Ok, second part of my look back at Saturday Night Live. The WORST parts?

[Archae]

My worst 3:

1. Buck Henry as the pedophile uncle.

2. Victoria Jackson

3. The pathological liar

[mitchum]

1. You called it...Victoria Jackson...

I thought she really sucked even before I knew she was a right wing religous nut.

I noticed years ago that they had cut out the Buck Henry sketch in the syndication package.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. I don't recall one skit she did that couldn't have been covered (and better) by any other actress.

Comedic cipher.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Pretty much everything the last two years

Aside from Tina Fey's guest appearances as Moosealini.

The day the show became all about Fred Armisen & Kristen Wiig - the two most unfunny people on this show since Victoria Teabagger and Dennis Miller - it went straight to HELL.

[pokerfan]

3. What Up With That?

The lamest, recurring one-joke sketch in the history of the show.

[Missy Vixen]

10. I love What Up With That

I do not love most everything else except for Tina Fey.

The show is a shadow of its former self. Betty White's episode was the best one all season.

[pokerfan]

14. It's just so much fluff

It takes no thought to write because no one is given any lines. I guess that's what makes it funny. Family Guy does that a lot--repeat a joke over and over (and over!) until it becomes annoying and then repeat it some more because that's supposed to make it funny somehow. Granted, a lot of recurring sketches do that to some degree. Celebrity Jeopardy for example but at least with CJ, there's occasionally some clever jokes. WUWT just doesn't work for me. And they ran it something like six times this season. But, in its defense, it's always fun to see the SNL band.

Agree that Betty's episode was the best this season (and Peyton Manning's was the best of the last several years) and I continue to tune in. I've been watching since the beginning and it's really not that bad. What I think a lot of people forget is that SNL (and all sketch comedy) has always been a bit hit or miss. Comedy Central used to air classic reruns that were actually condensed episodes in order to fit them into an hour which allowed them to cut a third of the crap. That's going to make the show look a lot more funny right there.

But there has been a decline and I lay the blame squarely on NBC. After the success of Blues Brothers and Wayne's World, NBC became annoyed that talented comedians were using their show to launch film careers. So they made the contract more onerous and one that forbids the actors from running off and doing a third party film for 12 years (and tying them to a five figure salary for any film NBC decides they must do). Or pretty much doing anything not SNL/NBC/Lorne related for 12 years.

So instead of Belushi/Murphy/Myers, we are left the current crop, the only comics willing to sign such a contract. The level of talent is down but at least the talent is staying. Congratulations, NBC! Well done. :applause:

http://www.observer.com/1999/snl-s-killer-contract">SNL 's Killer Contract

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. Most of Will Ferrell's recurring characters.

Cheerleaders. Husband and wife music teachers performing pop songs. Dog show guy. Roxbury guy w/ Kattan. All of these might have been OK as one-shots but there were years of creative bankruptcy and every bit had to be repeated ad nauseum. I give him a pass for Dubya because it's an SNL tradition to do political sketches and for one cast member to own the current president's character.

[Kat45]

6. The woman in the cast now who always plays someone way too annoying

I forget her name. Might be Kristen something, not sure. Every single character she plays, whether recurring or not, is just so annoying I cannot stand it.

[Mojambo]

7. "You like-a the juice?" n/t

[begin_within]

8. The "Ass Don't Smell" commercial, and the Marilyn Monroe - Jack Kennedy skit

The final skit of one episode had a man and woman who had attended a Halloween costume party as Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe somehow waking up together and wondering why they were together. Not a single word was said, and the audience could only manage a polite chortle. When the skit was mercifully ended, the audience applauded, though I suspect for the fact the skit was over rather than for the skit itself. Needless to say, the skit has been deleted from reruns of that episode.

[Common Sense Party]

9. Mary Katherine Gallagher. The pit-finger sniffer.

That was beyond annoying.

[Richardo]

11. Fucking goat boy

Jesus. x(

[Richardo]

12. Oh yeah, and every single Weekend Update done by Colin Quinn

What a non-funny douchebag. x(

[GoCubsGo]

15. Goat boy was creepy, to understate things

I preferred "Mango".

[KG]

13. the last 20 or so years.

[wickerwoman]

16. That Jimmy person who has a talk-show now.

The long, long dry spells between actually talented casts.

[flvegan]

17. Most of the last several years.