SNL 1/31 (Steve Martin hosting)

The Gun was pretty good. Best of the night other than Weekend Update, although that's not saying much. Another horrible offering overall.

 

I'm 50 minutes in and not only is it unfunny, it almost seems intentionally bad. The Pepsi BS, it like they have a contest on how unfunny a sketch can be and still get a laugh. I remember when I used to think the SNL audience was pretty hip, now it's like they're recruited from America's Funniest Videos.
I was going to mock That's So Raven!, but from what I've seen, That's So Raven is five times as funny as SNL on a consistent basis.

 

I do enjoy Weekend Update, though.

 

'the gun' was quality stuff.

 

'"The Gun" was fantastic.

The "Injury to America" joke made me laugh out loud.

Colbie Caillat has one of the great voices in the business right now.

But god damn, there was a lot of utter shit in that show. That monologue was staggeringly unfunny. I think the most important difference in SNL these days is that they miss so badly, so often. There have always been a lot of misses, but some of the stuff that's making it on the show these days ... it's just hard to imagine how anyone thought it would be funny.

 

As much as I enjoy Steve Martin, his guest stints for the last decade or two have been little more than "Hey, I'm Steve Martin, I've got a movie coming out, I helped make this show what it is, but now I'm coasting."

 

Since it hasn't been since the early '80s, with rare, isolated exceptions (Fey/Palin), that's a good deal to ask.

 

I did not know this. And Tony, the fact you taped them makes me like you more and more. I rarely missed an episode back then. Although I never taped them.

 

That's the best point. I try to picture them sitting around that final skit cut, saying, "Yeah, the laser-shooting cats are money. Clearly better than 15-20 other segments that you professional comedy writers have pitched. It's in."

Dammmmn ... how bad must those other 15-20 bits be?

 

Man, I used to tape it while I was out, then after the bar closed my friends and I would go back to my apartment for scrambled eggs and hash browns and watch SNL. Sadly, that is something like 18 years ago. It just doesn't seem like it could be that long ago.

And whoever said SNL hasn't been funny since the early 80s is smoking something. Its best years were the late 80s-early 90s. Dana Carvey, John Lovitz, Phil Hartmann, Jan Hooks, Dennis Miller, etc. That, to me, was the best period of SNL. Better than the Belushi-Aykroyd years IMO.

 

The MacGruber/Pepsi bit was one of the worst things I've seen on there in a long, long time. I have to agree that sometimes it seems like they're just trying to be awful.

 

The really disappointing thing about the MacGruber stuff was that they had the cameo there. Richard Dean Anderson! So, they already start at a pretty good spot. Doesn't take much to make it at least passable from there, but sure enough they find a way to make it unbearable.

These are professional comedians being paid tons of money... and they can't find the funny with two hands and a flashlight.