Saturday Night Live

I find myself in a strange place re: SNL. I like most all of the cast, and some of the recurring characters, and the way that some hosts really commit to the job, but it's just not as reliably funny as it should be. Answer? GET NEW WRITERS.

I thought the writing on Jenny Slate's sketch and Nasim Pedrad's sketch was particularly strong.

I think Nasim kind of writes for her own character, so that explains it somewhat. Jenny Slate's sketch was kind of torturous for me (assuming you mean the old movie on TCM sketch).

Yeah, I adored that one.

they hon should stop doing political cold opens -- we have daily show/colbert thx

feel like sudeikis is the only performer who understands the right tone to set 4 the political cold opens (goofin)

totes

i dug that digi short

Just about the only political sketch this season that was funny was Jon Hamm/Scott Brown interrupting the Dem meeting again and again.

type complete words please i'm begging you

i mean did you really just say "hon" instead of "honestly"?

that's a text messaging habit

anyway, on the script supervisor sketch, on the board bobby m was holding it said J. Lutz and then the actual lutz was an extra on the next sketch

Lutz is the secret force behind NBC at this point. I suspect he's in charge of the evening news and the dropping of most of their sports coverage as well.

do people like kenan's grady wilson? i forget. it's pretty tedious

Grady Wilson has been pretty divisive on ilx iirc. definitely something that doesn't need to be done more than once, even/especially with host joining in, and that was at least the 4th time they've done it.

alec baldwin's greek dude wasn't very different from his generalisimo

I don't hate the Grady Wilson sketches, although they seem more like something that would be made on Youtube than on a live sketch show with a 35 year history.

bobby m's snooki is funnier than it should be

bringing stefon back for this episode signals that they're prob pretty desperate for people to latch on to a character

yeah i think the snooki thing could so easily be too on the nose or too obvious but the tone/execution is just right for it to be really funny. especially the way seth played it last night.

how many recurring characters were there last night (not counting impressions like snooki)? stefon, the armisen/wiig singers, grady wilson, bedelia...

i think my fav part of the snooki impression is that they always make sure bobby m's chest hair is showing

I've liked Stefon both times they've used him, tho I could get really tired of him if he started appearing all over next season.

the jokes in the first one were much funnier, but it's a pretty good character idea

was the jenny slate sketch supposed to be funny ot

or*

The Slate sketch is serious until he asks for a handie.

i love the Stefon thing.

take the shot is best sketch

ehh that wore thin for me, feel like similar premises have been done enough and they didn't do a great job of elevating or resolving it.

as said upthread i liked the handjob sketch and the timecrowave sketch the best.

i didn't really see the bfd about the Jay-Z performance last week but i think it subconsciously set me up to be disappointed when Tom Petty didn't do a 10-minute hits medley

lol redick going hard to the rim

Perhaps it reveals my rockist leanings, but I thought Tom Petty was awesome.

whoops rong thread

my hip-hop/pop leanings had me thinking tom petty would be a snooze but yea i thought he was real good

i enjoyed Petty's new jams and might have to check out the album when it comes out, but y'know sometimes you're like damn i'd like to hear some "American Girl" and it's hard not to be disappointed by anything else

not really feeling petty the bluesman. that band is great and can kick out the jams on pretty much anything, but honestly blues does not play to his strengths AT ALL...sometimes i think a "blues album" is a great way to get around writers block for some ppl

I was a little nervous about the return of Stefon -- easily one of my favorite recent characters -- but Hader totally killed it.

Best sketch was Timecrowave.

it was wayyyy too soon for them to be doing a 2nd sketch w/ that character and the execution felt sloppier (like, every bit started with "the hottest club in New York," no variation in the word choice).

I think that was how it was in the original sketch, too? "New York's hottest club is..." That's part of why it's funny.

first time i had seen stefon. the whole update was great but that had me almost in tears: puppets in disguise ("oh yes that totally common thing...?"), 300 lb chinese baby dj with little ravioli hands, and then hader cracking when explaining the party room full of human bathmats ("oh you know, it's like that thing where...").

yea i thought all 3 update guest segments really brought the lols & the interplay w/ seth was key

Yeah, I've always liked Garth and Kat, too. The songs have to be improvised, right?

my theory is that Fred is mostly improvising and/or reading, but Wiig has no idea what to expect...Fred stares at the audience while Kristen stares at him the whole time, laughing.

eh i always assumed they were more playing at not knowing what they were gonna say, although there definitely is at least some spontaneity to it

i guess he did say "New York's hottest club" a lot in the first one too but still, they introduced the guy 2 episodes ago and just did the same sketch over again with slightly different jokes. i wish they at least had SOME kind of progress or variation in recurring characters.

If it's scripted, then Armisen and Wiig do an amazing job of making it look spontaneous.

I'm pretty sure it's spontaneous on Wiig's part at least.

I think it's all improv and Fred's just better at not making it obvious it's improv

if it was scripted, it would be hackier/jokier, like the rest of the show