Saturday Night Live

Destroy: The writing staff.

Now *that's* funny.

I hate Jimmy Fallon.

D: Jaret's Room, Mango, Adam Sa...I mean, Jimmy Fallon's guitar parodies

I think Jimmy Fallon is rather funny, but not nearly as funny (nor original) as he seems to think he is.

Actually, I think the plight of SNL is that they have some extremely talented cast members, but don't have the solid writing to back it up like in some days of yore. There are sporadic bits of amazingly funny stuff ("I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"), but it's just not SOLID.

Weekend Update is awful, sorry. There's no bite to the jokes. they seem happily surprised if a joke does well, and if it doesn't they lean reaaaal hard on the "it's not funny; isn't that funny!?" thing that is the death-knell of television comedy (cf Johnny Carson, Conan's monologue)

Everyone keeps banging on about SNL and I've never seen it - indeed, living in the UK with no Sky means I probably never will. Is there like a SNL Best Of DVD around? Or should I not bother - is it over-hyped rubbish?

I liked the bit about Larry David. The part with him and Dick Ebersol standing by the elevator sounded just like something out of "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

make talk about the old snl. converse about the dim bulb sketch.

The M'OD bio "Mr Mike" is worth a read. He bitched when the original cast started to do recurring characters, cuz he thought that was too much like Carol Burnett etc.

the writers' terror of offending anyone makes most of the sketches heavily dependent on unfunny gimmicks and repetition, much like conan o'brien's show these days.

(i ACTUALLY roffled the first time i saw this sketch)

-- joseph (joseph), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 04:22 (2 years ago) Link

was actually bumping thread to say i have a crush of shame on kristin wiig

why shame?

maybe shame bc she's totally annoying?

yeah, that

shes kinda horsey too

i dunno i used to get real madtv vibes & think she was really untalented but now i kinda think shes the funniest person on the show

she never tina fey

We Got Sarah Squirm HBO Special In December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-mj0vL4LQk

Ever since seeing Twisters* I've been describing Glen Powell as "The exact absence of Sam Rockwell"

* well, seeing the trailer

A couple more new Spilling Your Seeds With Troast:

Aaron Chen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhiluE2ODQ

Ivy Wolk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUbBd6cfF6I

last week's episode with Melissa McCarthy was great top to bottom, first time that's happened in a while.

Ashley Padilla sharing some background on the Surprise (Fart) and "I Like It!" bad haircut sketches on Seth Meyers:

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

And if you want even more about the latter sketch, they also just put out an interesting little video about the piece's surprisingly long gestation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRib88Pc6PY

Ashley Padilla is going to have a long career in comedy.

(I thought the same about Nasim Pedrad and Kate McKinnon though so take me with a grain of salt)

McKinnon's done ok? She's writing kids books, was Weird Barbie etc. She can probably work as much as she wants to.

Nedrad tho, apparently she got a nose job or something? Isn't as recognizable anymore. A lot of fans surprised by her new look at the 50th.

Pedrad, even.

have to imagine she probably lost some momentum trying to make Chad happen

In February 2016, Chad was originally sold to Fox and ordered for a series in 2016 titled Chad: An American Boy with the original concept about a "14-year-old boy in the throes of adolescence who is tasked with being the man of the house", with the original pilot written by Pedrad and Rob Rosell.[3] In August 2016, it was announced that the series would not be moving forward at Fox and would be shopped to other networks. In May 2019, the series was picked up by TBS for a 10-episode order. In May 2021, the series was renewed for a second season.[4] In July 2022, TBS announced that while the second season of Chad had been filmed, that no third season would be ordered, along with the show being canceled hours before its premiere, as the channel was pivoting away from original scripted content.[5]

On October 26, 2022, The Roku Channel acquired the series and aired the second season[6] on January 19, 2024.[7] On May 7, 2024, The Roku Channel cancelled the series after the second season.[8]

the series would not be moving forward at Fox

They left Chad hanging

I think these are the final two Spilling Your Seeds w/Troast:

Jake Cornell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeopKkMfC10

Sienna Hubert-Ross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8v59fxj9N4

A nice funny series overall that displays facets of Chloe Troast as a performer that she wasn't/couldn't explore as part of SNL.

Happy 20th Birthday To "Lazy Sunday" (and YouTube)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRhTeaa_B98

The story behind this as told in the expanded version of Live From... is pretty crazy: this was the second "Digital Short" for the show (and the first music video), which the Lonely Island shot on spec using their own gear and a budget of like $30.

this is crazy that it's 20 years old as this is squarely in the middle of what I consider the 'new' era of SNL to me (which is everything after Phil Hartman / Mike Meyers / Dana Carvey era)

Bowen Yang out: https://www.vulture.com/article/snl-bowen-yang-leaving.html

Interesting. Likely he's gotten all he can out of that show. Probably has other projects lined up.

Unrelated-- whenever I open a new tab on my browser today a news story pops up with the headline "Pete Davidson Is a Dad Now" which I keep reading as "Pete Davidson Is Dead Now."

Wicked has secured his job prospects for many many years to come

a few years back I was pretty sure Davidson would be dead by now, so I'm actually glad he's clean and fathering. Wish he hadn't gone to Saudi Arabia though

Yeah I honestly expected Bowen to leave prior to this season, when the writer he was really close with left. Wonder why now though, maybe has a heavy shooting schedule for the spring already?

He's leaving after the Ariana Grande episode. Maybe he just hung around for that.

Makes sense. He hasn't had much good material to work with this season.

IIRC Bowen is working on a Las Culturistas book or something of that nature. It does seem like midseason departures are becoming more of norm even though they've always been a thing with the show (Chevy Chase left during the second season and still dropped in for cameos in the following weeks). Sometimes a vet will stick around for a little bit after a major cast upheaval to ease the transition.

There are murmurings about a new hire or two being announced in January. With Heidi, Ego, and now Bowen gone, they've got a bit more money to play with.

The story behind this as told in the expanded version of Live From... is pretty crazy: this was the second "Digital Short" for the show (and the first music video), which the Lonely Island shot on spec using their own gear and a budget of like $30.

If anyone here is remotely interested in The Lonely Island, digital shorts, SNL, the inner workings of SNL, this particular era of SNL, comedy, people being funny or just pals hanging out, I highly recommend The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. It's terrific.

Published in May but didn't see it until now - pretty good read about Nora Dunn's protest of Andrew Dice Clay and the repercussions that came afterwards.

edit: after long consideration it behooves me to say (muffy tepperman reference re: 80s hot cf: lost boys, less than zero), that there is an additional element to the glen powell physiological breakdown: aidan gillen, specifically as littlefinger when he thinks he's being clever. pursed lips, same squinty eyeballs, self-satisfied mien, giving it all away. was always in the back of my mind that something was missing and i think that that's it. you see it too, right? i goddam hope so. puzzle be complete>

now that i've solved glen powell i can finally move on with my life.

nb i got nothing against powell it's just unfortunate that he's a human composite. not his fault.

it's the same smirk. powell got a gillen smirk that alternates with his slater recognotion void. he got two expressions. two is apretty good actor toolkit imo.

anyone watch the Chevy Chase documentary? It was more complimentary to him than I'd been led to believe from the early press. I did wind up feeling bad for him re: the 50th anniversary special which he got iced out of. Pretty good bet that he has a Weekend Update cameo soon, I think.

Loren’s statement suggested that Chevy’s wife or daughter had warned him that Chevy was not up to doing live TV, during the prep for the week’s episode. Does the doco say outright who it was, and that they only meant due to the larger pressure of the 50th?

I haven't seen the doc, but I saw some article on it focusing on the part on his childhood and how both his mother and especially stepfather were monstrously abusive. Chase is an asshole, but if that's what he grew up under, it explains a lot.

Also, my college had the SNL box sets in their library (they only did them for the first five seasons), and if you binge watch the first season, you can see why he was the breakout star - so much of the show focused on him, to the point where you'd think it was built mostly around him. (I think he may have spoke the cold opening "Live from New York..." for every episode of the entire season, which would never happen now for just one person.) You can see the resentment over him leaving in the second season, but everyone also steps up and that's when the cast as an ensemble really begins to flourish.

he absolutely talks about the abuse in the doc, from both his mother (who was mentally ill) and his step father (who sounded like a fucking asshole).

Makes me wonder - what do you do when you're an outsider and you see signs of that shit?

Per that article, the doc has that moment where his brother talks about his stepfather coming down to breakfast and then just hitting Chevy in the back of the head over and over again. I'm not sure how hard or fast he's hitting him, but it stirred up a memory I had as a kid when I was at a school function and I saw a classmate's asshole dad doing physical shit to his head that was obviously painful. My classmate was fidgeting or something like that, and I got the impression his asshole father's idea of telling him to sit still and be quiet was to simply inflict sharp pain on him. If you saw it, it was reasonable to guess that he was a monstrously abusive shit in the privacy of his home. But it's not like anyone approached him, much less stopped him, but honestly what do you do?

He’s been married for 40+ years, maybe he’s a nice guy at home somehow

I know they love their Trump cold opens, but tonight of all nights maybe they should have kicked off the show with a solemn Prince cover.

"You can stay with me"

By Geese?

Minnesota has suffered enough

"When I went deft I just used my eyes "

end of show Geese performance was great

that trump cold open was interminable. I don't hate them as much as some people do but this one went on for fucking ever

This is kind of blowing up? People are saying it's the best political sketch they've done in years. It kept popping up on my FB feed yesterday with shares by what's left of my friends, and that never happens with SNL stuff anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wQhY5CMMl4

ALSO: Ashley Padilla is <a beast>

It had his moments. I just thought it was weird to have it as one of the first (the first?) sketches when the host is a total non-entity in it. He had some decent moments in sketches later on, just seemed weird. Maybe somebody thought this was "important" enough.

Anyway, put me in the pro-Jane camp. It's ok that she isn't known for spot-on impressions or incredible range. She's funny regardless. The luge vid was great.

it's a great sketch, but primarily because Ashley Padilla sells it so well with her delivery. She's the star of the show at this point, but that was obvious to me from one of her very first sketches last year, 'four gorgeous dogs'.

I think Jane Wickline is funny, people who complain about her are dumb

ashley padilla is very funny, and i agree that the trump mom sketch would be nothing without her delivery. do you think she feels bad that they automatically cast her as the middle-aged mom in every sketch that requires a middle-aged mom? she's only 32! which is probably older than most of the rest of the cast, but still.

i don't watch every sketch from every episode but does jane wickline ever do anything other than sing songs on weekend update and play a boring supporting character in sketches

Not really but I think she is good in those roles

Ashley Padilla got to do a horny-flirty thing on WU so maybe that balances things out

all i have seen of this show recently was a screenshot of keenan dressed like an ICE agent in tactical gear, all i needed to confirm that i can indeed keep ignoring this show

Padilla is actually good at acting, so she's kind of in the Jane Curtain/Jan Hooks/Ana Gasteyer/Amy Poehler vein, I suppose