SNL have they gone downhill?

[LiberalFighter]

Watching it now. Find their skit on Kamala disgusting. Is that the best they can do? Or am I just getting old?

Did more with Kamala about nothing. Then ridiculed Biden. The Trump bit was short.

Made it look like they forced Biden to quit. The Biden Kamala close together was also shit.

[BannonsLiver]

1. I think it's probably a bit of both.

[dhol82]

2. Yeah, I thought what they did to Biden was uncalled for

Just unnecessary to make him look like a demented fool.

Not sure why the writing got so bad but I think they need to bring in some fresh blood.

[Dear_Prudence]

3. The treatment of Biden was just mean.

Yes, I used to like Joan Rivers, queen of mean. But if you are going to be mean, you better be really funny. SNL wasn't funny to me.

[Lurker Deluxe]

18. Yea ... never done that kind of bit before

[awesomerwb1]

4. Yes, they have

I only watch the short videos posted on Twitter, and some are really not funny at all.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. People have been asking that for 50 years lol

[senseandsensibility]

6. I've been a fan of SNL since middle school

but I don't think they're meeting the challenge of the times. Just as with journalism, good comedy standards can not just be "make fun of both sides." The sides are not the same. The spoofs of cheato should be darker and more sarcastic and based on his extremely dangerous policy positions. I don't think lighthearted ribbing of cheato meets the moment.

[dsc]

7. An interesting thing to me is that Maya Rudolph is 7 years younger than Kamala

and in an industry where appearance tends to matter, and Kamala actually looks younger. It just shows how good Harris actually looks.

[jrthin]

8. I've stopped watching SNL years ago. They're just not funny.

Unless if mean is the new funny. I think they helped to push the "Biden is too old meme" from the beginning.

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. Weekend update was the only skit I laughed at.

Everything else was particularly unfunny.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Only a little bit of it for me.

That hose bit was crap. And they did a poor job of Eric Adams

[Bettie]

11. They've always been kind of hit or miss

sometimes super funny, sometimes not so much.

[maxsolomon]

12. Everyone's going to get skewered on SNL.

Carvey's Biden was lazy. Pretty predictable. It would have been harder to do a "Dark Brandon" Joe.

Rudolph incorporated a lot of Harris' mannerisms and catchphrases, even the tone of her voice. It's pretty impressive.

[LiberalFighter]

21. Personally if all they had were her mannerisms and catchphrases

Then they didn't have much.

Time wise they spent more time on that then anything else.

[maxsolomon]

23. did you want Rudolph to do a bad job?

people love Rudolph as Kamala and have for years. she LIKES Harris.

[happybird]

27. Love how she calls him

J’Biden. Cracks me up every time she says it.

[PeaceWave]

13. People have bitched and moaned about SNL's treatment of their candidate forever...

And, guess what? That's the whole point of irreverent humor - to diss on anyone, anything and everything - no matter how sacrosanct you consider that person or thing to be. They're obviously doing something right, since the show has been on air for 50 freaking years and it'll probably be on for another 50.

[unblock]

14. Can't find it, but I recall Lorne Michaels once said people who say it was funnier years ago

Forget that it was never very funny.

If you think about it, most of the actual jokes are in weekend update and sometimes the opening monologue. The rest are skits, which are very hit or miss, mostly miss.

When they find a skit that works, they run it different "episodes" of the same skit over and over, and a lot of the time the humor is more from the familiarity of it than true creative humor.

[Sympthsical]

17. It's this

People remember the really good skits and forget the bad and, well, forgettable. And given just how many skits SNL puts out, people forget just how much did not work from a given season. If you get 10 memorable skits from a season, it's been a pretty good season.

Nostalgia is just remembering the handful that worked and forgetting how many dragged on, had deflated punchlines, or ended awkwardly.

The show has always been like that, and I've been watching for over 30 years now since I was in middle school.

[Sympthsical]

15. It's the same as it's ever been

I think it's mostly entertaining. Some skits work really well (romance math problems, Moo Deng) and some miss (I Love Lucy).

Weekend Update is usually pretty good.

People who want their politics affirmed shouldn't watch SNL (or any political comedy really). They skewer everyone. I thought the cold open was fantastic. But people who are very serious about their politics and cannot countenance them being mocked won't like it.

I read this guy, Dennis Perkins, who reviews SNL every week. And he just gets steaming, incandescently angry that the show isn't basically all his preferred politics all the time. Sometimes he's just raging.

It's like, bro. Maybe SNL's not for you. It hasn't been whatever you think you want it to be ever.

[Arthur_Frain]

16. Really?

Lest we become too much like our pearl clutching nemesis on the other side I’d say lighten up Francis.

Biggest difference is we have the ability to find the humor in the absurdities of some of the positions we have to occupy in contrast and defiance to the complete inability to read the room on their side. Writ large, we can laugh at ourselves without losing our self respect. Their lack of empathy makes this impossible for them to do. The usefulness of this ability should not be minimized.


Take a walk, touch grass, take a deep breath, then if you feel up to it, watch it again, and specifically try to laugh at it. Trust me, it’s cathartic.

[Xavier Breath]

24. This 1000%.

Pearl-clutching is an apt description. I found the Biden bit funny. People are so sensitive about the election that it seems any portrayal short of fawning praise is seen as a threat to our very democracy.

It's their job to make fun of politicians. Politicians you dislike and politicians you worship. Everybody's fair game. Just keep telling yourself that if a sketch gets too rough for you to handle. Then maybe reflect on how silly it is to let a sketch on a late-night comedy show affect you that way.

[nolabear]

31. I agree. There's a reason holy fools were holy.

The fool was the one person with permission to take everybody down a notch without retribution. We need to know we’re funny with our habits and flaws. Joe DOES use the same phrases again and again. Maya’s Kamala was a spot on exaggeration.

I think they didn’t do much with the former guy because he’s not interesting any more. JD is novel and scary and weird.

I wish we laughed more. It doesn’t diminish the awareness of the terrible things happening; it just gives us some much needed relief, as the holy fool did.

[Conjuay]

19. It never had an 'uphill' to start from.

[Torchlight]

20. I dunno. It's a guilty pleasure we often enjoy still.

Granted, I'm not very evolved in regards to humor, and she's most likely watching it only to humor me, but I get more than a couple of belly laughs the nights we watch. Never really saw any agenda out of them other than equal-opportunity, for-profit ridicule of the elite.

[Oopsie Daisy]

22. Yes. It's not the same. I say that with the realization that I'm "not the same" either and that comedy *

* is like fashion with trends that come and go. But, this is really not up to what I remember from Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and America's Sweetheart: Gilda Radner.

[Jack Valentino]

25. No, it was not very funny...

Rather a disappointment for the season opener. I don't watch it that much,
the only reason I've seen any of it at all lately is because of the attention
paid to them on this site--- I suppose I've only seen one or two of them live over the past year.

[Clouds Passing]

26. They've sucked for a while now. Slam Dems too much.

[live love laugh]

28. All of the media seems innocuous until election season.

It’s all laughs and fun and games and tabloids then their real positions begin to show.

Post election they’ll return to trivialities hopefully lulling everyone back to sleep.

[Wednesdays]

29. IMO, SNL has gone downhill since their original cast left

1980.

I'd tune in every once in a great while, but not like in the 1970's, when it was practically never-miss for me.

[JT45242]

30. It was bad...

It wasn't even a good job at bumbling Biden. They went for cheap easy laugh. It was lazy writing.
, lazy acting, and just poor comedy. Not because they went after Biden, but because it was poorly done. It was generic Mr Magoo without vision problems. Dana Carvey should know better.

Mostly the writing is bad these days.

You get a couple of good skits that often run too long ...they have a 3 minute idea that they try to stretch to 8.

The spoof songs and fake ads have been the best part other than weekend update for several years."short ass movie" has become a catch phrase in our house like some of the old great lines.

[doc03]

32. They have been going downhill for decades. I watched the opening Saturday and couldn't stay awake

for the Weekend Update. Their musical guest Jellyroll my gawd. I guess all my favorites have passed away, I am 76.