Saturday Night Live

I'm just glad every other sketch isn't in a talk show format anymore.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:42 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ this. i think for a while post-Wayne's World, they just decided that anytime someone had a vague character/accent/location in mind, they'd just make it a duo and give them a public access/local affiliate morning show.

they're better about just imitating actual ones these days

yeah, the 4th hour the Today Show is probably my favorite recurring sketch lately

all-time favorite: the one-off "Hulk Hogan Talk Show" sketch w/ Ferrell as a quiet thoughtful fill-in host for the Hulk

Fox and TNT/TBS are the worst offenders.

^ which is funny cuz I think it was the day immediately after that SNL that there was an identical Family Guy joke about Fox corner promos (the funniest being a show titled "Slowly Rotating Black Person")

(the best thing about the "slowly rotating" varietal is the part where the person passes dead center and has to re-cross his/her arms in the other direction in order to face the camera over the other shoulder)

Thanks for the believer link. I kind of admire the business soundness of this, but this quote from there kind of makes me hate SNL now:

"But SNL, and Lorne has said this, is designed to appeal just enough to everyone, so that the widest possible audience tunes in, each for the three or four bits they’ll like best. So the way they see it, you think they only score three points because of your taste in comedy. It’s kind of like if you liked everything, they’re not doing their job, because it means someone else—your polar opposite—must have hated everything, and won’t come back."

you hate your fellow man, don't you

It sure seems like Lorne does!

Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins let go: http://thecomicscomic.typepad.com/thecomicscomic/2009/09/addition-through-subtraction-snl-fires-michaela-watkins-and-casey-wilson.html

Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad have apparently been hired to fill the vacancies. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/new-saturday-night-live-hires-courtesy-of-upright-citizens-brigade/

biiiiitch pleeeeeeez

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9JIK7lI8Zj0/SeQlPGPt7HI/AAAAAAAAA7w/8yFMDSrYb7E/s400/tempura.png

― some dude, Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:03 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

My reasons for liking Casey were purely self-serving. I thought she was cute and liked seeing her every week. My reasons for liking Michaela, though, had more to do with the fact she's one of the most versatile players the show's had in many, many seasons (male OR female). Lorne has lost his damn mind (especially because Abby Elliott, who remains on the cast, has yet to make me laugh once).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/02/saturday-night-lives-olbe_n_140102.html

he should just hire Ben Affleck

Michaela Watkins was great! Bad decision, as much as I love Jenny Slate.

Watkins always reminded me of a lot of other Nora Dunn/Ana Gasteyer/Jan Hooks-type vaguely WASP-y female cast members who were good at playing uptight and/or older women, which I thought boded well for her future on SNL but I guess not.

She was great! I don't know why they fired her along with Casey Wilson, who deserved to be fired just for having a hand in writing Bride Wars.

that sucks. michaela watkins was awesome.

Also, no offense to Jenny Slate or Nasim Pedrad, but are we supposed to believe that there are absolutely no funny black women in the country right now? Keenan probably has a love/hate relationship with his job. He can't be fired, because he's the only black castmember. But he's probably tired of doing all the black guy sketches.

Even when they've had 2 black guys on the show, there's only been one person doing all the black guy sketches.

Actually, Jenny Slate caught the attention of Lorne Michaels with her one-woman-show Black People Are Never Funny.

Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins let go:

so, so wrong. i thought for sure abby elliot would get the ax.

call me naive but with the election of obama i think the climate might be right for black people to finally break into comedy

black people are socialists who want to kill your grandma

well duh

black people are socialists who want to kill your grandma

where my family comes from this has often been true!

it's a shame how all-or-nothing SNL casting seems to be these days, most cast members seem to either get fired in under 2 years, or get locked in for 6+ years

Darrell Hammond also may return in some capacity this season, even though it looked like the May finale was also going to be his. He told a local TV station in Rochester, N.Y., recently that he was in negotiations.

i can't even...think right now

would someone please put this guy out to pasture already?

i'm just not gonna comment, i guess he's my white whale and that's that
somehow i completely missed anything Michaela Watkins did last year

so, so wrong. i thought for sure abby elliot would get the ax.

really! she looks sort of like angelina jolie when they put lots of makeup and hair on her and that's about all she has going right now. she's total dead weight.

I am sick of this comedy world where Kenan Thompson is on national tv and Kel Mitchell continues to collect unemployment. I wonder if Lorne got the names confused, and is just too embarrassed to admit the mistake.

otm

Not too happy with Casey & Michaela going, although my guess is that Michaela maybe skewed older instead of younger and Casey never fit in. I feel a bit more upset about Casey because they rarely utilized her being the zany one, she was always playing the straight/bit part in the sketch. She needed to be let loose more, you could totally see how her overacting and overdoing all these pedestrian roles just so she could get noticed (her "backup singer" role in Ras Trent comes to mind).

lol "Ras Trent" just came up on shuffle in my iTunes...never noticed her in the sketch, though.

ras trent = mad underrated

ras trent that cracks me up is when he shuts up when passing the 'real' rastas.

yeah that is def the best part...tho iirc he's passing black ppl, not rastas?

it's inferred, shit still cracks me up.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/the_awful_truth/b143074_hey_saturday_night_live_sexist_much.html

I found Casey Wilson to be grating and unpleasant in every sketch she was in, but the producers are bunch of douchenozzles if this story is true.

i didn't realize someone named 'Nasim Pedrad' was a white chick

prodouchernozzles

always got the feeling Casey Wilson was not really being given a fair shot, for some reason...

There are plenty of examples of people who were funny before or after SNL but not funny on SNL. Casey could just be another one. I liked her thing on Funny or Die (or whatever) about reading comments about herself on the web.

Apparently Aubrey Plaza auditioned for SNL and did an imitation of Sarah Silverman? Clearly I think differently than Lorne Michaels because I'm pretty sure I would have hired her if she brought this to an audition, but whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Sa9hXA4mo

hahaha @ the halloween skull line

lol man that's killer

i can understand if mean otm impressions of contemporary comics probably aren't what SNL is looking for, but then i think sudeikis's ricky gervais is one of the funniest things from the past couple seasons.

casey was the cutest cast member by far wtf

casey was the cutest cast member by far wtf

Get in line, dude.

Also, Aubrey Plaza is my new favorite person. (gawd I hate Sarah Silverman SO MUCH!)