Saturday Night Live

fittingly, there's a scene where wayne promises aerosmith, nirvana and pearl jam at the big free concert and the big victory at the end is just aerosmith

myers wanted neil young and pearl jam doing "rockin in the free world" to be the big single a la "bohemian rhapsody" but neil chickened out and instead they made a video for "I Love Rock'n'Roll" with Joan Jett

I saw Tim Meadows and Chris Farley at Second City Chicago and they were nuclear-bomb funny, to the point where I made a point of remembering their names so I could follow their careers.

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me too (saw them/made a point of remembering their names)! They did a hilarious Wrigley Field security guards sketch, the details of which I've forgotten, but it killed.

Re: Second City, getting on the main stage is such a sadly prescribed hoop-jumping process these days (training program, conservatory, Tour Co. and/or the cruise ship circuit, optional Etc. Stage, and then maaaaaybe main stage) that it weeds out all but the most career-minded performers. You'll probably never see another Farley come out of that place. Also, a lot of the material Tour Co. and the cruise troupes do is "classics from the Second City vaults!". Which seems depressing to me, but to each their own. But at any rate, there's probably a reason why more people have come out of iO than SC in recent years.

Funniest thing I remember from Second City Chicago was a sketch with Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert who were playing (I think) a father and son arguing. Colbert said to Carell, "You don't know shit about fuck."

(ok, it was funnier in context/with Colbert's delivery)

No, I can hear Stephen Colbert say that line in my head and it's cracking me up.

And the improv sets were always killer. First SC I went to, the cast included Richard Kind, Bonnie Hunt, and Dan Castellenata. During the shout-out-a-topic part of the improv, someone yelled "bracket creep!" No one knew what the fuck that was, but apparently it was some income tax term. So Hunt comes out and says, "'Bracket Creep' was the nickname my classmates gave me in middle school for my excessive use of parentheses..."

(again, much funnier in person)

Me too (saw them/made a point of remembering their names)! They did a hilarious Wrigley Field security guards sketch, the details of which I've forgotten, but it killed.

OH MY GOD YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES

I just read the wiki synopsis for WW2 and none of it sounds familiar to me, but there's no way I didn't see it in 1993. I must have blocked it out.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:01 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. I saw it once and barely remember anything

I'm having a hard time imagining Tim Meadows as nuclear-bomb funny. I like him, but that doesn't really seem like his thing.

Funniest thing I remember from Second City Chicago was a sketch with Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert who were playing (I think) a father and son arguing. Colbert said to Carell, "You don't know shit about fuck."

(ok, it was funnier in context/with Colbert's delivery)

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:23 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And the improv sets were always killer. First SC I went to, the cast included Richard Kind, Bonnie Hunt, and Dan Castellenata. During the shout-out-a-topic part of the improv, someone yelled "bracket creep!" No one knew what the fuck that was, but apparently it was some income tax term. So Hunt comes out and says, "'Bracket Creep' was the nickname my classmates gave me in middle school for my excessive use of parentheses..."

(again, much funnier in person)

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:26 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Am I witnessing something here?

I saw Tim Meadows and Chris Farley at Second City Chicago and they were nuclear-bomb funny, to the point where I made a point of remembering their names so I could follow their careers.

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Tuesday, February 17, 2015 5:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me too (saw them/made a point of remembering their names)! They did a hilarious Wrigley Field security guards sketch, the details of which I've forgotten, but it killed.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, February 17, 2015 6:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is on youtube btw:

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

i was dragged to 2nd city shows three times in the mid-late 1990s and i found them almost completely unfunny :(

That Second City clip a good example of how bad improv can be when there's one guy not pulling his own weight.

Here's another one, from Best of Show. From the DVD commentary, apparently "Jack" was some local who got his one shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiHtd8S_3I4

Norm MacDonald's Twitter breakdown of how last week unfolded is quite something:

http://mashable.com/2015/02/18/norm-macdonald-eddie-murphy-twitter/

ha, that's great!

Norm is the classiest act on twitter.

He should take over prairie home companion

Ha, love this:

We see Eddie from 100 yards away. Rock says, "There he is. Like Ali in Zaire." Eddie, Bomaye.

the teenage whiney still has a serious soft spot for final-season Farley where he was just screaming in front of Janeane Garafalo in every sketch.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bill-cosby-scandal/bill-cosby-i-applaud-eddie-murphy-refusing-play-me-snl40-n308861

"I never said no filth flarn filth! I don't know what you're talking about! I'm offended that you called! Fuck you!"

take part in a lame bill cosby joke or have it reported you didn't and get a thank you from bill cosby. that's some serious "damned if you do, damned if you don't"

it probly would've been the last time EM did a TV sketch ever, so opting out entirely defensible

read the whole Macdonald thing, and my not-high opinion of him dove further.

MacDonald or Murphy?

Norm

(u know, the guy who called Michael Jackson a "homosexual child molester" on WU once)

EM staying away from SNL for 20 years bcz David Spade called him "a falling star" is multileveled hilarity.

I just noticed this in the 25th season wiki entry. Anyone know if this contract is still used?

In July 1999, when executive producer Lorne Michaels held auditions for the season, NBC introduced a new contract for first-year cast members, replacing the five- or six-year deals they had used in the past.[1] The terms were established by NBC executives Scott Sassa and Garth Ancier. According to Peter Bogdanovich, the new contract came with the following terms:[1]

NBC can take a Saturday Night Live cast member off the show any time after his or her second year on the program and put him or her in an NBC sitcom.
A cast member has the option of saying no to the first two shows proposed by NBC, but must accept the third deal.
NBC dictates the length of the sitcom contract, which can run as long as six years.
SNL Films, co-owned by Paramount Pictures, NBC and Lorne Michaels, has a three-movie option that would pay the star a set $75,000 for the first film, $150,000 for the second and $300,000 for the third, rates that used to be negotiable.
NBC has the option of paying those same amount to force a cast member to say no to a film deal offered to them by another studio.

The starting salary remained $5,000 per episode.[1]

A cast member has the option of saying no to the first two shows proposed by NBC, but must accept the third deal.

This is some Lady or the Tiger doomladen shit

Norm's the funniest standup comic alive and it's not even close

i saw him perform in LA 18 months ago and he wasn't the funniest on the bill

(certainly funnier than he was on SNL, but that's a low bar)

stand-up isn't really Norm's strong suit, I would agree that he's the funniest guy alive who does standup though

I'd totally forgotten until I saw his name in the credits recently that, while he was on SNL, he was also writing for Roseanne during that show's heyday.

so Norm's strong suit is talk-show guest or tweeter, then?

Don't forget 'roaster'.

a talented, nice — talk show guest.

"Sports Show" was pretty great

Sports Show was good. His Safe Auto insurance commercials are/were dumb.

Morbs please: Norm's "homosexual child molester" joke was a spokesman for MJ explaining the separation from Lisa Marie Presley on account of their moving in different directions: "She's more of a stay-at-home mom, and he's a homosexual child molester."

Nothing about the joke suggests a link between homosexuality and child molestation. It's funny because LMP is not a man or a child.

But if you find a comic unlikeable it doesn't matter. I laugh just watching NM chew gum.

I was never a huge Norm fan, but he was probably the funniest guest I've ever seen on The Daily Show. It couldn't have been more than a week after the Crocodile Hunter guy died, and Norm riffed on him for maybe five solid minutes ("He was 44 years old; that's a ripe old age for a crocodile hunter!") I swear Stewart was weeping with laughter.

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

I was a big Norm fan before he got the SNL gig. Strangly people I talk to irl all seem to think his WU was the show's nadir, or perhaps a notch above Colin Quinn.

That's because his Weekend Update was terrible and only slightly better than Colin Quinn. I never saw Rocket so I can't compare to his tenure but I liked every other WU anchor I've seen more, including Brad Hall and Kevin Nealon.

i love norm. every time he speaks i laugh. and his burt reynolds is hilarious too.

Prefer norm WU to Quinn and nealon for having a strong comic persona but compared to a lot of others his WU was pretty monotonous. Part of why he's so good at mocking letterman and Reynolds' indifferent reliance in shtick is cuz he relates

Colin Quinn is one of the worst comedians I've ever seen, not because he has no jokes but because he seems to be physically incapable of delivering them.

^^^^