If Lizzo is intelligent and very talented I'm gonna need to see an example of it. SNL was all hypey with an audience that laughed uproariously at everything. It seems the new artist is all about their journey to fame and awesomeness of themselves. These are not deep sources and makes for a lot of flash and samey music and vibe. SNL needs a music director with taste. This season has been endless divas surrounded by dancers. Boring stuff after the 10th example.
It's not that important today to actually have talent, but it is VITAL to BELIEVE you are WONDERFUL by just being YOU. The cash will soon follow.
Well, topical humor is not ageless. The humor is derived from knowledge of the people/events which are being referenced. Removed from context (and knowledge of said references) it's generally not inherently funny. There's certainly nothing wrong with topical humor though. Done well, it can be quite hilarious. But if the references are outdated, you substantially narrow the percentage of audience that might get the joke, and you look kind of pathetic... stuck in the past. That said, I did find it personally amusing that the show's outdated topical references were still too recent for me to get, since my awareness of popular culture dips significantly around the turn of the century.
Yup...that's what drove me from being a huge Simpsons fan from day one and bailing at around season 7. I got married, had kids and stopped with taking things in that would keep me informed enough to get the pop culture jokes that Simpsons are all about. So, really not on the writers but if you aren't aware of what's going on around you, you probably won't get the jokes either. I guess I figure it's more my fault I don't find SNL the least bit funny any more, aside from the occasional skit. I agree there is nothing wrong with topical humor, but the viewer that isn't aware of it is better served seeking another form of comedy.
If you don't have a Six Flags near you I would get why you wouldn't have seen those commercials but if you did live near one those commercials were everywhere for about 10-15 years from the late 90's-on. Hard to miss.
No doubt many of us are guilty of this "Food and YouTube" in this cut for time sketch with Chris and Bowen.Every week some of these cut for time sketches are better than many that aired.I was almost expecting them to be watching a clip with Justin,Andy and a box
With good performances, I think topical humor can hold up even when the references fade. There are comedies from the 1930s-40s where I don't get all the references but they're still funny. Or stuff like "SCTV". While not as focused on current events as "SNL", it had plenty of material based on then-current events or pop culture people/material. I think that stuff holds up. Granted, I'm old enough that I still get most of the references, but some have faded enough that I've forgotten the inspirations. The performances still make them work!
Yeah, I don't love Lizzo, but I liked "Juice" enough to get her last album. Only a handful of tracks on it I like, but that's more than I can say for most contemporary artists!
I agree but it has to work on 2 levels. For those that get the references and those that don't get them.
I thought the latest episode was a big step up from the last few weeks. No ‘mind blowing’ skits but the overall quality was quite high. Very much enjoyed Lizzo as host and in the skits. Chris Redd really seems to be upping his game lately, and the James Austin Johnson Trump impressions are so good it’s scary.
Well, in those cases I'd argue that the humor is a mixture of topical and non-topical, and it's the latter that's making you laugh. The Six Flags Guy sketch is an example. The humor (if one thinks it's funny) is partly derived from an absurd situation: a woman whose relatives (male and female) are bizarre little dancing old men, and the fact that she finds nothing unusual about this. It's also derived from the topical reference, the fact that the bizarre dancing men look and act like the Six Flags mascot. Theoretically, one could find the absurd situation funny without knowing the topical reference, but in that case you're not laughing at the topical humor. If a joke is 100% topical (like say, a Weekend Update joke about a current event) then it's not going to hold up if you aren't familiar with the event in question.
People, SNL is basically a current events show. If you’re not up on current events, trends, sayings, music, etc, that’s not on them. I you don’t get a joke, that does not mean it’s not funny.
I missed some sketches when I posted about it earlier (since most of it I viewed on yt later, only caught 1 when show aired). I'd mainly focused on leaving favorable impressions of Lizzo, both as host & musical guest & rest is in my original post. Further... Thought it was a solid Cold Open, though, for me, Bowen Yang's best left to smaller doses.. Favorite bits of C.O.: Kyle Mooney as Jared Leto, Chris Redd as NYC Mayor Eric Adams & Chloe Fineman as Britney Spears. Beanie Babies - Ridiculous amount of breaking. Otherwise, a good sketch. w/preposterous funny premise; a usual strong point. I don't care for that going overboard w/the breaking; usually the skits don't merit the exagerrated amount of laughter they're either authentically giving, or otherwise portraying in order to garner a mind-trick to induce laughter from the studio audience & viewers at home into thinking it's funnier than it is. - Hear someone laughing = laugh. - As they frequently do, they overplay the hand. But, as I've posted at least several xs, I take into account SNL's targeted audience (which isn't me) & whatever they may have imbibed, or ingested, before or during viewing & so they'd far more likely be more prone to find anything uproriously funny, esp. w/the laughter-triggering effect. Throne Room =-Meh. Black Eyed Peas sketch = Very Funny! (If ond didn't get the humor, must not have ever turned a radio or tv on in the early 21st century - didn't require having been of an age to be out clubbing in order to get it, just some awareness of popular culture at, or of, the time. If getting it, one still didn't appreciate it, then that's something else again.) All members in that sketch cracked me up, particularly Kenan & Chris. For me, best of a good episode! Might've been bumped to great, if I'd found W/E Update to be @ their usual standard. but, that's okay, it was mostly entertaining & amusing. In addition to Lizzo, Chris Redd brought A-game & Kenan again proves he's a cast member who can be counted on to be entertaining.
In Arizona there are no Six Flags Amusement Parks. However, several years ago Six Flags bought an existing water park and added to it etc. making it their own. I do not recall ever seeing those commercials in AZ. So I also looked the commercials up. Not bad, they are pretty funny. I liked the skit, but wasn't expecting to do "research" ha ha. I wonder what goes through the minds of the writers when they decide to run with a concept like that.
Y'know they could pull the ole switcheroo and replacing Trump with Johnson for a bit... Who would know the difference? His appearances are a master class in impersonation. It makes Baldwin's look like amateur hour.
Apples/oranges, IMO. AB tried more to do a cartoon caricature, whereas JAJ attempts more of a formal impersonation. I wasn't wild about AB's Trump, but I don't think he really shot for a dead-on impersonation...
Well, the reason the issue of topical humor was first brought up is because a couple of sketches were based on pop culture references that are outdated, namely a 13-year-old hit song and an amusement park mascot character who hasn't been used since the 00s. Those aren't current events, they are nostalgia.
Nostalgia: honoring it, satirizing it or doing both at the same time has long been an SNL staple. The Black-Eyed Peas skit seemed to be in same lineage as the More Cowbell skit (going back in time in the studio for the recording of a hit song as a premise) and More Cowbell went back even farther (20 years) for Reaper.
That is great! Love Chris Redd!! They should make Lizzo as the Algorithm a character that pops up randomly from time to time in video segments. She was really good in her skits I thought. This one shouldn't have been cut.
