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

The guest speaker bit on Weekend Update has been there since the FIRST year.

It's being used a lot now new members to reprise a character they developed before joining.

An other times it's to be able to do a certain character without having to find a sketch for them.

EDIT:There's a Wikipedia page about it: Saturday Night Live characters appearing on Weekend Update - Wikipedia

Emily Litella, baba Wawa, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Father Guido Sarducci , Dr. Jack Badofsky , Chico Escuela, Buddy Young, Jr., Mr. Subliminal , Cajun Man , Opera Man, etc.

As Emily Litella once said:

 

Just about any gripe about present day SNL can be answered by “it’s always been like that.”

 

Let's try not to "agree with each other at the top of our lungs", okay?

Of course I'm aware WU has always had "guest characters". I was in college when it started.
You are also merely confirming a couple things I already pointed out about them, which you quoted.

Your using Emily Litella, or Roseanne Rosanadanna, or Baba Wawa, actually underscores the differences between what they were doing back then, and how far beyond it it has gotten today: the initial characters were either related to doing a newscast, or parodying a character who might have a reason to be on a newscast. So, that's not exactly the same as, "And now, here's a girl who's been a suspect on every Law & Order", or, "And now, here's a coked-out wife from another decade", or, "And now here's a flirtatious character This Year's Blonde Cast Member just does really well".

From my perspective, the only characters in recent memory relevant to actually being a parody character on a parody newscast segment, are those like "social events" correspondent Stefon, or Taran Killiam, reporting the news in vintage speak. Or, believe it or not, Adam Sandler's memorable "Opera Man". they at least had something to do with having a reason to comment on current events. Aidy as a junior hi character has done a few clever attempts at the same relevance.

 

Sooooo, if you're gonna go with that defense, then nothing can ever change, and no wonder no television program ever learned how to improve.

Personally, I blame it all around the supposition that it's great to be in New York City, hosting Saturday Night Live.

 

I’m not defending it — Lorne’s method of writing the show in a mad panic overnight results in a lot of disappointing, half-baked sketches. But it’s been that way for decades, it’s not anything new... and neither is an older generation not getting a younger generation’s sense of humour.

 

That's what I've concluded. I don't know who the hosts are, I don't know (or care) who the musical guests are, I don't think the sketches are funny but I hear people laughing. Maybe it's just time to pack it in and break out my SCTV dvd's and National Lampoon Radio Hour CD's and wallow in my obsolescence in grand style, with Flash Bazbo, Mr. Mike and Johnny LaRue. Consider me put out to pasture!

 

I've perhaps said this too many times before and in too many ways, but I think the main problem with the show is merely, it's more obsessed with what people think of it, than how well they produce it. And to them, building up this image of "legendary"-ness, and propping it up with the trappings of making things look and seem better than they are, is their stock in trade. Heaven forbid, a gag should bomb, and there wouldn't be a canned laugh to cover that up.

I'm not saying a network that has so much image and pride in what they do, doesn't deserve to benefit from that. It's just that, week-to-week, it always appears to even the most gullible audience member, there is an inconsistency in the satisfying ratio, of emperors to clothes.

To the point where, "it's always been like that", is not a very high standard to reach for.

 

Yes, exactly. The characters who appeared on Weekend Update originally were always people delivering some sort of editorial commentary on current events, sports, or society. At some point though they started doing bits that were simply "weird character shows up and the Weekend Update anchor interviews them," where there was no pretense that the person was a commentator or had any reason to be on a news show. I'm trying to think of the first time they did this. Looking over the chronological list of WU characters, I'm thinking maybe it was Sandler's Cajun Man character. As you noted, the use of this bit has gotten much more frequent in recent years, and very few recurring Update characters are commentators anymore.

 

Yeah, Timberlake is clearly a super-talented guy in a number of domains.

Kinda feels like his career has petered out a bit, though. I think his last album and tour weren't as successful as expected...

 

I had to look up Cajun Man, as I didn't remember him. I remember Sandler's Opera Man of course. The two Cajun Man sketches I found on youtube were him commenting on the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament and the upcoming election. So it seems they were using that character to riff on current events.

I honestly don't remember seeing this character.

 

My first memory of Sandler on "SNL" was as himself for Halloween. He gave kids cheap options for costumes:

 

I think it’s a great idea....when it works. Lots of reasons to do it. I think we agree with that. But if it isn’t funny why bother? Why do it just to do it? You reference some very big shoes to fill! If more of the recent characters were as good we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

 

Kinda agree, unfortunately. Especially with some people here defending it and finding it funny. I guess if some of us don’t even know who the guest hosts are, it makes it harder to get any of the jokes since often they are host specific, which of course makes sense. And though I buy a lot of music, I have almost never heard of the musical guests. As you said, and I’ve been saying for the last few years, we aren’t the demographic...we’ve indeed been put out to pasture. But as I said up thread, at least I could still understand why the material was still good. I can’t even do that lately!

 

I've been watching and enjoying SNL for years, I can always find something good in the show that I enjoy. I never feel like I'm wasting my time watching it. My wife watches with me and we like different things about it, she hates the weird 12:50 sketches that go off the rails, while I love them. With the size of the cast now, I just don't understand why they need to do stunt casting for any character. I love Maya Rudolph, but why couldn't Ego Nwodim or Punkie Johnson play her? Same with Biden and Trump, Jason Sudeikis was part of the cast and played Biden for a long time. When cast members changed in the old days, they just changed who played the character. Such as Joe Piscopo and Phil Hartman for Reagan, and Phil Hartman and Darrell Hammond for Clinton.

As for next week, I was perplexed as to why Adele was on and she wasn't the musical guest. But SNL has introduced me to a lot of new music that I enjoy, so I am interested to see what H.E.R. is all about.

 

That used to be me...I have a pretty broad sense of humor and am always open minded. I’m 59 and am wondering, if you don’t mind saying, what your age is? I’m just not feeling it anymore! And I just discovered Three and a Half Men and found it so hysterical I bought the entire box set and I can’t remember ever watching a show so darn funny. Considering it’s basically juvenile potty humor, you would think I would still like some of SNL. And I’m not saying it isn’t smart humor, some of it certainly is. Don’t know what’s changed. And maybe I’m just disconnected from too much Current pop culture. I do know that’s why I find the earlier Simpsons eps better.

 

I'm 50 and potty humor still makes me laugh uncontrollably, much to my wife's chagrin. But I
love subtle humor and dry humor as well. I just like to laugh

 

Same here...my wife hates it that I joke that way, and laugh at it. Can’t help it...you like what you like! This Is 40, Knocked Up, stuff like that is hysterical. Glad I’m not the only one with a wife like that.

 

I'm thinking Jon Lovitz's Annoying Man character, which preceded that by at least a few years, didn't really have a purpose for being on WU.

Also seems to have given Sandler the idea for naming several characters "______ Man".

 

Probably not, but the interplay between Lovitz (as "Annoying Man") and Dennis Miller always killed me, especially Lovitz' "you don't have to shout" bit.

 

What was a slightly worse than normal episode went straight down the toilet with the extremely iffy and pointless Africa sketch and pointless and stupid jeans sketch. Dear lord.

 

The psychic sketch was decent.

I don't know what was going on with the Africa sketch.

Melissa Via Senior wasn't funny but she has a quality that always makes me smile.

Trump was actually ok. I'm still not sure if Jim Carrey has just lost it, the writing is terrible or a combination of both. For some reason I keep pulling for him to kill one of these nights.

The jeans sketch started out ok.

 

Is Maya Rudolph a cast member again?

The grandma sketch wasn't too bad.

 

It's Melissa Houseman.

 

she sneaks a couple songs in there

 

I was wondering the same thing.
Thought the 10/24 episode was really abyssmal. Adele "breaking" throughout that horrid Africa sketch wasn't at all funny & Keenan voice-over @ the end done in a Jamaican accent? "Breaking", in general, is a pretty weak tactic to rely on, but if done right & limited, it does result in viewer laughter. I thought the only part of value was the performance by H.E.R. - I'd caught her on the Prince tribute show & thought she was good. I came to it around midnight & caught the grandma sketch, w/e update, africa, the jeans & H.E.R. I think I caught the end of 1 song & full performance of another & caught a couple of other sketches (The Bachelor, The Fortune Teller) on youtube - neither made me wish I'd tuned in earlier. I do enjoy Melissa Villasenor's impressions; other than that, the cast/material just isn't funny.