Agreed. My favorite segment was Weekend Update, which is never a good sign. Paul Simon was rough but pretty great though.
My favorite was the Hillbilly Louisiana version of the Seth Meyers show. Beck Bennett was so good. I wonder if, years ago, I would have been unable to understand what he was saying? As it is, I had no trouble understanding him, which made Seth Meyer’s “I don’t know what you’re saying” kind of weird.
SNL has a lot of crap not worth watching, but this segment is not one of those things. It’s following up on the (overblown, but what isn’t these days) hubbub over a Marine veteran being made fun of on the last show by Pete Davidson. They played it perfectly, IMHO, and good on Dan Crenshaw for being a good sport and using the opportunity to give the right message.
Aw man, that was awesome and that guy is awesome. I’ll remember his name for sure. Lt. Dan.
I read about this but haven’t watched it yet. Sounds like it was handled nicely and, in its way, their message is decidedly anti-Trump.
What frustrates me about the hubbub over Pete’s original joke (“lost his eye in a war or whatever”) is that it seems more like a self-effacing joke about his own privileged ignorance and apathy. I think the target of that joke is liberals more than Lt. Dan. I mean, I get why it was controversial and I know outrage gets manufactured routinely but c’mon.
Especially because that was just a comment in a lead-up to his joke, which was about how his name sounded like a porn-star’s. It is typical Pete Davidson though, he makes fun of his stupidity and youthful ignorance, and it is kind of his shtick.
To his credit Dan Crenshaw didn’t seem to care that much at all, and it was nice of him to get some digs in on Pete on SNL, and remind us of Veteran’s day, and that Pete’s dad was a firefighter hero who died on 9/11. It feels like things balanced out in the end, and everyone can move on.
I am amazed at the ability of the writer of those abduction sketches McKinnon’s always in, to be always able to come up with new matching euphemisms for the nether regions of Kate’s character (“baby funnel and gravy tunnel”, “please hump it and cheese trumpet”, “hog taker and log maker”).
That recurring sketch is one of my favorites. The best one was the one with Ryan Gosling, who was corpsing all over the place, as was Aidy Bryant.
He’s as right wing as they come. NRA A+, decidedly anti-abortion, privitizing social security, super aggressive on border security, was an Admin and active poster on a blatantly racist,. conspiracy theory mongering ‘tea party’ Facebook group, encourages young conservatives to stand up to 'leftist bullying’, in the pocket of big oil. A real GOP piece of work.
Also really liked the Unity Song and the Permission Rap. :-)
Yet somehow, for one moment, we set aside our hate and fear and shared a laugh as common human beings.
For most of us, that’s important — and refreshing.
So that first skit with Carell as the father with the kids, what was that all about? It wasn’t funny. I don’t think it was a shot at Boomers, but maybe I am wrong.
In the first sketch, they took the idea of a stereotypically clueless dad, oblivious to the goings-on in his family, but exaggerated to such a degree that Dad must have had a kind of neurological impairment.
In the other Dad in the Teenage Girls Bedroom sketch, that time Carell was riffing or ripping off of the “Beauty School Dropout” number from Broadway and silver screen smash, Grease.
I didn’t think they were that funny either, but I don’t think that Carell embodied the Baby Boom generation in those sketches. (Fun fact: Born in '62, some people would consider Carell a Gen Xer, not a Boomer.) Unless they were playing off how clueless Boomers are regarding global climate change, or how randy Boomers lust after inappropriately-aged ladies. But that would be a stretch.
That’s my reaction to the vast majority of SNL for at least the last decade. I usually watch the lead-in, skip to Weekend Update, and call it good. Maybe some of the musical guest if it’s someone I recognize and can stand.
I really liked the last episode.
The “Disney” sketch was a bit too scattershot, I got the point, and it was a bit funny, but it was all basically one joke “Dad is clueless to an insane degree”
Friendsgiving was ok, I enjoyed Leslie Jones in that one (she has gotten so good in sketches)
Alien Thanksgiving was really good, “We eat the cornels from the kern” Everyone was losing it, but I believe that was probably the point of the sketch, as the alien terminology and script became more of a tongue-teaser.
50’s Sleepover was really good as well, as it took a very similar concept to the “Disney” sketch, but made Dad the deadbeat, and semi-weird creep serenading 15 year old girls while riding around with 4 dancers and a gun.
RV Sketch was also really good, Heidi Gartner is quickly becoming a sketch MVP. The sketch also had a good structure complete with a resolution and a punchline. Also, it had a slightly terrified great dane in it, and I am a sucker for dogs. Also I think I have met Kate McKinnon’s RV dog breeder character before in real life.
SNL is in such a weird place right now. The performers are all really good, but the sketches tend not to move into that next level. It feels a lot like they are leaning very heavily on the comedic chops of their peformers.
There have been some genuine stand-out sketches this year, which is a lot better than last season, so things are moving in the right direction now.
Having ready Live From New York, it’s a wonder SNL is ever as funny as it sometimes is, given their insane writing process. (Mandatory Tuesday all-nighters for the first drafts.)
There was a conscious shift around the Will Ferrell time to focus less on writing for the humor’s sake and more on writing for characters that either accentuate the actors’ talents, or that audiences are already familiar with.
And the quality swings as casts come in and out are almost predictably cyclical.
Interesting that all three of the “Featuring” cast members right now are really, really strong already: Chris Redd and Heidi Gardner did way more good stuff in their freshman year that typical first-year cast members, and Ego Nwodim is really funny.
(And yeah, it’s been fun watching Leslie Jones… When she came in her standup vs improv/sketch background really showed because she wasn’t that strong in sketches, but she’s gotten really good!)
I think it is interesting, that, there are basically no recurring character sketches anymore. Which seems odd based on the talented actors they have right now. It must be a conscious decision that the only running characters we have are in the Trump administration.
We usually only watch the first half hour or so, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. But I agree that the performers do a pretty good job with what they have, and not just one of them but several of them. But the material is just so often not very good.
Did anyone catch or record the Thanksgiving special last night? One of the sketches that still cracks me up (and was a recurring one) is The Californians. From the fact that all of the conversations end up going into minute detail about the routes one takes to drive places to the silly ultra-exagerrated “Valley” accents to the sunbleached blonde hair even on Keenan Thompson, I just love it even though it’s stupid. And Fred Armisen and Bill Hader cracking up all the time is icing on the cake.
Living here, I’ve always found the traffic jokes pretty funny in that one.