Badmovies.org Forum

In my opinion Saturday Night Live is neither funny nor relevant anymore, and hasn't been in years. When SNL first aired it was new and cutting edge. Some of the greatest comedians of all time started there. The list of SNL's alumni reads like a who's who of comedy for the 20th century. I was once a huge fan. But after seeing the state of TV today and seeing one crap show too many succeed, while anything any good usually gets the proverbial axe. I've decided that I think it's time this show was cancelled. The problem is Saturday Night live has created a dangerous formula for TV. One that continues to this day with shows like American Idol. It has become a taste maker. Just as American Idol has made Americans complacent and lazy about it's music choices, SNL has done the same with comedy. Today's comedy is lazy and geared for people with short (if any) attention spans. So what do you think? Am I way off base? Or do you agree? Vote now. Let's get some democracy for TV!

I haven't even watched it since way back in the Chevy Chase days.  Seems like it's just people acting loud and obnoxious and we're supposed to find that hilarious.

I haven't paid much attention to SNL since about the early 90s. I thought the original cast was great, and the show stayed more or less excellent through the 80s. By the mid-90s, I thought the cast was kind of lacklustre and they were just beating the old formula to death. The show was no longer fresh or innovative, or even unique. There were other edgy sketch comedy shows around, and in the late 90s MADtv was much better. SNL, much like the later seasons of The Simpsons, just seemed to keep riding along on the momentum it built up in earlier years.

I think SNL probably wouldn't have lasted this long, except that it bounced back a bit at the end of the 90s, before resuming its downhill slide a few years later. At this point, I have to be reminded it is still going. It's just become that irrelevant to me. It shares that in common with The Simpsons as well.

Was there even a final episode for The Simpsons? I don't remember seeing anything about it. Last season was the end, right? Or is it still on?

Quote from: 66Crush on September 17, 2012, 08:06:04 AM
Was there even a final episode for The Simpsons? I don't remember seeing anything about it. Last season was the end, right? Or is it still on?

Simpsons is still goin'... their new season starts @ the end of the month. Fox threatened to end it last year cuz they got into a salary dispute with the voice acting cast (which happens every couple of years) but eventually it was worked out. I think it's contracted through the end of the 2013-2014 season now, last I checked.

As for SNL, the last time I tuned it in, Nirvana was the musical guest... and that guy's been dead for how many years now?   :teddyr:

Katie still watches it at times, but I cannot say that it interests me any more.  I liked the older episodes with what many consider the cast during its heyday.  However, the "More Cowbell" episode is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television and it appeared during a period when I did not watch the show very often either.

I voted "yes". I couldn't bring myself to watch it for, at least, the past 10 years. I wholeheartedly agree with the Simpsons comments as well. If I do chose to watch either, it's repeats all the way.

"Yes,the show sucks now" pretty much covers it for me. I watched it until Mike Meyers left then it lost what bits of funny it still had. I still prefer the original cast best....they were fresh and hilarious.

As for the Simpsons..... :thumbdown:

I can't vote via phone. However, it had a good couple of years recently. Notably for their 'Digital Shorts' by the Lonely Island crew.

It has hit-and-miss seasons. First few were great, had a down run in the early-mid '80s. I became a fan around the '87-'94 cast: Sandler, Miller, Farley, Spade, Rock, Schneider, etc.

Down run, good again, etc.

Even one episode can go from a great opening sketch and just end poorly.

If The Simpsons would go away now, they could come back in 10 years when the nostalgia has built up and be really good again. But SNL is such a dead horse in comedy, that nobody's really gonna miss it. I think the only reason NBC keeps it around is because it's just a promotion vehicle for whatever movie the host is in and a showcase for whatever musical guest is being hyped that week.

     Actually, I stopped watching it after the last original cast member left, but there was no choice for that.

I was an avid watcher of the show for 3 - 4 years (back in the early years).  I don't think I could name a single cast member now.

Quote from: The Burgomaster on September 25, 2012, 03:07:52 PM
I was an avid watcher of the show for 3 - 4 years (back in the early years).  I don't think I could name a single cast member now.

I know I sure couldn't. :wink:

It's sucked since sometime in the 90s.

I haven't watched since they axed Norm McDonald; to be fair I think quality-wise SNL tends to go in cycles (remember the 1980 season?  The Robert Downey Jr - Joan Cusack - Anthony Michael Hall season?  Yeah neither does anyone else.)  It may just be time to clean house again.

Last time i watched it was arounf 1993 or so but last best season i think was 1994-95.Should of ended then.

They have the occasional funny sketch these days, but not often enough.  It seems like they get one outstanding cast member, where previous seasons had many, and then the cast member realizes he/she can do better than a washed up sketch comedy show and moves on. 

The only thing SNL seems to have going for it anymore are the digital shorts.  Anything that can manage to be funny while featuring Shia Lebeouf is definitely worthwhile.

Original cast, brilliant.
Second cast, not too bad.
after that...why bother?

I agree that the best cast was the original: Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris, Loraine Newman and Gilda Radner. And continued to be funny when Bill Murray replaced Chevy Chase. It started to suck when Akroyd and Belushi left, but was redeemed when Eddie Murphy came in a couple of years later. Murphy WAS the reason to watch in the early 80's, the rest of the new cast were just OK and they had some new ideas which were cool. The late 80's were still pretty good, a bit shaky between 84-86, but came back strong in 86/87 season, which had the second best cast IMO: Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Victoria Jackson, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon and Nora Dunn. Everyone was either brilliant on they're own or was a good team player. It was still OK when they brought in Mike Myers, but started to slip after that. Each new season saw some new stars emerge, but most of them like Will Ferrell or Chris Rock, did they're best work after leaving the show. I've not watched much in the past 10 years and I have hated just about everything I've seen of it lately. I think Jimmy Fallon is one of the un- funniest comedians I've ever seen and this idiot got his own show. It's all about looks anyway now. If Fallon looked like Belushi do you think he would have his own show?

The Lonely Island crew has been on SNL the past couple years.  They gave us gems like these:
Jack Sparrow, with a Michael Bolton cameo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY

Great Day, with appearance by Tom Petty and Alec Baldwin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLd9MZYQwy0

I'm sorry dude, I guess I'm old and just don't get it. But those clips show everything that I think is wrong with the show. Bad hipster comedy. These guys are trying way too hard to be cool instead of funny. They are a bunch of hipsters too scared to be self deprecating. At least when Farrell and Katan did the Roxburry guys, they looked like geeks and that's why it was funny. Also SNL is way too safe now. I know that dropped the F bomb in that video but big deal. They used to be merciless in imitating people like Micheal Bolton, now they have him in a video name dropping Jack Sparrow. The old SNL would be poking fun at what a real douche bag Johnny Depp is.This show has lost everything that made it edgy.

Louis CK is hosting on November 3rd, which is probably of interest only to me, but I'm putting it out there anyway.....

Never even heard of Louis Ck.

Only cast member i know today is Kenan from Kenan and Kel.I guess hes still on it.

Quote from: 66Crush on October 21, 2012, 01:53:54 AM
I'm sorry dude, I guess I'm old and just don't get it. But those clips show everything that I think is wrong with the show. Bad hipster comedy. These guys are trying way too hard to be cool instead of funny. They are a bunch of hipsters too scared to be self deprecating. At least when Farrell and Katan did the Roxburry guys, they looked like geeks and that's why it was funny. Also SNL is way too safe now. I know that dropped the F bomb in that video but big deal. They used to be merciless in imitating people like Micheal Bolton, now they have him in a video name dropping Jack Sparrow. The old SNL would be poking fun at what a real douche bag Johnny Depp is.This show has lost everything that made it edgy.

What strikes me, especially with the first video, is the amount of production going into something so thin on actual humour. Mostly it isn't funny, and the parts that are funny aren't especially clever or creative. But a huge amount of time and effort has obviously gone into it. Classic SNL was really the opposite - everything pretty basic with regard to sets, costumes, etc., with the comedic talent being the main ingredient. It all rested on the performances and the quality of the jokes.

That's really the measure of whether SNL is still any good. How well can the cast make you laugh and keep you laughing with their performances alone? And are they giving you gags that are fresh and inventive, or doing comedy by the numbers? If those two clips are typical of the best on offer, I'd have to say no.

Quote from: AndyC on October 29, 2012, 09:02:07 AM

Classic SNL was really the opposite - everything pretty basic with regard to sets, costumes, etc., with the comedic talent being the main ingredient. It all rested on the performances and the quality of the jokes.

Right...classic hit hard and fast, and often made you say "what did I just see" while you were laughing at it.

Anyone that thinks modern SNL is anything but a smear of what it once was needs to check out clips of Aykroyd doing Julia Childs or any of a hundred other skits from that era.  To even have the contemporary stuff given the same name is an insult - there is NO comparison.

I think they should have stuck a fork in it 20 years ago ... at least.

I worry about that Louie CK episode unless CK is actually writing for himself.

I watch the show but even I admit it isn't what it was.