Poll: Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!!! Is SNL really as bad as everyone says?

[rockytheboxer]

There are a few schools of thought on SNL:

1. It was better when it first came out! (The Chase, Aykroyd, Murray and Murphy years)
2. It was better in my generation! (80s, 90s, etc)
3. It's cyclical. (It goes through peaks and valleys of quality.)
4. It's always been about the same, a few good sketches per episode.

I'm curious where you guys fall, and also if you think there's another theory. Personally, I think it's as good now as it has ever been. And some seasons are stronger than others, but every show has always had a couple really funny sketches, and a couple terrible ones. Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

[Bruin]

They try to pass off "sexual innuendo" as "funny".

Which it's not.

It's immature and stupid.

The recent one with the Sesame Street thing was funny; and that's how it's always been. One diamond in a bunch of mildly-funny slag and coal. With the right mix of actors and actresses, you can get some pretty funny stuff, but they often move on to bigger things than SNL and they're left to fill the void. They're filling the void right now, and while it's not horrible, it's certainly not the best wave of SNL I've ever seen.

I do love it when Will Ferrel's on though. He's an amazing actor, I think. His humor is very easy to get into.

 

[Mafoobula]

There's been a sort of SNL retrospective once, wherein it said that the show has indeed had its ups and downs. There was a period in the early-mid-90's that was, well, a bit lack-luster; then Monica Lewinsky happened, and that brought the show back into the limelight. There have been many of such periods of time since day one.
And, yes, the regular SNL cast plays a large part in how successful the series is. The current cast is fine, I'm sure, but Darrel Hammond, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, the list goes on, they were absolutely spectacular, and SNL is worse off for losing them.

 

[hem dazon 90]

First half hour is always best

 

[DaJoW]

It has its ups and downs, like most comedy shows. Their highs and lows seem to be more extreme than other sketch shows I've seen though. Celebrity Jeopardy, Cowbell, Night at the Roxbury and the Sarah Palin stuff was brilliant, but most of their skits don't even make me smile. In comparison, the bad That Mitchell and Webb Look sketches still keep me entertained.

 

[Raiha]

SNL has always been cyclical. it may suck for now, but give it a few years. we will get another dana carvey or eddie murphy soon enough.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I'm going with number 1, even though I wasn't alive then. I was old enough to watch it and grew up with it in the mid-late 90's and saw a few in the 2000's.

Then I watched some old episodes from its early years, as well as a collection of sketches from when John Belushi was a member.

The sketches I grew up with were crap, I probably only laughed seriously on maybe a few shows. I'm being generous with my memory, because I actually don't remember laughing at anything from the 90's and 2000's.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It has its ups and downs, like most comedy shows. Their highs and lows seem to be more extreme than other sketch shows I've seen though. Celebrity Jeopardy, Cowbell, Night at the Roxbury and the Sarah Palin stuff was brilliant, but most of their skits don't even make me smile. In comparison, the bad That Mitchell and Webb Look sketches still keep me entertained.

Okay, I partly change my thoughts from my last post, I did find Celebrity Jeopardy and Cowbell, to be funny sketches.

Other than that, the early years were the best, and probably going to be that way forever.

 

[SturmDolch]

I went with 4. Just watched a bit tonight. It's pretty funny sometimes. Other times it's meant for an audience much older than me (baby boomers).