I started watching Saturday Night Live in its 37 or 38th seasons. Fred Armisen, Vanessa Bayer, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig were my favorite cast members.
The humor was edgy but not vulgarly so, at least to my recollection. The political skits caricatured D.C. bigwigs, making for a night of comic relief between weekdays of bad news. The other sketches were funny in their originality. Never big on pop music, I only watched the musical guests if I knew their songs. Similarly, I skipped the opening monologues, preferring the humor from the repertory players over the guest hosts.
I’ll grant that I partially remember this era of SNL in light of recent seasons. Perhaps in my myopic self-centeredness, I consider my introduction to SNL its peak. A lot has changed in me since 2013, but American culture has changed even more. The progression in talent and humor on SNL is representative of the shift to patronize a more-woke audience.
Putting aside (for now) entertainment’s leftward bend, today’s SNL sketches lack content. In political skits, the cast beats a dead horse, repeating actions and mannerisms of those they impersonate because the script has no comment on the event they are reenacting.
...one of Saturday Night Live’s primary keys to success: Sometimes, all that matters is that the show noticed all of the things you noticed, and then made jokes about them. Emily VanDerWerff
Every political SNL skit for the past 15 years has just been “Hey remember when this weird thing happened? Lol isn’t it funny that we’re referencing it?” They don’t say anything about the event or do anything clever with it. @MattWalshBlog
Its humor resides in the taboo. Audience laughs are the snickering of middle school boys poring over the anatomy pages of their biology textbook. A joke that uses cuss words for a punchline is rarely funny. Even in a #MeToo world, SNL is willing to exploit men for sexual skits.
Consider Chad, one of Pete Davidson’s characters. Chad is a recurring bit though his catchphrase is only one word, “okay.” The laughs come from the deadness of how he says “okay” in situations that would overwhelm anyone else, like sexual advances. This is not a deadpanned delivery, which would be funny; this is deadness. It’s especially not funny in the vulnerable situations Chad is put in. This wouldn’t fly if Chad were Christina, but then again...no joke is funny once it’s explained.
The pandemic is an apparently unavoidable cultural reference for SNL and television commercials. But like a funeral to a recent widow, writers will never be able to spin a silver lining on it. To use it as something relatable is to remind the viewer of the monotonous and difficult circumstances that made them escape to the TV in the first place.
Casting serves only to allow for more racially-accurate impersonations. Gone are the days of Fred Armisen’s talent. His complexion allowed him to play people of various ethnicities, including Barack Obama, Osama bin Laden, a Scandanavian, and the Queen of England. A larger cast brings the diversity that audiences are demanding at the loss of familiarity with a smaller cast with more talent.
There’s a place in the world for humor and satire. They lift spirits and put things in a new perspective. We see the absurdity of our own actions when they are acted out in a silly way. It can be a source of respite. SNL is the perfect opportunity to entertain the masses, connecting one another with shared humor. SNL has overstayed its welcome in America’s homes.
What happened to the days when SNL was a stepping-stone for now-prolific stars like Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Amy Poehler, and Adam Sandler? Really, tell me; I missed 36 seasons of the show. What’s the difference? I’ve seen a handful of the really classic sketches, but something must have been different in their content and talent to have fostered these great comedians' careers.
SNL is currently walking on eggshells with its casting and content as it tries to blend the water of humor with the oil of political correctness. The oil will always come out on top.