News:

Welcome to our site!

Main Menu

Is/Was SNL funny?

Started by Hydra009, May 17, 2021, 06:52:37 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

PickelledEggs

Yeah. SNL always sucked.

IDK if it counts if I actually made it to the end, because I became braindeadzoned out for a while.

Mermaid

It has had its moments. The Pat character did NOT age well, whoo boy.
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

trdsf

Quote from: PickelledEggs on May 22, 2021, 06:44:04 PM
Yeah. SNL always sucked.
I have to disagree here.  The original crew was genuinely more often funny than not.  They've never been able to reach that level since, although there were a couple moments here and there.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

aitm

Well, some of it also relates to its relative “newness” of concept. I remember laughing my ass off at Rowan and Martin but 20 years later I can’t even watch it.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

aitm

But of you haven’t seen when Che and Jost trade jokes, god damn that’s some funny shit.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Hydra009

Quote from: aitm on May 24, 2021, 09:40:02 AM
Well, some of it also relates to its relative “newness” of concept. I remember laughing my ass off at Rowan and Martin but 20 years later I can’t even watch it.
Jim Carrey is like that for me.  His wild and crazy antics were great in the 90s.  Nowadays, he's more likely to annoy me than entertain me.

Still, his golden moment was the famous Jimmy Tango's Fatbusters commercial (the joke is that unscrupulous/predatory companies are essentially selling crystal meth to people desperate to lose weight and the take-away is to use more caution and wisdom when it comes to your health, a lesson definitely not learned decades later)

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xczm9g

(on Dailymotion because SNL purged this one from Youtube, I guess getting high and telepathically combating the devil isn't very brand-friendly)

Blackleaf

Quote from: Hydra009 on May 17, 2021, 07:10:10 PMMy thing with humor is what are you trying to say with the joke?  Point out injustice?  Make fun of the seemingly normal but actually strange unwritten rules of society?  Laugh at the horribleness and absurdity of life?  Or just a mean-spirited smear of a younger (and kinda beleaguered) generation?  Not just punching down, but the same joke over and over.

You're trying to bring logic into comedy. Sometimes comedy isn't trying to say anything. Sometimes, it's just about being silly, not with any underlying message.

I don't watch SNL on the regular or anything, but I've seen several skits of theirs I've found funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUDSeb2zHQ0
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

SGOS

A young Jim Carrey before he realized he could make more money being a goof.  Although in this film, Nicolas Cage gets the prize for being the bigger ham.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnOnrMDr1FE

Hydra009

#23
Quote from: Blackleaf on May 24, 2021, 02:16:03 PMYou're trying to bring logic into comedy. Sometimes comedy isn't trying to say anything. Sometimes, it's just about being silly, not with any underlying message.
But there really is a logic to comedy, and often purpose as well, it's not just being silly just to be silly.

My personal favorite jokes either present harsh truths as a joke (the onion, the daily show) or exhibit almost-harmful comedy, something that initially seems like it would be incredibly harmful but isn't (most physical comedy, like getting hit in the face with a pie, falling on one's butt, or a being in a house as it collapses only to escape unscathed).  "I've been falling for 30 minutes!" is a perfect example of modern almost-harmful comedy.

A lot of humor operates on incongruity, something the violates expectations or social norms, like the Ministry of Silly Walks or a Roman general talking about his pal Biggus Dickus or Rick & Morty almost doing a 9/11.

There's actually a lot of logic operating in the background of even the simplest joke.  It's just that usually people aren't consciously aware of why the laughed, much less attempt to understand a joke's underlying message.  Believe it or not, a lot of comedians devote a great deal of attention to just that.

Shiranu

#24
I just had a thought... if you count The Lonely Island as SNL (since everyone involved was SNL cast), then honestly... SNL has some absolutely top-tier, iconic-of-my-school-day's humor and songs that have frankly no reason to be nearly as catchy and good as they are.
And honestly, it hasn't age particularly amazingly but... this is still one of the OG's of viral memes, and I still find it funny.

"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Mr.Obvious

I liked the portrayal of Rudy giuliani in the skits that I've seen.
That woman, don't know her name, puts forth a caricature that pushes my funny buttons.

Though I haven't seen much of snl as a whole.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

Hydra009

Quote from: Shiranu on May 28, 2021, 05:06:11 AM
I just had a thought... if you count The Lonely Island as SNL (since everyone involved was SNL cast), then honestly... SNL has some absolutely top-tier, iconic-of-my-school-day's humor and songs that have frankly no reason to be nearly as catchy and good as they are.
Naturally, I count SNL digital shorts as SNL.  While I haven't seen all of them, the ones I've seen have been incredible hits.  Though the ones I've seen all have Andy Samberg, so I don't know if I like SNL Shorts or just Andy Samberg.

Shiranu

Quote from: Hydra009 on May 28, 2021, 09:25:42 AM
Naturally, I count SNL digital shorts as SNL.  While I haven't seen all of them, the ones I've seen have been incredible hits.  Though the ones I've seen all have Andy Samberg, so I don't know if I like SNL Shorts or just Andy Samberg.

I didn't realize that The Lonely Island was actually funded by SNL, I thought they were their own thing. So given that... yeah, SNL actually had a period of really good content.

I think a lot of it was Andy Samberg is just funny, as was Jorma and Akiva who also wrote and performed in the skits.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

PickelledEggs

#28
I enjoyed Norm Macdonald, when he was on it, but they fired him because "he wasn't funny".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofXxinOtPiQ

Probably the best monologue ever given on the show

Hydra009

#29
I can't say he's my favorite, but I was never irritated or bored by him.   A solid 5 out 7 comedian.  He's a perfect example of dry humor done right.  Even though that's not really my cup of tea, I gotta respect that.