SNL 10-6

National Douchebag Championships was pretty funny.

Poehler did a very good Sharon Osbourne.

Best skit of the night, but that's not saying much...

 

That was not a killer Gene Simmons. No way. Not even close.

Howard Stern has the guy who does a great Gene Simmons.

 

A very valid point. But don't forget that a couple of them were train wrecks while at SNL ... most notably Silverman and Garofalo. They were absolutely delighted to get rid of Garofalo.

old_tony's right about the hosts. Seth Rogen? Somewhat funny, but certainly not a big-name host. Maybe to the 18-25 crowd, but there are a lot more of us watching than the 18-25 crowd. A few hosts in recent years, I had absolutely no idea what they'd done.

Jon Heder? Peter Sarsgaard? Shia LeBeouf?

It was NEVER like that in the past.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Saturday_Night_Live_hosts_and_musical_guests#Season_1

Enjoy.

Jack Burns?
Mary Kay Place?
Michael Sarrazin?

There have been some bad hosts in the past, but granted, today there are far more dogs.

I like the idea of retooling the show.

I think it is constricted by the sets. Everything has been done before. Why not take the skits into the streets a little bit more? I mean the digital shorts are a decent quality, and they give much more freedom to the writers.

 

Typically, the only good hosts are the regular hosts... John Goodman, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck or former cast members. I remember Spade hosting a pretty good one two years ago or so...

Every now and then, there's a surprise. This used to be a spot where every A-lister would do anything to host. Now, the best they can hope for are fans of sketch comedy, like the aformentioned bunch, B-listers, athletes and singers who want to prove they can act or be funny, hence Jon Bon Jovi hosting this week's.

 

Retool the show the way you're talking, and it won't be SNL. The whole concept is 90 minutes live, with the possibility of the Ashlee Simpson moment, or Charles Rocket saying fuck on the air. It's not a taped show.

 

Hell, these days they'd be lucky to get Colin Quinn back...

 

I hear he's working on Remote Control: The Movie.

 

I've seen Quinn working on material at the Comedy Cellar. He's probably funnier than all but 2-3 members of the current cast...

 

He always left me cold.

 

I thought week 2 was better than week 1, a bit more topical. But even if the actors come up with a character Like Hammond's Fred Thompson and Armisen's Jack McCoy, they still need to have something to say. Like the Lou Dobbs bit as well.
Do you ever get the impression that too many sketches are recreations of things a writer experienced that week that they thought were hilarious, like the two kids growing up so fast,. They always seem to lose something in the translation.