Saturday Night Live

What? Jean K Jean is one of his best characters. ZUT ALORS!

I thought her name was Shaolin.

Kenan's great, totally growing into a Phil Hartman-type role in the overall cast

I'm really getting sick of Vanessa Bayer being in nearly every single sketch. Is she turning into Lorne's new favorite?

Keenan is great, and one of the only SNL cast members who makes laughing at his own absurdity pretty charming. Has he ever done Rick Ross and not cracked himself up?

I think Bayer's great in some roles -- loved Jacob tearing up about Jeter's retirement.

But when she's not the focus of the sketch, she doesn't add anything. Whereas McKinnon, say, completely killed in the Shallon sketch with one line ("I'm going to my car to call a man").

waht I've never seen Kenan do Rick Ross >:(

I only remember him having done it once, and he kept his shirt on.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/ac43e1eaa520c384d0e8d2884c162f53/tumblr_mwe5onGimu1rdzuduo1_500.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XymL8zalays

totally growing into a Phil Hartman-type role in the overall cast

I think he's a quality veteran, but more along the lines of Kevin Nealon. Phil Hartman was, er, a genius

i also did lol @'minimum sperm to yogurt crossover'

For a season finale episode, even with numerous cameos, that was pretty flat from beginning to end. It was a weak way for Nasim to go out too, playing Kim Kardashian for the thousandth time.

This was her last episode? That's a shame, and a waste. Kim bit was pat and obvious, and way beneath her abilities.

She's on Mulaney's Fox sitcom, so I imagine she's leaving SNL. Nothing "official" has been said, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3P19ICEYfI

I'll actually watch it when it starts, because Martin Short is my everything.

Holy shit, didn't know Martin Short was gonna be on that! He was on tonight's SNL, right? I missed the cold open and monologue, but saw him in the goodbyes.

He just did a little bit in the monologue...hardly anything at all, unfortunately.

not one laugh in that mulaney trailer, yikes

i liked this bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCawU6BE8P8

yeah, that was pretty funny

Ben & Jerry's Introduces SNL-Themed Ice Cream

stale for 35 years and u can still eat it, lol

https://31.media.tumblr.com/120013b7a79d4801ec5ed0f556ed6f29/tumblr_mwbv9wJHWW1qz8x31o1_500.gif

http://www.refinery29.com/2014/07/70704/colin-jost-weekend-update

Much to my dismay, it does not appear that Colin Jost has been fired and/or drowned in the bottom of the ocean.

“I don’t feel like what I’ve done so far is a full realization of who I am,” he says. “There’s a lot to figure out in the beginning, and your personality starts coming out the more you do it,"

Maybe figure that shit out before you appear a weekly national tv show.

*on a weekly national tv show

awkward guys named Colin get a minimum 18 month tryout at the Update desk

Dude has been an SNL writer since 2005. That is a LONG TIME in the world of SNL. He knows what works on the show and what doesn't, especially now that he has Seth's old job (well, both of Seth's old jobs). With that amount of experience, he absolutely should know that being on camera is not where he's supposed to be.

For the record, Colin Quinn never did get good at WU. He's good at some things (I loved Tough Crowd), but that was not one of them.

Quinn was leaden as fuck to the point that you felt like finishing his jokes for him to put everybody out of their misery

Yeah, but Quinn was drafted in more-or-less at the last minute after Norm MacDonald was fired.

And at least Quinn could do the "What? You didn't think that was funny?" thing after a joke bombed. Not that I think he did it well, but at least it gave some indication that he was aware an audience was present, which is more than I can say for Jost.

Still unsure why Cecily needs a co-anchor, fwiw.

nobody is worse than Quinn. NOBODY

xxp

I can't stand him, but he at least seemed like a sentient being. Again, more than I can say for Jost.

Strong should just co-host with a paramecium.

different update eras used to have their own tone (even curtin-murray felt different from curtin-aykroyd), since fey-fallon there's been this kind of happy sincere tone, maybe modulated somewhat (i'm not gonna deny that fey-poehler was definitely its own thing) but that continuity that comes w/ coanchors and in turn w/ not really having the huge cast turnover every four or five years like in the old days(and you can be sure both of these are very deliberate moves by lorne), makes it harder for someone (in this role at least) to distinguish themselves at this point, it's a model they've gone thru twice already this century. there's this yay team vibe. last season you had them pause to welcome cicely, say goodbye to seth, and then welcome colin. none of these were as funny as harry carey calling colin quinn 'norm'. think if jost was an actual pretty boy asshole instead of a medium between fallon and myers it might work for him. they have no problem being snarky or catty and maybe they'll add some degree of outrage which worked for seth and amy but nobody's actually very mean or outright hostile about who they're telling a joke about. late night is filled w/ snarky but toothless buddies. ferguson is an exception kinda (he definitely more different from fallon/kimmel/conan/myers than any of those guys are from each other) and when letterman is interested he's capable of being a real asshole but those dudes are gone soon. it's a kind of toothless geniality that reminds me of how update was during the ebersol years.

i know i've seen brad hall weekend update segments but i have no memory of them

the late 80s very early 90s era is 'my' era and i'm pretty convinced is in fact the best era but i watched most of the ebersol years as a little kid, i came in somewhere toward the tail end of the eddie murphy era. i can remember where i was when buckwheat was shot. pensacola florida. it occurs to me now i was catching these in reruns during the summer when i could stay up til whenever. pee wee herman occasionally popped up (i'm not sure ppl grasp the extent to which he was around pre-pee wee's big adventure), father guido sarducci popped up alot. gumby. then came the steinbrenner year and fernando (amazing to think that all of that was just ONE season). i'm not sure i ever watched any of the anthony michael hall year, i do remember hearing the announcement that it had been canceled on the radio on the way to school. i can remember starting to watch again when classmates started quoting 'yeah, that's the ticket' all the time.

Hall and Christopher Guest (the other Ebersol "Saturday Night News" anchor) were meh at best. Hall was dull in everything else too, but Guest was reliably hilarious in his many other SNL bits.

'84-'85 was one of the best SNL seasons. The "White Like Eddie" film, Fernando, the male synchronized swimmers, Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich and Famous, Jackie Rodgers Jr's $100,000 Jackpot Wad, Jesse Jackson hosting ("the question is moot!")...

(amazing to think that all of that was just ONE season)

Not only that, it was a strike-shortened season!

one thing about those ebersol seasons i did like is they had a looseness (some might sloppiness) to them that the other seasons didn't quite have. they would have spalding gray or penn & teller just pop up and take over the show for a segment. it wasn't quite as inspired at letterman at the time (ok it wasn't anywhere near as inspired as letterman at the time) but it had a similar energy.

They've had that same update set for going on 15 years now!

Kinda weird that in a 21st century full of tweets, Spider-Man reboots three years after the first series, 15-minute shows on Adult Swim and whatever other cutesy ADHD examples I'm forgetting, SNL is all stodgy and consistent very much unlike its first 20th century incarnations.

Wheelan's out:

http://www.avclub.com/article/brooks-wheelan-fired-saturday-night-live-206907

saw him do a short standup set a few months ago and he led with "I'm a Saturday Night Live cast member... for now"

he already seemed like dead weight, but when they straight-up let him do a stand-up routine on Weekend Update it was pretty clear they were running out the clock

According to her twitter, Noel Wells is on a self-imposed "internet break" until September, so who knows when we'll hear her fate as far as "featured players who did jack shit last season" go. But with Nasim leaving she might get lucky.

Compared to a couple of the guys in the featured cast, Noel Wells might as well have been a regular cast member already.

i'll give you whelan (moot point) and (sadly) milhiser, but beck bennett, mike o'brien and kyle mooney have done a ton more spotlighted work than wells

gonna miss don pardo saying HWHEE-lan