Saturday Night Live—oh my GOD. Finally it was funny again! I
think this episode did a really good job of being funny AND showing us what is
wrong with the current SNL, so I’m going to talk a little about that. But, in case you didn’t see the episode, go
right over to NBC On Demand and watch it—it is funny, and witty, and touching,
and filled with the kind of energy the SNL used to bring to Saturday night every
week.
So—first of all, Betty White is 88 years old, and she’s WAY
funnier than most of the people on Saturday Night Live today. Here is a part of her opening monolog (which
she did all by herself, by the way, with none of that wimpy backup support from
the cast):
The fact that I watched this whole episode with very little
fast-forwarding was very telling to me. In
case you didn’t know this about me or you didn’t notice from my occasional “SNL
Post-Game Recaps,” I’ve been a Saturday
Night Live aficionado since I was a kid—I have all the archives of the famous
sketches, I used to religiously watch it, and I have been really sad to see it
go downhill, especially in the past couple of years, to the point where I
rarely even get excited about it anymore.
So, this Betty White episode was really awesome for me, and it brought
up a couple of thoughts.
A couple of things:
1.
Let the Internet Decide. Since Betty White was voted on as host by
Facebook and this episode had its highest ratings in 18 months, why not let the
public decide who is going to host, say, once a month? Clearly the “publicity machine” model that
Lorne Michaels has gone over to, where a host is only on if they have something
to promote, isn’t working, mostly because the cast isn’t experienced enough to
hold up people with no comedic skills.
So—first way they could change it up— be the first show to actually
interact with the public via the internet, and do this Facebook Campaign thing
again.
2.
Saturday
Night Live Needs to Smarten Up. Saturday
Night Live is really, really not funny right now, and I think it’s because of laziness. There is a certain “lowest common denominator”
quality to comedy these days, and it really doesn’t work on SNL—you can see
this with character-based sketches that just go on way too long, the SNL
writers and directors’ indulging of Kristen Wiig’s constant mugging, and
basically lazy writing that relies on sight gags, physical comedy, and
one-liners but doesn’t really build any memorable situations or
characters. You can actually see the
difference if you watch the first half of the show (the “Delicious Dish” sketch
is a great example of this) where they let the old cast work, then watch the
second half with the newer sketches (like “Scared Straight”) which have clearly
been developed in the past couple of years.
I think the best word for it is “lazy,” because it basically just sits
back and relies on the actors to carry everything instead of going the distance
in terms of the writing and direction and really developing the situations. If you’ll recall, Saturday Night Live used to
be a lot smarter and more challenging, and didn’t just do what they knew would
get a laugh or what seemed funny to them.
Where is the Saturday Night Live of the 70’s and 80’s (and even the 90’s)
that was filled with witty references and consistently challenged political,
racial, and social mores? Gone, that’s
where it is—a casualty of a culture obsessed with Bad Girls Club and Jackass. Also, there is a propensity in the past
couple of seasons to just keep doing what’s working, as you can see in that
God-awful “MacGruber” sketch and the entire movie that’s been made based on
it. When will they learn that a
90-second sketch is no basis for a narrative-driven movie? Case in point: SuperStar, Night at the Roxbury, the “Pat”
movie, etc. But I
digress—this is the subject of a whole different blog post.
3.
Saturday
Night Live needs better writers. I
know Seth Meyers is funny, and I know this because “Weekend Update” is
consistently the best part of the show, but let’s be honest—when Tina Fey left
to go do 30 Rock, then a lot of the old-guard cast left to go do other things
(Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, Will Ferrell, etc), the structure of the show has really
changed, and seems to lack leadership.
Actually, the whole show now feels like it’s being written and directed
by 13 year old boys, and I think this is because Seth Meyers is naturally
funny, but being naturally funny and being able to really lead and provide
structure for a 90-minute show are two totally different things, especially
when you have guests like musicians and famous athletes that you have to prop
up. This is why you end up with three
minute long sketches like “Kissing Family,” where you get the joke after 15
seconds and the whole rest of the sketch is basically a low-brow grossout
contest. In fact, maybe you’ll agree with this, the
only time that show is funny right now is when it’s being hosted by someone
with comedy experience that can take the helm, like Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin
(or Betty White, of course), and even then you can see them being dragged down
in places by the indulgence in lazy writing and sketches that go on too
long.
I have my fingers crossed that Lorne Michaels will actually
take the success of this episode as a call to action, rein in Kristen Wiig, and
hire some fresh writers to bring that show back to life. This Betty White episode showed that it’s
possible! Lorne, let’s get with the program shall we? Don’t let the Saturday Night Live we know and love die.