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

i think you hit the nail on the head

 

For the episode tomorrow watch to see which cast members don't appear in a sketch with Elon Musk. Cicily(promo with miley & EM)/Davidson seemed to be OK(Seth Meyers interview) with it but others were a bit snarky on social media.

Covid is a factor here. They want something familiar instead of new given all the protocols. 7 years now is closer to 5 years in past decades.

As for 20 cast members, maybe they assumed some would get quarantined. Plus I think Aidy was working in Canada for few weeks/months at the start of SNL this year.

 

These were the ideas for SNL sketches I posted on Twitter when Musk asked for ideas:

Get Mike Myers to appear as Dr. Evil. Show that you're secretly working for him to help get the likeness of his face etched into Mars. He's given you his Tesla technology but you find out all the cars have a remote self-destruct built in, making you decide to rebel against him.

Show that you're on a secret board of billionaires who say they run the world, then get hung up on petty arguments about choosing a name for your group, choosing wallpaper for the office, and you can never get to forming any of your big all-controlling plans.

Fake commercial parody where you launch your own new fragrance, called Elon Musk.

You play your own estranged son, grown up, someone else plays the elderly you. The old you is broke after investing in many failed, poorly thought out inventions and your son and his siblings stage an intervention to try to help you get your magic touch back.

Announce in the opening that you've bought Saturday Night Live and are going to retool the show with your kind of comedy, vaudeville skits, minstrel shows, Three-Stooges slapstick, pies-thrown-in-faces, people slipping on banana peels, men jumping around in gorilla suits, etc.

Say in the monologue that you decided you wanted to live forever so you've rebuilt yourself as an indestructible metal cyborg. The power starts to go to your head and you kill an audience member who wasn't laughing. The rest of the cast tries to attack you but can't kill you.

Game show: Win Elon Musk's Money. Contestants must answer obscure questions about your personal life to win cash. Contestants who lose must donate their bodies to science during the show.

It's more that the show doesn't accomplish anything anymore. It doesn't make advancements or come up with new ideas. So when the show is stuck in the same rut it's been in for a while, it doesn't feel like time is passing.

 

That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Did the regular writers take the week off? Absolutely nothing in the episode was funny; most of it wasn’t even close to being funny. The audience couldn’t even muster up laughter during the Mario trial sketch. I can’t believe people get paid good money to write that stuff. I can’t understand how a team of professional writers thought ANY of that would be funny. Easily the worst SNL episode I can remember.

 

The opening was pretty good but I'm sometimes overly sentimental.

I actually thought the monologue was pretty good despite Musk's awkward delivery. I'll cut him some slack because he's not a performer.

Chad's head exploding was hilarious.

Update was great as usual. Ego's appearance was very funny. I think she's convinced me she's the best cast member right now. Baby Yoda was pretty good. That bit has been better.

Who were those guys playing with Miley? I thought the 90s nostalgia thing was pretty much done but then these two guys, that looked like I went to high school with, show up.

I figured with Musk as the host and the way the show has been this season that this was going to be a stinker of an episode. It was but there were a couple of huge laughs for me like the Chad sketch. There were also two or three other things that I'm not remembering right now.

 

Elon Musk just wasn’t funny. If we’re going to invite rich people to host simply because they’re rich, could we at least find one who is funny?

Agree that Ego’s Weekend Update bit was funny. Baby Yoda shouldn’t be as funny as it is, but I laughed pretty hard. We’ve been watching Mare of Easttown, and I thought the parody of that was spot-on, and laugh-out loud funny.

Miley Cyrus and whatever idiot she dueted with continued the descent of modern pop music into hell.

 

Elon is a weird guy but he owns it. Watching the show reminded me of the 90's when the IT department was full of guys like that. Hardcore machine code heads, but at least he's a better dresser. Interestingly, on a short roadtrip yesterday I must have passed 10 Teslas. Maybe it was the Geeks who would inherit the Earth and we just misunderstood.

 

I know I am old and out of touch but every time I see Miley sing she is just loud, bombastic and about as nuanced as a fist in the face. She can project, I'll give her that. She is the Ethel Merman of her generation. I'm sure she is a fine person but musically I don't really get her appeal. But hey, what does Boomer know?

 

yeah it’s seems she is a yelling type of singer, no technique all bluster, guess the “kids” dig that.
I enjoyed Elon’s appearance and thought this week was one of the better shows (minus Miley of course).

 

I'm heard/seen my share of pop music hell, but not last night.

This Boomer says that Miley's performance was how we do it American style, and make no mistake, that's a compliment.

Also very American style: the posturing so-USA teensters in the hospital waiting room, and the take on the Icelandic post-millennial TV show. Broad parody. Those Nordic kids.

I laughed a lot last night. Elon was much better than I thought he would be.

 

mario sketch, chad, weekend update. the ending wild west sketch was also ok as a big western fan it got me. the rest meh

 

Ego Nwodim is becoming what I think she probably could have started to become during 2019. Good to see them continue to let her fly. She is versatile, a very good actor and consistently funny. I used to wonder what they were waiting on but they clearly see it now and that’s great.

Weekend Update was solid. The “Chad” bit was good.

Musk was pretty much just an epic fail. The worst outcome played out and not because he has understandable difficulty in social interaction. Instead it was because he really never disproved the quite reasonable question that was out there last week: “Why is this guy hosting Saturday Night Live?”

 

This. Oh, very this.

I rarely visit this thread, with its humor dictators. I hate being told what is funny. If I laugh, it’s funny.

If I’m moved by the music, I don’t care about the trappings, unlike the remorseless droogs who drive away discussion with their inevitably dark assessments.

 

Ego and Heidi are the REAL talent right now, but Lorne keeps pushing tired and old Kate and Aidy to the front.

 

I haven't seen the episode yet. Actually haven't watched any since they started back up a few months ago. Just haven't been inspired to do so, but I'm curious to see how Elon Musk did. I thought it was a maybe inspired bit of booking. A nice change from the typical actor/actress occasional musician host. He's a personality and an interesting guy, so it could work. Doesn't mean it will (or did), but I think its good they stepped out of the box a bit.

 

No offense truly. I don't usually slag musicians. I must have been cranky this morning. Everyone is a fan of someone.

 

Thought it was good. I know next to nothing about Elon Musk - only Tesla related, wasn't aware of much else. So, I knew he was definitely not an actor, comedian or performer.
The Good:
Elon Musk opening monologue - I thought the opening monologue & sketches he was in, he did a very good job of it. His body movements are quite awkward & as 1 youtuber noted, like Michael J. Fox (w/Parkinson's). So, between the speaking & that, the delivery is stilted, but it's just him & the writers wrote to that for the characters he played in sketches, too.
Mother's Day cold open - these type moments are usually cheesy & uncomfortable - I thought this one went well/ some working cuter & better than others & endearing overall.
The Post-Pandemic Conversation (cocktail party)
Wario
Cowboy Standoff
Weekend Update - Killer!

The "Meh":
Chad - Recurring Pete Davidson character. This is actually the most closely matched character to actor (using that term loosely) I may have ever seen. W/that in mind, for what it is, it was good, but I can easily do without him entirely.
Ooli Show - I thought it was okay, but when trying to put myself in the head of watching as a high 19 year old, works very well.
Murder Durder - Witty & spot on about the content of programming. Just not LOL funny, but credit for them getting these tongue-twisting lines down (& no one broke)! I also find Beck Bennett a little irritating, so am biased there.

The Bad:
Baby Yoda - found it irritating @ outset; didn't watch full sketch.

I don't get that comment. The clothing for the duet was more grunge to me, than the music - maybe a hint @ Nirvana unplugged w/the acoustic guitars. I haven't found there to be a 90s nostalgia revival going on of today's acts (mass mainstream or alternative). There's been an 80s one which I'm amazed still isn't over yet. (i.e. most recent albums by The Strokes, Weezer, The Struts cointinuing on in that vein). I wouldn't mind if the 90s finally began being redone, it's kinda about time & especially at least to finally put the 80s redux to rest. It's gone on (at least in varying degrees by some artists') for 20 years' already; that's double what the actual 80s decade was.

Miley Cyrus - I'm just not a fan. To me, she's the female equivalent of Dave Grohl - a shouter/screamer-singer. Also, I'm not sure if it's just the microphones, but the voices did sound a bit autotuned. On Miley, I have found 1 performance of hers' very good - that big vocal works - when she does a cover of "Say Hello To Heaven" w/members of Temple Of The Dog for Chris Cornell (R.I.P.) tribute. She controls it & sings more than screams, much like Dave Grohl w/Foo Fighters newest album "Medicine At Midnight" which is also quite good b/c he's not just screaming; he's singing.

 

The Ooli Show, Murdur Durdur, Weekend Update, Chad, plenty of good stuff on this weeks show.

 

I did not see the episode.

When you all mentioned "Chad", I figured it was a parody of Nasim Pedrad's show which I find weirdly interesting. But, I guess it is something else.

 

"Murdur Durdur" was the best sketch of the episode, and the only one that wasn't completely cringeworthy. But it was also one of the standard SNL practices that I hate: "Let's take one joke (a funny accent - a Philly accent, no less, which we've already done a bunch of times) and turn it into an entire sketch." Can't they take that concept as a base and then build on it by adding some other elements that are also funny?

I can envision the SNL writers room: "Um, Elon Musk is awkward. Why don't we do a sketch about how he's awkward? We can have him at a board meeting saying awkward things, and the board members respond awkwardly. And just keep doing that for five minutes." "Okay, great! That's one sketch down. Next idea?"

 

Fair enough. Humor is subjective, but there is also a certain amount of objectivity, as well. If the studio audience can't even muster up laughter, it's not funny. If the reviews are uniformly negative, it's not funny. If the ratings decline, it's not funny. If people aren't talking about the sketch on Monday morning around the proverbial water cooler, it's not funny.

 

It wasn't as bad as some of you here seem to think it was. It wasnt spectacular, though either. But, surprisingly, Elon Musk, did more or less hold his own. I'm not sure but I think he was included in every single sketch (except cold open), and I gotta wonder whose idea that was. Also, did anyone else catch some serious Andy Kauffman vibes, with his nervous posture and shifting eyes?

Side note: Enough Chad, enough Baby Yoda, move on guys...

 

I had recorded it last night and played most of it this morning. Musk wasn't as cringeworthy as I thought he'd be. Some of the jokes were a bit self effacing, which played well. I liked when he admitted Dogecoin is a hustle. Apparently, it lost 35% of its value after that.

 

this was very funny. Plus, educational value.

I don't get the idea that Chad is Pete Davidson in real life at all. He may have some experience that he's drawing on, but Chad is not the real guy Pete Davidson. Chad is an archetype- one of those teenage males who's so shell-shocked by postmodern media overload and the looming concerns of adulthood that he's adopted Flat Affect as the entirety of the image that he presents to the world. In Chad's case, that persona has been cultivated to the point of transformation into a Superpower- The Impenetrable Shield of "Cool" (irony quotes!). A Superpower that's also its weakness. Its own Kryptonite. There's actually a lot of subtle commentary going on there.

I'm a Pete Davidson fan, which I've gathered makes me a niche audience. Pete has a reputation for being over the top, but he also has a real underplayed, dry humor side, and I think most people miss that. He's one of those people who keeps getting told that he's stupid when he knows that he's actually bright, and he can't get it across to the outside world- because, it fact, he's so smart that most people can't catch up to what he's on about. So yeah, after a while he sulks and gets depressed and wonders if he has imposter syndrome. I can relate. And no, he doesn't have Crossover Appeal, and is unlikely to make it as an actor in a film or TV series. He lacks the extroversion, breezy charisma and self-possession to be a Star Actor. Davidson might make a good screenwriter and director, though. Eventually. No need to push the river. First, he should try his hand at making an NFT.

I like Pete's hip-hop sketches, too. I think of hip-hop primarily as a theatrical art with a soundtrack rather than as a "music genre", so it works especially well with a visual media component. And there isn't nearly enough outright surrealist comedy in hip-hop these days, compared with the 1980s and 1990s- the era of Joeski Love, Biz Markie, Tone-Loc, Digital Underground, Del the Funkee Homosapien...I mean, some of today's output still qualifies, but I can always use more funny. The truth is, to my mind, a funny rap song with dancing and app madness visual effects is often a much better use of the potential of A/V media than some dumb cliched "comedy" sketch, or the hit and miss of improv sketches like "Whose Line Is This?" Hip-hop also works better as comedy for me than song parodies, or comedic pop songs (ex. "Gitarzan.") So comedic hip-hop may not be the entire Future of Comedy, but it's certainly part of it.

 

< that is another part of the hustle