The Saturday Night Live (SNL) 2009-2010 Season thread*

If you're counting that then you gotta give Justin Timberlake credit for "D*** in a Box".

 

When Will Forte started he was my favorite cast member. That Tim Calhoun sketch and The Falconer were hilarious. However, I have to agree with you as of late. the McGruber sketch was funny the first time, and maybe the time Richard Anderson appeared, but the rest are an excuse to go the bathroom. The singing on Weekend Update is just annoying.

 

Thre is a MacGruber film coming out later this month......maybe they brought the sketch back to highlight that.

Evan

 

MacGruber is on EVERY episode nowadays.

 

Finally watched the Betty White episode last night. I thought she did a great job...

I'm looking forward to the MacGruber movie....

 

I don't this it was meant as an exhaustive list, rather just a starting point for others to amend. I don't see Springsteen's 3 songs from 1992 on there either ("Lucky Town", "57 Channels", "Living Proof"). Dylan did 3 in 1979 as well ("Gotta Server Somebody", "I Believe in You", "When You Gonna Wake Up").

You'd probably have to go through all of the episodes on this website if you want to find them all: http://snlarc.jt.org/

 

Forte still cracks me up, and I think he did the best post-Ferrell Bush as well!

dan c

 

I'd be for that.

I must be one of the few, but I don't see what the big deal was about Betty White. I thought the show was mediocre. It's like everyone is excited just because an old person hosted the show.

 

I think everyone was excited because they were going to have a host who has a 50-year stretch of comedy street cred, who actually can act, remember lines, make people laugh and interact naturally with the cast. The fact that she is 88 years old and still has "it" makes the event that much more impressive. God bless her, say I!

 

That wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. And I think they need to have more comedians (not repeat comedians) host the show to shake things up a bit. Baldwin was just great his 1st 2 times, but now he’s old hat.

 

Karen Black has hosted twice.

 

Her "comedy" seems limited to it being funny to make a sweet looking elderly person say naughty words.

 

Third times the charm!

 

So "Schwetty Balls" or "D*ck in a Box" wouldn't have been funny if delivered by Ernest Borgnine or Lauren Bacall? Saying "naughty words" has been SNL's raison d'etre since the beginning. The reason this last show was good is because the writing, performances and casting was better than anything the show has done in years. The addition of the show veterans really helped to make it special imo.

 

While I enjoyed the show, I didn't feel like it was really any different from any other recent episode of the show (aside from the lady cast member guests). I like Amy Poehler's tomboy skit. But what did they do this week that was so much better than any other week?

Lawrence Welk? Same skit, different host.
Manuel Ortiz show? Same skit, different host.
Scared Straight? Same skit, different host.
Delicious Dish? Nice to have the girls back, but same skit, different host.
MacGrubber? Same skit, different host, and really getting tiresome (although I hear the movie is getting decent reviews!).

It's business as usual, though. That's what they do now. 50% of every show is rehashed material. Next week they'll recycle another "What's Up With That", "Don't Make Me Sing" and "Twinkle & Stink" bit and milk 'em one more time. Maybe more "hilarious" and "shocking" man-on-man kissing or people spitting food into each others mouths.

I enjoyed the news segment, loved Whitney Houston and good to see Sally O'Malley.

I thought the Census Taker bit was strongest of the show, actually being somewhat clever instead of just redoing old skits or simply *gasp* making Betty same something off-color.

I liked the show. I had a good time watching it. But I don't think they knocked it out of the park by any means. I'd call it "better than average", which isn't really saying all that much these days.

 

In my opinion, it's not that it isn't funny, but it's a lot easier to elicit laughs by saying shocking things, impersonating celebrities and general low brow humor, which is a lot of what SNL does. It's like the "man gets hit in the groin" routine. Yeah it's funny and it always will be, but anybody can do that.

I think it was Jerry Seinfeld who made a comment about trying to do a comedy routine without using curse words, which I think his classic material (pre-2000) did. It's not easy, and few people do it, but the end product to me is more satisfying.

 

FTR, the parts you did like were also rehash. WU is a permanent skit, Census Taker was a re-do of a 10 yr old skit by Fey (see earlier post by others) and Whitney and O’Malley were obviously the same impersonations they had each done a least a dozen times before.

But this is nothing new for SNL since the beginning.

 

I know.

 

Two words: Bill Cosby. He never stoops, and never has had to.

 

The rehash I was looking forward to was Bronx Beat. I could have sworn that Maya Rudolph said (when she was on Fallon last week) that she and Amy were going to do that skit. I guess it got cut.

A new "Wake Up, Wakefield" might have been funny.

 

It did. Watch it here.

 

I like old Carlin and Carlin/Burns recordings too. Of course, I think GC is just as funny in his later phases, but in a different way.

 

My man Jim Breuer has a relatively clean family-oriented act these days. He's a very funny guy.

 

Haven't had the time until now to post about it myself.....thought it was VERY lackluster.....kinda like they put all their end-of-season "mojo" into the Betty White episode.

HOWEVER...I will say that the GARTH & KAT/WEEKEND UPDATE sketch had me on the floor. Nice to see some legit classic improv going on.