Live From New York, It's the First 10 Minutes of Saturday Night

Unless you've been living under a rock, or on some remote island off the coast of Alaska which is the only place you can actually see Russia, you are probably aware of the new-found popularity of Saturday Night Live.

This election, and Sarah Palin in particular, has provided SNL more material than Britney has for Mamapop. And that's saying a lot.

Week after week Tina Fey with her "separated at birth" impression of Palin has skyrocketed the show's ratings to levels not seen for decades. And this week, which featured the actual Sarah Palin, was certainly no exception.

Also no exception is that, after the opening skit, this show sucks. And I mean sucks hard. SNL suffers from GIHES (Great Idea Horrible Execution Syndrome."

Case in point, this week's sketch which revolved around Josh Brolin and his friends at a Japanese restaurant where he is preparing to propose to his girlfriend.

Y'know what, let's watch together and then reconvene for a collective groan.

This is so freakin' unfunny it is painful. I was literally embarrassed for the actors. And this was in the first half hour. Everyone knows the skits get crappier and crappier as the show goes on.

The only thing SNL does well these days are TV show spoofs. The send up of The Suzy Orman Show, while a little too long, was giggle-inducing. Not hilarious, but certainly titter-worthy. The reason these bits are funnier than the skits are because they have a natural ending.

SNL has never known how to end a skit. And that goes back to The Coneheads days. And don't get me started on SNL circa 1990's when it was completely "silly characters driven" (Diter, Simon, Opera Man).

Even Weekend Update struggled to find its stride this week. There were several times when jokes fell so flat that you could almost hear the thud, followed by a self-deprecating smile by Seth Meyers while Amy Poehler choked back a "sucks to be you" gaffaw or vice versa.

Now I don't want piss off the folks at SNL (Lorne Michaels has always scared me alittle bit), but there are a few thoughts I'd like to leave you with:

1) For the next couple weeks it's a pretty safe bet that the opening sketch will be decent and probably worth tuning in for.

2) If you have the stamina to watch the whole show (or are just too lazy to reach for the remote) your recap of the bits are going to be a billion times funnier than the actual skits.

3) If you can't watch the show live, NBC posts many of the sketches on their website. For my money, go ahead and watch The Family Guy and check out the highlights on Sunday.

4) If you are young enough to have a clue who the musical guest is (I am 0 for 5 this season) you are probably not old enough to get the Suzy Orman spoof.

5) Lastly, if Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, is responsible for the high ratings I pray that in 15 days SNL returns to being the poorly-watched lackluster show of season's past. As much as I love The Fabulous Ms. Fey I will kill myself if I have to watch her do Palin for the next four years.

Comments

[Amy]

I will kill myself if Sarah Palin remains culturally relevant enough to be played by Tina Fey for another 4 years.

[trent]

The same McCain advisor (Martin Eisenstadt) who leaked the Joe the Plumber story last week appears to have another scoop: Obama is set to appear on SNL the Saturday night before the election, and it could have something to do with Lorne Michaels giving his campaign $4600:
http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/10/20/barack-obama-to-appear-on-snl-lorne-michaels-contributes-4600-to-his-campaign/

[Gray Matter]

Amy, can we just make a big ol' batch of cyanide-laced Tang to put ourselves out of our misery if need be?

[Gaby]

#3 is entirely correct. With today's technology, it is not necessary to sit through the pain that is SNL. My husband and I tried, and we shut it off by the Suze skit. I watched the Palin rap on nbc.com the next day, and I didn't feel like I had missed a thing...except, perhaps, hours of terrible, terrible "humor."

[deirdre]

Ugh. You'll kill yourself if Palin is elected vice-president?

Can I have your stuff?

[gina]

The Digital Shorts are really funny. "Guy Punching People in the Face While They are Eating" is hilarious. And those awesome "What happens in Bangkok" skits are good. But I think that Tina Fey was a much better head writer than Seth Meyers.

[Jennifer]

I read an article that said Tina Fey is only going to do Palin until the election regardless of the outcome. So you shouldn't have to deal with it for 4 years even if they win. Tina Fey is really good at it and it's funny, but I wait for the clips because SNL sucks now. I'd link the article if I could remember where I read it.

[Amy]

Gray Matter: I prefer Kool Aid, but yeah.

Dierdre: Sure. Why not?
(Does that make me a Socialist?)

[Jennifer]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought SNL was producing really bad skits. I really tried to watch it this past weekend but a few minutes into every skit I had to fast forward. Truly the only reason to watch is for those rare glimpses of Tina Fey.