I remember the 15th anniversary SNL special (which, iirc, was their first such star-studded retrospective/reunion dealie) and Piscopo was in the audience wearing a sleveless tux to show off his weird-ass body-built arms. And it wasn't meant to be a comedy bit. I think he even flexed when he realized the camera was on him.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 16 February 2015 17:51 (nine years ago) link
xpost Jim Belushi
― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 16 February 2015 17:52 (nine years ago) link
I played with the app a little last night and it's fun, but def a big step up from shitty YouTube content but a big step down from actually having full episodes. A mix of stuff you'd thought you'd never see again, stuff you've seen a dozen times, and stuff that's not there for whatever inexplicable reason (one of these days I will prove that I saw a circa-2001 sketch loosely about Melt-Banana, but that day is not here)
Huge points off for providing the first 30 years in the wrong aspect ratio
― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 16 February 2015 17:58 (nine years ago) link
take it to the AV Club buddy
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Monday, 16 February 2015 17:59 (nine years ago) link
Word, gotta pad those two grafs out to 8 or 9
― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:02 (nine years ago) link
This show stinks, always has. Get out a DVD set of one of those early series with the 'classic' cast and even those episodes are 75% crap.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:03 (nine years ago) link
Ooh yeah agree murray was good too. And seemed v spontaneous.
Xxp
― Οὖτις, Monday, 16 February 2015 18:07 (nine years ago) link
Is there not an Android version of the app? Because fuck an iPhone.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 16 February 2015 18:09 (nine years ago) link
^^^this, ugh
My favorite part of the show though is getting to search by cast member and watch stuff from Sarah Silverman, Ellen Cleghorne, Terry Sweeney, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, etc.
― Jennifer 8.-( (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:27 (nine years ago) link
did J L-D make an appearance last night?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
I did lol that dennis miller and victoria jackson were both awol
― Οὖτις, Monday, 16 February 2015 18:34 (nine years ago) link
well they wouldn't want to be in the belly of the liberal beast, would they?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:36 (nine years ago) link
Sarah didn't seem to mind.
― pplains, Monday, 16 February 2015 18:41 (nine years ago) link
Palin, not Silverman.
Also Martin Short and Billy Crystal were Ebersol cast members.
I remember that 15th anniversary. Mary Tyler Moore came out with "Eddie Murphy's Entourage".
― pplains, Monday, 16 February 2015 18:43 (nine years ago) link
sarah palin doesn't mind anything as long as it extends her media exposure; that they would even give her such exposure demonstrates that SNL's " political satire" is bankrupt
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 16 February 2015 18:45 (nine years ago) link
i did like that martin short got a lot of airtime; how is that ever a bad thing?
http://i.imgur.com/KbQVMbl.jpg
Dennis Miller pulling a Nora Dunn during the Dice episode probably proves to his fans that it's the missing jigsaw piece you notice first.
― pplains, Monday, 16 February 2015 19:10 (nine years ago) link
I knew VJ was there because one of the syndicated entertainment shows was interviewing her during their wrap-up after the local news (I could hear her voice blaring from the other room). Dennis Miller was obviously busy across the street jerking off Bill O'Reilly.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 16 February 2015 19:24 (nine years ago) link
This had a couple of laughs. I wish there had been a clip montage of musical guests, but that would have taken forever. I agree with Mark Evanier that Jim Henson should have been in the Obit section.
― you make me feel like danzig (WilliamC), Monday, 16 February 2015 19:41 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I would have completely forgot about Henson in the obit section but their had a photo of Gilda with Scred!
― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 16 February 2015 19:43 (nine years ago) link
(one of these days I will prove that I saw a circa-2001 sketch loosely about Melt-Banana, but that day is not here)
THIS HAPPENED! I SAW IT! It was the weirdest goddamn thing.
― rabatment of the rectangle (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 16 February 2015 19:54 (nine years ago) link
S27 E16, Cameron Diaz/Jimmy Eat World (lololol), aired 4/6/2002, band was called Crash Papayas
― Jennifer 8.-( (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 16 February 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link
not at all vaguely racist
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01pmtv4.phtml
― Jennifer 8.-( (Stevie D(eux)), Monday, 16 February 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
It'll all be fixed when SNL hires it's first Asian cast members and writers in about fifty years
― rabatment of the rectangle (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 16 February 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link
i still can't believe it happened in STUDIO 60 and it still hasn't happened on the real SNL. i mean even MadTV had Bobby Lee
― Nhex, Monday, 16 February 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
Remember the sketch with people complaining about their iPhones being confronted by the people who made them? Yikes.
― rabatment of the rectangle (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 16 February 2015 20:35 (nine years ago) link
it was cringeworthy just reading that thing, I can't imagine having actually seen it
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Monday, 16 February 2015 20:57 (nine years ago) link
NY Times writer Alessandra Stanley says: "Last week, after Jon Stewart announced he would stop doing the fake news on “The Daily Show,” his fans mourned, saying that he had pioneered a genre of political satire. He didn’t. 'Weekend Update' was already there."
As if Weekend Update were the "first" news parody anyway, or produced more than a couple of weeks worth of material rivaling top level Daily Show during these magic 40 years.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 16 February 2015 22:14 (nine years ago) link
as Chevy Chase said, the original point of WU was NOT to do jokes about the news. It was to mock the conventions of the newscast. (Chase's pomposity/ cluelessness, Laraine Newman doing remotes from deadly locales in Abe Beame-era NYC etc)
This is of course a joke that is lost on Airhead America then and now.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 February 2015 22:25 (nine years ago) link
I find TDS a bit overrated as a whole but it's way way more than Weekend Update's constant barrage of one-liners - I think Norm's years were the only "pioneering" aspect of it, as I can't think of anyone doing deadpan comedy quite like that before
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Monday, 16 February 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
uh, Bob & Ray? "...ly Ballou here."
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 February 2015 22:32 (nine years ago) link
i mean i realize comedy was invented around 1968 at the latest but
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 February 2015 22:33 (nine years ago) link
SCTV was so much better at mocking the conventions of the newscast though, and so were Monty Python. It isn't even close.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 16 February 2015 22:34 (nine years ago) link
The Daily Show breakthrough was of course using actual news footage from other channels and directly making fun of the coverage by name.
― Vic Perry, Monday, 16 February 2015 22:37 (nine years ago) link
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, February 16, 2015 4:33 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Of course this started with Aristophanes classic "I'm not wearing any chiton, scrolls at 11" joke in the lost play Gadflies
― Vic Perry, Monday, 16 February 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
NY Times writer Alessandra Stanley
stanley is a notoriously unqualified incompetent hack, move along
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 16 February 2015 23:54 (nine years ago) link
paper of record, old grey badbreath
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 17 February 2015 00:09 (nine years ago) link
The best eras of snl imo1. hour-long reruns on comedy central in the 90s2. the first few seasons after i was allowed to stay up for new episodes, before i started having better things to do on a saturday night3. the invention of the dvrI might be slightly older than you but the nick at night compressed episodes from the 70s cast were essential for me. Where else would I have seen this shit:― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Friday, January 30, 2015 1:37 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark
I might be slightly older than you but the nick at night compressed episodes from the 70s cast were essential for me. Where else would I have seen this shit:― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Friday, January 30, 2015 1:37 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark
Also a few years back when Netflix had every episode (minus the sketches where they would've had to pay for music royalties).
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 17 February 2015 01:00 (nine years ago) link
How qualified do you have to be to write about television?
― I don't even OWN a Television album (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 03:07 (nine years ago) link
xp a lot of those were pretty butchered, though; some were 20-30 minutes
― Jennifer 8.-( (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 03:08 (nine years ago) link
That 10 seconds of Larry David was probably the best part of snl40.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 17 February 2015 06:20 (nine years ago) link
These started in syndication in the early 80s. Musical guests were rarely (if ever) included, but sometimes the monologues were. Watching these made you want to see the whole episodes; watching the whole episodes made you want to only see the 30 minute edit.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 13:58 (nine years ago) link
― billstevejim, Tuesday, February 17, 2015 1:20 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I was thinking how weird it was that he was a stronger actor than most of the veteran performers
― pro stroke Johnny Gill songs would rub you the right way (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 14:03 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, it really felt like a lot of those people hadn't performed in any capacity in years.
― You Just Mind Your P's & Q's, Buster Brown! (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
@AlbertBrooks I think it will take another 40 years. RT @mattthomas: Still waiting for the #SNL40 Albert Brooks tribute.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
Ha, there was actually a lot more Brooks on the special than I thought there'd be...and there was only 10-15 seconds of Brooks.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 15:56 (nine years ago) link
I tried to watch but it opened with Fallon, which reminded me that SNL came to specialize in suck-up comedy, where you bring on celebs like DeNiro or Palin and the joke is "Here's someone famous we impersonate, but they have a sense of humor about it. Win-win."
― ancient texts, things that can't be pre-dated (President Keyes), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 16:03 (nine years ago) link
I'm not sure who was the first person in office to host -- DP Moynihan, maybe? -- but it pretty much indicated the surrender of any ambition to satire. (except on behalf of the status quo/govt, as in the infamous Gulf war press conference sketch)
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 16:06 (nine years ago) link
According to Horatio Sanz (iirc), Jim Downey was always pushing for "balance" in the political jokes--as many targeting Dems as GOP. Because what we needed in 2003 was a bunch of jokes about Tom Daschle.
― ancient texts, things that can't be pre-dated (President Keyes), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 16:14 (nine years ago) link
O'Hehir on SNL's nonsatirical political humor:
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/14/tina_feys_sarah_palin_when_saturday_night_live_finally_got_political_satire_right/
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 16:21 (nine years ago) link