Saturday Night Live (SNL) 2015-2016 Season thread

SNL's 41st season begins October 3. The hosts — but not the musical guests — have been announced for the first three episodes:

10/3: Miley Cyrus
10/10: Amy Schumer
10/17: Tracy Morgan

Obviously the most significant news here is that Tracy Morgan's health has apparently improved enough for him to return to performing.

Very little has been revealed about the new season's cast. There is no reason to believe that a major shakeup is in the works, but at this point only Kenan Thompson has been confirmed as returning. No one is known to be leaving.

 

I will definitely be skipping the first show.

 

Some seasons of SNL suffer from a lackluster cast, and other seasons suffer from a lackluster writing staff. Great seasons happen when the cast and writing staff are both on fire.

SNL had its largest overhaul in cast members in ten years during Season 39 (2013-2014). Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis had left before that season, and Seth Meyers was one foot out the door for his Late Night gig. SNL made some cast refinements for Season 40, so the cast leading into this new Season 41 is more seasoned and fine-tuned than prior two years. However, this cast doesn't yet have a break-out star, and Colin Jost and Michael Che get their share of criticism for Weekend Update.

There were also some big changes in the writing staff over the past two years, but it's hard for outsiders to figure out what's happening in the writers' room.

I think that many of the cable sketch comedy shows, like Key & Peele and Inside Amy Schumer, have taken away some of SNL's thunder in sketch comedy. However, SNL's strength was taking risks on doing very topical, this-week's-news bits, which those cable sketch comedy shows do not do. We can probably expect a lot of political bits this season, given the presidential race. With Jon Stewart leaving the Daily Show -- which many people thought hurt the relevance of Weekend Update -- will be interesting to see if Weekend Update can recapture some its relevance.

 

Tracy Morgan? Awesome!

 

We watch each week..but unless its someone hosting whose work we enjoy, usually just watch in on the DVR the next day. You can usually tell if the sketch is gonna be funny or not within the first 30 seconds so the fast forward button comes in handy.

 

Last season was pretty terrible -- ok, just terrible -- but I don't see anybody in the cast taking the fall for it... though it's possible they will go a different way with Weekend Update. But they will probably just be adding more people to try and get things going again.

The person I'd cut is Sasheer Zamata, who is not remotely funny, but after the brouhaha about not having any black women in the cast they can never fire her unless they find a replacement. (Yes, Leslie Jones is now in the cast but she can't exactly play Michelle Obama.)

 

...except that she *has* played Michelle Obama:

 

I think Sasheer Zamata has talent, but she's been written into sketches as the straight man, even in sketches where she's the main character. For example, when she's doing Scandal, the joke is Lena Dunham asking goofy questions about the mission. When she's doing Michelle Obama, the joke is usually goofy characters visiting the Obamas or Barack acting up.

It is the opposite of, say, Kristen Wiig, whose sketches usually featured her as the oddball character bulldozing into a straight situation and chewing the scenery. (BTW, I think Kate McKinnon is now taking over this role.)

Leslie Jones is loud and brash and makes a big imprint on every bit she is in (for better or worse). She seems to write her own material that pushes her out in front.

I DVR episodes, then check online during the week which sketches people are talking about as funny. Then I watch the musical acts and the sketches people have said were funny.

 

She has to either put material forward herself that features her as the funny one, or inspire the writers to write funny stuff for her. If a cast member isn't doing either of those things, they don't belong on the show, sad to say.

 

Bet we'll get a ton of cameos from previous cast members in this episode. Also won't be surprised to learn that Tina Fey returned for some uncredited writing.

 

The complaint that no one is writing for the new cast member is not new. Bill Murray had the same issues when he replaced Chevy Chase in Season 2. Damon Wayans and Chris Rock, too, to pick a couple black cast members. Chris Farley, on other hand, won over the writing staff so much they were basically all writing bits specifically for him.

 

My favorite sketch of Tracey is when he was on the Titanic and he used a dead white man boat to live

Astronaut jones is great too
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7a66m_astronaut-jones_fun

This is great too
https://screen.yahoo.com/weekend-maya-angelou-000000880.html

 

I think Sasheer does just fine in all the part she plays, though as Turnaround noted, she is usually cast as the "straight man" part. I really like the sketches where she has no idea her friend (Kyle Mooney) has the hots for her. I wouldn't like to see her go. Leslie Jones, on the other hand, is a one note bull in a china shop who does nothing but make me groan.

Really looking forward to the Amy Schumer episode!

 

One thing I sense about Sasheer is that she treats it as a plum acting role, and thus practices and memorizes her lines until she has them down cold. I don't think I've ever seen her miss a cue or stumble on a line. But I don't get the sense she has worked enough with the writers to find hilarious ways to spotlight her, so she may not have played the game in the proven manner to turn her into a breakout star on the show.

 

I didn't say it was new. However, successful SNL cast members like Farley come in, make an impression within their first few shows, and before you know it they're in every sketch -- Kate McKinnon being the most notable recent example. You only have the excuse of being the new cast member for one season at most. If things don't click by then, they probably aren't going to -- see all the new hires who didn't survive the 2014-2015 season. I think if Sasheer didn't have the "diversity hire" baggage, she would probably not be continuing based on how things went for her last season.

 

Yea, lets have more interchangeable white male actors because that is what works in SNL. Yawn.

I thought Sasheer was very funny with what lines she got and I'm looking forward to seeing more from her.

 

Sasheer is hot, I am glued to the tv in every sketch she is in

 

Did I say I only want white men on SNL? I just don't think she's making a mark as a cast member, beyond filling "pretty black woman" supporting roles.

 

At least, IMHO, Jones is a funny one-note bull in a china shop. And maybe Sasheer is only getting those "straight" parts because she hasn't demonstrated much capacity for doing more. I half-suspect she was hired partially as eye candy.

 

Saturday Night Live adds Jon Rudnitsky as cast member
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/31/saturday-night-live-jon-rudnitsky-season-41

A new face of funny has joined Saturday Night Live for the upcoming season.

Jon Rudnitsky will be a featured player in season 41.

The 25-year-old Rudnitsky, who began performing stand-up in high school, is a New York City resident and graduate of University of Southern California. Winner of the 2012 Laugh Factory’s Laugh Bowl college comedy competition, he was one of the New Faces of Comedy at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival last month.

SNL’s Season 41 premiere on Oct. 3 features Miley Cyrus as host.

 

Rudnitsky will be the only new cast member -- no other changes or departures.

http://deadline.com/2015/08/saturday-night-jon-rudnitsky-new-featured-player-2015-1201510559/

 

Last season was the best in years. It was so good the SNL thread on this forum was mostly ignored the last half of last season because no one comes on here to say how great anything is. If you do not believe me, go back to that thread and look at the lack of responses. Only the Reese Witherspoon episode could be classified as a dud. Most episodes featured some inspired original writing instead of previous seasons that relied on lame one note characters like Gilly or game show skits.

 

The musical guests have now been announced:

10/3: Miley Cyrus / Miley Cyrus (host and musical guest)
10/10: Amy Schumer / The Weeknd
10/17: Tracy Morgan / Demi Lovato