Show Me the Love for SNL's "Live Duluth" sketch

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...with Will Forte in ponytail, open-chested, and bottle of JD.
You can feel it...in your looiiiiinns....

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 16 January 2006 13:15 (twenty years ago)

did fred armisen really do that solo a la dana carvey?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:03 (twenty years ago)

I loved it too! I wish someone would get that thing on the internet, "Lazy Sunday" style.

I especially love the bit where he bellows about his love being consecrated in the blood of the Apache nation or something like that.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:12 (twenty years ago)

I actually saw this, and am still trying to diagram the multiple ironies of an SNL sketch about something going on too long.

It's amazing how SNL is now almost nothing but lame pop-culture parodies, something SCTV did brilliantly while still developing rich regular characters.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty sure that was Armisen playing - he is a drummer, and has drummed in other sketches before.

All the greatness in this sketch came from the tiny little details - the people in the background, weird turns of phrase in the lyrics, Forte's body language. There's a lot more to it than just "ha ha they keep playing!"

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:14 (twenty years ago)

The best part about this skit was that it was called "Live Duluth"! I was roffling from the get-go.

― Dan (Hahaha) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

There is truth and wisdom in Forte's moustache.

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Funny, but not as funny as the Swedish Chef ringtones bit.

― Oblivious Lad. (Oblivious Lad), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

i don't care for forte.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:13 (twenty years ago)

You guys really know this cast's names? Rachel Dratch seems consistently amusing.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:24 (twenty years ago)

anyway, i thought the funniest sketch was when the new guy went to buy a diamond ring for his fiancee.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

You guys really know this cast's names?

No, we're actually making up names.

― Dan (My Favorite? Giovanni Turducken) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:14 (twenty years ago)

You guys really know this cast's names?

ever see the opening credits? don pardo?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:16 (twenty years ago)

i don't remember this sketch. hm. we DVRed it to watch when back from the club but I'm pretty sure I saw all of it.

― Miss Misery xox (MissMiseryTX), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

i'm pretty sure you didn't! i'm not making up this sketch.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:28 (twenty years ago)

this sketch sucked.

― howell huser (chaki), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

"duluth" or "man buys ring for wife"?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:33 (twenty years ago)

because i do think duluth was kind of lame.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:33 (twenty years ago)

duluth was as generic-ok as snl gets.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

the only thing i remember being funny from that episode was the chandelier ad.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:35 (twenty years ago)

i'm surprised there isn't a 500-post lazy sunday thread yet. unless there is.

― Sloths B. Creepin (Adrian Langston), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:42 (twenty years ago)

There is a loooong Lazy Sunday thread around here someplace. The title isn't obvious, though. I think it's in a genera SNL thread.

I don't know what you're all thinking, I would put Forte among the ten best people to ever be on SNL.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

The "Man Buys Ring" guy was Jason Sudeikis, by the way.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:52 (twenty years ago)

ever see the opening credits? don pardo?

Yeah, I hear em say the names, and I usta RETAIN them when the show was good.

Lazy Sunday mostly here:

The Outbreak Of Think Pieces About SNL's "Narnia Rap"

snl

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

there was also a lot of lazy sunday stuff on the thread i started called: neil young is on snl tonight (or something like that. i tried searching for it, but couldn't find it.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)

even the smigel thing wasn't that funny this past saturday.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

oh, and the neil young thread is on ilm.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

the first half of the smigel thing was funny, but they shouldn't have come back from commercial.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

oh, right. yeah it seemed impossible to me that ILX would somehow not produce hundreds of herbish posts about an internet video. think of the implications!!!!!!!!!

― Sloths B. Creepin (Adrian Langston), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

Why would they do the cold opening with a Smigel cartoon? Made us wonder if something got cut.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

Please someone tell me that it was because Darryl Hammond threw a hissyfit about something and stormed out of the building, never to be seen again.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:15 (twenty years ago)

You guys actually remember things? I used to remember things when things were good.

― account settings (account), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:20 (twenty years ago)

http://youtube.com/w/Chandeliers-on-SNL-%28-1-14-05-%29?v=wdifvRQ-XZo&search=chandeliers

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:23 (twenty years ago)

The Swedish cooking show skit was pretty good...

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:57 (twenty years ago)

no it wasn't, any skit that guy is in sucks

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:58 (twenty years ago)

seth myers?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 16 January 2006 23:01 (twenty years ago)

yeah, that guy

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 16 January 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

Is Sweden really so, so, um, German?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 16 January 2006 23:25 (twenty years ago)

Ha: the only reason I found that cooking bit even faintly amusing was that I actually used to watch the show it was clearly inspired by -- New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad. Except that half the time he sets up outside and cooks on the edge of a fjord, or something. It's pretty sweet. And very, umm, Scandinavian, I guess.

I thought the Duluth sketch was deeply unfunny, except for that thing where it's always kinda funny when Will Forte gets that big vein in his head going. Cf his Zell Miller thing where you actually half-worried he was going to have a stroke on stage.

Man Buys Ring was the one genuinely funny bit of this.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 16 January 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

i meant the duluth sketch

― howell huser (chaki), Monday, 16 January 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Man Buys Ring was the one genuinely funny bit of this.

finally, some validation. man buys ring had me laughing out loud pretty much through the whole skit.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

Not even two days gone and I can't remember a single sketch. I do remember thinking ScarJo was preety good. She's not really a comic actress and sometimes actors without comedy chops are very stiff on SNL.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:08 (twenty years ago)

snl is still on tv?

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:08 (twenty years ago)

My two-point plan for improving SNL:

1. Fire Horatio Sanz and Keenan Thomson immediately.
2. Fire anyone that proposes doing another political sketch as the show opener. SNL's political comedy has been terrible for YEARS now. Besides the Daily Show/Colbert Report do it much better.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:44 (twenty years ago)

I think the biggest problem with SNL in this decade is that it is overly eager to please, and tries way too hard to be really middle of the road and populist, which runs counter to what has worked best for it in the past. The show is too scattered, and needs to find a center again rather than being a total free-for-all. In the last couple years of Will Ferrell's run, they had a good thing going, but they've been in recovery mode ever since in spite of having some pretty talented cast members.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:55 (twenty years ago)

This is part of why I like Forte a lot - he's utterly unafraid of doing bizarre shit that is likely to alienate most people, and he seems more committed to a personal comedic voice than anyone else in the cast.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 00:57 (twenty years ago)

that Deep House Dish sketch was as bad as the worst MAD TV shit.

― howell huser (chaki), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 01:05 (twenty years ago)

anyway, i thought the funniest sketch was when the new guy went to buy a diamond ring for his fiancee.

This was funny until my friend told me to imagine Will Ferrell doing the same skit. It very quickly became apparent that New Guy was shamelessly aping Ferrell's schtick, and that the scene would have been transcendent (yes) had Ferrell done it.

― gbx (skowly), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 01:05 (twenty years ago)

Also: everyone (SJo most noticeably) was blatantly reading the prompters the whole time. It was really annoying.

― gbx (skowly), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 01:06 (twenty years ago)

they've been doing that for the last 30 years

― howell huser (chaki), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 01:58 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 6 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

The new girl (Kristen Wiig) was really great in the "Two A-Holes Buy A Christmas Tree" sketch!

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 03:59 (twenty years ago)

Wally Hammerlich is The Lizard King.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:05 (twenty years ago)

not funny:
will forte
seth meyers
horatio sanz
kenan thompson

funny:
fred armisen
chris parnell

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 04:46 (twenty years ago)

What's with the Kenan hate? Dude rules.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 05:12 (twenty years ago)

the only time he makes me laugh is when he does cosby!

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 05:15 (twenty years ago)

I actually watched this episode! The first one I've watched in something like five years or so!
I walked away after the chandelier bit and my girlfriend sat through the whole thing and we both promised each other that we would never have to watch it again. We've managed to put it behind us.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 05:37 (twenty years ago)

Fred Armisen is so horribly inconsistent - sometimes he's really clever and good, but more often than he's really cringe-inducing!

The best people in the cast right now are Will Forte, Amy Poehler, Chris Parnell, and Tina Fey. Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg show a lot of potential. Rachel Dratch, Seth Meyers, and Darrell Hammond are all solid utility players who can veer off into obnoxiousness but are usually okay. Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, and Fred Armisen are alright sometimes but tend to be heavily featured in the worst sketches.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:01 (twenty years ago)

Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, and Fred Armisen are alright sometimes but tend to be heavily featured in the worst sketches.

But... WHAT... does the data... MEAN???

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:04 (twenty years ago)

i really liked "duluth," maybe because i wind up buying records by bands that actually sound like that sometimes.

parnell and armisen are both wasted by SNL. kind of hoping the ridiculous success of "lazy sunday" might inspire them to bring in some new writers or something.

fire kenan thompson, finesse mitchell, seth myers and whoever wrote the "man buys ring" sketch, that shit had about 3 funny seconds scattered through it.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:31 (twenty years ago)

ILX in hating black people non-shocker.

― Dan (I Guess MLK Day Really Is Over) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 13:51 (twenty years ago)

DULUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!! (slugs whiskey)

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 14:11 (twenty years ago)

SNL ..tries way too hard to be really middle of the road and populist, which runs counter to what has worked best for it in the past

I'd estimate the last time SNL WASN'T trying to do this was around the middle of the 1976-77 season, when Gilda became America's Sweetheart. (Read the Michael O'Donoghue bio Mr. Mike for a good view of this.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Scarlett was hilarious in the Deep House sketch. The rest of it was pretty bad, and Kenan was horrendous therein.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 14:25 (twenty years ago)

ILX in hating black people non-shocker.

hating unfunny black people.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:11 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, whatever.

― Dan (No Surprises) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

and they're on, you know, a sketch comedy show? and display all of the bland, unfunny mugging of horatio sanz (who should also be gone)?

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:15 (twenty years ago)

Kenan is good. But that deep house skit was only vaguely amusing the first time around, and making it one of the first skits this time was a bad move. I have a soft-spot for the skit because the first time some of the fake acts were way to familiar.

Speaking of jokes with limited audience, I was impressed with Tina Fey's Weekend Update joke about Michael Bloomberg being made an honorary lesbian "I was made an honorary lesbian once, last time I fell asleep on the F train." Who outside of NY gets that joke?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:15 (twenty years ago)

Jeez, I'm not sure lotsa ppl outside of Park Slope get that one.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I don't think Finesse and Kenan suck, they just do a lot of horrible sketches! They've both done things I've liked, but they are a far cry from Tim Meadows, who I think is one of the best people to ever be on the show.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

how would you rate them compared to other black people in general?

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

i will say this for tim meadows, he was on the show for a very long time.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

i liked his danny glover

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:55 (twenty years ago)

I don't think Finesse and Kenan suck, they just do a lot of horrible sketches!

sort of hard to tell the difference, eh? and kenan was in fat albert... so, you know, maybe he's really funny. at home.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:56 (twenty years ago)

hard to tell the difference between them?

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 15:59 (twenty years ago)

yes, that's exactly what i meant.

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

please, Kenan has been hilarious in tons of skits. Lots of times when he comes on Weekend Update. When he was the translator for Fred Armisen's deaf, racist comic. Granted, Armisen made that, and that was maybe the funniest thing I'd seen on SNL in years.

Shamberg definately has a decent future I think, his skit w/ Jack Black where they did Enemy Mine where he was an alien hitting on Jack was pretty great.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

oh my god. i watched SNL the other night b/c scarlett jo was the host and i can't pass up a chance to watch her talented globes. anyway: UGH!!! SNL IS SO SO SO SO AWFUL. i didn't laugh ONCE :(

― killy (baby lenin pin), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

the funniest thing i've seen on snl in recent years was fred armisen's piece on "the gates"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

ILX in hating black people non-shocker.

oh dan, you're better than that.

(i'm steering way clear of matthew's finesse and kenan vs. meadows post, though...)

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

I invoked Tim Meadows because it seemed like I was being painted with the "hates all black cast members" brush by Dan!

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 16:57 (twenty years ago)

One of the most talented cast members was a black woman -- the late off-Broadway actress Danitra Vance, about 20 years ago. They gave her something to do about once every 8 shows.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cinematical.com/images/2005/08/004_l2.jpg

I can't hate on this comedian.

I'm not looking forward to when SNL does the Duluth skit for a second, third, and fourth time. And some of you will come on here trying to tell me that it's funny because it's long and repitious.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:18 (twenty years ago)

one of the most talented cast members IS a black woman!!

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:22 (twenty years ago)

oh dan, you're better than that.

Yes, I am; ILE is not.

― Dan (Cards On The Table Time) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:28 (twenty years ago)

I never watch SNL these days, but I happened to catch most of this episode (probably because it was way too damn cold to be outside on Saturday evening). I thought the "Deep House Dish" was so-so (the funniest part of it was the banter between the host and the resolutely uninteresting co-host). "Live Duluth" was also only so-so. I thought the funniest parts were the taco wrapped in a pizza commercial, the opening Pat Robertson cartoon, the Darwin cartoon, and the chandeliers bit. The Swedish cooking show was direly unfunny.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:32 (twenty years ago)

I think what some of you might be missing about Kenan is that he's mostly a straightman -- the kind of straightman good enough to be really funny himself. Hence his awesomeness in the deaf racist comedian bit; he's at his funniest when he's giving the exasperated looks, refusing to go along with things, or backing away slowly. (See also whatever long-ago sketch it was where Finesse was his loud girlfriend trying to buy a handbag; nothing in the foreground was nearly as funny as Kenan trying to stay out of it.) Also he cross-dresses really fabulously.

Given how much the past few decades of SNL have relied on one cast member being a jackass and the others acting blandly angry about it, I'm kinda thinking someone like Kenan should be way more useful to them.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:41 (twenty years ago)

Also will y'all look at the weirdness of this thread? We all sit and watch this show and think it's totally dumb and only one sketch was funny -- and yet somehow it's a different sketch for every other person!

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:43 (twenty years ago)

So is that because it was all actually funnier than we thought? Or is it because the SNL brand of humor depends on satirizing an obscure aspect of popular culture, which, unless you happen to be familiar with said aspect (slim chance), you will likely not find amusing?

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:48 (twenty years ago)

it just means we all smoked at different points in the evening

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)

EXACTLY!!!!! Mark P, thou art OTMFM.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 18:02 (twenty years ago)

i don't really understand how anyone could not love kenan, but i grew up on All That and Kenan & Kel.

i've never been a big SNL dude, i've only seen maybe two eps max from this season, and collectively about 10-15 eps from the last five years of the show. but i get this vibe from the new stuff that feels way fresher to me than anything from the late-90s and early 00s. i love kenan, parnell, poehler, dratch, fey, finesse, and none of the remaining dudes seem annoying. the tim meadows/jimmy fallon years were torturous for me, and i didn't really learn to like will ferrell until i saw him in some movies. i've never really seen any of the 'classic' stuff from the 80s and the og shit with like gilda radner and steve martin, to put it in perspective. but i mean... nobody actually misses chris kattan, do they?

(DEBBY DOWNAH!!!)

― Sloths B. Creepin (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:02 (twenty years ago)

x-post

I agree that this cast does seem better equipped and more willing to do the edgy stuff that has always been the key ingredient of a good SNL skit. One of my favorites from this cast was the one on the Johnny Knoxville episode about the couple that should be divorced - hysterically otm re: a couple I know.

And Chris Kattan can stay gone. Ugh.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of jokes with limited audience, I was impressed with Tina Fey's Weekend Update joke about Michael Bloomberg being made an honorary lesbian "I was made an honorary lesbian once, last time I fell asleep on the F train." Who outside of NY gets that joke?

Here in Chicago it struck me as funny just on account of the sorts of people one might encounter on a train, but I don't know which train the scary lesbians take in NYC, so that may have gone by me.

The duluth sketch was funny primarily due to the absurdly enormous band.

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:31 (twenty years ago)

yeah theres way too many new york jokes lately

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:34 (twenty years ago)

The F train is the main train that runs to Park Slope, an old school lesbian enclave being pushed over the top by the recent opening of Catty Shack, on the edges of the Slope. 3 floors or so of Le Tigre lovin' lesbians in a dismal yet slowly gentrifying strip of brooklyn that I would not recommend walking around alone in at night.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:40 (twenty years ago)

thats why i like kenan more than these nyc dorks -- hes from college park!!

― ,, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:43 (twenty years ago)

Park Slope is far more stockbrokers-with-strollers than lesbian anymore -- most Sapphic gals can only afford cheaper nabes now.

SNL's current adventurousness = 1979 Bob Hope Xmas special. And YET I'll hafta watch SARSGAARD next week!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

most Sapphic gals can only afford cheaper nabes now.

not true at all...my girlfriend, a relatively recent Vassar grad, knows about a dozen girls who've all moved to south slope/windsor terrace areas within the last few months, as well as gowanus slope and boerum hill slope.* Specifically, 7th ave from 15th st to 22nd or so, still affordable enough apparently.

*wyckoff/warren around nevins/bond.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 20:27 (twenty years ago)

i've never really seen any of the 'classic' stuff from the 80s

haha. really?

general question for everyone: is there an actual "classic" period of snl? or is everyone's classic period just the years they got baked and watched it every week?

― baby, disco is fuck (yournullfame), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 01:13 (twenty years ago)

Classic for me is say 1986-1990 (the Hartman, Carvey, Lovitz, etc.-era)

― Joe (Joe), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 02:49 (twenty years ago)

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