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UPDATE: Pathetic that Saturday Night Live could not muster a single laugh-out-loud line surrounding 2012 Election Night. (You be the judge here and here.) You’d think that Tuesday evening’s Fox News/Karl Rove countdown to meltdown would have provided ample material for a skit four days later. Nope. And yet The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and Colbert Report are funny day in and day out. Forgive me for stating the obvious. But I just don’t understand why SNL remains a suckfest more times than not.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I’ve been saying that for years. At least they had sexy Rihanna performing.
At least Rihanna was able to use some part of her costume from Battlefield!
And yet, week after week, you keep posting several videos from this suckfest.
Perhaps one day you’ll explain why.
SNL stays on the air because NBC has absolutely NOTHING to put in its’ place. Think about it, that would give them 1 1/2 hours to fill – they can’t even fill their Prime Time hours. Yes, NBC is doing better this year – but compared to WHAT? SNL has become no more than a “slot filler”.
The reason why SNL “remains a suckfest more times than not” is because they can’t seem to get writers that know the difference between political commentary & political satire. This problem has been going on for years but when Tina Frey was the head writer this problem take a deepest plunge and has never been able to rebound since.
Many SNL writers are repped by the same one or two CAA agents (right, A.E.?) and they suck because the agent(s)have poor taste.
I don’t think it’s a matter of political polarization, since The Daily Show also leans left and still produces better bits.
I saw an interview with one of their head writers online recently, one of those media fest interviews with a live audience, and was intrigued when one of the head writers on SNL described a sketch that got rejected. The audience laughed out loud at the concept, which suggested that perhaps it shouldn’t have been rejected. And the writer even commented on that, saying it didn’t get the same reaction from the professional writers in the room as it did from an audience.
I get the impression that SNL has fostered a competitive writers’ room environment over the years where writers nix each others’ pitches, resulting in a creative atmosphere that’s like an open mic at a comedy club. Writers all want their material done, only so many get greenlit every week, and so they necessarily have to make alliances a la Survivor and shoot down sketches that get in the way of them getting their ideas greenlit. I’m just guessing of course, having never been in a room with these writers, but I think the way to address this would be changing the dynamic in the writers’ room, or perhaps having writers pitch an executive without the pressure of other writers being in the room and being involved with the vote.
Either way, I’m a huge fan and have been since I was a kid. And I have to give kudos to a show that still produces sketch comedy after all these years. It’s a hard medium to thrive in.
Absolutely. The best they could come up with is that Mitt’s sons all look alike? Besides the fact that every sketch every performer, cause I won’t
call them actors, is reading every word off the prompter and never looks another person in the face when they talk to them. It’s time to pull the show off the air. A brilliant opportunity once again squandered.
Ummmmm maybe its because they are all liberal and dont want to say or do anything bad to the Lightweight in Chief. Hmm?
How hard is it to make fun of Obama? Never takes questions. His record is TERRIBLE. It is a layup
The President won.
Mitt lost.
Deal with it.
Or maybe they turtled when faced with the absolute hilarity of the Republican “soul searching” train wreck before our very eyes post election. Nothing they could do would would be as funny.
Awful.
The skit where Diane Sawyer reports election results “drunk” was…oh wait, that really happened
Is it Loren? Is he just out of touch? They need to do something because the show is not only not funny, it is also not relevant. The Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon years were mediocre at best, but at least they could steal some cheap laughs by swaying from the terrible writing.
They need some fresh talent and a complete writer/cast overhaul. Please send Seth Meyers packing. Sudekis can still get some laughs. Keenan has to go. Please do something before this iconic show gets cancelled.
And don’t forget Fred Armisen whose movie career rivals Tim Meadows.
Has Armisen done anything besides character actor work in movies?
I notice that I don’t need a sleeping pills to goes to sleep. SNl writer haven’t be a hit in long time. I am glad that SNL got primetime on demand and saw what I wasn’t missing. Good luck to the future.
Keenan can stay as long as he wants. They need to fire their writers…I came up with tons of potential election skits, and they only did one, with a lame duck weekend update. Overhaul needed!!
This is what happens when you only make fun of one side of the political fence.
Let’s flip it. Isn’t Barack Obama’s presidency hilarious?
Benghazi, unemployment, Obamacare.
Okay, maybe not…
Poor writing + poor acting + poor direction = crap
SNL has been on fumes 95% of the time. Sadly, NBC should clean house, including Lorne Michaels.
Perhaps this election is such a tragedy that it’s difficult to find any humor there. Obama and his cronies are often hilarious, but funny as a heart attack when you realize how much power they have. We were often warned that when it gets to be more than 50% on the government dole, elections by conservatives would become unwinnable – and apparently, that has happened. SNL could only make fun of the Mormon because he was so upstanding that he overdid his drinking of milk and was unable to curse? Wow, isn’t that hysterical?
One wonders how W. managed to win a couple times, considering he had almost the exact same amount of Americans “on the dole” as Obama does. Very odd.
Daily Show/Colbert Show are scripted mostly monologues that are all geared toward making fun of politics and they are just much much better at it. SNL does a little bit of politics during election times, then 90% of it is just random sketches about cats that go to outer space. Sketch world, live sketch world, is just a different entity.
I’ve been watching SNL my whole life and only 10% of the skits actually make me laugh, but it’s still always entertaining to watch. It’s still for the comedy world, much see TV and always fun to watch stars develop before your eyes. It’s still more interesting than anything else on at that time on a Saturday Night.
Agreed that people watch because there is nothing else to watch on a Saturday night and because of nostalgia. It is also easy to sit back and say something is not funny, but it is like they aren’t even trying anymore.
SNL used to capture the irony of politics and add humor to what was otherwise incredibly serious. It probably stems from having the same man run the show for almost 40 years. It is hard for one person to stay in touch with the same demo for 40 years. What Hollywood comedy producer wouldn’t want a shot at running this great franchise. Lorne should see this and give someone else a shot to make it relevant again.
Instead they have locked their actors into long term contracts so they won’t leave for more lucrative careers, which is backwards because having people like Sandler and Farley leave for Hollywood is what make the show so great in the first place. We watched them grow up and then go play in the major leagues.
Now it seems like you have to be on drugs to enjoy the show and when a terrible actor joins the cast we are stuck with them for eternity.
SNL is great at the moment and has been fairy good for about a decade. I have no clue why SNL gets the lame repetitive put downs over and over again while The Simpsons, which has absolute garbage for well over a decade is given a free pass by the industry press.
Back off on Armisen! He’s brilliant, and Portlandia is one of the best comedies on TV. (And Meadows is very funny, as well.)
Saying Portlandia is one of the best comedies on TV just underscores what a sad state of affairs TV comedy is in.
This was by far the worst night ever for SNL
Lorne Michaels has to be put out to pasture. I’ve said this many times this is further proof he is no longer qualified to run this show. Obviously the cold opening should have been Karl Rove still sitting at the Fox News desk demanding recounts of Ohio and Florida and other states four days after Romney conceded. You could have had blond bimbo Megyn Kelly sitting next to him pleading with him to go home but he refuses. With a drunk Diane Sawyer wandering through the scene not knowing where she is or what time it is. That’s what people wanted to see. Romney on a balcony was just lame and insipid and Lorne is to blame. He has to be fired as soon as possible. Isn’t there anyone at NBC who has the courage to do this? The show should also be cut down to one hour they don’t have enough good skits for 90 minutes. Slash the budget by 40% and give that half-hour back to local affiliates.
Bring back SCTV for gosh sakes!
Comments about comedy from FOX news viewers. Now THAT’S hilarious!
Nikki, surely you understand the difference between Stewart/Colbert and SNL.
Sketch comedy is a different beast entirely.
Not to mention, SNL fills an hour and a half a week, and The Daily Show fills two hours…almost half of which are guest segments…so that “day-in, day-out” argument is mostly bull.
Stewart and Colbert’s monologues can achieve a level of specificity and nuance that sketch comedy, by nature, can’t.
Now, SNL hasn’t been great this election season. They couldn’t really do much with either candidate. (Though I did laugh a few times at this week’s Romney sketch.) But let’s stop with the silly comparisons.
Um, SNL has 22 episodes a year…….. and only about 1 or 2 of the sketches are politically based. That’s a pretty small amount of air time to suck.
It’s sad what’s become of SNL. Personally I stopped watching years ago after the cast made fun of Charlton Hestons Alzheimer’s and Wilford Brimly’s Diabetes. Since when are deadly diseases or the people stricken by them a joke? Regardless of political views, it’s just not funny. Their refusal to really make fun of Obama is also beyond annoying, especially since there’s so much potential material. I’ve tuned in on and off watching maybe a few episodes a year since 2003 but that’s about it. Now i generally only tune in because a host catches my eye and that’s doesn’t happen often.
I realize SNL always leaned left, even dating back to Chevy Chase and John Belushi, but they were funny. They poked at conservites as much as liberals and were pretty much always funny. It was fine that they leaned liberal because the knew that there had to be a limit and they made you laugh without going so far that they turned you off. I also don’t think they’ve had a decent cast in over a decade.
Sure there’s been some bright spots like Adam Samburg but I think the last time SNL was really any good was in the days of Phil Hartmen and Chris Farley. Hell these days they even edit Eddie Murphy’s “Mr. Robinsons Neighbourhood” sketch when they show it at Christmas time…how lame can they get?
I agree, the last time SNL was consistently funny was in the early 90′s. I think Lorne should hire Bob Smigel as head writer. He has strong connections to the show, and he was a superb head writer on Conan.
So you’re saying DO make fun on Obama? Or no, because it’s not funny?? Or you’re just saying this to express your incoherent bitterness???
Agree with most, this shows been about an hour too long for years. Act: 1 Open with guest host, Act 2: weekend update Act 3: music act….close with everyone on stage, roll credits…done.
Why should anyone rag on our President? He won re-election, and rightly so, but with all the wealth of material vis-a-vis,Karl Rove, Romney’s totally shocked at losing, all they could come up with was look-alike sons and hiding milk cartons? He’s a Mormon, was it to infer that there was something else in the cartons? Whatever, SNL has totally outlived it’s usefulness and re-runs of Law and Order, all of them, would be more entertaining! Lorne Michaels – it’s time to take a hike!
Back off those who are not fans of Armisen. To me, he’s not funny. He sucks the life out of that show week after week, but Lorne thinks he’s the greatest thing in the planet. I disagree on that part. He needs to leave SNL and focus on his IFC, which is also produced by Lorne.