SNL's Continued Downward Spiral Thread

See, I've never had a problem with the performers laughing.
With Stefon, I think it adds to the bit because everybody knows the dynamic - Hader is seeing and performing some of the material for the first time.

I liked the host's performance in the Pandora skit. The impressions of Billy Joe Armstrong and Michael Jackson were good, but overall I didn't think much of the skit.

 

This.

 

It was basically just Bruno Mars doing karaoke. It was impressive, but not really funny. If he comes out with a covers CD, I'll be interested.

 

I think I'm just the right amount of hard.

 

I don't have a problem when they're laughing at each other. I remember one of the "Van down by the river" sketches, where Spade is losing it and I thought that was funny as hell. Same thing with the Cowbell sketch and the original Debbie Downer... Them laughing naturally makes it funnier.

When Hader comes out as Stefon, everybody knows he's not going to make it without laughing.

 

Buck, it jumps the shark when you get to the suggestion of completely pulling the plug.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather mine something out of the dreck than watch a rerun of "Showtime at the Apollo."

And it's still appointment TV for me to hear Bruno Mars is going to try to host the show, and see if he's a train wreck or if he actually has some chops (which he did).

It's not a continued downward spiral, as the head suggests. It's a step forward, two steps back. Two steps forward, a step back. It has its ups and downs. It's NOT uniformly terrible.

 

Here's a threadjack...

I was listening to Alec Baldwin's podcast and when he was introducing Kristen Wiig, he said that Lorne Michaels said she was one of the 4-5 best who has ever been on the show.

I like Wiig. I think she's going to be a huge movie star.

I think if someone said she was in the top 5 women of all-time on SNL, I wouldn't argue that, but I think she would be behind Curtin, Fey, Poehler and Radner. Jan Hooks was pretty great too...

The notion that she would be in the top 5 all-time with the likes of Carvey, Ferrell, Hartman, Belushi, Murphy, Murray just seems ridiculous.

 

For whatever reason, Lorne has been consistent in his praise of Wiig as an all-timer. Like it first popped up in interviews with him a couple years ago, and it never lessened, and her status on the show was always really secure. She dominated the airtime with all the skits she was in. (If you're into wrestling, I thought she was the John Cena of the show - She was relied on in way too many skits, because she was seen as the only "draw".)

 

I guess she probably was their only "marquee" name since Poehler/Fey/Fallon left... Not that that's really saying much... She was probably the closest thing to a standout they had in the cast the last few years.

Her movie future is bright, but I don't see her as even being close to a top 20 of all-time. I think Lorne was just "loving the one he was with"

 

We just have a difference of opinion about it.
I think the show has been terrible for years, and I don't think one or two funny moments in a 90-minute show is good enough.
Aesthetically, my problem with the show is it has undergone a 180-degree change in identity.
'SNL' was iconoclastic. That was part of the vibe and identity of the show when it was great.
Now 'SNL' is iconic. That has become part of the show's vibe and identity, a self-awareness that the show itself is culturally iconic.

 

You're correct that they do change up the cue cards between dress and live show, but John Mulaney writes the Stefon bits, not Seth Meyers.

 

That's a good argument.