The SNL opening sucked last night

[itsrobert]

Just watched it on the DVR. It was the actors playing Pelosi, Obama, and Reid. Obama went on and on about how he's going to push for HCR, even if it's largely unpopular according to the polls and Harry Reid may lose his job because of it. There were no laughs, and it dragged on way too long.

[FSogol]

1. Other than Tina Fey's Palin, has anything on SNL been good for years? n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

2. My theory: The writers don't have the political convictions and insight that the

original SNL writers had. Al Franken, Tom Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase to a lesser degree.

I get the impression that the current writers are not honed on the issues and when they read about them, the skits are contrived from guessing, not knowing and projecting.

[slampoet]

6. Lorne Michaels doesn't hire any Comedy Writers who aren't from IVY LEAGUE or similar Elite schools.

That is why you see SNL getting more and more out of touch.

Since the writers are all from ELITE schools they only write what they know.

The performers need writers to write them INTO sketches in order for that performer to get any screen time. As a result, the performers of color, and those that are more like normal working class people, don't get as many roles.

This popularity contest with the writers is also why you see some extremely lame performers stick around forever on SNL. Victoria Jackson is a prime example of this.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. It's more than hiring Ivy League. Franken was a Harvard grad. It's being vigilante

in reading all the stuff out there and then being highly critical.

I do agree with you about writing a performer into a skit. Wonder if the writers and the performers even speak to each other.

[cap]

14. chevy chase was an Ivy League grad, too

so, I don't think it's quite that... Although I agree that SNL needs more diversity of race, gender, and class. There's enough of those three at the Ivies... lots of scholarship kids go there.

[slampoet]

17. I live in the shadow of an ivy League University and i can tell you there is NO diversity of Class.

We are talking a school that is over 57% legacy students and asks you to send in a photo of yourself with your application.

These are things that were not true in the early 70's ivy League.

[cap]

20. I am an alumnae of an Ivy League University and I can tell you

that it is otherwise. I was a scholarship student and knew lots of kids from underprivileged backgrounds... we all scrimped. The sad thing is that there are now homeless students going through our nations finest universities... There was an article about it at Berkley... they called it hoboing. Kids sleeping in the library and taking showers in the gym.

Also not every Ivy Leaguer goes to Wall Street. There are a lot of librarians, K12 teachers, artists, and social workers and other people who don't make a lot of money but use the education they got for larger purposes in life other than money.

[JI7]

21. yes, Conan O'Brien is Harvard Grad also

[Pab Sungenis]

3. SNL sucked last night.

In other news, water is wet.

[Submariner]

4. We are deluded.. I feel your pain itsrober

Those of us who watched the 1st couple of years of SNL were lucky to see the masters at work. Ackroyd, Belushi, Radner, Murray et al, and we got spoiled big time witnessing such great talent and comedy.

IMHO, I think we keep hoping against hope that the same kind of comedy may re-emerge from SNL, and we sadly keep checking in on Saturday night, and to our dismay keep getting disappointed.

It's a sign of how great SNL once was that over 30 years later we keep checking in for a great laugh, only to get crushed.

Watching SNL in the mid-70s was like being addicted to crack. You could not stop watching and laughing.

[LuckyLib]

13. And you planned evenings around it. Go out, go to someone's house for SNL, go out again.

[Peregrine Took]

5. Agreed. It went on and on and was just embarrassing.

I don't think think Fred Armison does a good impression of Obama except the "cool" one ("I'm cool!")

[slampoet]

18. And notice that the "Cool" sketch was not done live, it was pre-filmed.

[SpiralHawk]

7. And its a crapload of BS that the 'polls' don't support it

just another bogus republicon 'talking point'

[JBoy]

9. But the song "oooo-weeee! what's up with that? what's up with that?"

is very ear-wormable.

[itsrobert]

10. They could do the whole 1.5 hours of that skit

And I might just watch it. And Kathy Lee with her box of wine.

[bridgit]

11. I DVR'd it too, but dumped it after maybe 10min, just didn't have that *snap* to it

:shrug:

[theophilus]

12. Hey, man. SNL was GREAT back in the 70s man because we

were all stoned out of our minds, man. Belushi was so cool when we were sucking on those doobies, man.

Really. The original cast had lame skits at times. Really. Every group has had some great stuff. Really. The current group has things that I like in just about every show. They also have stuff that, I think, is lame. We all have our opinions.

I wish that every time somebody mentions SNL we didn't have to read the "It has sucked since Chevy quit" comments. That's just me, I guess. I don't knit pick as much, as some. I can enjoy even the most recent SNLers. Oh, well.

[bridgit]

15. Jane, you ignorant slut! The new cast is more brilliant *than* the old its comedy that isn't pretty

Sometimes :):(

[LostInAnomie]

16. Agreed

There are far too many people that immediately spew out the line "It quit being funny in the 70's" as soon as anyone mentions SNL. SNL is a fairly dynamic show. It's comedy changes and morphs according to the current comedy zeitgeist. If your tastes in comedy are stagnant chances are you'll only like the generation of the cast that appeals to your funny bone and dislike all the others.

I would suggest that people that lavish praise on the original cast and scorn all others actually go back and take a look at the old sketches. Many were profoundly unfunny, poorly preformed, and relied on worn out routines and sight gags. Even the audience didn't respond to half of the sketches.

[Cleita]

19. That's why they were called the 'not ready for prime time players' back then.

However, many of the skits were really side splitting funny and when I get a chance to see them played again, they really have withstood the test of time.

[rcrush]

22. SNL has had the same track record for 30 years

Some shitty ones some good ones.