Saturday Night Live

Eh, RBG was like most of latter-day Kristen Wiig's characters - funny the first time, interminable by the 15th.

there were some good jokes in this week's rbg thing.

I did like it the first time.

Kate McKinnon seems super smart and seems like the obv. heir/anaolog to Kristen Wiig...but she always seems to stop short of disappearing into a character and just defaults to mugging?

McKinnon is warmer, sunnier, and way more engaging than Wiig.

When I complain about SNL taking one joke and flogging it to death, I am often thinking of Wiig characters like the horrid cashier or the "just kidding" lady or the singer who pretends a song is written and makes it up... plz god no. Funny once or twice; after a while I start fast forwarding.

I think Wiig is maybe my all-time fav snl cast member...along with Phil Hartman

the target lady wiig character, i never understoof. I figured it must appeal to some demographic.

not her best character, I didn't really get that either

Yerac have you lived in the upper Midwest?

^^^ There is a specific regional thing with that character that makes her super funny to me

I didn't have a problem with the character at first, it was just killed via repetition and that period where all of her "new" characters were basically variations on Target Lady and/or "just kidding" lady.

yeah i am from virginia although family is from michigan. I figured the target woman was just something I was missing for it to be so popular.

the best wiig character is that weird lady with the tiny doll hands

cecily and kenan both mostly absent this week.

xp dooneese!

Dooneese worked for me only in the context of the world of Lawrence Welk. (Which was enough, obv.)

Gilly is the Wiig character I can't stand. Horrible, even the first time.

I thought the online dating bit toward the end was good, great pacing and just the right length.

I didn't even realize they were doing this again this week until this morning. This week's was better, for the most part; they def ramped up the production quality a bit

Anthony Fauci was funny on CNN yesterday, though, when someone asked him who he wanted to play him if he turned up in a sketch. First he laughed it off--you could tell he hadn't watched the show since 1975--then, when given a choice between Ben Stiller and Brad Pitt, he said, without any hesitation, Pitt.
― clemenza, Saturday, April 11, 2020 10:14 AM

He got his wish. People have been reposting the opening from last night, so that's all I've seen. Pitt was pretty good--even had some of Fauci's mannerisms.

there's a segment with aidy bryant going through what I'm confident are her real childhood journals that is priceless.

nothing can kill this fucking zombie show

you could... not watch it? Not post about it? I dunno. Seems like there are a bunch of options.

As I pointed out long ago, SNL is no more likely to go away than NBC's Today show or Tonight show. All three enjoy low production costs, respectable audience numbers that bring in decent ad revenues, and there are no better options to fill those time slots.

snl @ home >>> reg snl

Sketch on last week’s ep with Paul Rudd and Heidi Gardner (had to google her tbh) as re-connecting cousins kinda killed me. Like super whatever concept, but A+ performance on her part.

Saw a clip of the opening. "This virus, that remember, was started in a lab in Obama" made me laugh.

only here to see who shows up with the energy to shit on a show that they don't watch.

I'll probably watch it first

not as good as the second @ home episode, but it was ok. Surprisingly one of the best Baldwin as Trump opens. the Aidy Bryant bit with the terrifying computer generated party was the highlight; generally speaking I like it when they just get fucking weird like this, it was like a Mulaney sketch. Worst bits were that stupid Kyle Mooney thing that went on forever, and Weekend Update was worse with the enhanced graphics and backgrounds. Nice Tina Fey bit though. The final 'dreams' sequence was great. I can do without ever seeing another sketch about muting on Zoom calls.

kyle mooney has a very dirty kitchen.

can you imagine what his fucking shower drain looks like?

one of the perverse pleasures of these has been seeing what everyone's homes look like. I'm assuming everyone with a big house lives outside of NY. Kate McKinnon appears to live in a studio apartment.

The shots out Ego Nwodim's windows looked like NYC. It baffled me that Kyle Mooney couldn't even be bothered to clean up a little bit before his video. His skit started out an appreciated kind of weird, but def dragged way too long.

Nice to see a can of Pipeworks' Lizard King made it into the "Let Kids Drink" sketch.

This was hilarious imo

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

Surprisingly one of the best Baldwin as Trump opens.

Yeah--I thought I'd hit the wall with Baldwin about 10 Trump sketches ago, but this one was good. Besides the line I quoted above, "valedictator" was good.

'Let Kids Drink' was great and funny. But Kate McKinnon's lighthouse keeper was not a keeper. By the end I felt something like pity for her.

LOL

Yeah, that one went nowhere.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/arts/television/lorne-michaels-saturday-night-live-chris-rock.html

I am so ready for laffs, go get ‘em Comcast and edgelord Lorne Michaels!

I hope they do some skits recreating different congressional hearings and one of them ends with like a song or something lol

Jim Carrey is great as Biden, but the cold open was predictably awful otherwise and was it just me or did the timing and direction of the entire episode seem really awful and stilted (more so than usual)? people looking into the wrong camera; pauses between dialogue for no reason. Weekend Update was good and everything else was crap except Meg

The aspects that make SNL unique are the same elements of self-sabotage that bring it down week after week. If its scripts were not cobbled together under duress and the skits pre-recorded - you know, like regular TV - I bet it would be more consistently funny, given the biggest laughs it often gets in recent years (besides pre-recorded bits) typically come when the actors break or otherwise screw up.

Carrey using the "smile learned in anger management" was twisting that smile such that you forget it is him playing the character. It's kinda wild seeing him in his 50s kind of getting into that Fire Marshall Bill character, which seems to me he was kinda channeling a bit within Biden sketch.

Man rough ep so far (32 minutes in)

Oof it was bad

liver-spots makeup on Carrey's Biden was great

otherwise, otm

Carrey’s Biden is way too over the top, and the script writers try to both sides he and Trump but it ends up being a false equivalency

they haven't figured out how to make fun of him yet. I feel like making him the oatmeal grandpa might work. but not until this fucking election is over

I'm someone who is generally more forgiving of this show than others, but the last two episodes have been stunningly awful. Just abysmal. This weekend's was slightly better, I liked the pay off of the Chicago politicians and Issa Rae's charm was so much better than Burr. But still rough. The 5-hour Empathy set-up was completely wasted.

Also, Rae's monologue joke about being the first black host of SNL would have landed much better if Chris Rock hadn't just hosted... two weeks ago.