Saturday Night Live

They actually did a Rain Man sketch during an already mediocre show.

If it weren't for some flashes of major promise over the past few weeks, I'd be done for the season.

It was mostly mediocre, but that Wes Anderson skit was amazing.

mokey75 wrote:It was mostly mediocre, but that Wes Anderson skit was amazing.

That was good, true. Was there anything decent after the second musical number? I went to bed.

Eris Rising wrote:Was there anything decent after the second musical number? I went to bed.

The last sketch was a perfect 12:55 sketch, being entirely non-sensical and hilarious. Otherwise, nope.

Nerg wrote:

Eris Rising wrote:Was there anything decent after the second musical number? I went to bed.

The last sketch was a perfect 12:55 sketch, being entirely non-sensical and hilarious. Otherwise, nope.

Oh, damn. I went to bed too soon. Loved that.

heh. "psych! it's a kale chip!"

Yeah, that was pretty great.

I actually want Wes Anderson to make that movie.

I don't know if that was the best episode of the year (too many sketches suffered from a weak premise, shoddy execution, or both), but Washington may have been the strongest host of the season so far.  Even given iffy material, she committed herself to it totally.  And the opening sketch took an enjoyably unexpected turn in the first minute.  And I'm consistently happy with their pre-taped bits towards the end.

EDIT: Now that I've woken up, Jay Pharaoh! He was amazing last night! The jitters and nervousness that plagued his earlier appearances are gone, and now he's able to center the show when the situation calls for it. He is absolutely on fire, and I'm pleased to see it.

Loved the opening (all of those McConaugheys!) and the "How's He Doing" talk show. Kerry Washington was great.

The opening and the How's He Doing bit were hilarious. Kerry Washington definitely had the energy and commitment that elevates the show regardless of the writing - which was unimpressive aside from those bits.

Think of all the sketches SNL could have done if they had a black lady cast member - hell, how about parody of Washington's own show? Not having a black woman isn't just a matter of a quota. Black women are part of pop culture and the world SNL parodies and SNL can't include them (and apparently gives no shit about them)?

Binky wrote:The opening and the How's He Doing bit were hilarious. Kerry Washington definitely had the energy and commitment that elevates the show regardless of the writing - which was unimpressive aside from those bits.

Think of all the sketches SNL could have done if they had a black lady cast member - hell, how about parody of Washington's own show? Not having a black woman isn't just a matter of a quota. Black women are part of pop culture and the world SNL parodies and SNL can't include them (and apparently gives no shit about them)?

I'd say that the last video was mind-bendingly funny, and other sketches showed flashes of humor.  Also, Weekend Update seems to have settled into a nice rhythm, and for what it's worth, "What Does My Girl Say?" seems to have become a viral hit.

I'd say that you've hit the nail on the head regarding the diversity issue.  It isn't that SNL should have a black woman in order to hit some sort of ideal of diversity.  It's that they're attempting to reflect a culture that includes a black first lady, black female pop singers, black female television stars, and black women in all sections of society, and they're unable to do this without either hiring a black woman or talking one of their female performers into wearing blackface a la Fred Armisen while simultaneously trying not to alienate the majority of their viewers (as well as a good chunk of their current star performers).

I mean...snl can't do a Beyoncé sketch. I think that in itself is boggling. They need to get maya rudolph back to do a sketch about possibly the most famous woman alive right now. That is why ppl say snl is no longer relevant. Shit like that.

I think a bit of information that shocked me, more because I'm a bad SNL historian than that I can't believe it, was that Eddie Murphy wasn't hired by Michael's it was when he wasn't running the show for a brief period. Arguably one of the shows BIGGEST stars of all time and Lorne's take away was, to never let that happen again. And Chris Rock arguably became Chris Rock only AFTER he left SNL and it's half assed service of his writing and characters.

It also says a lot about how little Lorne's changed, and how out of touch he is that in the 70's he felt compelled to include a token in Garret Morris, because the culture itself was still so white he could get away with it. But as the culture became increasingly more diverse, he's ignore dit. He's been getting this criticism for 35 years, basically since Murphy left, Living Color came along, Mad TV came along, Chappelle Show came along, and now Key and Peele, and he REFUSES to embrace a diverse representational cast. UGH.

It's great to see so many women within the cast, but it is astounding how poorly ethnic minorities are represented. Besides Maya Rudolph, who was the last woman of color in the cast?

Ellen Cleghorne? Unless you count Nasim.

Lorne also hired and never used Damon wayans to the point that he got himself fired.

Eris Rising wrote:I'd say that you've hit the nail on the head regarding the diversity issue.  It isn't that SNL should have a black woman in order to hit some sort of ideal of diversity.  It's that they're attempting to reflect a culture that includes a black first lady, black female pop singers, black female television stars, and black women in all sections of society, and they're unable to do this without either hiring a black woman or talking one of their female performers into wearing blackface a la Fred Armisen while trying to to alienate the majority of their viewers (as well as a good chunk of their current star performers).

Agreed. I'm glad that the issue has gained enough notoriety for them to address it by making fun of themselves in a sketch (the six Matthew McConaugheys...pretty much says it all). But the next step is to actually do something about it. I hope the public shaming will continue to rise until it's at a level where Lorne can't ignore it any longer.

The other unfortunate thing is that it's not enough to make it past Lorne's biases, unintended or not, and be hired. After that you have to write sketches that are amazing enough that they make it past everyone ELSE'S biases and make it to air. I feel like Jay Pharaoh is FINALLY getting to the point where he has enough clout/popularity that everything he suggests isn't automatically back-burnered. (I would think it also doesn't hurt that some of the bigger names, like Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader [as much as I love him], who probably just get rubber-stamped on through with everything they pitch, are gone.) But I would think that actually hiring a black woman would only be the first step of many before the hiree got what amounts to SNL tenure and didn't risk being fired at the drop of a hat. Although, BEING THE ONLY ONE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY A SHITLOAD OF PEOPLE might actually help in that regard. If they wait long enough to hire somebody she may actually rise fairly quickly since THEY WILL NEED HER. Even if at first she's exclusively playing people like Oprah/Michelle Obama/Beyonce that are sufficiently familiar to white people to be included in a sketch, maybe that would boost popularity enough to allow her to get some of her own stuff on. In this hypothetical world where they have managed to hire a black woman.

I confess I never thought Ellen Cleghorne was that funny. But, I'm sure a lot of that was that she didn't have much material. I wasn't a fan of Jay Pharaoh his first year either, but now I'm on board. I suspect for any new cast member you sometimes get wheeled out to do whatever Lorne hired you for (such as your impression of Denzel Washington) in an awkwardly wedged-in manner at the beginning, which is what happened with him. But now he seems to have more varied stuff to do, and I certainly feel he's equal to it.

Jay pharaoh also came from a stand up background. I noticed he got more comfortable the more sketch stuff he did. But they didn't give him a lot to do to gain that comfort his first year.

Kiran wrote:Lorne also hired and never used Damon wayans to the point that he got himself fired.

He wasted Damon Wayans' talent? Are you kidding me?! That is a damn shame and completely Lorne and SNL's loss.

The vibe that I get is that Lorne is unapologetically WASP-y (remember, this is the same man who told Jon Lovitz to not try to make him feel guilty, because it was "too Jewish"), and simply doesn't know what to do with black performers. This means that he doesn't know how to judge the material that they come up with, which in turn means that the stuff tends to be relegated to the back fifteen, and is inconsistent in quality. You'll get genius sketches like "Nat X" shoved into a few minutes of airtime, while self-indulgent crap like Cleghorne's NBC page "Zoraida" will drag down the entire middle of a show. Tim Meadows was wasted for years until they finally gave "The Ladies' Man" a chance, and this was despite his being one of the most consistently funny and professional cast members in the show's history, on par with Chris Parnell when it came to selling an absurd situation. Danitra Vance may have been funny, but she was on during a wretched season, so it's hard to tell in the middle of all that crap. And let's not even get into poor Garrett Morris, a brilliant talent largely relegated to playing criminals, waiters, and the token "cool" black friend.

Maya Rudolph was the exception, and as much as I hate to say it, this was because she could play white characters as well.

I agree, again -- and I feel like he hires a hell of a lot of WASPs and Irish boys/girls and I mean, not be stereotypical, but I feel like Jewish comedians are not exactly a rarity and there's never been a ton of them on SNL. So I totally also get the vibe that he literally doesn't understand black comedians or any comedy that isn't in a pretty narrow white-guy Harvard Lampoon kinda range. I think possibly part of that is a generational thing. Not to be like WELL I MYSELF AM AN EXPERT IN BLACK COMEDY AND ALSO I HAVE A BLACK FRIEND SOOOOOO I'M PREEEETTTTTTY SURE I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I have my own cultural biases, obviously, and I don't always "get" humor that's aimed at a group that I'm not part of (nor should I, necessarily, since I am not the only person in the world). But I think maybe his view is more narrow than reflects the reality of what is in popular culture these days. And it would be nice -- for him, for us, for the show, for talented comedians who don't have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower who could benefit from his support -- if he could expand that a little.

I don't disagree with you about Maya, either. I freaking love her and think she's extremely talented and hilarious, but there's no denying that how she looked gave her opportunities on the show that someone like Ellen Cleghorne wouldn't have had. Nasim also, obviously, can play white characters while also being able to be "ethnic" if the need arises. I did like that in the motivational speaker thing she did (which I didn't think was all that funny but had its moments, most of them provided by Kerry Washington), the character was Middle Eastern without having some strong REASON for it, like the person was a terrorist (eyeroll) or Saddam Hussein's friend or a falafel-stand owner or something.

Well it's not the first time SNL has acknowledged the problem.

It doesn't help that Eddie Murphy's revolutionary run was during Lorne's hiatus and even then Eddie pretty much snuck on everyone.

I'm sure it's better than the days of the writters trying to get Garrett to do a sketch about toothpaste that would keep his teeth from glowing in the dark, but I think it's regressed since Tina Fey and the lady mafia.

Cicely Tyson hosted SNL?! I really should watch some of the older shows. I basically started watching in the mid-80s.

I just looked up SNL on Wikipedia and found this:

Some cast members are related to former staff of the show. One example is Jim Belushi, who is the younger brother of cast member John Belushi. Before that, Bill Murray's older brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, was a writer and cast member. When Dan Aykroyd left the show in 1979, he was replaced by a series of short-lived featured players, one of whom was his brother Peter Aykroyd.[citation needed] Short-lived featured player Matthew Laurence was the identical twin brother of 1977–1980 associate director and bit player Mitchell Laurence.[citation needed] Long-time writer and sometime performer Jim Downey is former cast member Robert Downey, Jr.'s uncle. Former SNL cast member Abby Elliott is the daughter of former cast member Chris Elliott (and granddaughter of Bob Elliott, who appeared on SNL as a guest performer on the 1978 Christmas episode hosted by Elliott Gould). Former featured player Paul Brittain is the nephew to Bob Newhart, who hosted the show in the 70s. Cast member Jason Sudeikis is the nephew of semi-frequent 90s host George Wendt, who portrayed Norm on the television show, Cheers.

I knew a couple of those relationships, but did not know about Jim Downey/RDJ, and Paul Brittain/Bob Newhart, and Sudeikis/George Wendt!

puddingcup wrote:Cicely Tyson hosted SNL?! I really should watch some of the older shows. I basically started watching in the mid-80s.

They're all on Netflix and Huluplus. The complete episodes are up for the first five years, after that they can get spotty (there's like 1 sketch from the Shatner episode).