Saturday Night Live

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

kate mckinnon is the best cast member they've had in a long time

imo

She was brought in to fill the Kristen Wiig vacuum, but she definitely came into her own very quickly.

mckinnon is legit

I watched the first three episodes this season, but I've fallen away from the ritual since then (and it's been a looooooooong ritual). I guess I could catch up with at least the abridged versions online, but I've got no intention of watching anything from the Trump episode on principle.

Boy, that's a real blurry "frickin'" pine tree there.

pretty much every woman in the current cast aside from Sasheer Zamata is reliably hilarious, and Zamata is the first dud female cast member they've had in literally 20 years

I love sasheer zamata

I don't think she's bad, but they don't seem to know what to do with her

by contrast they seem to know *exactly* what to do with Leslie Jones (maybe too much so)

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.

― dan selzer, Sunday, December 6, 2015 11:07 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Generally I find there's a correlation between how much the cast breaks and how bad the particular cast is, ever since the 90s. I mean, you know, very loosely -- I neither watch religiously nor sit there charting the breaking:quality ratio over time.

I find it simpler to loosely track the negative correlation between bad casts and funny sketches

idk, show me a chart

rubber chicken graph also acceptable

McKinnon is ok, but I wouldn't call her the best cast member in the last few years. Mooney is hilarious. Cecily Strong has tons of funny characters. Aidy Bryant is great. Keenan is probably the funniest person in the whole cast (but I guess he's an old-timer at this point).

I don't think she's bad, but they don't seem to know what to do with her <-- OTM

I'd say the last outright BAD person they cast was Colin Quinn

Yeah those are my favorites too. Keenan def the most reliably funny, his presence alone can save the most dire shit.

xp