I know little about her - I don't watch "SNL" beyond clips that show up online, and she's new, obviously. But man... that segment gives off massive McCarthy vibes, and not just due to the physical resemblance.
Speaking of "applause", is or has canned laughter been used on the show? Normally I don't notice, but some of the "dud" jokes seemed to get a lot of laughter/applause.
They’ve had people who they’ve kept on who haven’t checked any “boxes” who were no more interesting. What boxes did Kyle Mooney check?
I know who McCarthy is, but I don't think I've seen anything she's been in, so I'm not familiar with her style or able to comment on any perceived similarity. Regardless, that bit with Molly Kearney was a damn funny piece of work.
How would that work during a live show? By the time a laugh was deemed tepid, it would be too late to sweeten it.
Too many cast members. Humor is often painful to watch. Musical guests awful. Will not watch any more.
After the opening weeks trainwreck and probably the most boring opening monologue this turned into a pretty solid episode. With Kyle Mooney gone, so are the weekly music videos, oh well...
Thought Sherman's eye sketch went nowhere. Best parts of the show were the new cast taped bit and Mikey Day trying not to break in the Try Guy and Gash sketches.
I finished watching the show, wow that was rancid. I will always root for SNL And I expect it will improve over time but right now the show is like sub Mad TV. Sticking googly eyes on someone’s face is a sketch now? It’s a prop gag, same as the blood squirting out of the hand in the other sketch. Even Update has been bad this year. Totally agree on the Melissa McCarthy vibe in that Cast Member advice piece, except she would have been funny. That bit went on for too long and had no legs. And that “musical” guest Willow was like a D grade metal act from 1989. For me, one of the worst shows of the past 20 years of SNL. Last year was about 1000 times better than this cast/season so far. Yikes!
You never even saw her on "SNL" guest spots? Ehh, it seemed like a one-joke bit that got beaten to death. The whole "Lorne wants me to kill Putin" thing was mildly amusing once but then got driven into the ground. The other castmembers had similar one-joke themes done over and over too.
They could uniformly add laughs no matter what. But I don't think that's the case. I think the audiences are just PRIMED TO LAUGH!!! and they'll often laugh at sketches that aren't that funny just because it's their "job".
Sarah Sherman may be the cast member I was most wrong about. When she first arrived I didn’t think anything of her. But wow, my opinion has completely changed. Everything she does is maybe the most memorable part of the show for me.
Nope. I stopped watching SNL around 2005, a couple years after my daughter was born. When she started watching the show herself about three years ago, she got me back into it. So there's a gap there for me. There's a difference between a sketch that takes a premise and just repeats it over and over without any variation (like that awful "Six Flags Guy" sketch last year) and a sketch that takes a premise and repeats it while expanding upon it in different ways, ultimately building to a conclusion (like say, Monty Python's Self Defence sketch). I think the New Cast Members thing fits more into the latter category (and no, I'm not saying it's comparable in quality/humor to Python). But if you didn't find it that funny, I can't argue with that.
She has some talent and a diverse voice. I like this one a lot more than the first one. She mixed in a few genres here. Good, hard rockin' number.
I haven't loved EVERYTHING that she's done thus far, but man does she COMMIT! I mean, could she even SEE out of those googly-eyes? Logic says no. She may have done the entire sketch blind.
Couple of points here: 1) these skits were almost 50 years ago (and not from the same show) 2) they were actually funny. If you're going to cop an idea that's 50 years old, at least expand on it, make it your own, and most importantly, make it funny. Ackroyd's bit was funny because his impression of Julia Child elevated the sketch beyond a prop gag. And the Wide Family bit was funny because the performers were actually super talented physical comedians (Gilda? Danny? Jane? even Elliot Gould!)- they weren't just sitting there. I've been watching the show since the first episode (I was 10 years old). That's enough time to know the difference between clever and stupid. The show this past weekend was dumb comedy. I am rooting for them to get better. Sarah Sherman has potential but she needs better writers.
I guess you didn't check out online clips? As I think I mentioned, that's been my main exposure to "SNL" for years - and how I saw McCarthy as Sean Spicer. Kinda surprised you've not seen any of MM's movies, too! It wasn't terrible, but I just thought it was a flimsy premise that didn't go anywhere. I admit my view of Molly Kearney as "Melissa McCarthy Lite" didn't help.
I thought that, too, about the recorded laughter. I noticed it last season & with this season, too. I thought I might have commented on it last season & why I didn't include it in my comments on the 1st episode of this season. I do think it can & is added as a (somewhat inane, to me) means of a bit of mind control hoping to fool an audience into believing something is funnier than it is. Since, generally speaking, a number of people are lemmings, if it works on 10, then that'll be 10 more & 10 more & so on & so forth. IDK how this would be done for the live audience, but do believe it's possible & feel it's absolutely used for the home viewership. Authentic laughter can often be contagious, but canned laughter has large potentital to be annoying. I see why they take that chance - lacking a strong sense of security that people will genuinely find the sketches funny... sad. @Oatsdad, When you said they're "primed" do you mean by a show-starter/warm-up person? If so, I get that, but the laughter sounds too tidy & neat for actual, real laughter.
I thought Molly Kearney was doing a Melissa McCarthy impersonation - of some of her movie characters, not Melissa herself, during that skit, but watched about a minute of a comedy routine of hers & apparently, that's how she's earning a living. Her schtick, or, she is actually like some of those characters? Hmmm.
