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Is/Was SNL funny?

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

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Hydra009

So, my brother sent me this, challenging me to endure the whole video without wincing or turning it off.  I failed.  You try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2Mf6HxIi0

I'll be honest with you guys, if I was a TV exec and this was the pitch, I would immediately cancel and then demand that the writers commit seppuku.  Possibly the audience as well, though out of mercy rather than atonement.

I feel kinda weird slamming a show like this because everyone I've ever met has liked this show very much, so I feel like I'm attacking some national treasure.  I too have fond memories of Celebrity Jeopardy and Jinglehiemer Junction and living in a van down by the river and even Kylo Ren strangling people, so there's some recent stuff that has landed as well.  And they show this stuff to a live audience and the audience laughs (do they give them drugs?), so am I just a humorless curmudgeon?  I won't be offended if your answer is yes, I will simply emigrate to Germany to finally live among my own kind.  :P

My question to you:  is SNL funny?  If so, what do you currently like about it?  If not, when did it stop being funny and why?  No wrong answers, just let me know what you think.

Because right now, I feel like I've been taking crazy pills.

Draconic Aiur

Apparently you don't understand dry or dark humor.

Hydra009

Quote from: Draconic Aiur on May 17, 2021, 06:59:42 PMApparently you don't understand dry or dark humor.
I get dark humor.  I breathe dark humor.



Dry humor isn't my cup of tea at all, and that seems to be a fairly common trait.

My 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.

Mike Cl

Two things struck me.  1--Not a single laugh for me.  2--WTF were they saying???
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Shiranu

Quote from: Draconic Aiur on May 17, 2021, 06:59:42 PM
Apparently you don't understand dry or dark humor.

My humor in real life is about as deadpan and dry as it comes; this is just garbage.

SNL has been consistently garbage for my life anyways; that's not to say they don't have some amazing skits, but for every good skit they air 10 just garbage ones.

It goes under the category of Big Bang Theory, The Office or Jersey Shore of, "Shit I don't understand how it's possibly thought to be funny other than a few laughs." but here we are.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Shiranu

I got to exactly 1 minute, btw.

I am not sure if this was written by a 60 year old, or someone making fun of how a 60 year old would think 20 year olds talk. if it's the latter I guess I can find a little humor in it, but it's so convincingly bad I don't know.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

GSOgymrat

I didn't make it to the end.

That was a big fail but in my opinion SNL has always been very hit and miss, with WAY more misses than hits. I don't watch it regularly and use YouTube to curate the good skits. If a skit has over 10 million views and an interesting premise I might check it out.

Hydra009

My brother says the perceived decline is from two things:
1) competition from internet comedy videos (Youtube, College Humor, etc) - they cut out SNL's legs from under them by doing the wacky skits SNL did but better
2) the loss of irreplaceable talent - Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Chris Ka...err... Seth Meyers

Still, that doesn't explain a crowded writers' room greenlighting utter garbage.  These people have more degrees than a Mississippi summer and their go-to was "Zoomers talk funny" like it was some gut-buster.  What were they thinking??

Sorginak

I remember it being funny. Haven't seen it in years, though.

Cassia

#9
Downward slide lately...however beside the favorite best classic skits, it was a chance to see film actors/guests like Christopher Walken work a live audience. And I enjoy the really funny breaks out-of-character such as this Debbie Downer skit.
https://youtu.be/TfE93xON8jk

aitm

I don’t watch the show but I do watch the clips from “Weekend Update” which I think is 95% a hoot.
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

SGOS

I watched that show on Hulu the day after it aired, and that particular show was one of their worst.  Elon Musk is a genius, no question, but acting and comedy is not something he has any talent for at all.  I'll give him credit for trying, but he should never attempt it again.

Having said that, SNL is not as good as it used to be, and early on, it was spectacularly funny.  Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, Akeroid, Bulushi, Dana Carvey, Gilda Radner, Father Guido Sarducci, Steve Martin, Mike Meyers, Julia Sweeny, and Al Franken to name a few were gifted.

SNL has not been able or willing to score the best talent out there, or maybe the talent isn't out there.  Many of their comedians are simply not funny.  The show has been in a downward slide for years, and is living only on it's former reputation.

trdsf

The original 'Not Ready for Prime Time Players' have yet to be matched: Aykroyd, Belushi, Chase, Curtin, Morris, Murray, Newman and Radner.  They had a few flickers of brilliance after them, but I have to say it's probably been 30 years since I last sat down to watch SNL, when in the 70s and early 80s I'd watch it every Saturday night.
"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

Hydra009

#13
I've been thinking, I love 90s SNL, but when I watch 90s SNL it's clear that there was a lot wrong with it even then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV4kBndQJlE

Some poor fool made a movie out of this.  smh

Also, are we sure that drugs weren't given to the audience?  I won't narc, I just want to know the truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksubjQh7v6s

IIRC, suicide rates really shot up that year.

Maybe I have this all wrong.  Maybe there was no decline.  Maybe they just threw stuff at the wall and the hits were remembered and the duds forgotten.

Mr.Obvious

Quote from: Hydra009 on May 17, 2021, 06:52:37 PM
I won't be offended if your answer is yes, I will simply emigrate to Germany to finally live among my own kind.  :P

Warum hat das Huhn die Straße überquert? Um zur Nugget-Fabrik zu gelangen, um ihre Quote zu erfüllen.

Haha
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.