SNL's Continued Downward Spiral Thread

He's like an emo version of The Rock -- they are far more talented than they appear! Come to think of it, I'd watch an awards show they hosted together.

 

Of all actors, Driver has probably one of the more interesting origin stories - not just being a Marine, he only graduated from Juliard 10 years ago.

 

I think he's probably one of the best actors out there, period, and those types tend to do great on SNL.

 

Like the better/best ones, he is willing to do just about whatever they throw at him

 

The political opens have really lost their fastball - it's like their mandate is to include some news of the week and Kate McKinnon regardless of how funny the sketch is. Thought the ketchup thing at the end was the best of the night.

 

Speaking of spirals..

 

They're overusing McKinnon. Don't get me wrong, I like her, but her bits are getting repetitious.

Rereading the oral history of SNL at the moment. One thing that struck me was Dan Aykroyd's assessment that Horatio Sanz was one of the more talented cast members who has been on SNL. Looking at some of the alumnus who seem to have just sort of passed through, maybe there's a certain kind of actor or skillset who just isn't suited to SNL. Thinking RDJ, for example.

 

Eh, loved Aykroyd on SNL, but I'm not sure if I'm trusting him to properly evaluate talent, judging from his post-SNL decisions, and Sanz's, for that matter. RDJ, probably the worst environment possible for him was SNL, between his substance abuse issues and the pressure of the show.

To me, SNL's biggest "whiff" when it came to talent evaluation was their usage of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who did nothing there and has gone on to be outstanding in pretty much everything after, most of it comedy. Lorne's great at giving airtime to the Noisy Lady - Wiig, McKinnon, Gilda Radner are the "best" versions of these types, whereas Cheri Oteri and Leslie Jones are "meh" to "bad" examples - but not so great at using the understated ones. I always thought Vanessa Bayer and (now) Cecily Strong were underused as a result.

 

Indeed. She's become a one trick (mannerism/voice) pony.

 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was still in college when she was hired. The problem was she was too young. I think a bigger whiff is Chris Rock. He is talked about along with Sandler, Farley, and Spade, but Rock was the least successful on SNL and became the biggest standup a few years later.

Sanz is great on Comedy Bang Bang and other improv podcasts. He is noticeably different from what he was on SNL.

 

Rock is a good one too, but they were at least able to cobble together enough of his skits for a "best of." Like, they definitely didn't use him enough, but he still had some amusing skits like The Dark Side with Nat X.

 

I liked Sanz's brief appearance on The Mandalorian. He and Amy Sedaris managed to not ham it up like so many other people in cameos to the point that I wanted Baby Yoda to spray them with a water bottle and yell at them to calm down.