Saturday Night Live

Well, good on ya for watching to report back. I couldn't bring myself to do it.

The AV Club has a thorough dissection if anyone wants to read it.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/donald-trumps-appearance-shows-snl-its-nadir-228101

Good write-up and I generally agree that it was doomed from the start.

I got through the monologue and the White House sketch--unbelievably bad. When Hillary's comic timing is better than yours, that's a very red flag.

snl was never good, american comedy rooted in improv is the worst american art form

American comedy rooted in improv is often great. American improv is often bad. SNL is often terrible because it conspires against itself to hamper its potential, by hiring non-actors/non-comedians to host, then rushing through the writing process in the days leading up to air like it's some kind of achievement to scrape together a last-minute live show that even at its peak was famously hit or miss. SNL is like the entitled smart kid rushing through their college paper the night before, hoping for a C, happy if they get a higher grade, but shrugging it off if they fail. And learning nothing in the process.

its weird to say but theres sortof not enough material or its already absurd enough w/r/t trumps persona/character, like refs abt rosie or omoroso? ugh…like they shouldve redone every tracy morgan sketch instead and just had trump play tracy

Last night was the first time I've caught some of the current cast; seems to be more than a 50% turnover from the cast I was fairly familiar with a couple of years ago. Are they as bad as they looked during the first 20 minutes last night? They should avoid bringing out Darrell Hammond, whose comparative mastery just shines a light on that.

I've watched clips all morning and I'm really bummed out. Nothing was funny, nothing was good. Read three or four think pieces on the whole fiasco outside. IMO, it was more of a reflection of how showy and "HEY LOOK AT ME" the whole idea has become of being a person who runs for public office. Not saying that anybody elected to do anything is an asshole and that they're all bad people, it just has an empty feel to it for me. Like I just can't get over how the whole thing was one big move for Trump's campaign and how many behind the scenes deals and greasy handshakes were made. I think this is the breaking point where I realize that maybe not voting is the only option that won't leave me feeling nauseous. I've hit max cynicism and it feels very lonely here.

I'm gonna go listen to SMiLE now. Because jesus christ.

Trump was basically a prop to build sketches around.

Leslie Jones slayed tho

Needed a Jeopardy! sketch like Jesse Jackson had.

http://jezebel.com/donald-trumps-snl-has-shortened-my-natural-life-1741279725

got a big rating jump

trump jump

Trump doing a "Hotline Bling" parody is exactly what we should have expected from this.

American comedy rooted in improv is often great. American improv is often bad. SNL is often terrible because it conspires against itself to hamper its potential, by hiring non-actors/non-comedians to host, then rushing through the writing process in the days leading up to air like it's some kind of achievement to scrape together a last-minute live show that even at its peak was famously hit or miss. SNL is like the entitled smart kid rushing through their college paper the night before, hoping for a C, happy if they get a higher grade, but shrugging it off if they fail. And learning nothing in the process.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, November 8, 2015 9:34 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to be fair i think a lot of things get written or assembled really quickly, we're just more aware of it in SNL because of the unique nature of their production schedule.

rushing through the writing process in the days leading up to air like it's some kind of achievement to scrape together a last-minute live show

this is Shearer's big beef with Lorne and frankly it seems pretty insightful, dunno if anything is really gained by this unnecessarily stressful and tense approach

improv with no improvisation whatsoever

oh come on there is v little improv on this show and what does get through is usually by accident

it's one of the weird ironies of SNL that they habitually hire improv people and then make them stick religiously to script

they need to hire more Classically Trained Comedic Actors

https://notesfromachair.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/52039_1a246010bf713e325bf5fbe9bae71981_74f64c85f33532fdca8d0c27f62f5198.jpg

the thing about SNL's process is that if you hate it, it's kinda fine because every other show that has attempted a similar format has failed, and as a result we've got a lot of successful sketch comedy that's made completely differently

There are a handful of fleeting moments when you see a little improv sneak-in. Like Eddie Murphy here, famously and hilariously:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ke0khk8GI

Of course, he wasn't famous for improv, he was just really funny.

Tons of Hollywood comedies these days, especially the Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow/Will Ferrell school, practically stink with improv. It's why Apatow's movies are so fucking long -" we are so funny, we couldn't cut all these bits!" - and why Rogen and Ferrell are so often paired with the same sympatico actors.They're basically improv troupes at this point. But I will say, seeing Second City now and then, the scripted bits are always the funniest. Go figure, when you put the time in work something out, it often gets better, and the better the script/writing, the more improv-happy actors generally know not to go too nuts with it.

Sort of addressed in a recent AVClub Random Roles with Brian Huskey's whose upcoming film was largely improvised:

AVC: A Better You is still improvised though, right?

BH: It’s all improvised.

AVC: So you wrote an outline?

BH: That’s right. We wrote what would be a comprehensive outline for any good script writer. We’d get together over five or six months when we could and bang it out, and we just made sure that the storyline tracks, that emotionally we were staying with the guy, and making sure that the story was compelling enough, and then just came up with placeholder bits and jokes that we knew, like if we could get Andy Daly to come in and play a terrible neighbor, we think he’ll get some great takes on being passive-aggressive. So, for the most part, we’d say, “Here’s something we thought of. If you want to try this, throw that in there during your improv.” But we’d go and turn it over to the actors and just say, “Okay, well here’s where we’re starting, here’s where we’d like to end up, and here’s some of the information we’re giving up during the exchange. Everything else, we’ll just see what happens.” And as we were doing it, we’d say, “That’s good. Let’s use that,” then lay it with something else that would happen in addition so we had a wealth of material to choose from.

Veep (2012-present)—“Leon West”

AVC: Is Veep also improvised?

BH: To a degree. Veep’s naturalistic style indicates to everybody that it’s improvised, but the writing on that show is so amazing that you don’t go too far from the script. If anything, doing Veep you’ll do a take and do another take, and if they feel like they got what they want, then they’ll do what they call a “fun run” where you can just do the same thing and add stuff peppered throughout. In any kind of comedy capacity, people are, hopefully, bringing something in addition to what is written there, and I think comedy allows people to do that and make it their own and spice it up a little bit. The worst comedy, I think, says, “No, this is what it says, this is the line reading, this is how I heard it in my head. Do it.” That’s when it becomes like a multi-cam to me. Not to slam on multi-cams, but screw multi-cams.

Rogen is not an improv dude really

Not by roots or training, no, but in the sense that any friends hanging out together, cracking jokes and making fun of each other are "improvising" ... Like, none of these dudes are, are they? Did Danny McBride come from that scene?

Mcbride came from a different crew (jody hill etc.)

Right. But all those dudes - Freaks and Geeks folks plus McBride, Jonah Hill, etc., they essentially operate as an comedy group now.

Adam Scott talked about nearly fucking up Stepbrothers because he had no idea how to do improv

Yeah i get what u mean JinC

xpost Rose Byrne in "Neighbors" - a mess of a movie, anyway - is just struggling to add anything. Either she wildly repeats a line or just excitedly throws in a "yeah!" or something.

this ep was really strong i thought -- like an apology for last week's or something?

Yeah, even Update had some good stuff in it.

Disclosure violated my rule about having extra people on stage playing drums (who, at least, looked like they were having fun) and their music kinda sucked.

Good episode.

I've come to really enjoy Che and Jost's antagonistic relationship.

wow that was bad

at least Keenan can be relied on

Jost is becoming tolerable.

maybe they were all still recovering from what I hope is the deep, abiding shame they all feel for abetting a fascist demogogue

I know you don't like Amy Schumer, but...

lol

#noschumers

That was the best episode I've seen in awhile.

i sort of guiltily enjoyed black jeopardy. it's kind of hard to fuck up a jeopardy parody i guess

I was referring to the McConaughey/Adele episode (which did not feature Black Jeopardy, unless I missed something?)

McConaughy episode was terrible. Ep before was one of the better ones lately.

the "meet santa" sketch has to be one of the better ones they've done in a long time.

i laughed at a few of the sketches last night. i thought the aliens one was funny too (tho they broke way too much)

i've never seen this cast break so much. Not sure where it started. Ryan couldn't keep it together. Cecily was a total pro. Skit was pretty funny even without breaking. Admittedly, I find breaking to be pretty hilarious, unless it happens too often, or with material that's not even that funny.

<3 anthony crispino

Prime women be shopping joke too

Not sure where it started.

I think it was sometime during the peeing in a bowl part; Kate was going pretty hard (in a laid back way) and it was so ridiculous I think Aidy started losing it.

OMG

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