:19Z")
You can always watch all the SNL sketches on YouTube within a day after the show. They don’t show the segment which names all the cast members or the closing segment with the host saying goodbye, but they show all the comedy sketches and the two musical numbers. This is anywhere from 15 to 18 YouTube videos. During weekends when I miss the show on television, I watch those videos on YouTube the next day. I live a half a mile from an AMC movie theater, so I have watched that introduction to each movie in the theater with Nicole Kidman a dozen times at least. It’s after the previews for other films showing soon and before the film itself. It does have her saying some rather strange things about how great it is to watch the movie in an AMC theater. (Incidentally, every time I watch it, I find myself thinking, “Why are you talking in an Australian accent, Nicole? You spent nearly all the first four years of your life within twenty miles of this theater.” Look it up if you don’t believe me. Kidman was born in Honolulu. Then a few months later her family moved to Bethesda, Maryland (or possibly Washington, D.C.) for the rest of that four years. Her father did his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii and then did a post-doc at the National Institute of Health on Wisconsin Avenue near the border between Maryland and D.C. Yeah, that’s kind of a stupid thing for me to think, since a person’s accent is more based on where they lived from 4 to 18 than where they lived from 0 to 4.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/73 "2022-10-07T14:16:35Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I enjoyed the lantern fly and the host’s resemblance to Rachel Maddow. I was wondering how that played in the rest of the country. In the northeast they are everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/74 "2022-10-07T17:55:15Z")
We’re getting warnings, just in case they migrate west. I also thought Yang’s lantern fly evoked Belucci’s bee, though Belucci hated being the bee and Yang proudly leaned in to the lantern fly. ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/75 "2022-10-09T05:02:54Z")
I think SNL redeemed themselves tonight. I was ROFLMAO with the eyeball sketch. That’s gonna be a classic, right up there with the Coneheads. I am also very stoned so my perception might be skewed. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/76 "2022-10-09T13:00:39Z")
Since the beginning of the 47th Season in October 2021 the three-person group Please Don’t Destroy has done 13 sketches which are in the shows, even though those three are not listed as being part of the cast. Incidentally, they are now making a movie whose plot is a lot like their interactions in their SNL sketches. It’s already scheduled for release on August 18, 2023. Conan O’Brien has a small part in the movie: > **[Please Don't Destroy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Don%27t_Destroy)** > > Please Don't Destroy is a comedy group in New York City consisting of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, who began collaborating as students at New York University. The group was originally founded in 2017 and based on an act titled Please Don't Destroy My Farm. The troupe performed monthly comedy shows, appeared at the New York Comedy Festival and produced sketch videos posted to YouTube. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they began creating shorter videos for TikTok and Twi In 2021, ... > **[Boys, Interrupting](https://www.vulture.com/article/please-dont-destroy-sketch-comedy-profile.html)** > > At home with Please Don’t Destroy, the sketch-comedy group all over your feeds. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/W5pKtVkmM_8/maxresdefault.jpg "Conan Is Going To Be In Please Don't Destroy's Movie | Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5pKtVkmM_8) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/77 "2022-10-09T14:15:55Z")
One of the reasons that it’s worth it to watch the week’s sketches a day or two later on YouTube is that they have cut-for-time sketches as well as the ones that are performed live on the show. The cut-for-time sketches come from the dress rehearsal for the show that is done starting at 8:00 PM on Saturday. They often perform more sketches during the dress rehearsal than can be done during the hour and a half of the show. These sketches are filmed and generally not different from the ones done live. Occasionally these cut-for-time sketches are very good. Just as an example, here are one that was done in January this year which is on YouTube and a list of some cut-for-time sketches: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/R8HvuF55-pk/maxresdefault.jpg "Jail Ad - SNL") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8HvuF55-pk) > **[Cut For Time](https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/Cut_For_Time)** > > Cut For Time is a phrase used by Saturday Night Live producers for sketches that made it as far as the dress rehearsal, but did not make it to the live production. While never making a television appearance, they can be found online on YouTube, the... ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/78 "2022-10-09T18:55:03Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I also thought Yang’s lantern fly evoked Belucci’s bee, though Belucci hated being the bee and Yang proudly leaned in to the lantern fly. Belushi, not Belucci. His ancestry is Albanian, not Italian. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/79 "2022-10-09T19:09:16Z")
Agreed, last night’s episode was a big improvement over last week. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-22-snl-season-opener-as-awful-as-it-appeared/972590/80 "2022-10-09T20:00:18Z")
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