Saturday Night Live (SNL) 2020-2021 46th Season Thread

They have absolutely beaten that concept to death. Why won't it die ?

D.D.

 

People complain that SNL relies too much on played-out skits and framing devices like the game show parodies, celebrity talk shows, an awkward gathering in someone’s living room, etc. but when Yang does something truly fresh, original, and funny, that’s no good, either? Wake me up when people come up with a consistent critique of this show.

 

This sketch was truly fresh original and funny? Wake me up when that’s actually true.

 

The rest of the world saw the same tour de force I saw:

'SNL': Bowen Yang’s Sketch as the Iceberg That Sunk the Titanic Steals the Show | THR News | Billboard

Bowen Yang Is the Iceberg Who Sank the Titanic But He’s So Much More Than That

Bowen Yang’s 'SNL' Iceberg Is the Most Refreshing Weekend Update Guest Since Stefon

 

The iceberg skit left me cold.

Wake me up before you guys wake each other up.

 

2 More SNL Hosts in May 2021:

NBC confirmed via press release and Twitter tweeted to book 2 More SNL Hosts and Musical Guests in the month of May 2021. Here's the confirmation:

May 8, 2021: Alec Baldwin/Greta Van Fleet
May 15, 2021: Scarlett Johansson/Weezer

NBC confirmed that the first male host for Mother's Day episode since Season 37 and the first female host for season finale since Season 43. NBC informed Lorne Michaels and NBC stopped the presses for the 2 confirmed Saturday Night Live on May 8 and May 15, 2021. The rest of the Season 46 episodes was confirmed on NBC on April 14, 2021. Confirmed by the Associated Press.

 

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.

 

Complaining about SNL has been going on since the original cast left. It goes with the territory, like complaining about your favorite sports team. The problem is the show is held as some type of edgy gold standard in comedy but it's gotten as corny as The Carol Burnett Show. I do like that they have a more diverse cast that has certainly opened up a lot more comedic possibilities. I think Bowen Yang is a solid cast member and glad he is getting more time.

 

I'm sure we all complained about "SNL" as going downhill after Chevy left!

To be fair, the show did decline in S5 after Belushi and Aykroyd left. Not as big a drop as we'd see in S6, of course, but S5 took a turn...

 

And then Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo came along and made the show funny again. Like any other long-running show, SNL has had its ups and downs, but always bounces back.

 

Agree. Actually, I always feel surprised to realize how soon Murphy helped rescue "SNL".

I think of S6 as a wasteland - heck, back then people seriously argued the awful "Fridays" was better! - but that's the season he debuted, and he made a pretty big impact quickly.

I think the Eddie years were much less consistent than the Original Cast(ish) years, but he definitely kept the show afloat.

Piscopo? Decent talent, though I think he glided on Eddie's coattails. Joe had his moments but he wasn't that interesting in his own right.

Murphy is arguably the greatest talent the show ever produced. No other single cast member carried "SNL" like he did!

 

I wonder what public figure Baldwin will play in the opening sketch of his episode.....

ScarJo is obviously married to Colin Jost, so that was an easy booking. I think they do the Update desk bit where they read each others jokes on the final episode.

Has anyone here seen all 905 episodes?

 

Framing devices-starting points for a skit. These mirror things the general public knows. Pretty much used for decades,maybe centuries. Fibber Mcgee & Molly lasted for decades with listeners still waiting for Fibber opening a closet. Gleason & Joe the Bartender-when will Crazy show up? Fred Allen talks to Senator Claghorn. A surprise but known voice in a Goon Show-the audience cheers in anticipation/Two people entering a restaurant. Do they know each other? First date? blind date? Married couple? A third person enters-waitstaff,maitre d', friend to one or both,an unknown to everyone,including those on stage.

 

Arguably. If someone is "carrying" the troupe,it says lots for the troupe.

 

This is fake and dumb, but "NBC informed Lorne Michaels and NBC stopped the presses for the 2 confirmed Saturday Night Live on May 8 and May 15, 2021" is a great sentence.

 

I am waiting for someone to thoughtfully analyze Kid Cudi’s performance - especially the second one.

 

My analysis is that it was awful.

 

Sure - logically if one castmember dominates like Eddie did during his run, the rest of the group must lack greatness.

A look at Season 7's cast reveals a lot of good but not remarkable performers:

• Robin Duke
• Christine Ebersole
• Mary Gross
• Tim Kazurinsky
• Eddie Murphy
• Joe Piscopo
• Tony Rosato

Piscopo became a star - though I'll always believe he was lifted by the Murphy association and would've been a low-tier castmember in a different era - but the rest were role players.

You have 2 performers who were essentially brief substitutes on "SCTV" and others who never showed "star power".

Ebersole was miscast and never fit the "SNL" frame at all.

The others all were perfectly positive performers but without much charisma.

Maybe the producers designed the S7 cast this way. Maybe they knew Eddie would dominate and figured the show would work best if the rest of the cast did little more than complement him.

Changes for S8:

• Robin Duke
• Mary Gross
• Brad Hall
• Tim Kazurinsky
• Gary Kroeger
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus
• Joe Piscopo

Rosato and Ebersole gone, Hall, Kroeger and Louis-Dreyfus added.

3 more role players. Of course, the brilliance of JLD would emerge about a decade later, but on "SNL", she never was memorable, and neither Hall nor Kroeger ever did anything to stand out.

So still the Eddie Show, which it remained for S9, though Murphy left a little before the end of the season.

Of course, S10 underwent major changes as "SNL" brought in Chris Guest, Billy Crystal, Martin Short and Harry Shearer, all to try to compensate for the loss of Eddie!

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I think the fact that Murphy was such a brilliant, different and unique talent made it nearly impossible for others to break out. I like that cast overall, but I agree that Piscopo was elevated by Murphy’s coattails. Murphy was a good team player though in spite of his confidence and brashness. Rewatching a number of the bits where he played support, it’s obvious he’s not detailing or upstaging the cast.

dan c

 

I agree that Murphy's singular talent made it difficult for anyone else to stand out.

My thought became whether or not the producers intentionally surrounded him with "lesser lights" for a couple years because of that.

I mean, look at the S7-S9 casts! There was no one involved in there other than Piscopo who had any potential "star appeal" - not in the context of the show, at least.

As noted, JLD obviously was a massive talent, but not necessarily one suited for "SNL".

Or maybe she just wasn't ready at that time of her life - after all, she was only 21 when she joined the cast.

Sure, Murphy was even younger, but he was a more developed talent at that point. You could easily argue Murphy peaked as a comedic talent by the time he was 23!

 

Yeah,seems logical that NBC would want lesser talents for the cashcow that was SNL. Cheap to produce,lots of free press before and after episodes(remember:negative press is still press),while the network looked hip to the youngins' for at least 90 minutes.

 

I always liked Tim K. as a strong character actor and always a reliable support actor, but yeah, no breakthrough star potential.

 

I guess you're being sarcastic. If so, I think you misunderstood what I said.

When I called the Murphy-era castmembers "lesser lights", I didn't mean untalented.

I meant performers who simply lacked the potential breakout star appeal of the most famous "SNL" actors.

Beyond Piscopo, none of the others who appeared in Murphy's term had obvious room to become stars on the level of Murphy or Murray or Chase or Ferrell, and so on.

As I noted, JLD became a star later, but not in the same way as the biggest ex-"SNL" castmembers - and she was never able to headline big movies like the others did.

Again, I have no idea if the cast choices of the Murphy years actively sought "able support" over "breakout star potential". I just thought of that as a possibility...

 

Those casts had talent - undeniably.

But there've always been a lot of castmembers who're great for the show but who will never become more than supporting actors in movies.

Even the great Phil Hartman lacked the "something particular" to become an "A-list" actor. Hartman was terrific at what he did, but he was never going to join Murphy and Murray and Belushi as actors who could headline major hits.

Looking at those Murphy-era casts, it's simply really tough to identify anyone other than Piscopo who had that potential...

 

May 8: Elon Musk / Miley Cyrus

https://twitter.com/nbcsnl/status/1386033593772826624