Saturday Night Live

Every once in awhile I read reviews of SNL. Almost never do the reviews say "it was OK". Unless it is a review by a frequent viewer, they always say something like "SNL is great again!" or "SNL sucks now". Usually these reviews are from people who never or rarely watch the show, and only remember it from 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. These types of reviews have been the same for as long as I can remember. The periods that people now call "classic" frequently met with poor reviews at the time.

One thing to remember is that the show is an hour and a half, longer than most any other TV show. It is hard to fill such a long show with consistently funny material. It is also hard to make every episode funny. Therefore the show (like most shows) wavers between great and awful, depending on the sketch or episode you are watching at the moment. To judge an entire series on one episode (or part of one) is a mischaracterization.

I've watched SNL for most of its life, and although it has ranged from hilarious to horrible, I would say the average show is "pretty funny". The bottom line: there's nothing better to watch on Saturday night, so until there is, I will always watch SNL!

It was good, then it was great, then it was good again and now it stinks.

As of 2018 The edginess is gone. There are no risks in the jokes. They all consist of two things, 1. Trump is bad. and 2. This was a thing, remember it?

Neither of those really work for me. Make fun of Trump all you want, but do it with a punch line. Most of the time they forget the punchline. Simply not liking him is NOT a punchline. You have to exaggerate something, make it satire, mock it in some way. I don't even care if it's a cruel mockery...so long as it doesn't seem like they are just stating an opinion.

Opinions are NOT jokes.

The same thing goes with their "remember this, this was a thing" jokes...

They leave you sitting there waiting for them to say something funny about it. You're with them for a little while, "Yeah I remember it, go on..." then you realize that, no, that was the joke.

That's not a joke, that's just asking me to remember something.

Again, if they had a punch line, if they said something about what they were asking me to remember, then it might be funny...but they don't. The jokes are literally "this was a thing, laugh at it." and that's not funny. It has to be followed up with something.

Like with Trump, an opinion is NOT a joke unless it is followed by something. The same thing with a memory, a memory is NOT a joke in and of itself. They both have to be followed by something

SNL is better than ever. After a bit of a slump in the early 2000's, 20 years later and it couldn't be funnier. Anyone that says any different just says so because they make fun of the president. They have made fun of every president during the entire 45 years of its existence. So people who don't like the show now will like it again when the opposition regains office. Always good for a laugh

The first five years of S.N.L. will always be the "golden era" of this show. Belushi, Akroyd, Chase, Curtain, Newman, Morris, Radner and Radner will always represent an era when some of the best comedic talent of the 1970's were all on one show and as a springboard for greatness. However, once the original cast was gone the show went in decline for me. Even though talents like Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscapo, Mike Meyers, Dana Carvey, Martin Short and Billy Crystal became big stars as a result of being on the show, the magic that the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players will never be duplicated. They made Saturday nights worth staying at home.

An earlier reviewer said this show sucks and that the "new cast" is terrible. What is interesting about SNL is how whenever there is a changeover of cast, it has become almost a tradition to hate the newcomers. In truth, however, many of the episodes that have aired in recent years -- even since the 1998 review I refer to -- have now come to be considered classics. And the cast members so many of us hated at first are now often seen in a favorable light alongside the "classic" cast of the late 1970s. And what cannot be denied is no TV program in history has been such a fertile breeding ground for future stars. Just look at the cast list and be amazed.